My position on the matter and the letter itself has changed over the years, which is why I've updated my homework letter (you can find the original post here). You can read more about this at the end of the letter.
Parent Homework Letter
We have sat through many parent/teacher meetings and heard teachers speak of scheduling challenges you face in terms of dealing with coordinating homework, marking homework, giving homework feedback, and so on.
With 6 children, you can imagine that homework has the potential to occupy a significant component of our afternoons. We have our children involved in music lessons, sports, church activities, and more. Additionally, the children enjoy being children, by swimming in the pool, playing with friends, having free reading time, going shopping, contributing in our home with chores and cooking, and so on.
The reality is, despite our feelings about homework, our children seem willing to complete it without our ever asking. However, we want you to be aware that we will not be actively encouraging homework unless it falls into the two categories described above. And this we do regularly anyway, whether you assign it or not. This is in no way meant to undermine you or make your job more difficult. In fact, we believe that it will make things easier for everyone and assist in the well-rounded positive developmental outcomes for our children.
I'd love to know what you think. Have you used my homework letter or one similar for your child? Does your child struggle with homework? Does your child love homework? Has your child benefited from more time spent on homework?
The BEST letter you will ever read about your students is the one written by their parents. Like most elementary teachers, I send a letter directly to my 1st & 2nd graders every August. I also send a letter to the parents introducing myself and sharing my career background, as well as a bit about my family and personal interests along with my educational philosophy. Last year, though, at the conclusion of my parent letter, I assigned homework. Yes, homework to both students and parents. The students are simply asked to bring in a favorite book to share, but the parents get a more involved assignment:
In order to make time for these activities; we need to establish boundaries that provide a fair division between school instructional time and homework that encroaches upon outside-school time. Therefore, our family homework policy is as follows:
I was an aid for a teacher that had a students whose parents sent in one of these letters. That child was constantly behind in class and by the end if first grade, was one of the few children who could barely write her name by the end if the year.
I can't thank you enough for your persistent kindness in dealing with us parents and the kids you skillfully shepherd. You're inculcating a love of both school and learning in my daughter, a priceless gift if ever there was one.
Each night you assign twenty minutes of reading, either solo or with a parent. My daughter easily meets this flexible requirement, curling up on the couch with a Magic Treehouse book, asking me to read aloud from a library selection like A Cricket in Times Square, or listening to the picture books chosen by her siblings. We even count minutes she spends perusing a magazine, a toy instruction booklet, or the side of a cereal box.
I'm left with two options. I can nag her about the math, reminding her each evening to get it out and then walking her through it. Since we don't have a TV or iPad, this means ripping her away from a book or creative pretend play with her siblings. It also teaches her that she can't handle schoolwork on her own and sets her up for the life of academic dependence decried by former longtime Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising at Stanford University Julie Lythcott-Haims in How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success and Jessica Lahey in The Gift of Failure.
My other choice is to keep doing what I've been doing: telling her homework is between you and her, and that it's her responsibility to sort out when and how to complete it. I want my daughter to learn time management, and to experience frustration but then keep trying so that she realizes she can almost always find her own way to a solution. I believe this to be the best approach for inculcating grit, perseverance, self-control, and other markers of success described by Paul Tough in How Children Succeed.
On this path, however, when the homework doesn't interest her or is too difficult or confusing, she just doesn't do it. She's then either penalized, or something worse: when there are no negative repercussions at school for failing to finish it, she comes to believe that all work assigned is meaningless and optional.
Luckily, there's a third way. Research shows that elementary school homework is at best unnecessary and unproductive. Much of the time it's even detrimental. The three articles below ably summarize that information:
In light of our personal experience and the data provided by these articles, I ask that you move toward getting rid of homework entirely, raising the issue with your teaching team and school administration. At the very least, please consider limiting it to flexible assignments like your current reading requirement.
NOTE: The preceding letter was written at the request of my daughter's teacher, whose name has been changed for anonymity, so that she could have something in hand when taking my concerns, with which she agrees, to her superiors.Originally published on Parenting Write
Of course, helping with homework shouldn't mean spending hours hunched over a desk. Parents can be supportive by demonstrating study and organization skills, explaining a tricky problem, or just encouraging kids to take a break. And who knows? Parents might even learn a thing or two!
A poll conducted for the Associated Press in January 2006 found that about 57% of parents felt their child was assigned about the right amount of homework. Another 23% thought it was too little, and 19% thought it was too much. A survey conducted by MetLife in 2007 found that 87% of parents saw that helping their child with homework was an opportunity for them to talk and spend time together. More than three fourths (78%) did not think homework interfered with family time, and nearly as many (71%) thought that it was not a source of major stress.
But opinions cannot tell us whether homework works; only research can. My colleagues and I analyzed dozens of homework studies conducted between 1987 and 2003 to examine whether homework is beneficial and what amount of homework is appropriate for our children (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006).
However, 35 less rigorous (correlational) studies suggest little or no relationship between homework and achievement for elementary school students. The average correlation between time spent on homework and achievement was substantial for secondary school students, but for elementary school students, it hovered around no relationship at all.
Why might that be? Younger children have less developed study habits and are less able to tune out distractions at home. Studies also suggest that young students who are struggling in school take more time to complete homework assignments simply because these assignments are more difficult for them.
These recommendations are consistent with the conclusions reached by our analysis. Practice assignments do improve scores on class tests at all grade levels. A little amount of homework may help elementary school students build study habits. Homework for junior high students appears to reach the point of diminishing returns after about 90 minutes a night. For high school students, the positive line continues to climb until between 90 minutes and 2.5 hours of homework a night, after which returns diminish (Cooper, 1989; Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006).
My feeling is that homework policies should prescribe amounts of homework consistent with the research evidence, but they should also give individual schools and teachers some flexibility to take into account the unique needs and circumstances of their students and families. In general, teachers should avoid either extreme.
Talk with each of your child's teachers early in the school year. Get acquainted before problems arise and let each teacher know that you want to be kept informed. Most elementary and middle schools hold regular parent-teacher conferences or open houses. If your child's school doesn't provide such opportunities, call the teacher to set up a meeting.
Contact the teacher as soon as you suspect your child has a homework problem (as well as when you think he's having any major problems with his schoolwork). Schools have a responsibility to keep you informed about your child's performance and behavior and you have a right to be upset if you don't find out until report-card time that your child is having difficulties. On the other hand, you may figure out that a problem exists before the teacher does. By alerting the teacher, you can work together to solve a problem in its early stages.
Request a meeting with the teacher to discuss homework problems. Tell him briefly why you want to meet. You might say, "Rachel is having trouble with her math homework. I'm worried about why she can't finish the problems and what we might do to help her." If English is your second language, you may need to make special arrangements, such as including in the meeting someone who is bilingual.
Let the teacher know whether your child finds the assignments too hard or too easy. (Teachers also like to know when their students are particularly excited about an assignment.) Of course, not all homework assignments can be expected to interest your child and be perfectly suited to her. Teachers just don't have time to tailor homework to the individual needs of each student. However, most teachers want to assign homework that their students can complete successfully and they welcome feedback. 2ff7e9595c
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