Homework and the Curriculum Killers

To be fair, and very honest, what I am about to write about is exactly what I was like in the classroom not that long ago.....

Homework and the Curriculum Killers

Homework and the Curriculum Killers

As I watched my 8th grade son, Bryce, until 11 PM (over 4 hours) trying to complete a myriad of assignments, many of them none test/quiz related, I began to understand something about teaching and the correlation to homework...if not delivered correctly it can really kill a students passion for any subject!  I have had the pleasure of teaching among some of the best educators in their fields and yet when I see students buried in homework and ask them what subject it is...none of them respond with great enthusiasm or passion most of the time and say MATH, SCIENCE, or ENGLISH (or almost any other discipline for that matter)!  Now I know where you are going with this, homework is essential to further practice and understanding...correct...some students can procrastinate or dare we say be lazy....correct (my son among them!)...homework has been around since "school" started...all correct!  So why do we bury our students in unGodly amounts of homework each week (it is important to remember, its not just YOUR class that has homework..it's your class times 7 other classes!)?  

The answer to this problem is simple, we kill them with content.  What does that even mean?  Teachers try to cover so much content over the course of the school year.  This is often done completely subconsciously by educators and in fact it happens because of the great passion they have towards their subject.  Most quality educators LOVE what they teach.  The flaw is that they love to much of it and try and pass to much of it to their students.  Too much to fast = lots of homework!

Lets rewind I bit.  I am currently teaching AP Computer Science to seniors.  AP classes are both loved and hated for many reasons (that is another post coming soon).  I understand trying to cover a large amount of content, and to be fair, high school AP teachers do not control that content nor do they write the AP exam either.  In essence, they are in some ways powerless to control the very subject they teach.  So for now lets leave out AP classes and other standardized assessments teachers have no control over.  But what about other non AP classes?  What about the weekly homework assignments?  Who controls that weekly content and assessments?  Those are all controlled by the teachers and subject department.

So what's the solution?  To find that we have to look at a few underlying issues.  Lets start with class length.  I've taught in schools where we had 42 minutes (yes that's not a typo!) of class each day and 1 hour of class each day.  I have often found that the less classroom time a teacher has the more homework is assigned.  This is where the content killing becomes much more prevalent. Remember, teachers love their subject and want to pass that on to their students...all of it sometimes.  Another factor is curriculum mapping.  The very phrase strikes fear and animosity in the hearts of all teachers!  Curriculum mapping is the blue prints of the subject and how it relates to the next level in school (from1st grade through senior year if you are lucky) and what is exactly going to be covered and what skills will be assessed along the way.  It's big...very big and takes an enormous amount of time to complete.  Sadly, after this monstrosity is complete few ever return to it, modify it and throw it away and start again.  It becomes the anchor of the subject that often weighs it down and slows progress for the simple reason that no one wants to go through it all again and change it.  Did I mention it was big?  Finally, it comes down to habit.  The phrase " We have always done it this way." is a constant reminder of why change in education is slow.  Although we teach our students it is ok to fail and try again, faculty often do NOT get that luxury.  They are graded on results (even AP teachers!).  When a new teacher is mentored they often are given the habits of their mentor and that of the departments as well.  Breaking those habits, for any adult in any profession really, is a lot harder to do the older you get!

So what can teachers do?  They have the power to edit.  Edit what they teach, how much they cover and how they cover it.  They have the power to realize that is it ok if a student does not know all the battles of World War II and the vocabulary terms that come with it, to only assign 5 quality math problems instead of 20, they have the power to flip their classroom once in a while and do homework in class and assign a short lecture at home.  They have the power to realize that the last minute homework assignment may have greater consequences on their students life than they realized.  They have the power to do all these and more.  That is the easy part. The more difficult challenge is can they break the habits that defines what quality homework looks like.

Some advice:

For parents:  Get involved.  Communicate with their teachers (and teach your kids to do the same) and let them know if they are struggling.  They want to know.  They love teaching and have a great passion for helping students.  Let them help and make them aware of the issues you are having!

For teachers:  Change is hard, it puts up a fight (personally and departmentally sometimes!).  Continue to change what you do and how you do it.  Homework is often best defined as quality not quantity.  Seek out your Technology Coordinator for new engaging ideas (Padlet, Kahoot, Socrtative, etc.) can really make your classroom experience one they want to attend each day.  The choices are almost unlimited!

This homework epidemic, (yes I just said epidemic) can come at to high a price.  Last year, Stanford published an article that highlighted the pitfalls of excessive homework on student performance, health and over all well being.  There are many like this and it is a topic that has been debated for years.  But change can and is happening and it usually starts with communication, parents and teachers, students and teachers, parents and administration.  They all share a common goal, to provide the best possible educational experience for you and your kids.  Get involved!