The research says what?

Well it has taken me quite some time, and i'm still not completely done, but i feel much more educated about the issue of homework than i did before. I read two books. The Case Against Homework by sara bennet and Nancy kalisch. I also read, well almost, the homework myth by alphie kohn. Both were very interesting.

The case against homework
The book by bennet is much more user friendly. it is basically a how to guide to reduce or stop homework overload. it had a section detailing the research that has been done on homework, a section that seeks to inform parents on what homework has the most value and what is just busy work. What follows is a section on how to write notes or otherwise communicate with the teacher in order to reduce the amount of homework for your child. the last section of the book explains how to organize other parents to lobby for a more lasting change in policy for homework in your district. It is filled with real life examples from many different parents, including the authors who followed this strategy in their east coast private school.

the homework myth
The homework myth is a little more scholarly. It looks at homework from many different angles. Much of the same research is cited in both books. Kohn looks at teacher prep, misconceptions about learning, current trends within education and how those effect homework. Not sure whats at the end seeing as I haven't made it there yet. This book was harder to read, I got bogged down when he just wouldn't stop talking about the many and varied reasons its difficult to research the benefits of homework.

What I think...
I will be very hesistant to assign homework. I think that reading is probably the most valuable homework but I never enjoyed reading something that I HAD to read. I also see that one of my darling kids feels the same way.

I had no idea that the research on homework showed that there was no benefit for elementary kids. Are you kidding me. According to Kohn that old 'ten minutes per grade level' was just invented by Harris Cooper, a homework researcher. Apparently Cooper did a metanalysis of like 140 studies on homework and decided that 10 minutes was a good rule of thumb but that the research didn't actually address that issue. In fact the research showed only a small correlation between homework and achievement in high school. Of course i didn't go and check Kohn's work. I have no interest in pouring over data and reading a research report. I'll just take his word.

I got the feeling while reading these books that people think kids should have homework and lots of it because they'll just watch tv if they don't. its like people don't trust parents to raise their own kids. I have strong feelings about this but for now I'll just say, so what if they do. Its not the schools job to raise the kids but the parents. I'm a bit tired of everyone dumping more and more parental responsibilities onto the school.