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Move to Ban Homework Good for Kids, Bad for Parents

School choice rally Lisa Leslie
AP
September 17, 2014

A professor of education out of University of Arizona South is making the case for schools to ban homework from their education practices.

Dr. Etta Kralovec is the author of The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning claims that children’s time at home could and should be used in more meaningful ways and homework actually ends up undermining the overall learning process for students.

The idea has been implemented in multiple schools across the nation and the trend appears to be growing. Many teachers, students, and parents are thrilled with the idea and have celebrated the new policy.

What school kid wouldn't be thrilled with the "no homework" movement? Kids hate homework. They love the idea of doing away with the busy work boredom of math problems and reading assignments so they can focus on the important things in life like Super Mario Kart and Minecraft.

And it makes sense that teachers like the idea. No homework means no grading homework, which means less time working for the same pay. A great deal for the teachers unions, which could never achieve such a "give back" at the collective bargaining table.

But parents should be very concerned about this trend.

According to Stephanie Brant, principal of Gaithersburg Elementary School in Maryland, the new Common Core standards and the curriculum Maryland has implemented to reach those standards had a part in her decision to eliminate homework.

"We felt like with the shift to the Common Core curriculum and our knowledge of how our students need to think differently … we wanted their time to be spent in meaningful ways," she told the Today Show.

And that's exactly why this trend should raise some major red flags for parents.

Homework time is the best opportunity for parents to see exactly what their kids are learning at school all day. It's their chance to see the textbooks, the handouts, and the assignments that their tax-funded public schools are prioritizing for their children.

Homework is the daily portal parents use to peer into the classroom and keep a check on the teachers and administrators responsible for educating our kids.

Without homework assignments, the world wouldn't have learned about the D.C. public school teacher who asked 6th graders to compare George Bush to Adolph Hitler. 

Is that what educators are trying to avoid?

With the implementation of Common Core standards, Facebook timelines have been wallpapered with insanely stupid math problems and story problems and lessons that defy logic and often leave children and their parents more confused than educated.

The math problems in particular have baffled parents with their "new approach" to learning basic multiplication and division concepts and have fueled much of the public outcry over the curricula employed to meet the controversial standards. It's possible that as parents have become more active in their opposition to their public schools' methods, administrators and teachers wish to blunt the attacks by keeping parents out of the equation.

It's a simple calculation (simpler than a common core math worksheet). Parents are causing trouble when they see their kids' homework, so let's just eliminate homework and keep our business within our cinder block walls.

Parents need to be more engaged in their kids' education, not less. Say "no" to "no homework."

Published under: Common Core , Education