Homework Assignment:
The case for – or against – homework. by Mary Kate Hoban As shocking as this may sound to your third-grader, teachers were once students too. And chances are, many of them hated homework. But that doesn’t mean they won’t assign it. Morgan Carney, a senior in the University of Georgia’s education program, is student teaching high school English. “As a student…I’ve always complained about homework. But as a teacher, of course I will assign it,” she says. “It reinforces and enriches the learning process and teaches vital time-management skills.” But the benefits of homework remain a subject of ongoing debate. Some teachers – and parents – believe homework should be erased completely from the schedules of students, who are increasingly overwhelmed by school and extracurricular activities. Others think some subjects need to be reinforced at home, just not all subjects. And still others think teachers should ratchet up homework even for the youngest students. Renee Wickham, who teaches middle school science at St. John Neumann Regional
Catholic School in Lilburn, began her career in Gwinnett County Public Schools in 1979. At St. John Neumann, a private school, Wickham continues to assign the same amount of homework she always has but notes that the Gwinnett school system gradually has shifted in favor of less homework. Public middle school teachers are discouraged from giving homework, she says, while teachers at her school are expected to give 90 minutes to two hours of homework a night. “The right amount of homework is the amount that is going to help that student excel. I don’t give homework as busy work. Each assignment is designed to reinforce or practice concepts covered in class,” Wickham says. “Not only does doing homework help with skills, but it also helps with the characterbuilding piece of their education.” Just as all teachers were once students, many teachers are also parents. Sharon Burnside, a second-grade teacher at St. John Neumann, says students, even those in lower grades, should get homework – to a point. When her daughters were young, Burnside spent many years complaining about the
amount and complexity of the homework. She recalls sending incomplete assignments back to school with a note saying that the assignments took entirely too long. Still, homework remains a key component in the curriculums of most Georgia schools. Some schools follow the formula that there should be no more than 10 minutes of homework a night per grade – 10 minutes in the first grade, 20 in second, etc. David Zimmerman, who teaches science at Cousins Middle School in Covington, rarely gives homework. At the same time, he believes language arts and math demand homework because the subjects are learned through drills and repetition. “Students need to see that education cannot just stop when they get home,” he says.
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September 2011
Atlanta Parent 55