How important is Homework

I remember being amazed at what my daughters school did in Kindergarten. It seemed like a lot but she ended up reading at a 4th grade level in 1st grade and had the basics of identifying different combinations of coins and their worth. They also have a weekly system of vocabulary that culminates in a Friday quiz that has them working on sorting words alphabetically and ultimately creating sentences that utilizes the meaning of the words. I've been satisfied so far. I'm in the state of Virginia for what that's worth.

 

I agree there is no reason why elementary students should have homework beyond reading with their parents. Study after study shows that it has no effect on kids performance.

 

I very rarely gave homework. We had weekly debates, so any homework assignment was usually debate related research and rarely required much work. It wasn't even part of my grading rubric.

If we were discussing, say, the 1st Amendment, I'd tell them to go home and find a story in the newspaper or a magazine about a 1st Amendment issue and write one page explaining the effects of one on the other.

That's about it. I rarely gave a homework assignment you couldn't do in five minutes.

Most homework assignments are just busy work to supplement the class work.

 

I attended a high school that the movie 'Breakfast Club' was modeled after.

I rarely did homework; I was too busy doing much more important things, working, sports, friends, and a developing a new-found faith.

I walked to school and never felt it was worth the effort to carry my books home.

In my junior year I skipped out after signing in to my 12:30 history class and finished up the lunch hour at the local steakhouse, then I prepped for the dinner workers, returned to school to attend track practice and walked home a mile an a half, arriving for a late dinner. After dinner I'd read something while listening to music or practiced my guitar.

In my senior year I had the goal to read the whole biography section of the high school library - it looked to me like no one had ever read the books there and I slowly arranged them in the order I read them. I managed to get through less then half of them before I graduated.

Courses in college were much more challenging and I eventually had to learn how to study.

Rob