Day school students put in a long day. Some have school on Sunday as well. Children need down time to relax, to explore their own interests and talents, to spend time with family, and to grow and be nurtured in non-academic spheres. On the other hand, the learning that takes place in school needs to be reinforced and reviewed in order to be retained. There are so many hours in a day. As it is, schools complain that they do not have adequate time to teach all that they feel students need to know.
What is the role of homework? Is it necessary? Is it harmful? Does it improve retention of information? Are there alternatives to traditional homework, drills, memorization, and exercises? How much homework is necessary or optimal? What do the research data tell us? Is there a difference in assigning homework in general studies and in limudei kodesh? How much sleep do students need?
Most schools have a philosophy about homework that may be challenged by each parent’s experience doing homework “back in the day.” A common misconception is that the teachers and schools giving more homework are more challenging and therefore better. This is a false assumption. The amount of homework your son or daughter does each night should not be a source of pride for the quality of a school. In fact, I would suggest a different metric when evaluating your child’s homework. Are you able to stay up with your son or daughter until he or she finishes those assignments? If the answer is no, then too much homework is being assigned, and you both need more of the sleep that, according to researchers, is crucial to memory consolidation.
Do schools violate child labor laws? If school is each student’s “job,” then students are working hours usually assigned to partner-track lawyers (combining the hours of the school day, school-sponsored activities, and homework). I support the idea of homework. But homework, whether good or bad, takes time and often cuts into each student’s sleep, family dinner, or freedom to follow passions outside of school. For too many students, homework is very often about compliance and “not losing points” rather than about learning. (The issue of how often families eat together during the week is a separate subject.)
Homework can be a powerful learning tool, if designed and assigned correctly. It should be challenging and engaging enough to allow for deliberate practice of essential content and skills, but not so hard that parents are asked to recall what they learned in high school. All that usually leads to is family stress.
But even when good homework is assigned, it is the student’s approach that is critical. A scientific approach to tackling their homework can actually lead to deepened learning in less time. The biggest contributor to the length of a student’s homework is task switching. Students often jump between their work on an assignment and the lure of social media. It is hard to convince students of the cost associated with such task switching. Imagine a student writing an essay or completing math proofs. In the middle of the work, their phone announces a new text message. This is a moment of truth for the student. Should s/he address that text before or after s/he finishes his/her assignment?
When a student chooses to check his/her text, respond, and then possibly take an extended dive into social media, s/he loses a percentage of the learning that has already happened. As a result, when s/he returns to the essay or math proof, s/he needs to retrace his/her learning in order to catch up to where s/he was. This jump, between homework and social media, is actually extending the time a student spends on an assignment. Social media ought to serve as a reward for finishing an assignment. Delaying gratification is an important non-cognitive skill and one that research has shown enhances life outcomes. Needless to say, doing homework in front of the TV or while listening to tunes is a no-no.
Research has shown that in order to remember something you need to write it down. Some things need to be memorized. Drill and repetition are essential to developing math skills. Unfortunately, students, schools, and teachers are rated on what the kids score on The Test. There is a huge disconnect betweeen what teachers are told to do in the classroom and what results they are told to get from their students and how those results are evaluated.
The trouble with homework isn’t limited to quantity. It can be counterproductive even in limited amounts. Much of it can be damaging even if we approve of the assignments themselves. Research data tell us that how many facts students can memorize is less consequential to anyone with more ambitious intellectual goals, like learning to think deeply and enjoy doing so. Homework seems to be the single most effective way to destroy children’s curiosity.
Second, some research doesn’t support homework, per se. The critical question is whether children must be made to work a second shift after spending a full day at school. The available data say no, particularly with younger students. So do many anecdotal reports from teachers and some schools that have eliminated homework, with very encouraging results.
This issue of homework in limudei kodesh raises many questions from a totally different perspective. All of the generic homework issues are the same, but when teachers give homework in these subjects, then limudei kodesh becomes just “another subject.”
In an ideal world, parents should be convinced to set aside time to learn Torah with their children so that is not part of required homework assignments.
How should teachers encourage meaningful learning outside of school? Are there ways to assign homework that extend a student’s learning, making it valuable to both the student and the teacher? We have explained the problem. Our next installment will explore solutions.
Rabbi Dr. Wallace Greene has had a distinguished career as a Jewish educator. He has taught children, teens, and adults. He was a college professor, day school principal, and director of two central agencies for Jewish education, including our own community’s Jewish Educational Services for over a decade. He is the founder of the Sinai School, and has received many prestigious awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lifshitz College of Education in Jerusalem and The World Council on Torah Judaism. He is currently a consultant to schools, non-profit organizations, and The International March of the Living. He can be reached at [email protected].
By Wallace Greene
