Excessive Homework leads to Fire Safety

I found this news item about a family alerted to a fire by a student doing his homework. Certainly, we're all grateful for the result. Let's just hope we don't increase our homework requirements so we can have more children up on fire watch.

Letter to a member of the child study team

The following is an email I sent to a member of a child study team. I have changed the child's name to Joe for purposes of confidentiality.

I was asked to contact you regarding Joe and the recommendations I made about him. For sure, please feel free to call me (on my office or my cell phone) if you have any questions. From what I was told, it appears that there is agreement on my recommendations for Joe, but that the concerns have more to do with the impact they may have on school district policy and other children as well. If that is the issue, I can speak about that briefly here.

Several years ago, Professor Jay Kuder, of Rowan University, and I presented the model from which these recommendations evolve at the annual conference of the National Association of School Psychologists in New Orleans. There, we got positive feedback, yet most people attending the workshop thought that teachers would never accept what we had to say. I understand that the model we propose has broad implications on education (specifically homework) policy. Yet, it is quite important that these adjustments occur, not just for the sake of young people like Joe but for the schools as well.

 

A member of a child study team once told me that 50% of all referrals she received centered on issues of homework compliance. The truth, which many people fail to understand, is that behavioral problems are an outgrowth of homework problems, not the cause of them. Chronic homework problems are typically learning problems in disguise (I call them under the radar learning disabilities), ones that are not severe enough to warrant classification, but significant enough to make homework completion difficult, and, far more difficult than to have classroom success. Because the child seems bright and functions well in school, teachers make the understandable, but still erroneous, assumption that they can complete the work at home. Then, when work fails to get done, parents and teachers meet together. The child’s reaction is to resist. The resistance is deemed a behavioral problem, the child study team gets involved, and rather than deal with the academic issue, we’re dealing with behavioral problems. This is frustrating to teachers as it disrupts their classrooms and interferes with what they love to do – teach children. It is disruptive to school administrators as they spend their time managing disciplinary problems which got manufactured by the system itself.

 

It is because of this that I wrote The Homework Trap. Although my book was directed to parents, I agree with Dr. Cathy Vatterott, author of the well-regarded (No. 1 result on an amazon.com homework search) book, “Rethinking Homework,” who said “It should be required reading for all teachers, school counselors, and principals.” The Homework Trap actually covers two primary issues. First, I provide an explanation about what happens to homework trapped kids under constant homework pressure. Then, I offer my recommendations. The letter you received focuses on my recommendations, but does not include my analysis of what is actually happening from the child’s point of view. Regardless of what decisions your school district makes, I think it is important that such decisions take place with an accurate understanding about what common strategies to get children back on track are actually doing.

More Homework in the News March 6, 2012

My comment to "The Destructive ‘Too Much Homework’ Myth" in the New York Times today.

Ms. Lahey’s comments overlook an important issue. As she says, referring to first and second graders, “Now they average about 17 minutes a day.” The reality is that children (all people in fact) don’t work at the same pace. Some children have poor handwriting. Some children read slowly. Some can’t remember what they’re supposed to do. The slower working child goes to school from 9 to 3, like everyone else, where he is able to function because the school day starts and stops by the clock. At home, assignments are endless. They have no bounds. So let’s stop talking about the average time spent, and begin talking about time as if it were time. Seventeen (or twenty) minutes of homework for a second grader is fine. But that child needs to get full credit for what he did, whether or not the assignments are done. Teachers are fond of telling parents at Back to School Night that they expect the children to do X minutes of homework a night. I’ve never heard them offer the next important instruction which is “When those X minutes are up, tell your child to stop.” Kenneth Goldberg, Ph.D. author of The Homework Trap. www.thehomeworktrap.com.

Homework in the News March 6, 2012

Article on parents taking control of schools in the Washington Post.

I think it is important for parents to have control of the schools. But I also think it is important for parents to have control of their homes. As a bottom line, parents want their children to attend safe schools where teachers provide them with a quality education. But parents also need to know that the bulk of the education is going to take place in the school, not in the  home. Certainly, home is one of the main places for children to learn. They learn through play. They learn from their parents. They watch their parents and model their behaviors. Yet, that process of learning in the family gets sorely interfered with when teachers extend their reach beyond the classroom and into the home. An average child will have about 30 different teachers from kindergarten through high school. Every one of those teachers is currently given the power to impose significant dictates on what goes on in the home through homework assignments, and the power to penalize to a harsh degree (the child can fail if the assignments are not done). This saps parents of authority and control of their homes, sets academic education above other forms of learning, and interferes with the lessons which naturally come from home. If teachers stayed focused, primarily, on what happens in class, and built solid mentor-student relationships with the children there, not create misbehavior over assignments undone, it would go a long way toward improving education, and satisfying the parents’ concerns. I hope that parents take this seriously as they set their agenda for improving their children’s schools. Kenneth Goldberg, Ph.D.

