Word: homework
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Then there are the less tangible costs. At a time when kids are booked solid with extracurriculars and homework, summer often seems to be childhood's last refuge. "Kids should work very hard during the year and then have a break for time with their parents and activities like camps and jobs," says former Education Secretary William Bennett. The American Camping Association has fired off nasty letters to school districts considering shortening summer break and has sent representatives to educate local school boards on the lifelong benefits of camp traditions such as archery and lanyard weaving. Teachers, while generally glad...
...sentiments are echoed in a new book that challenges the idea that homework helps students perform better. For years it's been conventional wisdom that homework teaches kids to manage time, organize and learn on their own. And there is some statistical evidence that, at least in junior high and high school, homework improves academic achievement. But, argue authors John Buell and Etta Kralovec in The End of Homework, "both research and historical experience fail to demonstrate the necessity or efficacy of ever longer hours of homework." Kralovec, an educational researcher and former teacher, and Buell, a political scientist, note...
...that's right, with no prompting necessary. At Beacon, which sits on a quiet stretch of industrial land, the enthusiasm may be due to teachers as bubbly as the kids, or it may be simply that everyone understands the bonus that comes with this many days of school: no homework until sixth grade...
Everywhere but here, it seems, the clamor for higher standards has driven schools to assign more and more homework. Grade-school children now average well in excess of two hours of homework a night, compared with 85 minutes in 1981, according to the University of Michigan. Last year the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reported that thousands of kids have back, neck and shoulder problems from lugging heavy backpacks. At Beacon the books stay at school; each day Annie carries only her bright blue lunchbox...
...elementary-school calendar is not as daunting as it seems. Families can take vacation time whenever they want (a carefully individualized curriculum makes this possible), so most Beacon kids end up with about 220 days of school a year. "We try to preserve family life," says Farley, "and homework disrupts families...