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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Is homework a necessary evil?

After decades of debate, researchers are still sorting out the truth about homework’s pros and cons. One point they can agree on: Quality assignments matter.

By Kirsten Weir

March 2016, Vol 47, No. 3

Print version: page 36

• Schools and Classrooms

Homework battles have raged for decades. For as long as kids have been whining about doing their homework, parents and education reformers have complained that homework's benefits are dubious. Meanwhile many teachers argue that take-home lessons are key to helping students learn. Now, as schools are shifting to the new (and hotly debated) Common Core curriculum standards, educators, administrators and researchers are turning a fresh eye toward the question of homework's value.

But when it comes to deciphering the research literature on the subject, homework is anything but an open book.

The 10-minute rule

In many ways, homework seems like common sense. Spend more time practicing multiplication or studying Spanish vocabulary and you should get better at math or Spanish. But it may not be that simple.

Homework can indeed produce academic benefits, such as increased understanding and retention of the material, says Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper, PhD, one of the nation's leading homework researchers. But not all students benefit. In a review of studies published from 1987 to 2003, Cooper and his colleagues found that homework was linked to better test scores in high school and, to a lesser degree, in middle school. Yet they found only faint evidence that homework provided academic benefit in elementary school ( Review of Educational Research , 2006).

Then again, test scores aren't everything. Homework proponents also cite the nonacademic advantages it might confer, such as the development of personal responsibility, good study habits and time-management skills. But as to hard evidence of those benefits, "the jury is still out," says Mollie Galloway, PhD, associate professor of educational leadership at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. "I think there's a focus on assigning homework because [teachers] think it has these positive outcomes for study skills and habits. But we don't know for sure that's the case."

Even when homework is helpful, there can be too much of a good thing. "There is a limit to how much kids can benefit from home study," Cooper says. He agrees with an oft-cited rule of thumb that students should do no more than 10 minutes a night per grade level — from about 10 minutes in first grade up to a maximum of about two hours in high school. Both the National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association support that limit.

Beyond that point, kids don't absorb much useful information, Cooper says. In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

In a recent study of Spanish students, Rubén Fernández-Alonso, PhD, and colleagues found that students who were regularly assigned math and science homework scored higher on standardized tests. But when kids reported having more than 90 to 100 minutes of homework per day, scores declined ( Journal of Educational Psychology , 2015).

"At all grade levels, doing other things after school can have positive effects," Cooper says. "To the extent that homework denies access to other leisure and community activities, it's not serving the child's best interest."

Children of all ages need down time in order to thrive, says Denise Pope, PhD, a professor of education at Stanford University and a co-founder of Challenge Success, a program that partners with secondary schools to implement policies that improve students' academic engagement and well-being.

"Little kids and big kids need unstructured time for play each day," she says. Certainly, time for physical activity is important for kids' health and well-being. But even time spent on social media can help give busy kids' brains a break, she says.

All over the map

But are teachers sticking to the 10-minute rule? Studies attempting to quantify time spent on homework are all over the map, in part because of wide variations in methodology, Pope says.

A 2014 report by the Brookings Institution examined the question of homework, comparing data from a variety of sources. That report cited findings from a 2012 survey of first-year college students in which 38.4 percent reported spending six hours or more per week on homework during their last year of high school. That was down from 49.5 percent in 1986 ( The Brown Center Report on American Education , 2014).

The Brookings report also explored survey data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which asked 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students how much homework they'd done the previous night. They found that between 1984 and 2012, there was a slight increase in homework for 9-year-olds, but homework amounts for 13- and 17-year-olds stayed roughly the same, or even decreased slightly.

Yet other evidence suggests that some kids might be taking home much more work than they can handle. Robert Pressman, PhD, and colleagues recently investigated the 10-minute rule among more than 1,100 students, and found that elementary-school kids were receiving up to three times as much homework as recommended. As homework load increased, so did family stress, the researchers found ( American Journal of Family Therapy , 2015).

Many high school students also seem to be exceeding the recommended amounts of homework. Pope and Galloway recently surveyed more than 4,300 students from 10 high-achieving high schools. Students reported bringing home an average of just over three hours of homework nightly ( Journal of Experiential Education , 2013).

On the positive side, students who spent more time on homework in that study did report being more behaviorally engaged in school — for instance, giving more effort and paying more attention in class, Galloway says. But they were not more invested in the homework itself. They also reported greater academic stress and less time to balance family, friends and extracurricular activities. They experienced more physical health problems as well, such as headaches, stomach troubles and sleep deprivation. "Three hours per night is too much," Galloway says.

In the high-achieving schools Pope and Galloway studied, more than 90 percent of the students go on to college. There's often intense pressure to succeed academically, from both parents and peers. On top of that, kids in these communities are often overloaded with extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs. "They're very busy," Pope says. "Some kids have up to 40 hours a week — a full-time job's worth — of extracurricular activities." And homework is yet one more commitment on top of all the others.

"Homework has perennially acted as a source of stress for students, so that piece of it is not new," Galloway says. "But especially in upper-middle-class communities, where the focus is on getting ahead, I think the pressure on students has been ratcheted up."

Yet homework can be a problem at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum as well. Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, Internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs, says Lea Theodore, PhD, a professor of school psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. They are less likely to have computers or a quiet place to do homework in peace.

"Homework can highlight those inequities," she says.

Quantity vs. quality

One point researchers agree on is that for all students, homework quality matters. But too many kids are feeling a lack of engagement with their take-home assignments, many experts say. In Pope and Galloway's research, only 20 percent to 30 percent of students said they felt their homework was useful or meaningful.

"Students are assigned a lot of busywork. They're naming it as a primary stressor, but they don't feel it's supporting their learning," Galloway says.

