Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
Overly simplistic studies have shown that the ideal amount of homework for students goes up with grade levels. Overly simplistic studies have shown that too much homework can be detrimental to children. We frequently view this maximum as two hours. At kindergarten, we frequently think there should be no homework. If we assign ten minutes of homework per grade level, it will conveniently fit this pattern. People refer to this as the ten-minute rule.
Think about this for a moment. We have argued that the ideal amount of homework is ten minutes per grade level. Grade levels only change once per year. Summers can complicate this argument since there is no school and no homework. If children attended during the summer, there's no reason to think that teachers would change their views of the ten-minute rule. If we charted this out, it would look just like a staircase. Additionally, the timing of the shift is based on grade rather than age. If we charted based on age, we would have a staircase pattern that can shift location by about one year to accommodate different birthdays.
Although I probably could have created a chart for you, I hope this explanation is sufficient for you to picture. Be honest. Do you think this chart properly reflects the ideal amount of homework? To me, this is obvious. The ten-minute rule is completely nonsensical.
If you look more in depth, you can find more and more problems with the ten-minute rule. Among these problems is that it does not take numerous important variables into consideration. For example, how much time is spent in school? Although schools tend to conform to the same misguided standards, there is still some variability. Should a school that holds children for seven hours assign the same amount of homework as schools that only ask for five? How about extra-curricular activities and travel tim?. Should someone who has less time available at home be expected to spend disproportionately more of their time available on homework?
If you know me, you will already know that the biggest concern for me is the simple fact that all children are different. The simplest way to look at this is simply to acknowledge that not all students will complete an assignment in the same amount of time. Teachers do not calculate time individually for each student. More importantly, the ideal amount of homework is not constant between students. The ten-minute rule is a "seems like" rule for the typical student. If you embrace individuality, you know that there is no such thing as a typical student. Simply put, the ten-minute rule allows teachers to come up with a quick estimate for homework that doesn't even try to look at what's best for each child.
I also want to mention that the consequences of too little versus too much homework are drastically different. If a child is given too much homework, this can result in unnecessary stress. This stress can harm the mental health of children. Too much homework can be legitimately unhealthy.
What if a child receives too little homework? This can be addressed simply by finding something else to fill that time. For example, a child could use extra time to pursue interests. A child could potentially use time to learn. That's right. Having too little homework can potentially lead to a child becoming better educated. I think it's safe to say that schools should err on the side of too little homework rather than too much.
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