Parent laments child's dislike for math

I came across an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, "Our child hates math: Is it our fault?" The article highlights clearly the destructive effects that homework can have on children. I wrote the following comment to the article:

Thank you for this excellent article. It gives me the chance to make an important point. No, you should not feel guilty that your child hates math. No, you should not brush up on your own math skills. The problem here is not that you don’t know or like math. The problem is that someone outside your family is setting the agenda for what goes on in your home.

You do not tell your child’s teacher what lessons she should teach. Why is she telling you and your child what you have to do at home? It’s the homework, not the math, that is causing your child’s response. For God’s sake, she is only 7 years old.

Your child was born to a mommy and daddy who are well versed in the humanities and the arts. She could have been born to a handyman, who likes to work around the house. She could have been born to an accountant, who uses numbers every day. She’s your child and it’s your home, and she does not need her teacher disrupting your milieu, and interfering with what your family considers fun.

I was born to a “math family.” Math was fun. I majored in math in college. I began graduate studies in math before switching to psychology and, later, learning to write. My love for math started in my home. As I grew up, I had a number of teachers who inspired me to pursue things my parents did not do.

Your child’s teacher can instill an appreciation for science and math if she teaches her students with passion. They can learn everything they need to know about first and second grade math within the 6+ hours they have with her every day. They can increase their understanding and interest in these topics as they move through the grades and meet other teachers who teach subjects like science and math, with knowledge, passion, and delight. But she will not develop interests when teachers are encouraged and allowed to co-opt a setting, your home, that is outside the class.

Research does not even support that idea that homework has value for children your child’s age. And teachers are not taught in their schools of education the theory, research and practice of giving homework.

So, love your child. Make sure your home is filled with fun. And if humanities and arts are of interest to you, share those passions unabashedly with your child, without worrying at all that you should do something else.

What do you think? Please post a comment.

_{For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.} 

 

Math homework issue in Great Britain

There is a newsitem going on in Britain at this time relating to parental involvement in math homework and methods by which math should be taught. The article indicates that education policy-makers in Britain are alarmed that large numbers of parents are unable to help their children with math homework. They attribute this to new methods of teaching math and to the possibility that the parents, themselves, were inadequately trained in math when they were young. It suggests there is a social “badge of honour” that some people wear regarding their difficulties with math. It also notes that many of these math-deficient parents have quite successful careers, but run into difficulties with ordinary math functions, such has handle budgets, calculating change, and reading transportation schedules. This claim seems anecdotal and not research based. It claims that studies in the United States have shown a connection between parental involvement and higher test scores. The references to the United States do not appear specific to math, or involvement in the form of helping with homework.

I find this article interesting in that it focuses on parental math skills rather than on teaching children math in the class. It suggests that homework completion is an end in itself, not a method toward achieving success. I don’t know all the factors involved in how to best teach a child math, but that seems like this is the purview of the education profession. This article could be easily read as an indictment of the overdependence on homework as a teaching method. If children are going home with homework they cannot do on their own without the help of their parents, and if parents lack the skill and training to give them the help they need, why would we continue to bank on that resource to teach our children what they need to know? I’m a psychologist. People come to me for help with mental and emotional problems. I don’t get calls for people needing help with their teeth (Well, that’s not completely true. As it is, for a long time there was a dentist, Dr. Kenneth Goldberg, who had an office across the street from mine, so I would get calls from dental surgery patients. I was wise enough to turn them away and not take a stab at pulling their teeth).

But think about. Some people are not good at math. They still work and have successful careers. They may have some difficulty with day to day tasks, and that may or may not be related to math (I’ve never been good at budgeting and I have a master’s degree in mathematics in addition to my doctorate in psychology). We have teachers who are trained to teach our children. We understand that teaching is a tough job and that the profession needs to continue to research its techniques and advance its skills. We know that parents are vitally important to children. They offer children different types of lessons they cannot learn at school. Their involvement and support of education is helpful to children. Battling over homework or struggling with things they don’t do well is not be the type of involvement that helps education.

*****

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.

 

Recent Study Giving Some Support for Homework

There is a new study regarding the effects of homework on performance in math and science (When is Homework Worth the Time? Evaluating the Association Between Homeworkand Achievement  in High School Scienceand Math). The study measures homework by the amount of time spent doing it and shows little association between homework and grades, but a positive correlation between homework and standardized test scores. The study has made the rounds in the homework debate with different people weighing in with different points of view. The study is featured in this morning’s Washington Post Education blog.