"Homework that's busywork is not good for anyone," Cooper agrees. Still, he says, different subjects call for different kinds of assignments. "Things like vocabulary and spelling are learned through practice. Other kinds of courses require more integration of material and drawing on different skills."

But critics say those skills can be developed with many fewer hours of homework each week. Why assign 50 math problems, Pope asks, when 10 would be just as constructive? One Advanced Placement biology teacher she worked with through Challenge Success experimented with cutting his homework assignments by a third, and then by half. "Test scores didn't go down," she says. "You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load."

Still, changing the culture of homework won't be easy. Teachers-to-be get little instruction in homework during their training, Pope says. And despite some vocal parents arguing that kids bring home too much homework, many others get nervous if they think their child doesn't have enough. "Teachers feel pressured to give homework because parents expect it to come home," says Galloway. "When it doesn't, there's this idea that the school might not be doing its job."

Galloway argues teachers and school administrators need to set clear goals when it comes to homework — and parents and students should be in on the discussion, too. "It should be a broader conversation within the community, asking what's the purpose of homework? Why are we giving it? Who is it serving? Who is it not serving?"

Until schools and communities agree to take a hard look at those questions, those backpacks full of take-home assignments will probably keep stirring up more feelings than facts.

Further reading

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1–62. doi: 10.3102/00346543076001001
• Galloway, M., Connor, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81 (4), 490–510. doi: 10.1080/00220973.2012.745469
• Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

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• Our Mission

5 Ways to Make Homework More Meaningful

Use these insights from educators—and research—to create homework practices that work for everyone.

Homework tends to be a polarizing topic. While many teachers advocate for its complete elimination, others argue that it provides students with the extra practice they need to solidify their learning and teach them work habits—like managing time and meeting deadlines—that have lifelong benefits. 

We recently reached out to teachers in our audience to identify practices that can help educators plot a middle path. 

Elementary school teacher John Thomas told Edutopia on Facebook that he finds the best homework looks more like no-strings-attached encouragement for students to read or even play academically-adjacent games with their families. “I encourage reading every night,” Thomas says, but he doesn’t use logs or other means of getting students to track their completion. “Just encouragement and book bags with self selected books students take home for enjoyment.” 

Thomas said he also suggests to parents and students that they can play around with “math and science tools” such as “calculators, tape measures, protractors, rulers, money, tangrams, and building blocks.” Math-based games like Yahtzee or dominos, can also serve as enriching—and fun—practice of skills they’re learning.

At the middle and high school level, homework generally increases, and that can be demotivating for teachers, who feel obliged to review or even grade half-hearted submissions. It can also be demotivating for students, too. “Most [students] don’t complete it anyway,” said high school teacher Krystn Stretzinger Charlie on Facebook . “It ends up hurting them more than it helps.”    

So how do teachers decide when to—and when not to—assign homework and how do they ensure that the homework they assign feels meaningful, productive, and even motivating to students? 

1. Less is More

A 2017 study analyzed the homework assignments of more than 20,000 middle and high school students and found that teachers are often a bad judge of how long homework will take. 

According to researchers, students spend as much as 85 minutes or as little as 30 minutes on homework teachers imagined would take students one hour to complete. The researchers concluded that by assigning too much homework , teachers actually increased inequalities between students for “minimal gains in achievement.” Too much homework can overwhelm students who “have more gaps in their knowledge,” the researchers said, and creates situations where homework becomes so time-consuming and frustrating that it demotivates students and turns them off to classwork.

To counteract this, middle school math teacher Crystal Frommert says she focuses on quality over quantity. She cites the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics , which recommends only assigning “what’s necessary to augment instruction,” and adds that if teachers can “get sufficient information by assigning only five problems, then don’t assign fifty.” 

Instead of sending students home with worksheets and long problem sets from textbooks that often repeat the same concepts, Frommert recommends assigning part of a page, or even a few specific problems—and explaining to students why these handpicked problems will be helpful practice. When students know there’s thought behind the problems they’re asked to solve at home, “they pay more attention to the condensed assignment because it was tailored for them,” Frommert says. 

On Instagram , high school teacher Jacob Palmer said that every now and then he condenses homework down to just one problem that is particularly engaging and challenging: “The depth and exploration that can come from one single problem can be richer than 20 routine problems.” 

2. Add Choice to the Equation 

Former educator and coach Mike Anderson says teachers can differentiate homework assignments without placing unrealistic demands on their workload by offering students some discretion in the work they complete, and explicitly teaching them “how to choose appropriately challenging work for themselves.” 

Instead of assigning the same 20 problems or response questions on a given textbook page to all students, for example, Anderson suggests asking students to refer to the list of questions and choose and complete a designated number of them (three to five, for example) that give students “a little bit of a challenge but that [they] can still solve independently.” 

To teach students how to choose well, Anderson actually has students practice choosing homework questions in class before the end of the day, brainstorming in groups and sharing their thoughts about what a good homework question should accomplish. The other part, of course, involves offering students good choices: “Make sure that options for homework focus on the skills being practiced and are open-ended enough for all students to be successful,” he says. 

Once students have developed a better understanding of the purpose of challenging themselves to practice and grow as learners, Anderson also periodically asks students to come up with their own ideas for problems or other activities they can use to reinforce learning at home. A simple question, such as “What are some ideas for how you might practice this skill at home?” can be enough to get students sharing ideas, he said. 

Jill Kibler, a former high school science teacher, told Edutopia on Facebook that she implemented homework choice in her classroom by allowing students to decide how much of the work they’ve recently turned in they’d like to redo as homework: “Students had one grading cycle (about seven school days) to redo the work they wanted to improve,” she said. 

3. Break the Mold 

According to high school English teacher Kate Dusto, the work that students produce at home doesn’t have to come in the traditional formats of written responses to a problem. On Instagram , Dusto told Edutopia that homework can often be made more interesting—and engaging—by allowing students to show evidence of their learning in creative ways. 

