I know two chefs who took different approaches when learning the art of cooking. Tom got through cooking school setting little time aside for practice, thinking it’s detrimental to his personal life. He went through four jobs in one year and after getting fired from the fourth, he went back to cooking school. On the other hand, John would sit attentively in class, memorizing the recipes and then spend endless hours in his mom’s kitchen, cooking and re-cooking the dishes, adding his own ingredients or taking one or two out. With practice, he perfected each of his specialty dishes, and went out searching for work. He took over a newly opened restaurant and within a year, they were written up in the New York Times. The difference between the two chefs is that one of them spent time practicing the skills; while the other didn’t think repeating the steps was important. Implementing the same ideas as Tom, into the classroom, would weaken a student’s ability to master the skills he or she needs to become a productive learner.
To eliminate homework would be criminal to a student’s knowledge and would lower expectations. Teachers have 45 minutes of classroom time to teach skills, and then homework allows students to practice those skills so that they won’t have gone astray the following day. Limiting homework does injustice to continuity. Most kids do not study on their own and need direction and discipline; homework not only is necessary, but crucial in their development as independent thinkers. So ignoring the importance of continuity lowers student expectations. The lower the expectations, the worse students will do. The higher the expectations, the better they will do. Period. Say we eliminate homework all together. What would happen? After spending endless hours discussing the topic in graduate school, I was conditioned to believe that I could spend one-day teaching skills, and the next day, putting them into practice. The idea was that by limiting homework, students will have more down time to spend with family and friends, strengthening their ties within their communities. I agree that students need down time, just like adults. And they also need to build strong community ties, and in some cases work, but that doesn’t mean through cutting out homework they will build a stronger sense of community, or hinder their time with family. If we subject ourselves, as educators, to the idea that less homework will increase student achievement, then we send out the message that we are lowering expectations and also telling students that practice isn’t important. In Tom’s case, he learned that the lack of practice took him right back to where he started.
The role a parent plays
At one point or another a parent will gripe over the amount of homework teachers give, saying that their kids study too much or that they don’t have time for anything else. At a recent parent teacher conference thirty-five out of the one hundred and seventy parents showed up, some of them ecstatic about the high grades their child received and others oblivious to how awful their children were doing in school. During the conferences I made a point to ask every parent if they worked on homework with their children, how often, and if they thought about reading the books their child is reading in English class. I found that the student whose parent actually worked on homework with him, excelled. On the contrary, the kids who continuously fail, are on their own. The problem with the loner is that he lacks discipline and guidance. The parent who doesn’t make the extra effort to get involved in his child’s schoolwork is sending the message that he doesn’t care about his child’s education. These types of parents feel safe with the idea that their child is going to school, but not whether or not they are in class, and trust that they do their homework, but lack the effort to understand what the content of the assignments are. At a time when children need the most nurturing and monitoring, most parents I’ve encountered in the city schools draw a blank.
If a parent got more involved with their child’s schoolwork, it would create valuable family time. For example, Arturo is a tenth grade student who lives with his aunt. The other day, he said to me, “Miss, my aunt read Native Son and she knows what happens in the end and she won’t tell me!” I asked him if he talks about the book with his aunt and he said, “Oh, she reads all the books I read. We always talk about em! We sit at the dinner table and argue about this book sometimes, because I think Bigger is bad and she thinks he has good intentions. We sometimes start fighting over who’s right, it’s really cool.” Arturo is one of the few students who is learning to think independently and assess actively, because he not only practices the skills applied in class, he has direct guidance and support from home. Limiting or abolishing homework is detrimental to continuity, but it is also detrimental to a parent-student-teacher relationship.
-Ms. Pluck
