Today The New York Times ran a forum with seven people weighing in on summer homework, my contribution being a strong “Yea!” The comments are profuse, with lots of personal anecdotes and indignation coming from both sides. One line of objection, however, is puzzling, and it begins with the second contributor, Nancy Kalish, who offers a portrait of “how miserable a child looks as he slogs through that pile of book reports, math packets, journal entries, and other typical assignments.”
One commenter urges, “Lay off the required summer reading lists, book reports, etc. It’s absurd. Children need more play opportunities, which will help them grow and mature, and give them a necessary break.”
Another says, “The method to fix education in the U.S. today is not to make kids study all the time but to fix the U.S. education system. Children need room to grow, by doing other things. Do we want happy kids or workaholics?”
And another: “Homework is way overdone. I think a ton of homework is mindless busy work that de-motivates poor students and is an unnecessary drain on motivated students.”
You would think from these and dozens of other comments that high school students are drowning in assignments, that homework is chaining them to their desks all afternoon and evening.
But one of the best measures of high school time, the High School Survey of Student Engagement, a project at Indiana University, tells a different story. The 2006 survey obtained a sample of 81,000 students, and among the questions were those on “Time and Priority” activities.
The findings for homework may be surprising.
In an average week, fully 83 percent of students devoted 5 hours or less to “written homework,” less than an hour a day. Fully 43 percent completed 1 hour or less per week!
When it came to “reading/studying for class,” the numbers were worse. Nine out of ten students stood in the 5 hours or less group. More than half of them–55 percent–came up at 1 hour or less in an average week. Only 9 percent of them logged 6 hours or more.
And it wasn’t because they were working. Thirty-one percent put in 6 hours or more watching TV/video gaming, 28 percent spent 6 hours or more on the phone, and 54 percent put in 6 hours or more socializing outside of school.
Asked to rate the importance of activities, while 40 percent of students gave Reading/studying “Very Important” or “Top Priority,” 62 percent of them gave Socializing those grave labels.
No more stories, then, about overworked, stressed-out kids. Yes, there are some, and you see moving portraits of “overachievers” in books and newspapers, such as the legendary “AP Frank.” But they are a small group, less than 10 percent of the cohort. For the rest of them, out-of-school time is increasingly separate-from-school time.
29 Responses to The Homework Problem–Too Little, Not Too Much
ex_ag - September 1, 2009 at 10:11 am
Mark, the problem I have with your argument is that you are creating a false dilemma. According to your claims, students are either carrying on with the typical rote work of the classroom or they are doing nothing of value.I object to the idea of summer homework because it interferes with my child’s “other” education. Given the absence of the arts in the school curriculum, I arrange my child’s summer so that he has time to learn all of those things that he won’t get in school as his teachers obsessively teach “to the test.” It’s this summer education that will make him into an interesting and talented individual rather than a bubble-filling drone.
primaryovertone - September 1, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Mark,Consider if you will the fact that children spend 7 to 8 hours a day at school. After school many students are involved in extra curicular activities at or connected to school. This brings them up to 8 or 9 hours at least. If parents want children to be healthy they do their best to make sure that they get 8 hours of sleep. We are now up to 16 or 17 of a child’s 24 hour day and the only meal they have consumed is lunch. Most people eat breakfast and dinner as well. Lets be generous and let them have an hour for each and understand that there may be some time on either end for washing their hands and using the bathroom. This brings us to 18 or 19 of 24 hours. At some point children must bathe and dress each day so that brings us to 19-20 hours of the child’s day that is planned for them before they wake up every weekday morning. We still have not considered the daily travel time, homework, family time, or non-sleep downtime. How much of those few scant hours of unplanned time should teachers really take for homework? Are children really learning anything from this assigned homework? How would you respond to your dean if s/he asked you to work durring your vacation without extra pay? Children are run ragged for 9 months of the year, do you really want to take the time they have to be children away from them and replace it with homework and a reading list?