“Offer choices for how they show their learning,” Dusto said. “Record audio or video? Type or use speech to text? Draw or handwrite and then upload a picture?,” the possibilities are endless. 

Former educator and author Jay McTighe notes that visual representations such as graphic organizers and concept maps are particularly useful for students attempting to organize new information and solidify their understanding of abstract concepts. For example, students might be asked to “draw a visual web of factors affecting plant growth” in biology class or map out the plot, characters, themes, and settings of a novel or play they’re reading to visualize relationships between different elements of the story and deepen their comprehension of it. 

Simple written responses to summarize new learning can also be made more interesting by varying the format, McTighe said. For example, ask students to compose a Tweet in 280 characters or less and answer a question like “What is the big idea that you have learned about _____?” or even record a short audio podcast or video podcast explaining “key concepts from one or more lessons.”

4. Make Homework Voluntary 

When Elementary school teacher Jacqueline Worthley Fiorentino stopped assigning mandatory homework to her second grade students and suggested voluntary activities instead, she found that something surprising happened: “They started doing more work at home.” 

Some of the simple, voluntary activities she presented students with included encouraging at-home reading (without mandating how much time they should spend reading); sending home weekly spelling words and math facts that will be covered in class, but that should also be mastered by the end of the week: “it will be up to each child to figure out the best way to learn to spell the words correctly or to master the math facts,” she said; and creating voluntary lesson extensions such as pointing students to outside resources—texts, videos or films, webpages, or even online or in-person exhibits—to “expand their knowledge on a topic covered in class.”

Anderson said that for older students, teachers can sometimes make whatever homework they assign a voluntary choice. “Do all students need to practice a skill? If not, you might keep homework invitational,” he said, adding that teachers can tell students: “If you think a little more practice tonight would help you solidify your learning, here are some examples you might try.”

On Facebook , Natisha Wilson, a K-12 gifted students coordinator for an Ohio school district, said that when students are working on a challenging question in class, she’ll give them the option to “take it home and figure it out” if they’re unable to complete it before the end of the period. Often students take her up on this, she said because many of them “can’t stand not knowing the answer.” 

5. Grade for Completion—or Don’t Grade at All  

Former teacher Rick Wormeli argues that work on homework assignments isn’t “evidence of final level of proficiency”; rather, it’s practice that provides teachers with “feedback and informs where we go next in instruction.” 

Grading homework for completion—or not grading at all, Wormeli says—can help students focus on the real task at hand of consolidating understanding and self-monitoring their learning. “When early attempts at mastery are not used against them, and accountability comes in the form of actually learning content, adolescents flourish.” 

High school science teacher John Scali agreed , confirming that grading for “completion and timeliness” rather than for “correctness” makes students “more likely to do the work, especially if it ties directly into what we are doing in class the next day” without worrying about being “100% correct.” On Instagram , middle school math teacher Traci Hawks noted that any assignments that are completed and show work—even if the answer is wrong—gets a 100 from her.

But Frommert said that even grading for completion can be time consuming for teachers, and fraught for students if they don’t have home environments that are supportive of homework, or if they have jobs or other after school activities. 

Instead of traditional grading, she suggests alternatives to holding students accountable for homework, such as student presentations, or even group discussions and debates as a way to check for understanding. For example, students can debate which method is best to solve a problem, or discuss their prospective solutions in small groups. “Communicating their mathematical thinking deepens their understanding,” Frommert says. 

Is Homework Good for Kids? Here’s What the Research Says

A s kids return to school, debate is heating up once again over how they should spend their time after they leave the classroom for the day.

The no-homework policy of a second-grade teacher in Texas went viral last week , earning praise from parents across the country who lament the heavy workload often assigned to young students. Brandy Young told parents she would not formally assign any homework this year, asking students instead to eat dinner with their families, play outside and go to bed early.

But the question of how much work children should be doing outside of school remains controversial, and plenty of parents take issue with no-homework policies, worried their kids are losing a potential academic advantage. Here’s what you need to know:

For decades, the homework standard has been a “10-minute rule,” which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 minutes of homework each night. High school seniors should complete about two hours of homework each night. The National PTA and the National Education Association both support that guideline.

But some schools have begun to give their youngest students a break. A Massachusetts elementary school has announced a no-homework pilot program for the coming school year, lengthening the school day by two hours to provide more in-class instruction. “We really want kids to go home at 4 o’clock, tired. We want their brain to be tired,” Kelly Elementary School Principal Jackie Glasheen said in an interview with a local TV station . “We want them to enjoy their families. We want them to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it.”

A New York City public elementary school implemented a similar policy last year, eliminating traditional homework assignments in favor of family time. The change was quickly met with outrage from some parents, though it earned support from other education leaders.

New solutions and approaches to homework differ by community, and these local debates are complicated by the fact that even education experts disagree about what’s best for kids.

The research

The most comprehensive research on homework to date comes from a 2006 meta-analysis by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper, who found evidence of a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, meaning students who did homework performed better in school. The correlation was stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades, for whom there was a weak relationship between homework and performance.

Cooper’s analysis focused on how homework impacts academic achievement—test scores, for example. His report noted that homework is also thought to improve study habits, attitudes toward school, self-discipline, inquisitiveness and independent problem solving skills. On the other hand, some studies he examined showed that homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children. At the end of his analysis, Cooper recommended further study of such potential effects of homework.

Despite the weak correlation between homework and performance for young children, Cooper argues that a small amount of homework is useful for all students. Second-graders should not be doing two hours of homework each night, he said, but they also shouldn’t be doing no homework.

Not all education experts agree entirely with Cooper’s assessment.

Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, supports the “10-minute rule” as a maximum, but she thinks there is not sufficient proof that homework is helpful for students in elementary school.

