Homework: For Good and for Bad

Homework is one of those seemingly necessary evils that, like the cod liver oil of my youth, is often explained by the phrase "Because it's good for you." Students often despise homework because there are myriad other things they would rather be doing - snowboarding, instant messaging, nothing, etc. Parents know that they should encourage their children to do their homework but are often confused as to how and why it's relevant. And teachers give homework because . . . .

The discussion about the purpose and legitimacy of homework has often been defined by two diametrically opposed and vocal camps: the first camp intimates that kids today don't work hard enough (these are the folks who remember everyday the character-building adversity of walking at least four miles to school, uphill both ways, in a blizzard); and the second camp asserts that kids today don't have enough time anymore to be kids (these are the folks who remember the halcyon days of their youth spent skipping aimlessly through meadows of sun-drenched wildflowers).

Those who would intimate that kids don't work hard enough point to studies comparing the achievement of American students with those from other countries. Inevitably U.S. students fare poorly when compared to Thailand, the Netherlands, and Japan - countries that regularly outperform us on international standardized tests. And while there are a number of possible explanations for this (including that our educational system is much more democratic than that of any other country) the fact is that American students do not spend the time on academics that other countries mandate.

Those who suggest that kids need more time simply to be kids point out the sheer number of organized activities in which students participate: school, sports, ballet and music lessons, play dates, etc. Examples of this over-regularization border on the preposterous: six-year-old soccer players get rated and assigned to teams based on those ratings; I have friends who sent their eight-year-old son to camp in order to learn how to make a soap box derby car. Of course not all of these activities are chosen by kids; many parents sign up their children for structured activity after structured activity.

Like most things that are broken into easily defined dichotomies - black/white, Democrat/Republican, straight/gay - the conflict over homework is too often reduced to simplistic absurdities. Would students learn more if they spent more time doing homework? They might. Would kids and families be less stressed if their recreational activities were less scheduled? Perhaps.

The fact is that homework can be a useful strategy to increase student achievement (yes, homework can be "good for you"): there are times when skill-based exercises, such as memorizing Spanish vocabulary, might be a valuable use of a student's time outside of the classroom; similarly, there are other times when a more imaginative assignment, such as playing chess, might help students expand their intellectual horizons. It's also true that too much irrelevant homework can be a waste of the little unstructured time kids - and families - seem have to themselves.

I believe that the criteria for assigning homework should be the following: if students can articulate (fairly and justly) why their homework is worth doing, then the homework is worth taking the time and effort to do well. Conversely, if students do not fairly and justly understand what they are being asked to do and why, I'd humbly suggest that those students are under no obligation to waste their time doing irrelevant busy work.

In an ideal world, all homework would be irrelevant, and parents would not feel the need to send their children to camp in order to learn how to play. The conversation around the family dinner table would take the place of homework, and kids would be celebrated for using their imaginations in order to amuse themselves.

Imagine a world in which we all took personal responsibility for the education of students and in which child's play was taken seriously . . . that would be a world worth celebrating.

--Steve McKibben
10/30/05