washingtonpost.com: My colleague Valerie Strauss reports that French president François Hollande has called for abolishing homework. The idea is part of a broader set of proposed education reforms, which include longer school weeks (they’re currently only four days) and hiring more teachers. The appeal to students is obvious, but is this such a good idea?
François Hollande wants to abolish homework. Is that a good idea?
16 comments:
Generally, I like the liberal ideas of Hollande, but in this instance, the traditional route of assigning homework is the best. I personally think that homework is a useful educational tool. I mean, yeah, it's a bother to get my homework done. But, I'm learning when I'm doing my homework. It's not about hating doing homework, or wanting to go watch a movie instead, or even spending more time in class. It's really about being able to replicate what you've learned in class on your own without the help of the teacher. If someone can't do the assignment without having to ask the teacher questions constantly, then they haven't actually learned it, and they probably won't learn it. Their are studies saying that it's ineffective in low income situations, and I do agree with that, but it's really about the type of homework that is assigned for students, and the time they have to work on it. I think in school study halls were the best thing about high school. I think that all grade levels should let students have at least a 1 hour study hall everyday. It's helpful to not have to take time out of your day to do the homework, but already have that time carved out. I think that increasing the school day by an hour for doing work would close the achievement gap more than eliminating homework would.
I agree with Kelly. I think homework should stay. Perhaps in France they have more homework because of their shorter week. Well, in that case I say less homework and a longer week. Homework is a good measure of whether or not a student has grasped concepts in class and whether or not they are able to be independent enough to use what learning tools they have effectively. Being able to work by oneself and figure out problems is a skill needed not only to get homework done but is also needed to solve bigger problems later in life. One must think for oneself if one is to help oneself.
Homework was incredibly important to my learning process, but not for the right reasons. Most of the learning that I did in elementary school and middle school (and part of high school) was self-motivated. I used homework as an opportunity to really grasp concepts and push them farther. This was of course, aided by my incredible parents who created an environment in our home that promoted hard work and learning, which is something I didn't feel at school. My parents were very involved in my education; my mother helped me with my homework every night.
What I'm trying to say is that homework was an opportunity for me to seek knowledge on my own (obviously with my parents' guidance). The problem is that I wasn't getting that knowledge in class.
So, in summation, I believe that homework is very important, but it's effectiveness is indicative of a much larger problem in the public school system.
Of course every student would love to have the freedom that an abolishment of homework would offer, but that is a surface benefit and would in fact be a detrimental development to every child's learning process. Homework is what ties the lessons learned in class to the application of the lesson and solidifies the new knowledge from practice. Without homework, school would become too separate, a block of time that the student would forget about as soon as escaping from it. Infiltrating the summer vacation with more school days seems a harsh blow, however. It is a good idea to keep a student's mind sharp over the break so they don't forget everything, but students need some time for themselves, to unwind after stressful year, to go on adventures and laze around for a while. Such things are healthy and there is little time for them during the normal year.
Public education, perhaps the most important thing that governments are in charge of and constantly trying to reform without ever seeming able to quite get it right. Of course, Hollande would want to abolish homework; I might be mistaken, but I think that his thought is based on the idea that once kids go home, they do not all have the same type of support from their parents when it comes to their schoolwork, and for this reason they do not end up having the same learning opportunities. Suppressing homework, however, would end up taking a lot away from ALL students, instead of just some. This is definitely a tough issue, but no homework isn't the solution. At the end of the day, homework forces you to actually revisit and put in place the concepts you might have just listened to or jotted down in class; this second phase is essential to efficient learning and education. So, yes, homework can be a pain, and yes, we need it anyways.
Also, we don't have four day weeks in France. Wednesday is a half day, but we finish school much later than US schools everyday. And once you get to high school, you also have school on Saturday mornings. I'm just sayin'.
Abolishing homework isn't much of a solution (Look at all of us CMU students arguing FOR homework. Stereotype perpetuated). I do believe, though, that our entire education system needs a major redesign. The ideas of careers and workplaces are changing drastically--though far more dynamic changes are sure to come--and it stands to reason that our school systems should also upgrade. One of the reasons parts of Europe fell behind us in growth during the industrial revolution was that they advocated the apprenticeship system far beyond when it stopped being relevant, while other parts of the world were easing into an education system similar to what we see today. As society and technology evolved, the apprenticeship learning system became inefficient. (Source: My Technology and Economic Growth professor). The same thing is happening now, with the idea of (high school) classes and school bells and lunchtime (I could talk about the parallels to factory work, but I won't) and the teacher-student ratio and the idea of only certain kinds of intelligences mattering (Gardner's 8 or 9 intelligences, depending on which version you research, are far ahead of our time, even decades after he first published, which is a scary observation on the rate of our cultural progression) and the general premise of listen, read, memorize, parrot. We should move forward. We should redesign education. Then, soon after, we should reexamine our theories and our results and redesign it again. It's easy to fall into the mindset of, "Ok, we're done." Thinking we know the best, now, while laughing at the foolishness of every historical step before us, is hubris at its finest.
We can continue a dialogue about is homework good or bad, but what do the numbers say? Yes, I have my own feelings regarding the effects of homework, but what if there is statistical support for the reduction of homework. What other steps would be implemented in place of the homework. Kelly presents a good point with Study Hall. Rather than sacrificing extracurriculars, incorporate time to work. I think Study Halls could have been improved with the presence of tutors. Otherwise it's just another opportunity to remove structure, leaving students to their own devises.