“Correlation is not causation,” she said. “Does homework cause achievement, or do high achievers do more homework?”

Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs , thinks there should be more emphasis on improving the quality of homework tasks, and she supports efforts to eliminate homework for younger kids.

“I have no concerns about students not starting homework until fourth grade or fifth grade,” she said, noting that while the debate over homework will undoubtedly continue, she has noticed a trend toward limiting, if not eliminating, homework in elementary school.

The issue has been debated for decades. A TIME cover in 1999 read: “Too much homework! How it’s hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.” The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push for better math and science education in the U.S. The ensuing pressure to be competitive on a global scale, plus the increasingly demanding college admissions process, fueled the practice of assigning homework.

“The complaints are cyclical, and we’re in the part of the cycle now where the concern is for too much,” Cooper said. “You can go back to the 1970s, when you’ll find there were concerns that there was too little, when we were concerned about our global competitiveness.”

Cooper acknowledged that some students really are bringing home too much homework, and their parents are right to be concerned.

“A good way to think about homework is the way you think about medications or dietary supplements,” he said. “If you take too little, they’ll have no effect. If you take too much, they can kill you. If you take the right amount, you’ll get better.”

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Write to Katie Reilly at [email protected]

Do our kids have too much homework?

by: Marian Wilde | Updated: January 31, 2024

Print article

Many students and their parents are frazzled by the amount of homework being piled on in the schools. Yet many researchers say that American students have just the right amount of homework.

“Kids today are overwhelmed!” a parent recently wrote in an email to GreatSchools.org “My first-grade son was required to research a significant person from history and write a paper of at least two pages about the person, with a bibliography. How can he be expected to do that by himself? He just started to learn to read and write a couple of months ago. Schools are pushing too hard and expecting too much from kids.”

Diane Garfield, a fifth grade teacher in San Francisco, concurs. “I believe that we’re stressing children out,” she says.

But hold on, it’s not just the kids who are stressed out . “Teachers nowadays assign these almost college-level projects with requirements that make my mouth fall open with disbelief,” says another frustrated parent. “It’s not just the kids who suffer!”

“How many people take home an average of two hours or more of work that must be completed for the next day?” asks Tonya Noonan Herring, a New Mexico mother of three, an attorney and a former high school English teacher. “Most of us, even attorneys, do not do this. Bottom line: students have too much homework and most of it is not productive or necessary.”

Research about homework

How do educational researchers weigh in on the issue? According to Brian Gill, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation, there is no evidence that kids are doing more homework than they did before.

“If you look at high school kids in the late ’90s, they’re not doing substantially more homework than kids did in the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s or the ’40s,” he says. “In fact, the trends through most of this time period are pretty flat. And most high school students in this country don’t do a lot of homework. The median appears to be about four hours a week.”

Education researchers like Gill base their conclusions, in part, on data gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests.

“It doesn’t suggest that most kids are doing a tremendous amount,” says Gill. “That’s not to say there aren’t any kids with too much homework. There surely are some. There’s enormous variation across communities. But it’s not a crisis in that it’s a very small proportion of kids who are spending an enormous amount of time on homework.”

Etta Kralovec, author of The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning , disagrees, saying NAEP data is not a reliable source of information. “Students take the NAEP test and one of the questions they have to fill out is, ‘How much homework did you do last night’ Anybody who knows schools knows that teachers by and large do not give homework the night before a national assessment. It just doesn’t happen. Teachers are very clear with kids that they need to get a good night’s sleep and they need to eat well to prepare for a test.

“So asking a kid how much homework they did the night before a national test and claiming that that data tells us anything about the general run of the mill experience of kids and homework over the school year is, I think, really dishonest.”

Further muddying the waters is an AP/AOL poll that suggests that most Americans feel that their children are getting the right amount of homework. It found that 57% of parents felt that their child was assigned about the right amount of homework, 23% thought there was too little and 19% thought there was too much.

One indisputable fact

One homework fact that educators do agree upon is that the young child today is doing more homework than ever before.

“Parents are correct in saying that they didn’t get homework in the early grades and that their kids do,” says Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and director of the education program at Duke University.

Gill quantifies the change this way: “There has been some increase in homework for the kids in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. But it’s been an increase from zero to 20 minutes a day. So that is something that’s fairly new in the last quarter century.”

The history of homework

In his research, Gill found that homework has always been controversial. “Around the turn of the 20th century, the Ladies’ Home Journal carried on a crusade against homework. They thought that kids were better off spending their time outside playing and looking at clouds. The most spectacular success this movement had was in the state of California, where in 1901 the legislature passed a law abolishing homework in grades K-8. That lasted about 15 years and then was quietly repealed. Then there was a lot of activism against homework again in the 1930s.”

The proponents of homework have remained consistent in their reasons for why homework is a beneficial practice, says Gill. “One, it extends the work in the classroom with additional time on task. Second, it develops habits of independent study. Third, it’s a form of communication between the school and the parents. It gives parents an idea of what their kids are doing in school.”

The anti-homework crowd has also been consistent in their reasons for wanting to abolish or reduce homework.

“The first one is children’s health,” says Gill. “A hundred years ago, you had medical doctors testifying that heavy loads of books were causing children’s spines to be bent.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. There were also concerns about excessive amounts of stress .

“Although they didn’t use the term ‘stress,'” says Gill. “They worried about ‘nervous breakdowns.'”

“In the 1930s, there were lots of graduate students in education schools around the country who were doing experiments that claimed to show that homework had no academic value — that kids who got homework didn’t learn any more than kids who didn’t,” Gill continues. Also, a lot of the opposition to homework, in the first half of the 20th century, was motivated by a notion that it was a leftover from a 19th-century model of schooling, which was based on recitation, memorization and drill. Progressive educators were trying to replace that with something more creative, something more interesting to kids.”

