The Homework Parent Trap
Alfie Kohn is the author of 13 books, including "The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing."
November 12, 2014
When parents aren't being faulted for insufficient involvement
in their children's education – which often means failing to enforce the
school's agenda at home -- they're being criticized for getting too
involved. In particular, a subset of parents stands accused of
providing their children with excessive homework help.
The most vociferous accusers seem to be animated not by any empirical
finding that such help is actually counterproductive, but by a
conservative narrative that consists of growling about how kids get
everything too easily these days (A's, praise, trophies), that an
epidemic of helicopter parenting shields them from “useful” failure,
that we ought to promote self-sufficiency and self-discipline instead of
self-esteem.
I've responded to this position at length in a recent book, challenging its false descriptive claims and dissecting the ideology that underlies them. In general, I think “back off and let 'em fend for themselves” is poor advice. What's needed isn't less parenting but better parenting.
But that's not an argument for helping with homework. It's an argument for asking why homework is being assigned in the first place – particularly to kids below high-school age.
Remarkably, no research has ever found any benefit to any sort of homework in elementary school. It hasn't been found to correlate with superficial measures like standardized test scores, let alone promote meaningful intellectual growth. And as far as I can tell, no study has ever supported the folk wisdom that homework contributes to independence, responsibility or good work habits.
The main effects of making children work what amounts to a second shift when they get home from a full day in school are: frustration, exhaustion, family conflict (whether or not the parent decides to help), less time for pleasurable activities, and diminished interest in learning.
Asking whether, or how much, parents should help with homework distracts us from the question that matters: How can parents organize – and join enlightened teachers – to challenge the question's premise? What happens during family time should be for families to decide. Besides, six hours of academics is enough; we want our children to develop not only academically but artistically, socially, emotionally and physically. And we want them to have a chance to just be kids.
The positive effects of homework are largely mythical. In preparation for a book on the topic, I’ve spent a lot of time sifting through the research. The results are nothing short of stunning. For starters, there is absolutely no evidence of any academic benefit from assigning homework in elementary or middle school. For younger students, in fact, there isn’t even a correlation between whether children do homework (or how much they do) and any meaningful measure of achievement. At the high school level, the correlation is weak and tends to disappear when more sophisticated statistical measures are applied. Meanwhile, no study has ever substantiated the belief that homework builds character or teaches good study habits. -Alfie Kohn
I think “back off and let 'em fend for themselves” is poor advice. What's needed isn't less parenting but better parenting. But that's not an argument in favor of homework.
I've responded to this position at length in a recent book, challenging its false descriptive claims and dissecting the ideology that underlies them. In general, I think “back off and let 'em fend for themselves” is poor advice. What's needed isn't less parenting but better parenting.
But that's not an argument for helping with homework. It's an argument for asking why homework is being assigned in the first place – particularly to kids below high-school age.
Remarkably, no research has ever found any benefit to any sort of homework in elementary school. It hasn't been found to correlate with superficial measures like standardized test scores, let alone promote meaningful intellectual growth. And as far as I can tell, no study has ever supported the folk wisdom that homework contributes to independence, responsibility or good work habits.
The main effects of making children work what amounts to a second shift when they get home from a full day in school are: frustration, exhaustion, family conflict (whether or not the parent decides to help), less time for pleasurable activities, and diminished interest in learning.
Asking whether, or how much, parents should help with homework distracts us from the question that matters: How can parents organize – and join enlightened teachers – to challenge the question's premise? What happens during family time should be for families to decide. Besides, six hours of academics is enough; we want our children to develop not only academically but artistically, socially, emotionally and physically. And we want them to have a chance to just be kids.
Bonus Quote
The positive effects of homework are largely mythical. In preparation for a book on the topic, I’ve spent a lot of time sifting through the research. The results are nothing short of stunning. For starters, there is absolutely no evidence of any academic benefit from assigning homework in elementary or middle school. For younger students, in fact, there isn’t even a correlation between whether children do homework (or how much they do) and any meaningful measure of achievement. At the high school level, the correlation is weak and tends to disappear when more sophisticated statistical measures are applied. Meanwhile, no study has ever substantiated the belief that homework builds character or teaches good study habits. -Alfie Kohn
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