A lesson from Finland

On June 29, 2012, Pasi Sahlberg wrote an article, “How GERMis infecting schools around the world,” in which he noted that despite the fact that Finland has been credited with having the best school system in the world, “the Finns have never aimed to be the best in education but rather to have good schools for all of [their] children.” He challenges the “’race to the top’ mentality in national school reforms.” I agree with Professor Sahlberg and will add my own thoughts.

I entered the debate on education, not as an educator, but as a psychologist whose expertise is in behavior as it plays out in individuals, in families, and in large organizations. I previously worked with the chronically mentally ill in day treatment programs, and have considerable experience in child protection work. There is a commonality in the principles of human behavior in all three settings (day treatment, child protection, and education) that speaks strongly in favor of Professor Sahlberg’s remarks. In each case, people function best (patients, parents accused of abusing or neglecting their children, children in school, parents of children in school, mental health workers, child protection workers, teachers, mental health administrators, child protection supervisors, school principals), when they feel passion and purpose and operate under conditions of support and respect. They also do best they stay focused on their zones of control and are supported by those above them in sustaining that focus. They do best when decision-making takes places at the lowest level in the hierarchies where those decisions can be competently made.

When considering the role of tests and measurements, it is important to see those measure as tools to help inform those charged with certain tasks in making their best individual and capable decisions. Although one may want to improve scores, such improvement can be a byproduct of good work, an indirect measurement of success, and should not confused with the task itself. I’ll give two examples, one from my professional work and one from my personal life.

Twice in my career, I had the job of directing a small mental health clinic. These clinics had less than ten professional workers and were parts of systems that had a number of similar clinics. We were given monthly productivity measures, approximately 25 kept sessions per worker per week.  The goal was manageable and depended greatly on the no show rate, which happened to be a perennial problem. I realized that clients attended sessions if they felt understood and the therapists could not be understanding if they were driven by pressures to push hard to get clients to attend. By switching the tone from pressured to supportive, and by using my experience to help train beginning therapists in how to meet people’s needs, the clinics I ran would consistently run about 10% over our monthly expectations, in contrast with some other clinics that put pressure on their counselors and would, as a result, consistently run behind.  When I look at reports of inner city schools that excel despite their difficult conditions, the narratives always reflect a supportive and inspired principal who sets a tone of purpose, competency and fun, that is contagious and filters down to the students. These successful schools are not driven by measurements, but by the desire to do good work.

Now, an observation from my personal experience. From my teenage years I have always known that at some time in my life I would need heart valve surgery. In 2009, the operation was performed by a surgeon of my choice, and as a result, I feel stronger today than I have in years. Yet, a curious thing happened during this procedure.

While I was in the hospital, the nurses checked my blood sugar several times a day and gave me insulin based on the results. I was also given a statin along with my other medications. I don’t have diabetes and my cholesterol is good, yet these treatments were administered during my hospital recovery. When I went home, the statin was continued with my discharge medications.

A month later, I asked my surgeon why I needed a statin. He told me, “The government requires it.” I questioned if there was a clinical reason why I needed this medication, and he said no, unless my cardiologist thought otherwise.  Once I cleared it with him, I discontinued the medication.

I doubt that the government actually ordered the surgeon to use a statin, but I imagine there are formulas that factor into statistics that rate hospitals and help them win recognition as the “best heart centers in the Philadelphia region.” I think my medication may have contributed to their “race to the top.”

I have no doubt that if I were a more passive patient, I would still be taking a statin today. My cholesterol would be good, and no one would have questioned why the numbers were low, assuming that the statin contributed to my success.

I think parents want to trust teachers and generally support what they do. So if teachers use common core curriculum, parents want to assume that it is the latest professional approach, not a policy dictated by governmental or political factors. If teachers say that homework is necessary, parents try to lend their support, generally unaware that the research does not give the practice much support.

Yet, the realities often get exposed through the children themselves. The child may operate on a gut feeling about whether or not the requirements make sense. It is not surprising that children in class tend to operate much like satisfied customers, for the most part doing what they are asked to do. Yet, they rebel at home. It makes no more sense to bypass the experience of the child, whether that child fails to do his homework, cuts class, or drops out of school, any more than it makes sense for the mental health counselor to throw up his or her hands, and feel helpless, because large number of clients fail to show for their appointments.

With my heart surgery, the medication issue was an observation and minor chuckle. No one has to be perfect, and I can readily excuse my skilled surgeon for this minor willingness to succumb to outside pressure. But for teachers to be compromised in exercising their judgments, in class, when it comes to teaching, or for parents to be constrained from exercising their judgments, at home, when it comes to homework, are signs of the damaging and dangerous effects of allowing pressures for excellence to upend the fundamentals of human behavior and success.



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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100 years of summer learning loss

I came across an article discussing the problem of summer learning loss in which there was the following line:

"Summer learning loss has been documented for more than 100 years. It's a very real issue and researchers today say kids can lose anywhere between one and three months of learning during the summer months alone."