The more-is-better movement

Garfield, the San Francisco fifth-grade teacher, says that when she started teaching 30 years ago, she didn’t give any homework. “Then parents started asking for it,” she says. “I got In junior high and high school there’s so much homework, they need to get prepared.” So I bought that one. I said, ‘OK, they need to be prepared.’ But they don’t need two hours.”

Cooper sees the trend toward more homework as symptomatic of high-achieving parents who want the best for their children. “Part of it, I think, is pressure from the parents with regard to their desire to have their kids be competitive for the best universities in the country. The communities in which homework is being piled on are generally affluent communities.”

The less-is-better campaign

Alfie Kohn, a widely-admired progressive writer on education and parenting, published a sharp rebuttal to the more-homework-is-better argument in his 2006 book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing . Kohn criticized the pro-homework studies that Cooper referenced as “inconclusive… they only show an association, not a causal relationship” and he titled his first chapter “Missing Out on Their Childhoods.”

Vera Goodman’s 2020 book, Simply Too Much Homework: What Can We Do? , repeats Kohn’s scrutiny and urges parents to appeal to school and government leaders to revise homework policies. Goodman believes today’s homework load stresses out teachers, parents, and students, deprives children of unstructured time for play, hobbies, and individual pursuits, and inhibits the joy of learning.

Homework guidelines

What’s a parent to do, you ask? Fortunately, there are some sanity-saving homework guidelines.

Cooper points to “The 10-Minute Rule” formulated by the National PTA and the National Education Association, which suggests that kids should be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. In other words, 10 minutes for first-graders, 20 for second-graders and so on.

Too much homework vs. the optimal amount

Cooper has found that the correlation between homework and achievement is generally supportive of these guidelines. “We found that for kids in elementary school there was hardly any relationship between how much homework young children did and how well they were doing in school, but in middle school the relationship is positive and increases until the kids were doing between an hour to two hours a night, which is right where the 10-minute rule says it’s going to be optimal.

“After that it didn’t go up anymore. Kids that reported doing more than two hours of homework a night in middle school weren’t doing any better in school than kids who were doing between an hour to two hours.”

Garfield has a very clear homework policy that she distributes to her parents at the beginning of each school year. “I give one subject a night. It’s what we were studying in class or preparation for the next day. It should be done within half an hour at most. I believe that children have many outside activities now and they also need to live fully as children. To have them work for six hours a day at school and then go home and work for hours at night does not seem right. It doesn’t allow them to have a childhood.”

International comparisons

How do American kids fare when compared to students in other countries? Professors Gerald LeTendre and David Baker of Pennsylvania State University conclude in their 2005 book, National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling, that American middle schoolers do more homework than their peers in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan, but less than their peers in Singapore and Hong Kong.

One of the surprising findings of their research was that more homework does not correlate with higher test scores. LeTendre notes: “That really flummoxes people because they say, ‘Doesn’t doing more homework mean getting better scores?’ The answer quite simply is no.”

Homework is a complicated thing

To be effective, homework must be used in a certain way, he says. “Let me give you an example. Most homework in the fourth grade in the U.S. is worksheets. Fill them out, turn them in, maybe the teacher will check them, maybe not. That is a very ineffective use of homework. An effective use of homework would be the teacher sitting down and thinking ‘Elizabeth has trouble with number placement, so I’m going to give her seven problems on number placement.’ Then the next day the teacher sits down with Elizabeth and she says, ‘Was this hard for you? Where did you have difficulty?’ Then she gives Elizabeth either more or less material. As you can imagine, that kind of homework rarely happens.”

Shotgun homework

“What typically happens is people give what we call ‘shotgun homework’: blanket drills, questions and problems from the book. On a national level that’s associated with less well-functioning school systems,” he says. “In a sense, you could sort of think of it as a sign of weaker teachers or less well-prepared teachers. Over time, we see that in elementary and middle schools more and more homework is being given, and that countries around the world are doing this in an attempt to increase their test scores, and that is basically a failing strategy.”

Quality not quantity?

“ The Case for (Quality) Homework: Why It Improves Learning, and How Parents Can Help ,” a 2019 paper written by Boston University psychologist Janine Bempechat, asks for homework that specifically helps children “confront ever-more-complex tasks” that enable them to gain resilience and embrace challenges.

Similar research from University of Ovideo in Spain titled “ Homework: Facts and Fiction 2021 ” says evidence shows that how homework is applied is more important than how much is required, and it asserts that a moderate amount of homework yields the most academic achievement. The most important aspect of quality homework assignment? The effort required and the emotions prompted by the task.

Robyn Jackson, author of How to Plan Rigorous Instruction and other media about rigor says the key to quality homework is not the time spent, but the rigor — or mental challenge — involved. ( Read more about how to evaluate your child’s homework for rigor here .)

Nightly reading as a homework replacement

Across the country, many elementary schools have replaced homework with a nightly reading requirement. There are many benefits to children reading every night , either out loud with a parent or independently: it increases their vocabulary, imagination, concentration, memory, empathy, academic ability, knowledge of different cultures and perspectives. Plus, it reduces stress, helps kids sleep, and bonds children to their cuddling parents or guardians. Twenty to 30 minutes of reading each day is generally recommended.

But, is this always possible, or even ideal?

No, it’s not.

Alfie Kohn criticizes this added assignment in his blog post, “ How To Create Nonreaders .” He cites an example from a parent (Julie King) who reports, “Our children are now expected to read 20 minutes a night, and record such on their homework sheet. What parents are discovering (surprise) is that those kids who used to sit down and read for pleasure — the kids who would get lost in a book and have to be told to put it down to eat/play/whatever — are now setting the timer… and stopping when the timer dings. … Reading has become a chore, like brushing your teeth.”

The take-away from Kohn? Don’t undermine reading for pleasure by turning it into another task burdening your child’s tired brain.

