Word: homework
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...sentiments are echoed in a new book that challenges the idea that homework helps students perform better. For years it's been conventional wisdom that homework teaches kids to manage time, organize and learn on their own. And there is some statistical evidence that, at least in junior high and high school, homework improves academic achievement. But, argue authors John Buell and Etta Kralovec in The End of Homework, "both research and historical experience fail to demonstrate the necessity or efficacy of ever longer hours of homework." Kralovec, an educational researcher and former teacher, and Buell, a political scientist, note...
Everywhere but here, it seems, the clamor for higher standards has driven schools to assign more and more homework. Grade-school children now average well in excess of two hours of homework a night, compared with 85 minutes in 1981, according to the University of Michigan. Last year the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reported that thousands of kids have back, neck and shoulder problems from lugging heavy backpacks. At Beacon the books stay at school; each day Annie carries only her bright blue lunchbox...
...elementary-school calendar is not as daunting as it seems. Families can take vacation time whenever they want (a carefully individualized curriculum makes this possible), so most Beacon kids end up with about 220 days of school a year. "We try to preserve family life," says Farley, "and homework disrupts families...
...favorite hobby), helps cook dinner, does laundry, cleans up after her hamster and still gets to bed by 8:30. "The kids aren't rushed all the time," says Annie's dad Peter. "Many of our friends have to force their kids to do the two hours of homework each night, the kids hate the parents, and the parents end up hating the school...
...aren't those kids better prepared for the discipline of high school and college? Farley says that's a myth. "Homework usually brings major family interference, there's downloading of book reports from the Internet, there's Daddy doing the science experiment. Who's getting discipline? I think it's the parents." It helps her case that Farley can point to Beacon's students' standardized-test scores, which rank among the best in the state...