Homework (and I don’t even have it any more), largely because it has no benefit and a lot of cost associated.
When I was still attending public school (I’ve moved on now) I recall that it seemed like I was assigned large amounts of homework (of course, I got around a lot of it by just not doing it), but even at that it seems like there is constantly a call for children to be assigned more and more. In particular, I recall math homework, as it was always time consuming. I remember asking “why” I was assigned homework, but that was always somewhat of a rhetorical question; my teachers assumed it should be assigned; my parents assumed that I should do it, and I assumed that it was just a fact of life.
But I never honestly asked that question, and it was never honestly answered. What if homework, especially as it is usually assigned, doesn’t provide any benefit (or an insignificant benefit) to the students who have to undertake it?
I’ve been reading Alfie Kohn’s “The Homework Myth” in which he deconstructs the arguments and research that support assigning homework. Mind you, this is a somewhat methodological approach; he analyzes the “evidence” and simply shows that it doesn’t prove anything. Perhaps most stunning is Harris Cooper; his research found that “There is no evidence that any amount of homework improves the academic performance of elementary students." Yet Cooper then proceeded to recommend the infamous equation of ten minutes of homework per grade level per night.
Even in High School the benefit of homework is dubious; Cooper’s equation would require about a 28% increase of effort for a 4% increase in grades (and Kohn also addresses the false assumption that grades are an accurate measuring tool for learning).
This should then be weighed against the costs of all this homework: a childhood. All my current interests, hobbies, and passions were developed when I didn’t have homework (though a few of them have had to survive later being incorporated into homework, which is renowned for killing passion). It is only as an “adult” that I’ve had the time to learn to play the piano (well, still learning), learn Greek (still learning), write for fun, and study great thinkers (and hopefully do a little thinking of my own). I ardently wish these interests could have developed when I was younger and learning was easier (language in particular).
I’d highly recommend reading “The Homework Myth” and “The Case Against Homework,” whether you still have homework or not. And always ask what the purpose of any given assignment is. To what purpose is a teacher assigning math problems? What purpose does creating a model of an atom actually serve? Etc.
If I might quote ol' Treebeard: "There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men bad enough for such treachery" as homework.