Additional resources

Books Simply Too Much Homework: What Can We do? by Vera Goodman, Trafford Publishing, 2020

The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, Crown Publishers, 2007

The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn, Hatchett Books, 2006 The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning by Etta Kralovec and John Buell, Beacon Press, 2001.

The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents by Harris M. Cooper, Corwin Press, 2001.

Seven Steps to Homework Success: A Family Guide to Solving Common Homework Problems by Sydney Zentall and Sam Goldstein, Specialty Press, 1998.

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Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates

From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take-home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

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How Much Homework Is Too Much?

Are schools assigning too much homework.

Posted October 19, 2011

Timothy, a fifth grader, spends up to thirteen hours a day hunched over a desk at school or at home, studying and doing homework. Should his parents feel proud? Now imagine, for comparison's sake, Timothy spending thirteen hours a day hunched over a sewing machine instead of a desk.

Parents have the right to complain when schools assign too much homework but they often don't know how to do so effectively.

Drowning in Homework ( an excerpt from Chapter 8 of The Squeaky Wheel )

I first met Timothy, a quiet, overweight eleven-year-old boy, when his mother brought him to therapy to discuss his slipping grades. A few minutes with Timothy were enough to confirm that his mood, self-esteem , and general happiness were slipping right along with them. Timothy attended one of the top private schools in Manhattan, an environment in which declining grades were no idle matter.

I asked about Timothy's typical day. He awoke every morning at six thirty so he could get to school by eight and arrived home around four thirty each afternoon. He then had a quick snack, followed by either a piano lesson or his math tutor, depending on the day. He had dinner at seven p.m., after which he sat down to do homework for two to three hours a night. Quickly doing the math in my head, I calculated that Timothy spent an average of thirteen hours a day hunched over a writing desk. His situation is not atypical. Spending that many hours studying is the only way Timothy can keep up and stay afloat academically.

But what if, for comparison's sake, we imagined Timothy spending thirteen hours a day hunched over a sewing machine instead of a desk. We would immediately be aghast at the inhumanity because children are horribly mistreated in such "sweatshops." Timothy is far from being mistreated, but the mountain of homework he faces daily results in a similar consequence- he too is being robbed of his childhood.

Timothy's academics leave him virtually no time to do anything he truly enjoys, such as playing video games, movies, or board games with his friends. During the week he never plays outside and never has indoor play dates or opportunities to socialize with friends. On weekends, Timothy's days are often devoted to studying for tests, working on special school projects, or arguing with his mother about studying for tests and working on special school projects.

By the fourth and fifth grade and certainly in middle school, many of our children have hours of homework, test preparation, project writing, or research to do every night, all in addition to the eight hours or more they have to spend in school. Yet study after study has shown that homework has little to do with achievement in elementary school and is only marginally related to achievement in middle school .

Play, however, is a crucial component of healthy child development . It affects children's creativity , their social skills, and even their brain development. The absence of play, physical exercise, and free-form social interaction takes a serious toll on many children. It can also have significant health implications as is evidenced by our current epidemic of childhood obesity, sleep deprivation, low self- esteem, and depression .

A far stronger predictor than homework of academic achievement for kids aged three to twelve is having regular family meals. Family meals allow parents to check in, to demonstrate caring and involvement, to provide supervision, and to offer support. The more family meals can be worked into the schedule, the better, especially for preteens. The frequency of family meals has also been shown to help with disordered eating behaviors in adolescents.

Experts in the field recommend children have no more than ten minutes of homework per day per grade level. As a fifth- grader, Timothy should have no more than fifty minutes a day of homework (instead of three times that amount). Having an extra two hours an evening to play, relax, or see a friend would constitute a huge bump in any child's quality of life.

So what can we do if our child is getting too much homework?

1. Complain to the teachers and the school. Most parents are unaware that excessive homework contributes so little to their child's academic achievement.

2. Educate your child's teacher and principal about the homework research-they are often equally unaware of the facts and teachers of younger children (K-4) often make changes as a result.

3. Create allies within the system by speaking with other parents and banding together to address the issue with the school.

You might also like: Is Excessive Homework in Private Schools a Customer Service Issue?

View my short and quite personal TED talk about Psychological Health here:

Check out my new book, Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt and Other Evreyday Psychological Injuries (Hudson Street Press).

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Copyright 2011 Guy Winch

Follow me on Twitter @GuyWinch

Guy Winch, Ph.D. , is a licensed psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts.

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Too much homework? Study shows elementary kids get 3 times more than they should

Parents, you aren’t imagining it: Your kids may be struggling with too much homework. Just in time for back-to-school season, a new study has revealed that elementary school students get three times more homework than is recommended for children their age.

The study, published in The American Journal of Family Therapy , explored issues of homework and family stress by surveying nearly 1,200 parents. What came to light is this: Children in kindergarten, first grade and second grade may be hitting the books too hard in their after-school hours.

Education leaders with both the National Education Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association recommend a “10-minute rule” that increases gradually as students age: no homework for kindergartners, 10 minutes for first-graders, 20 minutes for second-graders, 30 minutes for third-graders and on up to the 12th grade, when students could handle about 120 minutes of homework a night. However, the study showed that kindergartners are spending an average of 25 minutes on homework, and the homework load for first- and second-graders is just shy of 30 minutes.

The study’s authors noted that 25 minutes of homework for kindergartners “may be both taxing for the parents and overwhelming for the children.” They also wrote that “it was unsettling to find that in our study population, first and second grade children had three times the homework load recommended by the NEA.”

RELATED: Homework overload gets an 'F' from experts

Denise Pope, a Stanford University education professor and author of the new book “Overloaded and Underprepared,” told TODAY.com that there's negligible evidence of a correlation between homework and achievement.

