Posted
on May 6, 2016
I
read that this is supposed to be a day when kids, teens, and even
university students can say, “I'm not doing my homework today.”
If
you think about it, EVERY day students can say that – but then they
have to face consequences for not doing assigned homework.
I doubt
that a teacher who would assign homework on No Homework Day would accept the
“holiday” as a valid excuse...
So...consequences!
I'd
like to point out that, in education today, there are a lot of adults
talking about homework as a Bad Thing. There are books such as The
Case Against Homework (Kalish and Bennett), The Homework Myth
(Kohn), and The End of Homework (Kralovec).
(And
that's in addition to all the parents and teachers who think that
kids would be better off with no assignments, period – no homework
and no classwork, either. They urge people to either follow Sudbury
Valley schools or unschooling, and allow kids to learn without
assignments, tests, required courses, etc., etc.!)
What
is the case against homework?
(These
are generalizations, of course – and they pertain to the U.S.
public school system. Specifics will vary depending on the place in
the nation or the world.)
Kids
get too much homework, too early. Compared to students in the past,
younger students (ages 6 to 8) are doing about twice as much
homework; increases among kids ages 9 to 12 are smaller. A recent study published in The American Journal of Family Therapy
found that kids are getting, in some cases, three times as much
homework as is recommended.
- Many people say that the six or so hours of school are enough formal academics; what kids need more than several more hours of academics is time to play, sleep, be physically active, and interact with friends and family. Kids in America tend to be sleep-deprived and under-active.
So,
instead of just saying, “I'm not doing my homework” for one day,
maybe you should use the day to start a dialogue with parents and
teachers and the community at large about making No-Homework Day
EVERY day!
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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