markbauerlein - September 1, 2009 at 1:51 pm
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15-19-year-olds enjoy around five-and-a-half hours of leisure time per day. (About six for boys, five for girls.) Their most popular activity is television. I just don’t see the evidence for kids being “run ragged for 9 months of the year,” except for that ten percent of kids at the top. And those high-performers, I agree, don’t need any summer homework.
primaryovertone - September 1, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Do you know how the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines “Leisure Time”? Did the Bureau take into account the fact that 15-19 year olds don’t generally use their 8 hours of sleep for sleeping they instead trade sleep hours for “Leisure”. This is a practice that is of course not healthy. You should also take into account the fact that in the 15-19 age group you have people who are no longer students who can significantly change the averages of the survey. Do you know when the survey was given? Was it given durring the summer when kids do have more time? Statistics can only give you so much information. I am around enough kids to know that durring the school year they are run ragged. But even giving the statistics more weight than I think they deserve how are you going to justify only giving summer homework to the kids in the lower 90%. That might hurt their self-esteem (gag) and the school system is not going to do that. I have never met a kid yet that did not view homework as a type of punishment. Can you imagine the potential abuse that the top ten percent of the class will recieve because they do not get punished durring the summer while their counterparts do.
ex_ag - September 1, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I’m curious, Dr. Bauerlein, about whether you have kids. You’re falling back on statistics quite a bit here. Is this because you are trying to be objective? Or because this is your only source of evidence on this subject?Both I and primaryovertone have brought up the issue of extra curricular activities in one way or another. I don’t know whether primaryovertone feels this way or not, but I allow these extra activities and support them because I feel that schools are fundamentally deficient at forming well-rounded individuals. Now, of course, I am aware that many parents do not worry over their children’s free time or development. But mandating the flawed homework of a flawed educational system just because children might otherwise waste their time with television is a problematic notion, to say the least. If the work was valuable, then I might not be so skeptical. But even if it was valuable, forced homework won’t make for a good student.In the end, this notion will replace neither a high-performing child’s internal motivation nor an attentive parent’s concern. And we can’t be foolish enough to clap ourselves on the back for raising studious children when they are only studious because they are compelled to be. I see no virtue in such a situation.
primaryovertone - September 1, 2009 at 3:51 pm
ex_ag,I do agree. How many of the most selective universities and colleges do we all know of who have set admissions standards such that a student who does not have some extra-curriculars on their transcript are not even considered. How do you teach the concepts involved in being a good winner (or loser) in the classroom. Is it possible within the school system to provide individual opportunity for each child to explore and develop their own unique talents and abilities. I think that in some cases “extra-curriculars” teach more than students receive in any classroom. Personally I think that if something at the primary educational level cannot be taught in the classroom,durring the 8 hour school day,that sending the work home is not going to make any difference. That is my opinion. Anyone may disagree with it.
markbauerlein - September 1, 2009 at 8:41 pm
These are fair skepticisms.I do quote a lot of statistical surveys, yes, mainly because I think the better ones give a better picture of general trends. Too often we over-rely on what we see in our experience, taking it as representative. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data come from the American Time Use Survey (type the title into Google and you’ll get pdf). By the way, leisure reading came up at under 10 minutes per day.I have a four-year-old boy, along with lots of nieces and nephews. He bullies and browbeats his father all the time, but I’m determined to send him to kindergarten with a 10,000 word vocabulary.
ex_ag - September 1, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Mark, I agree that there is value in the statistical survey.But, in this case, there is also value in experience. It is a disturbing moment when you recognize the same dead-fish stare in your homework-laden child that you’ve come to hate in your college freshmen. But in your child’s case, it’s not a result of indifference or a hangover or an inability to do the work. Even when he’s mastered the material, you still see that same look.And then, contrast those dead-fish moments with the same child’s bursting enthusiasm when he puts all the parts together and can play a new piece on the violin or when he learns a new lick and insists on getting it “just right.”I’m not opposed to squeezing more education into a child’s day. In fact, I have a tendency to find “teaching moments” all the time, and my son often doesn’t know he’s learning. What I object to is a learning process that results in that dead stare and the sense that I am doing something to my child instead of for him.Good luck with your son’s vocabulary. He’ll thank you one day, though his teachers won’t.