“The only type of homework that's proven to be beneficial to elementary school students is free reading, and the fact that the kids can choose what they are reading makes the difference,” Pope said.

Pope cited psychologist Harris Cooper, who found that the correlation between academic success and homework broke off at two hours at the high school level and at an hour and half at the middle school level, which is how the “10-minute rule” started to gain traction in the education community. Pope said that when children have too much homework, they end up spending all their time on homework and extracurricular activities — and that's not necessarily healthy.

RELATED: 'Too much': Dad tries to do daughter's homework for a week

"Kids are not going to give up their extracurriculars, but then they are stuck with all this homework, so the things that get left out are actually really important things like chores, family time and sleep," she said.

Whit Honea, a dad and author of “The Parents' Phrase Book,” said he definitely relates to the homework struggle and what gets sacrificed as a result.

"As a parent, when you've spent eight hours at work and they've spent six hours at school, the last thing you want to do is be fighting with them for two hours about a meaningless piece of paper," Honea told TODAY.com. "Instead that time should be spent with the family."

He added, "It's a small window of time, and I don't want to think back on these years with my kids as a dark time because of all the tears with homework battles."

RELATED: Why one dad hates homework as much as his kid does

Parents who participated in the study survey also reported increased levels of stress at home — another detail that struck a chord with Honea.

"Homework stress is comparable with money stress in adults," he said.

So how does Honea combat the stress? He tries to help his kids when he can.

RELATED: The end of homework? Why some schools are banning homework

"If I'm able to shave 40 minutes of the time off their homework by helping them — not doing it for them — then that becomes beneficial because that's 40 minutes we can do something together," Honea said.

While the study found that students in the lower grades of elementary school may be spending too much time on homework, that trend shifts as students age. The study showed many 12th graders devote fewer than 55 minutes a night to homework.

How much homework do your children get? How much is too much? Weigh in on the TODAY Parents Facebook page , or let us know what you think in our poll !

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework? Many Students Get Too Little, Brief Argues

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Arguments against homework are well-documented, with some parents, teachers, and researchers saying these assignments put unnecessary stress on students and may not actually be helping them learn.

But a new article for the journal Education Next argues that many American students don’t have too much homework—they have too little.

Anxiety about overscheduled students with upwards of three or four hours of homework a night has overshadowed another problem, writes Janine Bempechat, a clinical professor of human development at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development: Low-income students aren’t getting enough homework, and they may be suffering academically as a result.

“Eliminating homework is probably not as big a problem for high-income kids, because they have parents who will expose them to what they may not be getting after school,” Bempechat said in an interview with Education Week . “It’s lower-income students who are hurt the most when people argue that homework should be entirely eliminated.”

A widely endorsed metric for how much homework to assign is the 10-minute rule. It dictates that children should receive 10 minutes of homework per grade level—so a 1st grader would be given 10 minutes a day, while a senior in high school would have 120 minutes.

It’s hard to say exactly how closely American teachers hew to those guidelines. A 2013 study conducted by the University of Phoenix found that high school students are assigned about 3.5 hours of homework a night . But results from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment found that 15-year-olds in the U.S. say they have much less than that—about six hours of homework a week .

But the averages obscure the range in assigned work between low-income and high-income students, Bempechat argues. According to the PISA results, disadvantaged students in the U.S. spend three hours less a week on homework than advantaged students (five hours versus eight hours).

Some students may be receiving even less than that. In interviews with low-income students at two low-performing high schools in northern California, Bempechat and her colleagues found that most students reported receiving what she called “minimal homework": “perhaps one or two worksheets or textbook pages, the occasional project, and 30 minutes of reading per night.”

This is a problem, she writes, because high-quality homework—the kind that allows students to problem solve and comes with clear instructions and strategies for working through difficult problems—helps students develop key academic skills. Some research supports this claim: In a 2004 study , researchers at Columbia University and Mississippi State University found that homework can prepare students with the perseverance they would need to hold jobs in the future.

The research on whether homework leads to increased academic achievement is mixed: a 2006 meta-analysis found that at-home assignments led to increased scores on some tests in some grades , but other studies show no relationship for elementary age students.

But goal-setting, self-regulation, and “resilience in the face of challenge” can all be learned through homework, said Bempechat. These skills only become more important as students progress into higher grades with greater expectations for learner autonomy, she said.

Some critics of homework raise concerns that assigning outside work puts low-income students at a disadvantage, because their parents may not be able to offer as much guidance as higher-income parents.

Bempechat writes that it’s more important that parents support homework completion rather than give hands-on help with assignments . She cites a 2014 study by researchers at the City University of New York that found that low-income parents providing structure around homework was a significant predictor of middle school students’ math grades .

But other barriers to home-based assignments persist for low-income students, including the “homework gap:" the inequality between students who have internet at home and those who don’t, and the difficulty that students without access face in completing assignments. About 40 percent of students didn’t have internet access at home as of 2015. But most teachers—70 percent—assign homework that requires connectivity, according to a 2016 survey from the Consortium for School Networking, a national association for school technology leaders.

Teachers should be mindful of the resources students have at home, said Bempechat, and not assign work that requires tools they don’t have—whether that be internet access or even crayons and markers.

Image: Getty

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.

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Do Kids Get Too Much Homework?

Family stress worsens as children’s homework loads increase, and the long hours kids spend on homework could be used for exercise, sleep, or extracurricular activities. Then again, these assignments do help children practice their skills and dive deeper into subjects they haven’t mastered during the school day. Are children getting too much homework? The answer may be “yes.”

Homework by the Numbers

Since every school has its own policies, and the amount of homework a child is assigned does fluctuate, no hard and fast statistics about homework distribution exist.

