Monday, September 3, 2012

A very telling omission -- homework

Today, Washington Post Education writer Valerie Strauss posted comments from five DC superintendents. Not one mentioned homework. I find that shocking (I guess I shouldn't be shocked) and sad. Do you feel the same as I do? Here's the link to the article. Here's what I posted as a comment in the Washington Post.

I find this to be an extremely disturbing article. Five superintendents are asked to discuss education policy and not one mentions homework. The one who comes closest is Mr. Dale who notes the need for creative play yet fails to touch on the fact that homework encroaches on family time, and hence, interferes with the child’s spontaneous creative play. This is an extremely serious problem for children with hands-on skills who have difficulty with their homework, and for whom hours doing what more academically inclined children can do with ease prevents them from building and fixing things on their own.  When will the budding mechanic have time to take apart, clean and put his bike back together when he and his parents are forced to spend hours fighting over assignments that fail to pique his interest? Where’s the recognition that homework gets little support in the academic research? And when talking about teacher training and preparation, where is the acknowledgement that teachers are not generally taught the theory, research, and practice of homework-giving when they go to school to learn how to teach?

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