Homework in grade school may not be that beneficial. Somehow, the minutes of homework for each grade level seem to be leveling up higher and higher. One has to wonder, “what do they do at school all day?” Even for math and science, students could do this work at school. I’ve volunteered at school, I see what they do. I also see the pages of homework assigned for the sake of homework.
I’m not sure when homework became required for all ages.
When I went to school we didn’t have “homework” until 7th grade. We had to write a few reports in elementary school, but we didn’t have homework every night. We didn’t carry backpacks stuffed with books, we didn’t have homework contracts that our parents had to sign so they knew what was required.
We left our books in our desks at school.
In the 1960s, I came home from elementary school, changed my clothes (because we had to wear dresses to school) and went out to “play” — I put on my “play clothes.” I ran around outside with my friends and played things like croquet??? I guess, since this is a photo of me with my friend, Pam Hale and my sister.
Later, when I got books and homework, I thought I was pretty grown-up. And I took it seriously and did my work.
My first two kids went through public school.
I was fully involved with all the parent responsibilities and I knew the rules for homework. Twenty minutes in kindergarten, adding 20 minutes more each year. My third child learned how to get his homework done quickly — he would do the math problems on the sheet that were spread out to make a cutsie little picture, and then he would hand it over to his younger brother who was not in school yet, and his 4 year-old brother would color it in (all the answers that added up to 4 color blue, etc, etc.)
When my fourth child started 5th grade, I became fed-up with some of the silly homework assignments. (Please write an essay on how you figured out that 7 x 6 = 42.) I pulled him out and homeschooled him along with his older brother who was in 7th grade.
It was my first year of homeschool. I found out that we could cover more work in less time. Instead of six hours of school and three to four hours of homework, my kids did it all in four to six hours.
Now this is what I’ve noticed. My last homeschooled child started college. He loved his classes. He loved his homework and even read the textbook for anthropology. He enjoyed his homework, having not been forced to do it for 13 years of grade school. My homeschooled kids did not have homework, and they have graduated from college, and one will be going to medical school. All without homework in grade school and high school.
I think kids get too much homework in traditional school and then they burn-out in the higher grades. Other parents are noticing the same thing and some elementary schools have dropped the homework, as reported in this article from Harvard School of Education. Now, I realize that you can’t tell the school teacher what to do. And I realize that not everyone can homeschool. But there are often other choices, such as charter schools.
I don’t know, it’s a dilema. My kids are raised, but now I have grandkids. The one in kindergarten right now has an hour of homework every night. And she can already read, but she still has to color the shapes, and not read ahead during class time. And take tests. She is stressed out. And her mom is stressed out.
