[.uk] The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, ... (ISBN 0807042196)

An Important Book for both Parents and Teachers:
I've been in the AmeriCorps, for two years, working with children who, in some cases, disparately, need help in literacy. I have seen first hand the problems children have in trying to do homework and not being able to read. I say this to make a point. Now this book does not necessarily look at ones reading ability. What the book does cover is how in some cases homework can be a burden, and in others counterproductive. This book does not place blame on any one person, i.e. teacher - parents and so forth. What it does do is show how the perception of if children do a lot of homework that it is good for them. This is not always the case. An example of this in the book was when Ms Kralovec did an experiment. When she went to a high school to teach a class, she is a college professor, she assigned no homework, all papers and work was to be done in class, using the school resources, library computer lab. At the end of the semester the students not only enjoyed the class but like that fact of not having the pressure to do homework every night. All of them did very well in that class. One student sighted that was because all the resources were in one place, school. Another point the authors being up are not all children learn by doing a work sheet or reading from a book. To those who do not learn well this way we are setting them up to not only fail, but also lose interest in school from an early age. Even when a teacher assigns a project it puts the children that don't learn well by doing projects at the disadvantage. The authors make the point that we, educators and parents, need to go beyond smaller classrooms, but also deal with how children learn on an individual basis. This brings me to my point, and the point of the book. Homework can be effect when used correctly, yet at the same time homework should not be the end all and be all of work. We need to always be on the look out as to whether, or not homework is working for children. This is a wonderful book and I would advise all parents, teachers and principles to read this. I will admit that there is a slant against homework, but it is fairly well balanced. If there were a flaw in the book it would be answers to if there were no homework then what? I see this book as the opening chapter in a larger issue of giving less to no homework at all.

The Truth about Homework:
How refreshing to come across a book that questions the value of homework. As the parent of three children, 16, 13 and 10 I have seen the damage homework can do to children's enthusiasm for learning and to my relationship with them. Children need free time to explore their own interests and to figure out who they are. Homework will not solve the too much TV and Video Game problem, but it will quell children's innate desire to explore their world and find out who they are. "The End of Homework" takes a much needed critical look at the real effects of homework on learning and development and shows just how empty and unsubstantiated many of the claims from the "more homework" camp really are. Anyone with a stake in the current debate about how children use their time, the changes in the way they grow up, the shift in the balance of power away from families towards corporate institutions, and above all the role of homework in these trends should read this book.

homework stinks:
i've been a strong opponent of homework for many years, ever since the day i almost had a nervous breakdown in 2nd grade when i had failed to complete an "important assignment." now as a parent of a second grade student of my own, i realize more than ever that homework is clearly detrimental in numerous ways to both our youth and our families. this book lays out a solid groundwork of arguments against homework. if your new to the debate or on the pro homework side, you'll likely learn a great deal from this book.

It succeeds in making a point - but not much else:
The book The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning refutes the popular, traditional theories about homework's benefits to teachers and students. The authors insist that studies about the positive aspects of homework (better retention, curriculum enhancement, enhancement of time management and personal responsibilities, etc.) are deeply flawed. Instead, the book portrays homework as an almost universal negative - especially before middle school. The authors demonstrate using research, case studies, and anecdotal evidence that homework can be discriminatory, impractical, and damaging to students. It examines the widely agreed upon negatives of homework and concludes that anything with that many negatives - loss of interest in school and decreased time for families, communities, and enrichment being the least of them - doesn't have a place in education. While the book is very convincing and well-researched, it offers little advice for teachers short of complete curriculum revision. It doesn't provide a suggestion for a starting point or answer questions about the breadth of curriculum being reduced to accommodate more in-class time for working on assignments. While the authors admit that their message will fall on many deaf ears due to the background of the target audience - they would have won more converts with a little more practicality and helpful tips for willing reformers. As a result, the book ends up spending too much time trying to prove its title and too little actually being a catalyst for change. As it stands, this is an important book that is worth consideration by all educators and parents with school-aged kids.

An Unconventional Look at the Limits of Educational Reform:
In doing a study for the state of Maine on dropout prevention programs, the authors of this books were stunned to learn that ALL of the students they interviewed listed homework or their inability to complete homework assignments as a factor in their decision to drop out. Homework, the authors find, has long had its critics. In 1901, the California Civil Code banned homework for children under fifteen in grammar or primary school. Critics of homwork surfaced in significant numbers in the rebellious decades of the 1930s and 1960s. Homework that is dull and boring, the authors write, is meaningless. And homework that is intellectually challenging requires significant help from attentive and well-educated parents, who are often unavailable or non-existent in many households. The research on the educational value of homework, they say, is inconclusive, while the negative effects of homework on the lives of many children and families is undeniable. Homework, the authors allege, is undemocratic because more affluent children have more home resources--space, research materials, educated family members, the relative lack of demands for services to other family members--than do low income children. It would be much more democratic they say to have the work now assigned to the home to be done in school, where all children would have equal access to the teacher, any teacher's aides or parent volunteers, and other children. Homework, they charge, impinges on the lives of the children and the lives of the family. It both limits unstructured family time and forces the family to be focused on the school work. Combined with the lengthening work day faced by many adults and the decline of the stay at home mother due to economic reasons, homework undermines family life and leads to the much warned against disintegration of families. Time poverty, they find, is a major national concern that homework contributes to. Overstressed parents worn out from work and household chores often simply don't have the time to study the children's course material to help the child overcome difficulties. Hiring tutors is obviously more an economically available option in some families than in others. The authors see corporate influence as a menacing influence here. They believe businesses are trying to get young people used to extremely long work days. They believe businesses know that large numbers of children will fail to meet the demands for excessive homework, and are seeking to pay low salaries to these people and blame their own inadequacies for those low salaries. The authors give an unequivocal endorsement to efforts to raise the minimum wage. "An adequate minimum wage," the authors find, "is the single most important and most immediately achievable step that can be taken at state and national levels to address the poverty of families and thus ensure conditions in which young people are likely to thrive." This book does not give directions as to how courses can be reconstructed to reduce or eliminate homework. It's advice on the construction of studies on the effects of of homework asks some good questions but does not include recommendations for measuring the prevalence of children who do much better in classwork than in homework, or kids who do much better in homework than in classwork. The idea that homework is an independent variable in predicting and causing student decline and droppping out could be better documented than was done in the research that the authors compiled. The authors' call for further research implicitly acknowledges this. Despite this book's limitations--and its intriguing but questionable eagerness to integrate the abolition of homework into national liberal agendas for for reform--this is a book to read and ponder for anyone interested in dealing with what educational reform means and should mean, and anyone interested in families spending more time together and doing a better job of helping students navigate the transition to adulthood. The teenage years, the authors believe, should be years in which students learn to socialize with their peers and with adult society as a whole. Homework retards this process, they allege. This a book that challenges existing assumptions long hours of school work being a path to educational excellence and international workforce competitiveness. It is a book that desrves a wide national audience of parents, educators, educational reform experts, and corporate and media opinion makers. By raising fundamental questions, the authors are providing a signal national and international service.