STRESSED OUT! Homework (Part 1: Quantity)

Recently, my PLN has been discussing homework and the additional stress that it causes on students and families. See recent blog posts from @d_mulder (i-teach and i-learn) and recent tweets from @alicekeeler. Let me add my two cents on this topic.

Twenty-One Pilots’ song "Stressed Out" captures one of the main concerns of our culture … stress. In the song, there is an obscure reference to “Blurryface,” which implies an "everyman" figure and may indirectly allude to the most famous "blurryface" found in Edvard Munch’s painting, The Scream. While the intended reference in the song may remain unclear, Munch's “blurryface” is surely a clear representation of somebody who is stressed out in an ever-swirling world.

Ironically, lead singer Tyler Joseph was raised by educators … his mom is a math teacher and his dad is a principal (and let me add that Joseph and his co-artist from Twenty-One Pilots, Nick Thomas, are both graduates of a Christian school). So, in honor of his parents, let's reflect on the stress caused by schools ... mainly homework.

The Homework Debate -- How Much?

One side of the homework debate pendulum positively correlates student learning with homework. Some schools and parents irrationally brag about the number of hours their students spend on homework, implying that their education is better because they have more homework. The other side of the pendulum supports no homework, implying that homework causes stress and has little benefit to student learning. Of course, both of these positions are extreme.

I believe in homework, used well. Homework can encourage independent learning, provide needed practice to achieve mastery, offer options for re-teaching/enrichment to add depth of understanding, and develop a habit of maintenance learning (continual review) that will serve the students well in the future. While I believe in the benefits of homework listed above, I also believe that most homework does not accomplish those goals and excessive homework causes undue stress on students/families. 

I encourage the standard that connects the amount of homework to the grade of the student. So, a 6^th grader should get no more than 6 minutes of homework per subject per night. This means that for a 6th grade student taking 6 classes, the most homework he/she should ever have would be 36 minutes a night. Accordingly, a student in 10^th grade (taking 6 classes) should not have more than an hour of homework a night. (I would double that amount for honors classes).

So ... how much homework? Not much. 

Next week, I'll shift from "quantity" to "quality" and discuss what type of homework accomplishes the objectives listed above. 

BTW – I do have tickets to Twenty-One Pilots at Red Rocks this summer … they probably won’t have a Q&A time for me to ask about how they survived being raised by educators, tho J