Homework in the News 3/5/12

I did not find any articles I really wanted to comment on today. There are several articles on how the schools in Los Angeles are continuing their efforts to reevaluate homework policy. And there are more articles commenting on how the Minister of Education in Great Britain has backed down, under public pressure, from rules mandating large amounts of homework. Perhaps, the most encouraging, budding news, is happening here in New Jersey. Someone I know has taken 25 books and has begun to distribute them among people in her community. People are willing to reimburse her the cost of the books, and she is getting ready to give one to the principal of her child's school. I am watching what happens very carefully. It is my true belief that it will only take a few homework-trapped and homework-concerned parents to get together to get the ear of the schools. Frankly, I think the schools will welcome the concept as soon as they realize how it will help curtail, education-interfering behavioral problems, manufactured by homework demands. Stayed tuned and I'll let everyone know how her efforts pan .  Click here to learn more about The Homework Trap.

Homework in the News March 4, 2012

Change is possible. See what happened in the UK.  Interestingly, the article refers to the anti-homework movement here in the United States. I think the movement looks more vital from abroad than it actually is. We have countless cities, towns, and hamlets, each with their own school boards and policies regarding homework. Sure, efforts at reform have been made in select places but, by and large, homework policy still dominates our lives. The message we can take from what happened in the UK is that groups of people can have an effect. Right now, I suspect there are just as many people who want more homework as there are who want less, and that the average person, regardless of his or her opinion, does not feel it strongly enough to take action. Most likely, parent-teacher organizations have stronger representation from the pro homework crowd, so it is important, if homework is upending your life, that you come out, discuss the problem, and garner some support.  In my own case, I would not have realized how damaging homework can be had I had two rather than three children. It’s the type of issue that doesn’t get to you unless it does. Then, you run the risk of being slotted into the wrong category as a discontented parent who fails to understand your kid. To make change, it is important to come out and speak out. But it is also important to speak to other parents, hear their stories, and enlist their help in fostering change.  For more information on the homework trap, visit my website.

Homework in the News March 3

Grading Upgrade: Warren Local

Here is another school district which is taking steps in the national movement to revise homework policy. The notion of a grading floor is essential and I am glad they recognize the mathematical problems factoring zeros into the grade. The article appears related to high school. I would be interested in knowing what the school district is doing in the lower grades, where it is critical, as children form their sense of self, that there be modification of grades, and increased respect for parental authority in the home.

Homework ruins childhood

Here is a child's opinion about homework. I'm glad this newspaper saw fit to publish the comment. The general message is that we should include the children's voices in the discussion, not just discount them because they are children.

Arlington program helps students keep up with their homework, peers 

My guess is that a few students may have been "helped" by this program, but that the school is deceiving itself thinking that it helps most students, and that students who are persistently unable to complete their assignments are going to benefit from missing lunch day after day. Sure, there may be some students who get behind one day and it helps them catch up. But lunch matters. Socialization with other youth during lunch hour matters. I don't think this can serve as a long-term solution.

How Head Start Can Make a Difference

This story is not directly about homework, but I thought it was worth commenting on. Here's the comment I submitted to The New York Times.

 I have no doubt that Head Start helps. What happens after that is multi-determined. One common factor that affects parents who lack means differently from those of means is over placement. There are many children who are developmentally not ready for kindergarten even if they qualify by age. Children who are born premature are even less likely to be ready for school. In the suburbs, parents of boys born one or two months before the school registration cutoff date typically hold their children back one year. It is what those kids need, and it is possible because they can afford to pay for that extra year of preschool. Further,  many suburban school districts provide for that transitional K or 1st grade class whereas overstressed city schools cannot. Then, there are the problems that develop once homework gets assigned. Not an issue in preschool, homework can exaggerate differences between families. The fact that parents love their children and are deeply involved does not mean that their circumstances and homes are set up to support homework demands. I see many low income parents in my clinical practice who are completely stressed out because of this. Lessen the homework requirement. Teach kids in school. And I think you'll see better long-term results.

Faulty thinking patterns won’t help kids grow

This article raises a question about why children lie about homework. The author, a psychologist, supports the parents in punishing the child for not doing her work and for lying as well. If this is the one and only time Amanda has not done her work or made up such lies, then I might agree with what the author says. In my experience, situations like this are persistent, and develop over many years of homework noncompliance.  What gets missed is that the child is confronted with a situation that she cannot manage, for one reason or another. I call these reasons under the radar learning disorders and argue that the focus must be educational, not moral or behavioral.  Children who are persistently homework noncompliant learn to lie, cheat, procrastinate, misplace and forget as adaptive strategies to the unrelenting pressures placed on them by parents and teachers alike, to do something they cannot do.