Are kids getting too much homework?
Monday, August 30th, 2010
By: Maiken Scott
mscott@whyy.org
School is starting back up, and families everywhere are once again embroiled in the homework wars. New research from the University of Michigan finds that Children are more likely to do their homework if they see it as an investment, not a chore, according to new research at the University of Michigan.
WHYY’s Behavioral Health reporter Maiken Scott spoke with psychologist Dan Gottlieb.
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hello george I am fine what about you?
i absolutely love homeworkk
if i could i would do it in the shower
and to the little 7th grader i dont even do homework sixty hours a week
kind of impossible
u shouldnt even be on the internet in seventh grade
go take care of your horse
by the way how is ur novel coming?
is it published yet??
Teachers give us homework to help us learn the subject, but all it does is waste time and energy. If the teachers just covered all the important stuff in class then we wouldn’t need homework. Some teachers have a good reason to give us homework, like if we have a pep-rally or a athletic event, but then there’s others that just give us it because they spend time doing other things than giving us the important points in a subject. So when they don’t give us the main things in the subject they just say “Do this for homework” and then grade us according to something they didn’t teach us because they were busy on their computer grading when they can do that after school.
I don't know why I bother. We're just kids. Since when did they listen to us?
hahahahahaha. yeahh. im a freshman and have never been so stressed in my life.
i have a 3 page essay due on friday,, and guess what its on.. TOO MUCH HOMEWORK!
ahh. and don't forget all the algebra, science, social studies, and english.
this isn't even my english class, its a skills in communication. but for english i have a 3 page research paper due monday.
this homework issue we have is just crazy. i think we should only have a MAX of an hour of homework each night.
us kids have lifes and want to enjoy our time as a young person. this stress i am having shouldn't be happening until im old!
im only 15. not 45.
we don't need to do homework/school work all the time.
yeahh.
thats all i have to sayy.
And when we DO finish our homework, teachers grade us like we made no effort.
Ha! 40-something minutes is NOTHING. Most days, I spent all my afternoon working. When I was in fifth grade, I even suffered depression thanks to the amount of work. AND I'M OF THE BEST STUDENTS IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL! Look at me right now, I have 15+ pages of English homework, two big projects, 19 pages of Math, 2 Science papers, a research for History, plus more. When are we supposed to relax or even eat?!
45 muinites? Too much? I want to laugh. I do sixty hours a week. I'm in seventh grade. I'm trying to write a full length novel and have two horses to take care of. Even weekends I spend all day doing homework.
REASONS HOMEWORK SHOULDN'T EVEN EXIST:
1 It wastes energy. Seriously, I bet a third of all of the paper is used for homework. There's all this talk about saving the enviroment, but how do we do this this if we are wasing paper on homework?
2 It wastes time. I spend three days worth of homework in a week. Not even my dad does that much, and he works at Apple, the most demanding job in the world. Wouldn't it be nicer if they gave us time to do something actually productive?
3 Parents think its our fault for being behind. But how do you explain six hours of homework a night? We're punished. we don't have time to finish all of it, and it pretty much kills our grades.
Dan, I was very surprised to hear that you think 45 minutes of homework is "too much" given all the recent discussion and reports of just how LITTLE schooling American children get compared to children elsewhere in the world.
I've seen such statistics as: Japan, 243 days a year; South Korea, 220; England, 192; Finland, 190; US, 180. And in fact, the amount of time in school appears to be very strongly correlated to math and science ability — two areas our kids are severely lacking.
To look at it another way, I teach supplementary Hebrew school, where I'm expected to teach the kids a foreign language in about 40 minutes of instructional time once per week. As I'm sure you know, it is impossible to learn a second language with such limited, once-a-week exposure. I therefore assign about 20 minutes of homework per week (with the advice that 10 be done on one night, and 10 be done on another). On a good week, maybe 1 in 5 will have done even that paltry amount of work. Then after many years of this, their parents wonder why their kids still can't read Hebrew for their bat and bat mitzvahs — and wind up hiring private tutors.
I don't disagree that free play is crucially important to children. But maybe if American families spent less time with the television on, and shuttling their kids around to 20 million extra-curricular activities, an hour or two a day of homework wouldn't feel like a burden.
I agree our kids are overscheduled. But I wouldn't point my finger at homework as the blame.