Student urges BOE to cut back on homework load

Student

urges BOE to cut back on homework load

To the Fayette County Board of

Education:

I am

writing you to inform you and ask you to consider

changing the homework polices of our schools. From research and personal

experience, I have found that homework does more harm to

school studies than good. Most students have busy,

after-school schedules that compete with homework:

part-time jobs, extracurricular activities, church

activities and family responsibilities.

In an

article in NEA Today, Etta Kralovec, the director of

education at the College of Atlantic, "surveyed high

school dropouts in the early 1990s" (NEA 21). Kralovec's results were that

"[A]ll respondents cited their inability to keep up

with homework assignments as a key in their decision to

drop out" (NEA 21).

Some

teachers have given up giving homework to their students

because even when they do complete the assignment, it is

poorly done. In another

article, found in The Salt Lake Tribune, McCullough

writes "Research indicates that teachers often

underestimate how long it will take for students to

finish homework" (McCullough 23 Aug 1996).

Not all

students work at the same pace and can finish homework

without any confusion. As a result, they spend hours

working on something the teacher thinks should only take

20 minutes. The average

teacher believes it is all right to give 30 minutes of

homework a night.

With middle

and high school students having six to seven classes a

day, 30 minutes of homework leaves them with two to three

hours of homework a night.

Again

McCullough notes, "Judy Bowker of Salem, Ore.,

contended that too much of her children's homework,

starting in grade school, has been busy work"

(McCullough 23 Aug 1996).

While some

homework does help, like doing math problems for practice

or reading something that was not finished in class, in

today's schools, teachers give abundant amount of busy

work that leaves students confused. Teachers should concentrate on the

time they have with the students, rather than forcing the

students to teach themselves at home.

Timothy

R. Banks Jr.

11th Grade

Starr's Mill High School

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