The Southwest Voice

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Homework. It sends chills up and down the spines of both students and parents. As a parent, I’ve spent evenings sitting at the kitchen table with a defeated, weary, weepy child on more than a handful of occasions. Oh, and as an eighth-grade teacher I assign it nearly every night of the school week. 

So where is the balance? Research says there should be limits and rules about assigning homework — if there are it is a benefit to students. 

In Robert Marzano’s “The Art and Science of Teaching,” the author cites a score of studies, concluding, according to a 2006 study: “…doing homework causes improved academic achievement.” 

However, Marzano cites another study that indicates “the benefits of homework for young children may not be immediately evident but exist nonetheless.” 

Junior high and high school students benefit the most when they do one to two hours of homework per night, spending 30 to 60 minutes on core classes. Younger children should spend about 10 minutes a night per grade level, with fourth-graders and up spending five to 10 minutes per subject as long as they can do it independently.

Unfortunately, I have sat with a fifth-grader for five hours working on class work and homework, and it was pure torture. Following a couple of those sessions I needed a teacher meeting, and the teacher urged me not to have my child do more than two hours of homework; to just pop a note in the backpack explaining the reason for the unfinished work. 

Shortly thereafter I had a life-changing experience when a friend recommended the book “Ending the Homework Hassle” by John Rosemond. It guided me on how I should deal with my children and their homework; it put the responsibility back to the children rather than having me leashed to the nightly homework. While I have never read it, other parents recommend “Homework without Tears,” which includes charts, tips and instructions and addresses the child who does not care a whit about homework.

Getting back to the compilation of studies gathered by Marzano, he concludes that homework should be interactive and that parents should not be considered experts, but just help clarify and encourage summaries of what the child learned during each homework session. “The Art and Science of Teaching” says we teachers should be requiring work that is structured to ensure high completion rates, and that it should be done independently — without a teacher’s or parent’s involvement. 

My children are nearly grown, and I do not have any part of homework short of an occasional signature or two. (I have never asked for a summary — I could have been a better parent!) I do proof papers on occasion, but mostly because I am an English teacher and I love doing that.

There is hope! Embrace the homework, encourage your children to do their best at it, but let them take the lead. You are doing your homework when you do that!

— Peggy Dewane-Pope is an English/reading teacher at Stonecreek Junior High School in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District.