New York Parents Club Founder, Pam Wolf
Greetings New York Parents Club!
Out of curiosity, I decided to weigh my 13-year old’s backpack.
17.5 pounds!
A recent Consumer Reports study found the average middle-school backpack weighs in at 18.4 pounds, with some weighing up to 30 pounds.
So, I guess this qualifies my daughter’s backpack as underweight… wow.
Why the heavy load? Much of it can be accounted for by the textbooks my child totes to and from school each day in order to complete homework assignments.
Now, as a whole, I believe homework is an important part of the schooling process, promoting independent thinking, time-management skills, self-discipline and responsibility.
However, I also believe there must be a balance between “book learning” and “life learning.”
As adults, we are surrounded by experts preaching the necessity of finding a work/life balance. It’s an ongoing journey–I strive to find that balance each day.
For example, in my home, my husband and I make a diligent effort to prevent business affairs from interrupting our family dinner and evening time together.
But evening time together post-dinner on school nights grows sparser each year as my four children excuse themselves and disappear to their respective study nooks to continue their studies.
In fact, my two high school-aged children spend up to six hours each evening and a total of at least six hours each weekend studying and/or completing homework assignments. Further–every school break and holiday includes hours and hours of homework!
It appears that as the emphasis on high-stakes testing and college competition has increased over the last decade, so too has the expectation that our children spend their school nights, weekends and holidays plowing through homework to keep up.
And I can share from personal experience that too much homework can overwhelm even the brightest students, causing them to disengage from friends, family and school subjects they once loved.
So how much homework is too much? It depends on who you ask. Education experts Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts believe students should receive 10 minutes each night for each grade.
Harris Cooper, a Duke University professor and expert on homework, states in a Washington Post article that according to studies, “up until fifth grade, homework should be very limited. Kids in middle school shouldn’t be spending more than 90 minutes a night on homework. In high school, the limit is two hours.”
Your turn! What do you think?
In your opinion, how much homework is too much?
Do you believe your child receives too much homework?
If so, how do you handle it?
LET IT OUT!
Pam Wolf