roxbury86 - September 2, 2009 at 10:12 am
One’s view of these statistics depends on one’s experience: are we talking about public school or private school (college preparatory)?My three sons all attended a NYC “Ivy” preparatory school: they left the house at 7:30 and rarely departed school before 6 or later due to extracurriculars (much later if games were away). The middle school sets 40 minutes per subject for homework. With 5 academics, that is 3+ hours of homework, and we have not yet set aside time for another shower let alone dinner.This was my experience going to an Ivy as well – school was my life, but I can assure you I did not have the shock when introduced to the college workload that many do.I see many of the public school kids hanging out just past 2 pm most afternoons, with plenty of time to kill. Perhaps these are the ones who have time to spend 5-6 hours doing Facebook or whatever.Even with the private school workload, I am a firm believer in a summer reading requirement. We would hope that lifelong learners (which is what schools theoretically are aiming to produce) would read for pleasure anyway – getting and keeping them in the habit of reading for the pleasure of entertainment as well as knowledge (for its own sake) should be a number one school priority.That said, I think they should be given some leeway in the choice of books, but should be required to write and submit a brief book report, to indicate completion of the assignment. Maybe in today’s internet world, my idea hearkens back to simpler times, but there absolutely needs to be some balance in the summer requirements and that balance should be reflective of fostering learning for learning’s sake, and not simple used as an opportunity to jump start the academic year.
lee77 - September 2, 2009 at 10:53 am
Relevant to this discussion, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, had a fascinating hypothesis re: why so many Asian kids outperform American kids, and it had to do with the incessant demands associated with growing rice (as compared to the American farming calendar,which led to the notion of a summer off). My mother was a teacher, and she noted how much relearning needed to be done in September because of the summer off.
primaryovertone - September 2, 2009 at 10:59 am
roxbury86,Perhaps instead of the school requiring a summer reading list and book reports for proof, the parents of these school children could take an active position and require their children to read durring the summer. The parent could then sit down and have a conversation with their child about the book. This would have many positive aspects including: reducing the workload of teachers who would have to read and grade the book reports, inspire parents to take more time talking to their children, etc.Parents who ignored this responsibility would then have no right to blame their childs problems on the schools and perhaps the schools would see an increase in parental involvment and interest.I know that this is a radical concept and that I could be viewed as a kook for even suggesting such ideas as parental responsibility and conversations with children but I think that it might just be wild and crazy enough to work.
markbauerlein - September 2, 2009 at 11:36 am
It is, indeed, essential for parents to be involved in the reading. The command, “Go to your room and read a book,” doesn’t work. Parents need to read, too, and show their kids that reading books is something that adults do as a matter of course.
nicole3 - September 2, 2009 at 12:07 pm
My daughter is eight; she is in the third grade. School just started last week. Each day so far, she has had one to two written assignments; most don’t take more than ten minutes each, but then she is also supposed to read for half an hour each weeknight and log the pages she has read in her homework planner. Now we’re at a total of 40-50 minutes daily of homework for a third-grader. Additional assignments will come later in term, which will add additional time.My daughter also does gymnastics, which she loves and we find a valuable experience. Now we’re trying to figure out how to fit her 40-50 minutes of daily homework time around her practice schedule while allowing her sufficient sleep and giving her a little time to play.My greatest fear is that reading, which she loves, will become just another thing she *has* to do. My daughter and her third-grade classmates do not suffer from “too little” homework.
