What Homework Should Be

Do you agree with her philosophy of no homework for very young kids?

Every Friday, a blue sheet of paper comes home with my first grader. It lays out her homework for the week, subject by subject: a dozen spelling words, a daily reading comprehension exercise, pages from a math workbook, and the expectation that she’ll read for 20 minutes a day and practice addition and subtraction facts for a few minutes each night. A week later, on the following Friday, the blue sheet goes back to school bearing my signature and a check mark next to each of the completed assignments.

If we pace ourselves, homework takes about 30 minutes a night, not counting reading (which we do together anyway before bedtime). If we skip a night or get behind, or if I’m solo-parenting because of a traveling spouse and the demands of three kids trump the urgency of first-grade homework, the work piles up and Thursday evening finds us anxious and cramming to get it all done. An oral spelling review over slurped cereal on Friday mornings has become pretty routine.

On the one hand, I get it. I sympathize with teachers who are under enormous pressure, with school districts doing their best in a funds-starved and changing education landscape. I want my first grader to learn to spell, and I even enjoy (shh, don’t tell!) working through the Common Core math worksheets with her. In our house, learning is a priority and something we value for kids and adults of all ages; school matters, not because it’s the path to college and future success, but because we expect our kids to stay engaged and participate in the process.

But I hate it. I hate that 6-year-olds have homework at all, and especially that it is made up mostly of worksheets, repetition and memorization. I hate that in the six hours that fall between pickup time and bedtime, precious minutes must be spent butt-in-seat, pencil-in-hand. I hate that those minutes are mostly adult-directed and not child-led (and of course they are, for what 6-year-old is naturally inclined to do worksheets after spending hours at school?). Don’t get me wrong: I love education, I love teachers, and I love nothing more than a child’s natural capacity for learning. But I hate homework for very young kids.

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