Why Some Parents & Teachers Are Taking a Stand Against Homework

While Michelle was taking a stand against homework as a mom, she got company on the anti-homework platform, including educators like Amy E, a middle school teacher in California. Amy, who works in a high poverty school, "rarely, if ever, assigns homework. I teach middle school and in my opinion, middle school is hard enough without homework. I think students need time outside of school to be free, spend time with friends and family, play sports, or other activities."

Matt C, a high school teacher in Arizona and a parent, also questions the value of homework, explaining that "As a parent, I find it can be a pain in the a-- if it's overloaded. If homework has a purpose, I'm fine with it, and if it's a reasonable amount. I don't see the need for 25 math equations when you can tell in four if they get the concepts."

Teachers like Amy and the school she works in, which doesn’t require teachers to give homework, may be part of a larger trend. According to the National Education Association, which advocates for 10 minutes of homework per day per grade level, many schools have "already begun to question the assumptions behind homework, namely its academic value and overall appropriateness for students in elementary school."

That questioning may stem from the fact that there is surprisingly little research that supports the idea homework actually improves student learning.

According to Alfie Kohn, a researcher and author of The Homework Myth, "No scientific evidence has ever found any benefit to assigning any kind of homework before kids are in high school — and newer, higher-quality studies have cast doubt on its benefits even then."

Kohn, in an interview with CafeMom, continues to explain that "While some types of assignments (like filling out worksheets or memorizing facts for a test) are worse than others, the main effect of talking about what's assigned, let alone how much is assigned, is to distract us from asking why, in the absence of compelling arguments or evidence, we would make children work what amounts to a "second shift" after they get home from a full day in school."

For Shannon Mills, homework was a power struggle that often ended in tears for both her and her son. "My son has ADHD and his medication was usually wearing off by the end of the day. He’d have an assignment that should take like 10 to 15 minutes and it would literally take him an hour and a half and I would have to be standing over him the whole time. We’d both get so frustrated and it just seemed so stupid that we were fighting or crying over some dumb worksheet that was just busy work. I opted him out. It isn’t worth the struggle."

Shannon’s experience likely wouldn’t surprise Kohn, who after years of researching the impact of homework on kids, argues that "The main effect of homework is to make kids less excited about learning — as well as to create frustration, exhaustion, family conflict, and less time for activities that children enjoy doing when they're home."

The stress of getting homework done was cited by teacher Matt C as one of the reasons that he "rarely, if ever, assigns homework even in my AP seminar and AP research class ... at my school kids are busy. Sports practice, jobs, volunteering, watching siblings and whatnot, probably a lot like anywhere else."

Part of that family conflict and stress also may stem from the amount of homework some students are being given. A 2015 study found that "primary school children received about three times the recommended load of homework" and that parents were struggling as a result. According to the research, "Family stress, measured by self-report, increased as homework load increased and as parent's perception of their capacity to assist decreased."

As we all know, tired kids and stressed parents is never a great combination! But even though the research to support homework for elementary school kids doesn't really exist, what about homework for older kids?

When it comes to homework, some teachers (and parents) believe it is a critical tool to help middle and high school students master material and learn how to be independent learners. Although research from the University of Indiana has found some evidence that math and science homework is correlated with improved standardized test scores, it was less clear if homework actually led to better grades or more learning. But for some educators, homework for older students is about both the content and the habit of doing work on their own.

Mark C, an AP History teacher in Minnesota, is one of those educators. Though he agrees that elementary school kids don't need homework, he argues that "Homework is important for helping make sure kids are ready for college. Once they get to college, most of the work happens outside of the classroom, so they’ve got to have some basic skills to learn on their own and to get practice meeting deadlines."

For anti-homework mom Michelle, she’s willing to consider homework for her sons when they are hitting high school, although she’s still skeptical about the amount of time it may take. "If schools follow that 10 minutes per grade rule, by 10th grade my kids should be doing 100 minutes of homework a day? That’s nearly two hours, after he’s already put in a full day at school. How do kids who are doing sports or working part-time manage it? I just don’t know."

For now, both Michelle and her son James are eager to start another school year where homework isn't going to be a part of his life.