ctwardy - September 2, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I loved homework and did lots of it, but I’m not sure assigning it is going to help. Doing more would certainly help those who aren’t, but while on average many may *do* very little homework per night, that doesn’t mean they were *assigned* so little. And the “more work” model makes some unfounded assumptions. Let me relate a personal story.We have a good public elementary school, but the 7-hour day was simply too long for our older daughter, let alone the homework that had to be done after she was completely worn out. We also saw the dead-fish stare and more disturbing effects that Alfie Kohn would have predicted. Where she had been reading 10-20 books a week for fun, she stopped. “Did you want to read a book before bed?” “No. I’ve already done my 3 assigned books this week.”We worked that out with the teacher involved — no assignments please, we’ll just secretly record what she reads for you. The teacher was happy to do that, but surprised. Her problem was parents begging her to assign books so their kids would read at all.Anyway, that still left the exhaustion, stress, and dead fish stare. So last year we started home schooling at the half-year point, and we discovered that we can cover the lesson material in half a day, joyfully. No dead fish. This is a very common experience. Certainly not everyone can homeschool, but the results suggest that maybe some of our problems are induced by the structure of the public school day.I think the standard homework model just isn’t a good fit for many kids, perhaps especially those it hopes most to help.-crt
d_f_b - September 2, 2009 at 2:04 pm
@roxbury86: “I see many of the public school kids hanging out just past 2 pm most afternoons, with plenty of time to kill. Perhaps these are the ones who have time to spend 5-6 hours doing Facebook or whatever.”It may well be that these are kids who were assigned homework, but simply aren’t doing it (or are doing an extremely hurried, poor job on it) so that they can go hang out.One problem I have with assigning lots of homework in K-8 (and to some extent 9-12) is that those children with highly involved parents are the ones most likely to end updoing it, and doing it well, ’cause their parents make them do it–but if the parents are that involved in their child’s education, they’re presumably getting various supplementary enrichment experiences (both academic and non-academic) that will support their success in school with or without homework.In other words, assigning lots of homework to kids isn’t likely to help the ones it needs to help, and it simply overburdens (IMO) the ones who don’t need it.
11274135 - September 2, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I’m not sure exactly how you can teach certain things without assigning some homework. Kids have to do math problems in order to learn how to do them. In-class writing generally is not a substitute for thoughtful and edited writing that is not forced by the classroom clock. There’s a point in langauge instruction where students have to learn vocabulary words, work on their second speaking and writing skills, translate additional material. And so on. Sure, teachers can often make better use of class time than they do, but there is not enough time in class to do the work that promotes and confirms learning. This does not mean that teachers are excused from making the best use of class time and being careful to make homework assignments worth while.
roxbury86 - September 2, 2009 at 3:11 pm
For primaryovertone,Before getting to the substance of your comment, I would like to say that any summer reading book “reports” that I mentioned would not necessarily have to be graded, etc. A simple perusal by the teacher to ensure completion of the requirements would suffice.About the parental involvement: I think your suggestion sounds like a worthy and admirable goal; however in my experience (limited to NY Ivies), that would be unlikely to function as you intend. The parents “could take an active position and require their children to read durring the summer. The parent could then sit down and have a conversation with their child about the book,” but I definitely wouldn’t want to rely on that; nor would I expect that approach to be particularly successful in that setting.Of course, I agree with you about parental responsibility – I believe the education of children is a partnership between the parents and the institutions. That said, I think there are many who might disagree, or who cannot/will not (for whatever reason) do their parental “share”. In an ideal world, parents who be more involved with their children’s education, and the concept of “personal responsibility” would be more prominent in social interaction than it is today.I would still advocate for summer reading from a selection of books from several categories, and a short book report with a simple review by the teachers to ensure that the reading was actually done.For d_f_b,I am not an advocate of excessive amounts of homework; 11274135 makes a valid point that some homework is necessary to reinforce learning in the classroom. Your implied suggestion of reducing the amount of homework (because lots of homework likely won’t help the ones who really do need it, while overburdening those who don’t need it) is a bit ridiculous. Essentially, you are writing off those who do need the extra work to succeed with such an argument. Particularly in public schools, where all the enrolled students have to be taught, including those who do not have the means (whether financial or in terms of parental availability/ability) to provide the extra academic support required for their success, giving less homework in many subjects would be doing the students a great disservice!11274135 said it all very well – teachers need to use homework (as a tool) prudently.
