The Case Against Homework
How Homework Is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It
Does assigning fifty math problems accomplish any more than assigning five? Is memorizing word lists the best way to increase vocabulary—especially when it takes away from reading time? And what is the real purpose behind those devilish dioramas?
The time our children spend doing homework has skyrocketed in recent years. Parents spend countless hours cajoling their kids to complete such assignments—often without considering whether or not they serve any worthwhile purpose. Even many teachers are in the dark: Only one of the hundreds the authors interviewed and surveyed had ever taken a course specifically on homework during training.
The truth, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, is that there is almost no evidence that homework helps elementary school students…
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August 28, 2007Nancy Kalish is a former senior editor at Child and columnist for Redbook, Working Mother, and Selecciones. She writes often for Parenting, Parents, Real Simple, Reader’s Digest, More, Ladies’ Home Journal, Health, Prevention, and other magazines. While writing this book, Nancy put several of the strategies to work for her own daughter, always with positive results. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Sara Bennett is a criminal defense appeals attorney and was the first director of the Wrongful Convictions Project of New York City’s Legal Aid Society. She is an expert in the post-conviction representation of battered women and the wrongly convicted, and lectures widely. Sara and her cases have been featured in the New York Times and on 60 Minutes II, Dateline NBC, and the Today show. She successfully challenged and changed homework policies at her children’s schools. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.