Homework policy

I came across this homework policy for a middle school in Nebraska. It seems quite similar to the policies that affected my kids when they were in school. The policy was a non-issue for two of my kids, and was a disaster for my other child. Just as happened with our school, the policy proved highly punitive, as if strong armed tactics and coercion could produce a positive result.

The principal who posts this blog prefaces his policy by saying, "There are a myriad of reasons for this (increased social life, athletics, extracurricular commitments and simply more homework)" [note: this refers to homework completion problems], while overlooking the most important reason why middle school children do not do their work. In general, it is an under-the-radar learning problem that causes the problem. The supposed ten minute assignment takes the homework noncompliant student twenty, twenty -- forty, and so forth. By middle school, the student gets homework from five different teachers which he manages at the start by doing all of his work for some of his teachers, none for the others. Eventually, as pressure to do the work increases and consequences as described here kick in, the student turns off and does nothing at all.

Once we realize the nature of these underlying learning problems (usually in working memory and processing speed), we realize that we have to forego the concept of "homework completion," and replace it with time-bound homework that is accepted whether finished or not it is done.

The other key piece involves recognition of parents as the heads of their homes. There is an arrogancy in this policy in that it presumes to tell parents what they are required to do rather than suggest options that might be helpful. In the end, homework takes place in the home, not in the class, and this is borrowed time and space. While most parents will agree to homework and support the schools, when problems arise, it is critically important that the parent be the one who has the final say.

A final word that is separate from this article is that teachers have an obligation, if they are to assign it, to study homework. To the best of my knowledge, no school of education has a class called "homework." There is a dearth of continuing education programs for teachers on homework. It is imperative that teachers teach themselves the theory, research, and practice of homework giving. It is the minimum that we require of all professionals. I'm a psychologist who does therapy and psychological testing. You can be assured that when I went to graduate school, I took several courses in therapy and testing, and that I have access to numerous courses in my field for continuing education. Why don't we find this in teacher education?

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Dr. Kenneth Goldberg, is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Teachers, and Students, published by Wyndmoor Press.

 I recommend giving copies of the book to the teachers at your child's school. Discount purchases are available through Wyndmoor Press. Single copies can be purchased at Amazon.

Homework and working memory

There was a recent article in Education Week questioning the effectiveness of programs geared toward helping children improve their working memory. Working memory and processing speed are the two major "under-the-radar" learning problems I address in my book The Homework Trap. It is important to develop teaching models using the working memory children have, not the working memory we think they should have. Certainly, we are there to help and teach children and if there are methods to help them improve areas of weakness, that's fine. But we shouldn't punish them or fail them for characteristics they do not individually have. That's exactly what happens with homework trapped children when we demand they do things at home, outside the sight and control of their teachers, and factor the results in heavily and negatively into their grades.


Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

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Homework, anxiety, and school performance

I read an interesting blog post today on anxiety and school performance. The author claims that one in eight students suffers from anxiety, that anxiety affects working memory, and that this affects school performance. I believe the author is right and that her ideas coincide well with mine. 

In my work, I talk about under-the-radar learning disabilities and how they affect homework performance. In fact, many homework-trapped children, who appear defiant, are actually anxious. They manage their anxiety through avoidant and rebellious behaviors.

Among the scales on a standard IQ test, working memory (one of the two major under-the-radar learning disorders I refer to) is the one that is most directly affected by anxiety. If a child is anxious, the child cannot focus.  He appears to have ADD. He comes home from school clueless, where he is pressured to do things he cannot do, increasing his anxiety.

The major difference between the writer of this article and me is that this writer appears to focus on treating the anxiety whereas I consider it important to reduce the pressure.  If the child remains under unrelenting pressure, anxiety reduction techniques will not help. First and foremost, we need to know that the child can do what the child is asked to do, and we’ll never get the answer until we limit the time of the homework session and step back to observe what the child does.

Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the The Homework Trap website

Homework Trap and Learning Disabilities

Over the summer, I plan to place a greater emphasis on the homework trap and learning disabilities. My model highlights the notion of under-the-radar learning disabilities, and I also place specific emphasis on homework problems associated with ADHD. I'll have more comments and add some video comments as well (this is a getaway weekend for my wife and me so I'm not in a good setting to make a video for the next couple of days). I'll also intermix my posts with posts about the petition for the National PTA to take up homework reform. There has been a call for personal homework story videos and I will be making mine next week. Follow this link for more information about that petition.

For today's comment, I will direct you to an article I read on the cost of literacy. The article reports on the success these parents had sending their child who has learning disabilities to a high priced school. They found the school well worth the price. Obviously, this is not a solution that is accessible for every student and even if school districts identified all of these kids, you would get a lot of resistance in these times of fiscal austerity getting schools to agree to pay for such a plan. Perhaps, you could fight under federal disabilities law and win.

I think there is an important back story to this story, and it is found in two lines written in the article. They are:

"The first year I’d have to sit w him to do his homework we had to have these incentives. He was often crying. Not because it was so hard but because he was scared of doing it," and (referring to his new, private school)

"Basically, school starts at 8:15 and finishes at 2:30...He sees the occupational therapist there. They also have a social worker who does a type of group therapy there so they have a class that they take that is getting them used to having a learning disability and some of the other issues that might go along with that. Also she’s available for one on one for kids who are frustrated, sad, angry. We’ve availed ourselves of all those services."

If we combine those two comments, we see that the child is capable of thriving in a time bound setting, but was struggling before because of the homework demands. If we eliminated homework, or at least capped it by time, as we do for the school day, the child will begin to thrive. Note that the special services this child is getting in his special school are being given within the boundaries of his school day, not as an add-on at a learning center on top of homework assignments, and the result is predictable.  Both his learning and his sense of well-being have improved. There is no reason why public schools cannot let children, in far more cost effective ways than sending them to private schools, successfully learn by simply using time containers, assessing rather than punishing the problems, and providing reasonable instructional strategies and interventions during those specified times, and then letting the child relax, refuel, and play.


Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the The Homework Trap website