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It’s back-to-school time. Time to write THAT letter again. The letter to my child’s new teacher that explains why our family bans homework.
That’s right. I care about my children’s learning. That’s why I believe tree forts win over homework. Quite simply, I believe homework has no place in a young child’s life.
The trouble is, the American education system doesn’t agree with me. Homework starts in preschool in many cases, and it only goes up from there. They even establish quotas: Ten minutes per grade. My son’s in third grade now, which means thirty minutes a day. What a surefire way to get kids to hate school. Elementary-aged kids don’t need homework. For seven hours they’ve had to focus on the academic sides of their brains with grown-ups telling them what to do. When school’s out, it should be OUT. Kids need time to get other needs met.
What do kids need? Time outside. Time with family. Time goofing around and picking their nose. Time pursuing their own interests. Time doing family chores. And an early bed. There you have it: Play, family time and sleep. My kids get 10-11 hours of sleep each night. Instead of homework, kids would do much better in school if they got their full quota of sleep and were in bed by 7:30 or 8pm.
Here’s what my children spent their time doing after school yesterday:
These are all more important uses of his time, or any young child’s time. My view is homework interrupts home learning. Homework tends to give school /learning a bad name and when given too young, kids learn to resent it instead of value it. Kids don’t need to “practice” the routine of homework. That can come much later, in middle school.
The only type of “homework” I value at this age is reading at home. In our family we already do this every day.
When homework does become important, I view it as the child’s responsibility. We will take an interest in what our kids learn in school, but not tell them to do it. No parent signatures signing off on assignments, etc. I also don’t believe in the practice of adding 10 minutes a day per grade, or any arbitrary amount of time. Learning doesn’t work by filling a quota of minutes.
I realize this is not the prevailing view in education right now, and perhaps flies in the face of the school’s policies or your own ideas. Can we talk? I’d like to find something that’s comfortable for everyone and make sure your goals are supported as well as ours.”
Well? What to you think? Would you do the same? It takes courage to buck the system, but childhood is worth it.
Now you can , banning homework and opting out for your family or classroom in the new book: , publication date March 8, 2016. Learn more at .
Starlighting Mama is the blog of author Heather Shumaker, the “renegade” parent behind andpublished by Tarcher/Penguin. Curious about what happened? Read the post or other .
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