This seems to have become the basis for summer enrichment programs (which I have no problem with if they are the voluntary decision of the parents and the child) and summer homework assignments (which seem highly intrusive into the life of the family). Yet I question how a "phenomenon" becomes an "issue," or at least an issue for the home rather than an issue for the school. After all, haven't we witnessed huge amounts of creativity and innovation over those 100 years? Haven't we had people who successfully built our airplanes, developed our internet, fixed our roofs, and serviced our cars? Haven't people been successful despite the fact that, as children, they experienced summer learning loss, and despite the fact that they were allowed a break during the summer to simply play?

I don't question the desire of educators to look at this phenomenon and develop their best techniques for making sure that children continue to learn when they return to school. But they should do it on their own time. There is ample time in the school day for children to learn. Just figure out, as education professionals, the best ways to get kids back on track.

My own belief is that relationship is the fundamental building block of education, and that some summer learning loss is due to the adjustment to new teachers. Some of my most enduring academic lessons stemmed from being inspired by the particular teachers I had. I was a math major in college and in graduate school before switching fields and studying psychology. But I still refer to Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn." I just happened to take an elective in college on Romantic Poetry to satisfy my school's requirement for courses outside my major. The teacher was inspiring and brilliant, and I never forgot what I learned.



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 free education in the Phillipines

This is an interesting article reporting on the success of a new teaching model in a school system that lacks resources. They seem to be capitalizing on the resources they have, the relationship between the teacher and the students, rather than depending on the resources they don't have, physcial resources such as books, notebooks, and other teaching materials, or continuing the education in an environment they don't control, the home.


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

Iceland, ADHD, and Homework

There was a recent study conducted in Iceland indicating that early treatment of children with ADHD improves educational success. Right now, medication for ADHD is in vogue. Should we begin medicating our children at an earlier stage? I don’t have the answers, but I do recommend looking carefully at a study conducted on Icelandic children and asking the question: Does this apply to children here in the United States?

According to the book by Baker and LeTendre, National Differences, Global Similarities: World and the Future of Schooling. LeTendre, Stanford. University Press, 2005, students in countries such as Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, which give low amounts of homework have students who earn higher test scores than countries with high levels of homework, such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran. The United States is among the countries that gives a lot of homework. Unfortunately, although I have seen this reference quoted in many places, I don’t have the original study and was unable to find a country by country listing of homework policies in which I could see where Iceland rates (If one of my readers has that information, please pass that on). But I think it is important, before we draw conclusions about early treatment of ADHD here in the United States, that we consider that factor, and also consider whether there are differences in how we treat children with ADHD here and there, specifically, are Icelandic children getting an afternoon dose of medication?

The fact is that children with ADHD appear different in class on medication than they do off medication. Then, they go home. There, they need time to unwind, to expend energies that have been controlled throughout the day. If they come home to high amounts of homework, they will have to do it either medicated or unmedicated. If we medicate them, we disrupt appetite and sleep, and are likely to take away the respite and relief they need after a hard day at school, one that may be harder for them than for an average child. If we don’t medicate them, we set up a situation where the teacher has an idea about what the child can do at home that is totally unrealistic given that the teacher observed the child in a medicated state and is making assumptions about the child’s capability when unmedicated. Even with the medication, the assumptions may still be unrealistic because that child, despite a good day at school, simply cannot go on and keep working into the afternoon and night.

So, researchers, practitioners, parents, and teachers: Beware. This study may have its value. It could also do considerable damage if we don’t look at it for its broader implications and how such treatment interacts with the homework policies and expectations of the culture in which the study was done, and the culture in which the interventions will be made.

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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Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
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Homework, 504 plans and the PTA

Now that the National PTA convention has come to a close, we need to consider “what next” in the effort for homework reform. The PTA has agreed to review the guidelines at its governance meeting in August. That’s a good step. But regardless of what the National PTA eventually does, parents who are concerned about homework policy will still be concerned.

It seems to me that there are two types of parents and two types of approaches. There are parents whose children are doing well or reasonably well in school but who want to put the brakes on this constant, and unproductive, intrusion into their homes. There are parents whose children are not getting the work done, are facing low or failing grades, who are in large amounts of conflict with their children, and the result is only hours of heartache leading to nothing other than an inevitable downhill decline.

For those in the first category, I encourage you to contact your local PTAs and statewide PTA organizations to voice your support of these guidelines. For those in the second category, I suggest that you look at the 504 law to find ways to implement homework reform for your child, regardless of what the school district does.

On October 4, I will be presenting, in conjunction with a local education lawyer, a workshop on the homework trap, and how to use my model as the basis for a 504 plan. I hope to make this presentation available to parents throughout the country, and to partner with other education lawyers in advocating for this model. Right now, most educators are unaware of my model. For that matter, most educators are unaware of any models. Review the education websites, blogs, and discussion forums and you will find a dearth of information about homework. Look at the curriculum for a school of education and you will not find a course on the topic of homework. Typically, a 504 plan offers the child “more time,” perhaps meaningful when taking a test, but not “less work,” absolutely needed when it comes to homework accommodations.

