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One of my kids' guidance cousellors once said a very wise things to me: “You know what makes me really excited about a job? Knowing that after spending eight h

One of my kids' guidance cousellors once said a very wise things to me: “You know what makes me really excited about a job? Knowing that after spending eight hours a day at work, I have another three hours of overtime after dinner.” Homework has generally been shown to not aid in learning. And as a parent I can guarantee that 90% of both of my childrens' homework assignments aren't really even intended to aid in learning. As far as I can tell, they're mostly useful as a way to sort top performers - being kids who not only understand the material, but who are both willing and able to jump through the necessary hoops - from everyone else. I went to high school in a small rural area in the late 1980's. I had a maximum of one hour of homework a night. Often I was able to finish my homework on the bus home. I spent my free time teaching myself to code, something I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. I earned a PhD in aerospace engineering; I think I turned out OK, educationally.

Clubber 9y ago
I believe it's purpose is to reinforce the material. Having said that, our kid has 8-12 pages of worksheets to complete a week, and we have to fight her every night to get her to do it. It seems excessive to me for an elementary student. It reminds me of the saying, "kids are naturally curious and eager to learn until school beats it out of them."
- GlenTheMachine 9y ago
  I believe the teachers think it's to reinforce the material. But much of the research says it's ineffective. AFAIK the research doesn't say why, exactly; but I would guess it has something to do with not being able to effectively engage in demanding intellectual pursuits for more than a few hours a day.
  - jacobolus 9y ago
    It’s not just that it’s mentally tiring. The bigger problem is that the work is dreadfully boring and trivial and disconnected, there’s little feeling of accomplishment when finished (just sometimes relief), the kids aren’t allowed to choose what to work on, there are few chances for them to work at their own pace or level of ability, the feedback is delayed (often by a week or more), mistakes are punished instead of celebrated as learning opportunities, and there is a huge weight of parental and societal expectation hanging over grades and exam scores.
    - SolaceQuantum 9y ago
      When I was young, I just had one or two things of homework a day in third grade. The assignment was either in math, english, science, or social studies/history and you could choose which you wanted to do based off of buckets by subject. You then took home a big fold-up of an assignment. It was fun unwrapping it, doing the work, and then giving it back. You never knew exactly what you would have to do until you opened your big sheet of paper at home. The point was that at the end of the semester everyone did every assignment, but everyone does it in a "fun" order. This was in Canada and I don't know if it's acceptably done anymore. I certainly wouldn't have handled multiple sheets of hard work at that age.
  - bitL 9y ago
    I guess it's like with muscles. If you put load every single day, your progress is stale; if you balance with rest, your progress skyrockets until you hit your limits. Long-term overloading might kill though.

Clubber 9y ago

I believe it's purpose is to reinforce the material. Having said that, our kid has 8-12 pages of worksheets to complete a week, and we have to fight her every night to get her to do it. It seems excessive to me for an elementary student. It reminds me of the saying, "kids are naturally curious and eager to learn until school beats it out of them."

GlenTheMachine 9y ago
I believe the teachers think it's to reinforce the material. But much of the research says it's ineffective. AFAIK the research doesn't say why, exactly; but I would guess it has something to do with not being able to effectively engage in demanding intellectual pursuits for more than a few hours a day.
- jacobolus 9y ago
  It’s not just that it’s mentally tiring. The bigger problem is that the work is dreadfully boring and trivial and disconnected, there’s little feeling of accomplishment when finished (just sometimes relief), the kids aren’t allowed to choose what to work on, there are few chances for them to work at their own pace or level of ability, the feedback is delayed (often by a week or more), mistakes are punished instead of celebrated as learning opportunities, and there is a huge weight of parental and societal expectation hanging over grades and exam scores.
  - SolaceQuantum 9y ago
    When I was young, I just had one or two things of homework a day in third grade. The assignment was either in math, english, science, or social studies/history and you could choose which you wanted to do based off of buckets by subject. You then took home a big fold-up of an assignment. It was fun unwrapping it, doing the work, and then giving it back. You never knew exactly what you would have to do until you opened your big sheet of paper at home. The point was that at the end of the semester everyone did every assignment, but everyone does it in a "fun" order. This was in Canada and I don't know if it's acceptably done anymore. I certainly wouldn't have handled multiple sheets of hard work at that age.
- bitL 9y ago
  I guess it's like with muscles. If you put load every single day, your progress is stale; if you balance with rest, your progress skyrockets until you hit your limits. Long-term overloading might kill though.