Abolish Homework?

No more markings for Teachers? Hurrah!

I read with both interest and disgust about an article - "New call in US: Abolish Homework" in today's Sunday Times where people in the States are calling for the abolishing of giving homework to school children. Reason - there is no (scientific) research proof that doing homework will lead to good grades. They argued that doing homework robs the children time for hobbies, family and sports. -__-"'

Perhaps in the States, these poor children are really burdened with loads of homework (let's give them the benefit of the doubt). Hence no matter how good their time management are, there's just not enough time to balance every other things. But can we apply them in Asian countries like Singapore?

Homework provides a chance for school children to recap and revise what that was taught earlier in school. Hence they serve to help children to better grasp and consolidate their understanding of the topics. Although practise doesn't necessary makes a 100% perfect, it at least familiarises the child with the formats or patterns of the questions which the child would possibly encounter in the exams.

Giving and doing homework serve to instill a sense of self-discipline in the children too. This is similar to wearing school uniforms, and wearing them as smartly as possible. Besides making the children responsible for their own learning (and not just putting the onus on Teachers alone), it also keeps them occupied with "productive" tasks outside class and especially when parental supervision is not available. Can you imagine that in a neighbourhood school, the children are not given any homework. I bet 80% of them will definitely be playing games at the Arcade or at their friend's place playing video games. Just how many will really go back home and revise? Well, the remaining 20% from the top class of the cohort may probably do so.

I guess the main issue (in our local context) would be the coordination of the homework load given to the children by the different subject Teachers, so that the children will not be overloaded. I must agree that giving children too many homework will have an adverse effect on their learning, thus they must be given up to an optimal level, which differs from class to class and from pupil to pupil (and it is not easy to gauge that optimal level too).

This brings me to highlight the ending remarks from the article, which suggested that children can handle more homework as they grow older, for example, first-graders should have 10 minutes of homework, second-graders 20 minutes and so on. But my question is, a reasonably intelligent first-grader may possibly take 10 minutes or less to finish the homework but to a less intelligent one, it may take more than 10 minutes to complete the same homework!

I'm still a proponent of homework (though it means there are markings to be done). Practise will bring the children closer to perfection. Well, somebody in Singapore better not start "rocking" this "homework boat" like that in the States.