Mamaleh Knows Best by Marjorie Ingall

Author:Marjorie Ingall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony
Published: 2016-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR KID’S SCHOOLING

For your kid to be a flexible thinker and a good human, you should choose a school that values play, if at all possible. “Play is the exultation of the possible,” Martin Buber said. Many parents get anxious that their kid will be put at a disadvantage if he or she is not slaving over a hot textbook every night. But for elementary-school kids, the evidence that tons of homework is useful simply isn’t there. According to a 2001 review of more than 120 studies of homework and its effects by researchers at Duke University, there’s little connection between amount of homework and achievement in elementary school.

As kids get older, there’s more support for the notion of homework—it helps kids develop responsibility and good study habits—but only if there’s not too much. Harris Cooper, the director of Duke’s Program in Education, recommends that schools assign no more than ten minutes of homework per grade per night. In other words, ten minutes of homework for a first grader, twenty minutes for a second grader, up to a maximum of two hours for a twelfth grader. More than that and not only do the benefits stop, the work may even prove deleterious. Kids should have lives. And fun. And it’s not just Cooper who feels this way; his recommendations are echoed by the National Education Association and the National PTA. If you have the luxury of choice, choose a school where incessant homework is not a thing. If you don’t have that choice, consider working to educate your school community that hours of homework aren’t beneficial for anyone.

Honestly, there have been a few times when I’ve simply opted out. Once, in first grade, Josie had an assignment to build a model of New York State’s waterways out of crumpled paper towels on a baking sheet, then flood it to show the direction of water flow.

I’m sorry, my kid’s in first grade! Who’s supposed to do this assignment, exactly? Josie was hysterical with anxiety about it, but I refused to do it with (for) her. I don’t know jack about New York State’s waterways. I turn on the tap and water comes out. Why is there homework that requires Googling in first grade? I wrote a note to the teacher saying we weren’t doing the assignment and explained to Josie (over her wails) that this was my line in the sand (or rather, my line in wet paper towels). I am happy to make and send hot chocolate for everyone on the skating trip; I will willingly volunteer in and raise money for the school library; I will buy extra school supplies to keep in the classroom for kids whose families can’t afford them. But I will not mound sopping sheets of Bounty atop a baking sheet to depict the Catskill watershed.

So how do you help your kid do well, if not by screaming at them to finish their zillion hours of homework a night, doing their homework

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