primaryovertone - September 2, 2009 at 3:32 pm
11274135,RE Math: Sending math homework home can actually have a negative effect since the child can easily learn to do the problems the wrong way, getting the wrong answer, and repeat this over and over while doing his/her homework and learning how to get the wrong answer by rote. I personally had a horible time with long division in school for just this reason. I had to work twice as hard to unlearn the wrong procedure and then to learn the right one.RE Writing: Students do need time outside of class to write, on this I will agree. However, I do not know that home is a better environment to write in, with the many distractions at hand in the average american home. Well conducted study halls could be the best place for such assignments. RE Language Study: I do not know what needs to be done but language study at the primary level in many schools seems to be flawed. I know too many students who took language in primary school and by the time they reached college remembered nothing of their primary level studies. Why is the simplest of Spanish questions like: Como Esta? met with a response like Huh? or What? from people who then claim to have taken two years of Spanish in high school? I learned that in the first five minutes of my first class. Something is wrong with this.
ex_ag - September 2, 2009 at 3:34 pm
roxbury86,I don’t see primaryoverture’s argument as ridiculous. Nor do I see it as “writing off” the kids who need more work.However, I do see a logical flaw in your argument that–since they aren’t doing their homework now–we need to give these kids even more homework to not do.
roxbury86 - September 2, 2009 at 4:59 pm
ex_ag, You are assuming that those who are not succeeding are not doing their homework. You are assuming that all students enter school with the same amount of native intelligence, drive, will to succeed, as well as support (whatever form). This is simply not the case. (And I am not referring to special education students here.) There is a wide spectrum of learning strengths and weaknesses in the general school population – and just as wide a spectrum of teaching styles and approaches.I never said we should give the kids more homework to do during the school year – but I believe that summer reading has an important place in the continuum of learning for children: learning should not stop in June and restart in September, and reading a few books over the summer months is not onerous. Reading used to be an important form of leisure activity for all ages; for kids these days, it has been all but forgotten.The charge of the public school system is to teach all the children. Of course, children need balance in their lives to succeed. And absolutely, homework is needed to reinforce lessons learned in school.The US is not the world leader in educating children, and it should be. Homework policy should be something that every principal should be looking at carefully.
minnesotan - September 2, 2009 at 5:45 pm
This is what American work ethic has come to? Arguing for even more leisure time for teens than tey already have?! “Half of them sleep through high school, anyway, so they might as well not have any homework either!”I say make them go to school all summer long, and make them actually learn something. Use of torture might be the only way to get most of them to read a book (other than Harry Potter, *sigh*), but so be it — it’s the apathy of teachers and the absence of parents that have failed the kids. It’s not their fault they never learned to appreciate the educational oppotunities they have.Maybe a field trip to Myanmar, where they can work in a sweatshop for a week, would be the best educational experience these kids ever had. Seeing how much free time the rst of the world’s children get ought to make them appreciate their education!Pathetic.
minnesotan - September 2, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Stupid typos!
roxbury86 - September 2, 2009 at 5:54 pm
“it’s the apathy of teachers and the absence of parents that have failed the kids. It’s not their fault they never learned to appreciate the educational oppotunities they have.”Amen!
ctwardy - September 2, 2009 at 10:03 pm
@minnesotan:I once visited a site promoting the idea of a fast train system with lots of small cars rather than few big ones. They had a discussion archive. Some said, “This is ridiculous. People will spray paint your cars, urinate in them, tear them up, ….” The first response was basically, “Um, why would they do that in our cars when they don’t in regular trains?”As discussion unfolded, it turned out that one’s reaction to the system depended a lot on where one lived. Some people live in cities where the trains are really that bad, so it was obvious the idea was a waste of money. Others live in cities where that just never happens, so the idea was intriguing.The parallel: some teenagers (or younger) do waste lots of time, and some don’t. One’s feelings about assigning homework may depend on the local wildlife. But if motivation is the problem, will adding assignments help? I admit that visiting sweatshops might. I am more interested in what is killing motivation in the first place.
