家长反对学校取消家庭作业

家长反对学校取消家庭作业 School Just Wants Kids to Have Fun—But Parents Demand More Homewo rk , , It’s a common compla int of parent s—and some teache rs—whose hyper-pressu rized, stress ed-out, over-tested school childr en stay up past bedtim e finish ing an assign ment: “Why does my kid have so much homewo rk?” So the princi pal at one school in New York, citing frustr ation and “loss of intere st in learni ng” that the practi ce work causes , abolis hed it comple tely. Instea d, she wants kids to turn off the comput er, read a book, play outsid e, or maybe get to know their family a little bit better . “The topic of homewo rk has receiv ed a lot of attent ion lately , and the negati ve effect s of homewo rk have been well establ ished,” Jane Hsu, princi pal of P.S. 116, wrote in a letter to parent s. “They includ e: childr en’s frustr ation and exhaus tion, lack of time for other activi ties and family time and, sadly for many, loss of intere st in learni ng.” The kids at P.S. 116 are probab ly thrill ed by Hsu’s decisi on: The parent s of her studen ts, howeve r, aren’t happy with the change . Their calcul ations —school kids minus homewo rk equals their child left behind —have prompt ed a backla sh agains t Hsu and the school commit tee that decide d on the change . “They didn’t have much to begin with, but now homewo rk is obsole te,” Daniel Tasman , father of a second -grader at P.S. 116, told the local news websit e DNAInf o.com.“They’ve decide d that giving homewo rk to younge r ages [elemen tary school studen ts] isn’t viable . I don’t necess arily agree. I think they should have homewo rk—some of it is about discip line. I want [my daught er] to have fun, but I also want her to be workin g toward s a goal.” In the letter , Hsu writes that the no-homewo rk policy came about after the school studie d the idea for more than a year and conclu ded that the benefi ts of indepe ndent readin g and free play are far more benefi cial than tradit ional homewo rk. “In fact, you may be surpri sed to learn that there have been a variet y of studie s conduc ted on the effect s of homewo rk in the elemen tary grades and not one of them could provid e any eviden ce that direct ly links tradit ional homewo rk practi ces with curren t, or even future , academ ic succes s," she wrote. Accord ing to Nation al Educat ion Associ ation teachi ng guidel ines, the recomm ended amount of homewo rk ranges from a minimu m of 20 to 30 minute s of “practi ce, prepar ation or extens ion” learni ng after classe s in elemen tary school , gradua lly increa sing to as much as three hours per night of work in high school . “Indivi dualiz ed assign ments that tap into studen ts' existi ng skills or intere sts can be motiva ting,” accord ing to the guidel ines. “At the elemen tary school level, homewo rk can help studen ts develo p study skills and habits and can keep famili es inform ed about their child's learni ng. At the second ary school level, studen t homewo rk is associ ated with greate r academ ic achiev ement.” But in an interv iew with Yahoo Parent ing, Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, said there’s not much eviden ce “of any benefi t of homewo rk at the elemen tary school level.” Homewo rk, he said, “is all pain, no gain.” At the same time, there are grassr oots moveme nts to end homewo rk, and studie s have shown homewo rk-relate d stress can trigge r physic al illnes ses like ulcers , migrai nes and sleep depriv ation. Given that P.S. 116 teache s only kinder garten throug h fifth grade, it’s probab ly unlike ly that studen ts suffer ed proble ms associ ated with the more seriou s end of the homewo rk-stress spectr um. Still, there’s no sign that Hsu intend s to retrac t the policy any time soon. “We are excite d that we are redefi ning the landsc ape of homewo rk—but we are certai nly not elimin ating homewo rk,” she said in a statem ent to DNAInf o.com, emphas izing that readin g and unstru ctured play are as educat ionall y valuab le as practi ce readin g, writin g and arithm etic. “We are creati ng opport unitie s for studen ts and their famili es to engage in activi ties that resear ch has proven to benefi t academ ic and social -emotio nal succes s in the elemen tary grades ,” she wrote. “We look forwar d to seeing the positi ve impact our newly-design ed homewo rk option s will have on our studen ts and their famili es.