I'm really torn about this, and I think that I agree with most other people on this blog, to a degree. We all think that homework is a useful learning tool and forced you to figure things out on your own, but that's because in school, there was never enough time given to fully figure it out during class. Rather, it was the teacher showing you one problem, maybe talking through it, and then moving on (maybe an extreme example, but it works).
I think that abolishing homework without making other significant changes doesn't make much sense. In my experience, study halls are incredibly useful and productive, since you're kind of forced to do homework without the distractions of tv or the internet. I think that with a longer school day and more instruction, with some emphasis put on working alone and figuring it out during the school day, it might be a good idea to eliminate homework.
I had no idea that summer vacations had such an affect on the learning gap for kids. I definitely would have thought that homework would have a bigger affect. I think it is great that the school week is being extended, though. I also found the statistics about lectures interesting. Since studies have shown that lectures are less affective, and homework is being abolished, I too worry about the potential negative affects on these children. Perhaps there is a happy medium that could be considered, such as assigning homework but having after-school programs to do this homework at. That way kids can have help of teachers after school while still working independently. This issue will never fully be solved, of course: will they also stop having quizzes and tests because some students have parents who will help them study and others do not? It is just a part of life.
The major flaw I see with the arguments the people in the article make is that they assume that standardized testing and school grading systems are the right way to determine success. One problem with this way of thinking is that grades and standardized test can be unfair to some students and that grade inflation and sometime deflation are rampant as a result of our society valuing these methods of assessment so much. Another problem with this assumption is that success means doing well in school at the cost of any thing. As important as I think education is I think that there are a ton of other important things in the lives of teens. For example religion, friendships (networking), life skills learning, spending time with family and so much more. Home work may or may not improve test scores, but is that really a good thing? I for one don't think so.
I agree that assigning homework is beneficial but only if it is the right homework. So many nights in grade school I found my self doing really repetitive practice of concepts that I had already master and was practically board to tears. I wish I had more project based homework (like it is here at CMU) rather than worksheet based. My junior year math class had the best homework policy i have come across. If you had a ninety or above average, homework was optional, if your grade was bellow that you had to do the assignment, but my teacher also had many opportunities for extra practice if you felt like you needed even more help and the extra practices were always a range form what we were working on in class to things that were more challenging. Before a test I found that if i could successfully complete some of the more challenging problems i would be more confident in sitting down to take the test.
I also think CMU has a pretty good homework system. I have never found myself doing "busy" work here, and every single thing I am assigned has been so beneficial to me thus far. Even this comment system is great: comments aren't required but if we do them it saves us from having to take a quiz later. I feel like high schools might be more effective in giving home work that would actually be completed if they implemented a similar "reward" type system.
It is an interesting idea but I think a mislead one. Homework is definitely a useful tool for learning when used correctly. At CMU I have received very little busywork, however the same is not true for any other school I attended. I can think of maybe 2 classes in my entire academic career before college where I learned from homework, not counting essays of which I wrote many and without which I would not be able to write at all today. But just because it didn't help me to recently does not mean it is useless. It just means that where I went, it could have been used better. So I don't think eliminating homework is the answer its just changing the way it is used in early forms of education that would make a good difference.
Homework is definitely beneficial to a child's education. It's not always helpful to learn in the same environment all the time; it is better to learn in different locations because it would create a change and interest in the material. Not only does it help in education, but homework also helps in time management. By receiving several assignments at one time, students are forced to use self-discipline and use their time wisely. I also think it is a good idea for parents to be involved in the education process as well, and they will only be able to do such if the children bring the work home and show the parents.
Homework has both been helpful and detrimental to me over the years. i really think it depends on the person individually and the class. some classes you cant really do everything you need to do in classs needing more time out of it for either going out and studying first hand or just alowing more work time. Homework has lead me to gain more knowlege and has allowed me to gain personal gain from having to figure things out by myself. however homework has also caused me many nights of no sleep, whihc we have learned is even worse for you perhaps cause ing you to retain less of the information that you were infact learning or doing work for.
Honestly I think this is a good idea. I can't speak for everyone but for the majority of my grade school career I spent a lot of time doing tedious pointless homework that a lot of us blew off because we knew we could. Now I'm also not for longer school hours but honestly that would probably be a good idea because most of the Learning gets done in actual class
I like this idea and also dislike it. for lower grade levels i think homework should be a mandatory thing. most children jsut dont have the discpline or can wrap their head around the fact that homework is actually helpful. But i believe ponce you get to a highschool level homework should be optional. I was a student who sturggled with homework in highschool because i didnt see the point of relearning something i fully grasped. If the homework is soley meant for grading purposes then why not make it a test or an in class assignment. But for someone like me who was extremely busy with extra currcular activities and holding a job i didnt see the purpose of me doing my geometry homework when i fully grasp it without asking the teacher any questions. But i can see how this can raise some issues with getting people to graduate. By freshman year not everyone has the discipline to know when they need to work on something and when they dont which could lead to failing. But i feel like a quick solution to that problem is that if you earn a c or below in the class then homework becomes mandatory.
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