ex_ag - September 2, 2009 at 11:13 pm
roxbury86,1) Yes, in fact, you are calling for “more” homework–whether it be during the school year or during the summer, it’s still more. 2) And if–as you say–we shouldn’t assume that failing students are not doing their homework, then how exactly will more homework fix the problem? Obviously, the homework is ineffective.3) No, I am not assuming that all children are equal. But that is the faulty assumption behind such homework initiatives. It is the delusional belief that “no child [will be] left behind” if we try hard enough and burden them with enough work.4) You have obviously not read carefully the earlier posts where I stated my objection to these proposals was that it robbed ambitious children of time to pursue other avenues of education. I know it would make it easier for you to assume I ignore my child since I’m arguing against added homework, but the discussion prior to your arrival doesn’t bear that out. Perhaps you should have done your homework a bit better?
roxbury86 - September 2, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Adding assignments will not motivate – but giving sufficient assignments will help ensure that the students have an opportunity to master the subject matter.What is lacking in the motivation department, is a lack of appreciation for the nexus between having a solid education (not only for the subject matter, but for the social interaction and teamwork/individual work skills), and satisfaction with (and potentially gratifying attainments) in one’s chosen path in life.For many of the kids that I know, the problem is simply a lack of personal discipline, caused by their youth and a panoply of distractions, e.g., texting, instant messaging, tweeting, chatting, on-line videos, and the various other electronic distractions that were not available even twenty years ago. Even the most interested and involved parent can be flummoxed when confronted with the child’s need to write a paper on a computer (and possibly submit it to the teacher via email) and the need to help the child avoid these distractions.By a certain age, a parent has to back off from seemingly draconian oversight, and it is then that the child’s love of learning needs to take over. The simply act of working hard in school, “getting it”, and “nailing” a test, provide personal satisfactions that one must experience for one’s own self, and it is that satisfaction that should prod a student onward towards a love of learning, i.e., building a better understanding the world around him or her.How best to create an atmosphere for those “aha” moments depends of course on the individual child and the parents. The schools can only create a framework from which the student, with the help of family, can build.
roxbury86 - September 3, 2009 at 12:07 am
ex ag,1) I am sorry that you find reading a few books over the summer to be too onerous for the average child. A love of reading is key to being a good learner – it might just be that one particular book read that one summer that makes the difference in a child’s outlook. You are mincing words when you call summer reading as I have suggested, “more homework”. A few well-chosen books over a few months is not burdensome.2) No, it is not so obvious that the homework is the problem. See my post of 11:20 above.3) I don’t think it is too much to expect children to prepare for the next day of school and to reinforce what they learned the prior day with some homework. What I said about principals reviewing homework policy above is important. That said, of course, one size doesn’t fit all in education, but given the magnitude of the problem, at least it is a start – and a better one than giving them tons and tons of free time. Extracurriculars are important, but more often than not, they will not prepare you for life as an adult.4) Of course I read your posts – you seem to think extracurriculars are somehow more important than school itself – they should supplement, but they do not stand in the place of school. The law in most states mandates that a child be in school until a certain age – not that they do extracurriculars until a certain age. Not everyone is going to grow up to be Michael Jordan, Shakespeare or Matisse – kids need to be prepared as best as we can prepare them, and that begins with school – first.
richardtaborgreene - September 3, 2009 at 12:29 am
I have lived and taught college in Japan for the past 14 years.Last night, Wednesday, at 11pm I saw the kids leaving the “JUKU” behind my house to head home after 5 hours of after-after-school study. Most of them get 800 GRE math scores, even after “attaining” mean scores of Japan’s math achievement tests for high schoolers. To be honest, the JUKU teaching of math is procedurally thorough but leaves “imaginative application” for a later Buddhist rebirth life.So when I read Americans worrying about an hour here, a day there, it seems to be talk taking place in a delusory lazy bubble of civilizational decline.
goxewu - September 4, 2009 at 11:58 am
A friend just came back from Tokyo and told me of a weird new social phenomenon in Japan. It seems that young male white collar workers who labor incredibly long hours, still live at home with their parents, and apparently see no hope of finding significant others and settling down in abodes of their own, carry around–in public–large pillows with images of desireable females printed on them. These pillows are taken to restaurants and cinemas and treated with the manners a man would have on a real date.Questions: Are these guys victims of too much homework or too little? Or are they just the dregs who didn’t get 800 GRE math scores?