The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It

By Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish

Book Overview

Does assigning fifty math problems accomplish any more than assigning five? Is memorizing word lists the best way to increase vocabulary--especially when it takes away from reading time? And what is the real purpose behind those devilish dioramas?

The time our children spend doing homework has skyrocketed in recent years. Parents spend countless hours cajoling their kids to complete such assignments--often without considering whether or not they serve any worthwhile purpose. Even many teachers are in the dark: Only one of the hundreds the authors interviewed and surveyed had ever taken a course specifically on homework during training.

The truth, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, is that there is almost no evidence that homework helps elementary school students achieve academic success and little evidence that it helps older students. Yet the nightly burden is taking a serious toll on America's families. It robs children of the sleep, play, and exercise time they need for proper physical, emotional, and neurological development. And it is a hidden cause of the childhood obesity epidemic, creating a nation of "homework potatoes."

In The Case Against Homework, Bennett and Kalish draw on academic research, interviews with educators, parents, and kids, and their own experience as parents and successful homework reformers to offer detailed advice to frustrated parents. You'll find out which assignments advance learning and which are time-wasters, how to set priorities when your child comes home with an overstuffed backpack, how to talk and write to teachers and school administrators in persuasive, nonconfrontational ways, and how to rally other parents to help restore balance in your children's lives.

Empowering, practical, and rigorously researched, The Case Against Homework shows how too much work is having a negative effect on our children's achievement and development and gives us the tools and tactics we need to advocate for change.

Also available as an eBook

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030734018X
• ISBN13: 9780307340184
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Harmony/Rodale/Convergent
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Every teacher and parent should read this book!

While I don't completely disagree with some of the comments about the specific evidence they provide, this is still a must read. The evidence in support of their arguments against homework is there; just do a Google search and you will find more studies and data than you can read in a lifetime. Homework is BAD for kids and families. There is NO proven correlation between homework and learning, so why is it still assigned? This book is a jumping off point; read it and then talk to your child's teachers. Or if you are teacher, learn how destructive your actions are. And I am not just crying sour grapes; I am teacher and a parent.

Action Manual for Parents

Unlike many books on education, The Case Against Homework is a true action manual, not content to merely lay out the convincing reasons that homework is almost always useless and even damaging, but spelling out in detail how to take a stand and bring about change in individual teachers, school-wide, and even throughout the system. This eye-opening book will first make you angry, then make you take action. [...]

Let children play!

"What can I say-- thank you, thank you so much Nancy Kalish for all > the time and effort to produce The Case against Homework. I hope every <br />> parent in America reads this book; every teacher, principal and school <br />> administrator is confronted with its contents, and I wish very much <br />> that our children will FINALLY be allowed to play! " <br />> <br />> Melinda S. Sothern, PhD <br />> Associate Professor, LSU Health Sciences Center, School of Public <br />> Health Co-author - "Trim Kids" and Editor - "Handbook of Pediatric <br />> Obesity: Clinical Management"

Excessive Homework and Medication Part of the Same Problem

As a psychotherapist who has worked with children and adults of all ages for 30 years, and as a 3-time parent, I applaud "The Case Against Homework." Loudly! Children naturally want to learn, and learn a lot, but they learn best when the environment is providing stimulating opportunities for new knowledge to be taken in, not under intense pressure or chronic fatigue. The excessive amounts of homework being given by schools today coincides with the excessive amounts of medication being given to younger and younger children, promoted under the guise of making them "perform" better. In fact, the homework and drugs are a function of the laziness and lack of responsibility of our educational institutions, along with a genuine lack of resources making inspired teaching so difficult. Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish offer a very lucid argument against one aspect of this madness. They are true advocates for children and parents alike. Hopefully, this book will represent a turning point. Sincerely, Peter Loffredo, LCSW

The Case Against Homework

We have a grand niece to whom my wife and I were very close and saw very frequently in her early years. Since she is in her teens we never see her because of the quantity of homework she is always assigned. Her mother always complains to us that her daughter's life (and the family's) has been overtaken by homework with no end in sight. She doesn't know what to do. Until now! Hooray for Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish. We bought the book for us and my niece. It is extremely well written and we all related to it. The action plans were the best part and my niece is developing one now to present to the teacher before school starts. Thank you for rescuing our family! Steve & Linda Weiss