What is good for our children? Initial thoughts

Well when considering homework there are several components. First that it will help kids learn, or reinforce what is taught at school. Second that it helps them become more responsible. This is what I always thought the purpose of homework was. I guess I never thought about if homework really did do the things I expected it to.

My kids school district has a policy of 20 min a night. When we met with the teachers at the beginning I thought it was a great idea. That's not too long. Well Andrew is in 1st grade, each night he has an Accelerated Reader book he must read three times, a work sheet to do front and back, sometimes two worksheets, vocabulary words, spelling words and theme words for the week. Just recently she sent home books that have been photocopied to be read each night on top of the other stuff. Now any reasonable person can see that this will take a seven year old much longer to do than twenty minutes. Isaac's is not much better, time wise. But we have plodded along because, well i don't know. I guess because responsible parents make sure their kids do their homework.

My concern is that Andrew isn't enjoying any of the reading he's doing. Because his homework takes so long he no longer wants me to read out loud to him. He wants a chance to do other things. If kids spend all days at school then have to work for an hour or more they are going to miss out on some very important experiences. My kids like school and are able to do the work given to them, I can't imagine the home of a student who is strugling. Kids need the opportunity to do creative things that they think of on their own. Schools have been lessoning and lessoning the amount of time spent teaching the "less important" non tested subjects, art, music, pe.

There is a book that I am going to start reading called the homework myth by alphie kohn. Alphie kohn is notorious in the education world for being a bit extreme. He has written many books the only other one I'm familiar with is punished by rewards. He does not believe in any extrinsic rewards for kids. There is an article he wrote about this very subject here.

I'm sure I'll have many more thoughts on the subject as I make my way through the book. So stay tuned