Homework-Yuck!
"Too Much Homework!"
(Time, 1999)
"Homework is Keeping Grade-Schoolers Busy"
(New York Times, 1996)
"Totally Homework: Can't a Kid Just Veg Out Anymore?"
(New York Times, 1998)
As teens head back to school it is time to think about homework. Teachers assign and grade it; parents remind their adolescents about it and assist their adolescents with it; adolescents complain about it, enjoy it, and/or complete it. Researchers agree that homework is an essential ingredient of adolescents' school success. Homework can further learning and achievement through reinforcement and application; homework can help also develop independent work and study habits.
Do adolescents have too much homework, as recent media headlines proclaim? An article in Time presents an a story about 6th grader Molly's after-school time, which includes half an hour to write a book report, a short break for a snack, and then 90 minutes to complete a 100-problem math assignment and a map-related geography assignment. This sounds like a lot of homework-is Molly's experience with homework typical? A recent study examined how much time adolescents spend on homework. It found that students in middle and junior high school complete more homework than those in elementary school-on average, elementary school students do about 35 minutes of homework, while middle and junior high students spend 45 minutes.
The story of homework time may be a tale of two adolescents-one, like Molly, who spends a great deal of time on homework, and one who does very little or none at all. In fact, 41% of elementary school students and 37% of middle/junior high school students do not do any homework on a typical day. On average, elementary school students spend 63 minutes on homework, and the middle/junior high school students spend 77 minutes per day.
What predicts who does any homework? Mothers' education is important-75% of students whose mothers had a college degree do homework, versus 49%-59% for students whose mothers have less education. Those who are in private school are more likely to spend some time doing homework (87%) than those in public school (58%).
What predicts how much time adolescents spend doing homework? Elementary school students spend about 63 minutes doing homework on average, whereas middle/junior high school students do 77 minutes. Living in a home with 2 parents and having a mother who does not work are both related to spending more time on homework.
What about other activities? A recent article in Time began with this anecdote: "Steven is only 12, but he's booked solid. He wakes up at 6 every weekday morning, downs a five-minute breakfast, reports to school at 7:50, returns home at 3:15, hits the books from 5 to 9 (with a break for dinner) and goes to sleep at 10:30…. If he's lucky, he'll squeeze in his friends on Sunday. 'Sometimes I think, like, since I'm a kid, I need to enjoy my life,' he says. 'But I don't have time for that.'"
It is critical to examine homework time in the context of students' after-school activities, as well as leisure activities such as watching television. It may be that many children do no homework because their after-school time is consumed by other activities, such as sports teams or music lessons; homework may act as an additional stressor in adolescents' already busy lives. On the other hand, adolescents who do little or no homework may be participating more in passive leisure activities, such as watching television. Parental monitoring may be key in determining how homework fits in with the rest of adolescents' lives.
How much is too much-and how much is not enough? Doing little or no homework in school can have negative long-term effect on children. Recent media attention suggests that many American children are spending too much time completing homework assignments. This may be true for some students in this country. However, cross-cultural comparisons reveal that American children complete much less homework than children in other countries, such as Japan and Tawain. Teachers and parents should try to be sensitive to the multiple demands on adolescents' time, while at the same time recognizing the potential benefits of homework.
Sources
| Elkind, D. (1981/1988) The hurried child: Growing up too fast and too soon (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Addison- | |
| Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. | |
| Elkind, D. (1994). Ties that stress: The new family imbalance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. | |
| Linver, M.R., & Roth, J.L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2000, March/April). Homework-Yuck! Adolescent's Homework Time | |
| at the Transition to Junior High School. Presented at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research on | |
| Adolescence, Chicago, IL. | |
| Stevenson, H. W., Lee, S., Chen, C., Stigler, J. W., Hsu, C., & Kitamura, S. (1990). Contexts of acheivement: A study | |
| of American, Chinese, and Japanese children. Monographs of the society for Research in Child Development, | |
| 55, 1-123. | |
| Walberg, H.J., Paschal, R.A., Weinstein, T. (1985). Homeworks powerful effects on larning. Educational Leadership, | |
| 46, 76-79. | |
This issue of Ups & Downs was contributed by Miriam Linver, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Columbia University. Ups & Downs is edited by Stephen T. Russell, Ph.D., Assistant Youth Development Cooperative Extension Specialist, University of California, Davis.