As a homework critic, my first inclination is to look at the study to see how it is wrong or to discount it as relevant to the homework debate. Perhaps, it overemphasizes test performance, already a topic of controversy and debate. But I’ll resist that natural inclination and take a different stance. Perhaps, it’s true. Perhaps, homework has value and perhaps this is what it does, raises scores on standardized tests. If so, it does not alter some basic tenets of my model, TheHomework Trap.

First, teachers need to be educated in the theory, research and practice of homework. I have yet to see a course in a catalog of a school of education titled “Homework.” I peruse teacher websites and blogs and find a dearth of scholarly discussion on the topic of homework. In 2006, I participated on Etta Kralovec’s homework panel at the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference (the largest educational conference in the country each year). There was Dr. Kralovec’s panel (which I understand was the first such panel the conference had), and, if I recall right, a couple of papers on research studies by Professor Harris Cooper’s students. That was it! Although this conference covered a wide range of issues for the teaching profession, it left the topic of homework, virtually undiscussed.

Second, there is the issue of parental authority. When I was a youth, my parents could have sent me to a Stanley Kaplan course to prepare for the SATs. They did not, and I did okay. My wife and I did not send our children to such courses, although she did spend time with our oldest son reviewing a list of “SAT Hot Words.” Whether or not we should teach to the test, during time at home, to give a child a “leg up” is questionable. But the point is, parents make voluntary decisions on their children’s behalf, all the time, whether it involves tutoring, learning centers, scouting, music lessons, religious studies, or simply some relaxed time playing a family game.

So, rather than jump on one side or the other regarding this recent research study, I’ll respond with a shrug of the shoulder and think “that’s interesting,” in the back of my mind. But let’s get back to the two, fundamental issues we need to know about homework.

1. If homework is given, teachers need to be trained in the technique.
2. As an activity that traverses the boundaries between school and home, regardless of homework’s value, parents must be recognized as the final decision-makers and the natural heads of their own homes.

*****

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.

Teaching Algebra

The New York Times published an opinion piece today entitled “Is Algebra Necessary.” I quickly dashed out a comment. To my dismay, they had closed the comment section by 8:00 am, so it did not get published in the paper. I’m printing the comment I wrote here. This topic calls for more discussion that can be conveyed by what I say here and I will try to get to that in a future blog. That said, I truly recommend this article. It is connected to the homework problem, but it is also absolutely true that math has become a huge hurdle to success.

“Bravo for this highly important article. As former doctoral student in mathematics, I could not have conceptualized this problem until I switched fields to become a clinical psychologist, and got involved in working with children who are persistently homework noncompliant and adults who are struggling to return to the workforce. In that capacity, I have seen young people whose futures have been compromised under the demands that they spend hours at home trying to master something they cannot understand, both in high school and community college. These are people who are motivated and capable of assuming productive societal roles. They lose access to things they do well, athletics in high school and meaningful college educated jobs later on, and this further fuels the epidemic of high school dropout, drug use, and our high rate of incarceration. When I was young, I gloated over my proficiency in math. As I near retirement age, I am saddened to see so many young people harmed.”







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 website
Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
What is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

Pressures to learn math

Here's an interesting article in The Washington Post. Here is the comment I left in response: I would like to add one other thought about the problem of core curriculum and pressuring everyone to learn math that they have trouble learning and do not need, and that is the harm it actually does to children. I happened to have been gifted in mathematics but am awful in carpentry and auto repair. My elementary school diagramas were pathetic, and I barely managed my cub scout whittling requirement. The fact that we had a simpler math curriculum when I was a child, did not keep me from learning higher mathematics, which was my major, when I went to college. I believe it would have been an assault to my self-esteem to have been forced through school to take shop classes beyond the few they gave me in high school. The reality is that everyone needs some knowledge in math to handle everyday life, just as it helps me to be able to do some minor home repairs (I can change light bulbs) without calling a repairman. Obviously, students need access to whatever math information they are going to need for daily life, that coincides with their interests, and that fosters the talents they naturally have. But constant pressure to do things one does not do well breeds anxiety and avoidance, and acting out behavior. We actually breed dysfunctional children by dominating their days and their evenings with things they don’t do well, while leaving them little time to nurture the things they do well, even if they are not things that are taught in school. Kenneth Goldberg, Ph.D. www.thehomeworktrap.com.
Return to website.