If you are a parent in the latter position, I invite you to contact me and, if you have a lawyer or education advocate helping you out, that you connect me with that person. One thing that will help you get the help you need is to get the notion of homework reform embedded in the thinking of those who are putting together 504 plans. Educators cannot incorporate a concept into their plans if they don’t know what it is, and that may be loath to accept a change just because one parent says this is what the child needs. But for every child who gets a rational homework accommodation, that becomes one more case to enter the thinking of the educators the next time a bright, capable, but homework-trapped child, comes up for discussion.

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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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A Model for 504 plans

I wrote this article a few months ago. It was first published on the Washington Post's Education blog on April 6, 2012. The summer is a good time, free from the immediate daily pressures of homework, for parents to think about what they want for their children in the coming year. For many, it will be necessary to seek a 504 plan based on the child's problems with working memory (auditory processing or attention) or processing speed (in reading or handwriting). This article highlights the fundmental principles of The Homework Trap.

The Homework Trap and What to Do About It

There are many parents whose major concern is not public policy but what will happen at home tonight. They are not Tiger Moms, but ordinary parents who simply want the best for their children. These parents start out with the full intention of supporting the teachers and their children’s schools. Yet, something goes wrong along the way as they and their children fall into a homework trap.

The problem starts in elementary school. The notes come home, and the parents get “the call.” They meet with the teacher and make plans to make sure everyone is on the same page. Before long, the cast of characters grows. By middle school, there are several teachers, the disciplinarian and the nurse, all fretting over what these children do not do. Their parents feel pressured to oversee their work, as they also feel criticized as if they’ve done something wrong. These parents would do anything to help their children, yet nothing they do reaps results. Soon, they realize that the efforts they are making are actually doing more harm than good.

The key misconception about homework-trapped children is what I call the “myth of motivation.” These children are viewed as lazy and unmotivated, as if they are different from the other children who would rather play than do their homework. There are reasons why these children don’t do their work, and it’s not because they lack motivation.
Rather, they have “under the radar” learning problems. Minor difference in learning capabilities can have major implications on the work that’s sent home, much more than it has on the work done in class.

The most important issue is the child’s work pace. No one would question that a slow running child truly wants to win the race, yet we somehow believe that homework trapped children lack the desire to get their work done.

We know that people don’t spend large amounts of time engaging in tasks they do not do well. Yet, homework-trapped children are made to struggle for hours on end to get everything done. These children would be far better off if they were asked to work for a fixed amount of time (perhaps 10 minutes per night per grade) than to fall into an abyss of working all night to get every worksheet done.

The child, who is forced to keep on working without boundaries, will predictably learn how to avoid. Excessive homework pressures teach children to lie, forget, argue, and procrastinate. This eventually brings in the child study team, not to deal with learning problems, but because the child’s behavior has been bad. With that, the child may get sent to a different class or an alternative school where, voila, homework is no longer required. It’s an odd turn of events that these homework trapped children, who could have succeeded with some homework relief, only get that relief after they’ve acted out.

Because of this, I offer three very simple adjustments that are crucial for homework-trapped children, and which, frankly, I think should be policy for all. They are:

1. Time-bound homework. Just like school starts and stops by the clock, define homework as a fixed period of time. See what the child can do in a reasonable amount of time and work with that child on using the time well.

2. Reduced penalties. Zeros factored in 25 percent of the grade is too harsh of a penalty to alter behavior. Lesser consequences will prove more effective in both mobilizing the child and allowing the parent to approach the issue calmly.

3. Respect lines of authority. Teachers are in charge of their classrooms. Parents should tread lightly when it comes to telling them what to do. Parents are the people in charge of their homes; teachers should not tell parents how to organize their homes. Ultimately, when decisions are to be made about behaviors in the home (i.e. homework), the parent needs to be the one with the final say.

I am aware of the controversy over how much homework children should get. It’s an important debate but not the one I’m concerned with today. I’ll leave that to teachers, the experts in education, to figure out what makes the most sense. But in developing their models, it is critical for teachers to understand that homework assignments are using borrowed ground. Homework requires the tacit permission of the parents to allow it in their homes. While most parents will support the school in what it asks, they also need the power to withdraw that permission, if needed, without consequence to their child’s education.

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
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Mind-boggling

I find this absolutely mind-boggling to the point that I decided to post this item today rather than wait until tomorrow for my daily blog post. Education Week has a roundtable discussion on school schedules. I found the article through ASCD's daily brief, entitled, "Teacher panelists explore the concept of time in education." No one mentioned homework. How is that we can put professional energies into looking at time, a valuable commodity when considering education, and completely overlook the time children spend doing their homework?




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 TrapWhat is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans