Is there a better way to do homework?

“School belongs at school,” suggest Etta Kralovec, a co-author of a new book, The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning. Children have been doing homework since school was invented. Ask any student if he has too much homework, and he will promptly reply, “Yes!” Also ask him if he understands why homework is necessary. You probably will receive a shrug of the shoulders. Than ask any educator the same questions, and he will reply lamely, “ Perhaps, but it builds good study habits and reinforces the day’s lesson.”

Perhaps it is time to probe into the subject not from the viewpoint of whether it should be lessened or increased, but how can homework take on more meaning. Do students, teachers, and parents really understand the value of homework?

For years schools have considered homework a maxim of school life—it must be done because it is has always been a part of school. But few educators have considered what the impact of doing homework does to the minds and attitudes of students.

Has anyone ever studied if homework improves attitude towards learning or if it destroys it? Have we examined if there is a better way to assign homework and make it become more relevant to learning, instead of as a poison pill? Does it create a closer family relationship or deter from it?

It never ceases to amaze me how schools readily accept so many technological, social, and teaching changes, yet rarely examine one of the most important aspects of learning. We still insist in practicing the tired old tradition of requiring all students to lug textbooks home and mandate students do homework without sufficient thought on what we are requiring.

The irony of this is that many times the assignment is simply busywork, not graded or even discussed, and often not related to the subject matter being studied. Add the fact that too many teachers do not sufficiently plan homework as an extension of classroom studies. Without much thought, they simply say, “Do the questions at the end of the chapter.” “Or read pages so and so for tomorrow,” without explaining how that reading will be treated tomorrow or fits into the overall view of the topic under study. Is it any wonder that students rebel against doing homework?

I am not advocating the end of homework. But I am advocating we examine and evaluate what its impact is on the student and its relevance to learning. We should place more meaning to the value of homework. Instead of frustrated parents yelling at their children to do their homework, and equally frustrated children stomping away in anger, there must be a better way. Homework is important and should continue. I am questioning if we are teaching students how to study smarter, not harder.

From discussions with teachers, I have learned that few ever teach students how to study. Sadly to say, most students do not know how to study. They have never been taught the skills and art of effective study. It is like handing a person a piece of lumber and a set of tools and telling him to build a small table without showing him how to use the tools and lumber correctly. Few teachers teach techniques of studying. As a result students fumble seeking meanings from homework as well as from daily classroom work.

It is not the amount of time that is put into homework that matters, but the quality of it and its meaning to the student which makes a great difference. Without a reason for doing homework, it becomes a distasteful chore. (continued)

Strictly a personal view. Anthony Pellegrino writes every Monday and Tuesday. Mr. Pellegrino can be reached at tonypell@saipan.com