The reality is, the kid has a lot of it. Practically a ton of it. Just heft the back pack stuffed with text books and folders if you don't believe me! And I, for one, can't help but wonder if it's too much. The general guideline offered by the NEA and other education groups is ten minutes times the student's grade level. So a first grader would only have ten minutes of homework a night; a high school senior, two hours.
The same report indicated that children shouldn't learn new information or new methodologies by doing homework, but rather homework should reinforce what is taught in the classroom during the day.
Last week during our tutoring session we worked on explicating Walt Whitman's poem, "O Captain, My Captain." It is a powerful piece of poetry, historically rooted in the time following the assignation of Abraham Lincoln. It was a well crafted assignment which allowed for some real integration of historical material and literature. The assignment emphasized Whitman's use of extended metaphor. And my grandchild seemed to really understand it. But it was a bit of a struggle, and I'm not sure there would have been the same level of understanding had I not been sitting there. That's not to pat myself on the back. It is to say I'm not sure it met either of the aforementioned criteria. It was only one of many assignments for the night and weekend. And it took well over the allotted time. But most significantly, I think my grandchild did learn something new.
I don't know what the answer is to the problem. But I have decided that the complaining I sometimes here from young parents is justified. The issue of too much homework is really an issue. And finding and making time for play, plain old-fashioned play, is as important to a child's education as learning about extended metaphors, algorithms and cellular reproduction.
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