However, researchers provide some insight into general trends. One major study , done in 2007, polled more than 2,000 3rd- through 12th-grade students. The researchers asked how much time students spent doing homework on a typical weeknight. Thirty-seven percent of elementary students and fifty percent of secondary students reported spending an hour or more on homework. Eight percent of secondary students spent three or more hours doing homework on a typical weeknight.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress also tracks the homework practices of American students. In 2012, 9-year-old, 13-year-old, and 17-year-old students were asked how long they had spent on homework the previous day. About one in five students said they had not been assigned any homework. Most students had less than two hours of homework, but 5 percent of 9-year-olds, 7 percent of 13-year-olds, and 13 percent of 17-year-olds had more than two hours of homework.

The Case Against Homework

Between long school days, afternoon club meetings, sports practices, sports games, and time spent commuting, many children do not get home for the day until late afternoon or early evening. Fitting in two hours of homework after dinner cuts into time children could be using for sleep , exercise , family time , and fun. If students do not finish their homework, however, they risk falling behind their classmates and getting reprimanded by teachers.

Parents suffer too, according to a 2015 report published in The American Journal of Family Therapy , which found that “family stress … increased as homework load increased and as parents’ perception of their capacity to assist decreased.” While most parents can help with elementary school homework, they may discover that advanced calculus homework is beyond their abilities.

The Case for Homework

Does homework actually help students succeed? Researchers say it can, although it seems to be more effective for kids in grades 7–12 rather than those in K–6. Homework helps kids retain information, develop responsibility , and hone their time-management skills.

Children who do homework also tend to have higher test scores than those who do not, but only up to a certain point. A Duke professor and author of The Battle over Homework found that junior high students reached a point of diminishing returns after 90 minutes of homework per night. Students who did more than 90 minutes of homework did not have higher test scores than those who did 90 minutes only.

What’s Next?

More and more, teachers are turning away from traditional homework. One Texas elementary school teacher announced she would not be assigning homework in the 2016–2017 school year, and she was met with overwhelming support from parents around the country. And some schools have created no-homework policies, while administrators at other schools are considering the idea.

The homework tide may be turning, but it is a slow process. If you believe your child’s homework requirements are not effective for him or her, consider online learning , which offers students a personalized education experience and a number of benefits for young learners.

How much homework do your students have during the week? Is it too much or too little? Let us know in the comments section!

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Homework Help: 9 Tips for Parents and Caregivers

While many kids have mixed feelings about homework, it does have its benefits. Homework helps students develop study and time management skills, fosters independence and accountability, and reinforces their learning. However, as a parent, helping your child manage and complete all of their homework assignments isn’t always easy. Here are some ways you can make homework easier for everyone involved.

(Psst! If you’re an educator looking for homework strategies and tips, some of these can help you, too. You might even want to pass them along to families and caregivers to help with homework.)

Strategies for Parents & Caregivers to Help with Homework

Students are more successful in school when parents and caregivers take an active interest in their learning — and that includes homework. Here are some tips to help with homework.

Get organized

First and foremost, help your child get organized by finding a system that will help them keep track of the assignments they need to bring home to complete. These organization systems will look differently for every learner, so we’ve gathered a few different ideas to get you started. 

One option is to have a homework folder where your child puts all their take-home assignments. Another option is to have a binder for every class and/or subject, plus a dedicated homework binder. The latter is ideal for older students, students who have to switch between multiple classes, or those who are able to keep track of different binders. 

In addition to homework folders and binders, you could also create a dedicated place for your child to write down homework assignments every day like a homework log or agenda. Writing down the assignments each day will help underscore what’s due, and help keep them accountable. 

Resources to help with homework organization

• Free Homework Binder for Organization by Pathway 2 Success
• Assignment + Homework Log | Blank & Seasonal by Crafty Creations
• Homework Assignment Planner/Tracker for Students by Savvy School Posters and Printables

Set the scene

Choose a spot at home where your child can regularly go to complete their homework. Be sure to keep any supplies they might need, such as paper, pencils, scissors, and glue, within reach of that spot. Most importantly, make sure this place is as distraction-free as possible. You can limit potential distractions by making it an expectation that electronics — like cell phones, televisions, gaming consoles — stay switched off (or put away altogether!) while they study.

Plan a study time schedule

When it comes to homework, having a set routine can make a big difference. It’s a good idea, when possible, to have a set time for homework. Of course, this will look different for every family, depending on work schedules and after-school activities. Just choose any time that works for your family and stick to it as much as you can. Over time, consistency will help your child develop good study habits.

Give your child some choice

Let your child have a little bit of say when it comes to how they complete their homework. For example, you can let them choose which assignment or subject they start with first. Giving kids the opportunity to make some choices can go a long way toward helping them feel more empowered, independent, and more important of all, motivated to complete their assignments. 

Help them manage their time

Before starting homework, spend a few minutes going over what’s on deck for the night. Ask questions about what assignments are due, and what quizzes and tests they have coming up that they might need to study for. This can help you (and them!) get a sense of the overall workload for the night and what they need to prioritize. On nights when there are really big projects on their plates, encourage your child to think about what steps they need to complete to break the work down into more manageable chunks. If it’s a really heavy homework night, be sure they schedule brain breaks every hour. 

Resources to help with time management

• Organizational and Study Skills for Middle and High School Students by Informed Decisions
• FREE: Student Planner for High School & Middle School by Ye Olde History Shoppe
• Weekly Prioritizer – To Do List by MrsSystems

Be present for homework help (but don’t hover)

Homework helps students learn how to work independently. As a parent or caregiver, you’ll have to strike a balance between being available to support and encourage your child as they complete their assignments — without becoming overly involved in doing the work itself. To foster independent working habits, you can stay available to help with homework by doing your own tasks or chores nearby. This allows you to be present to answer questions and offer guidance, without hovering.

Pro Tip: Since kids are more likely to follow what their parents do rather than what they say, model what independent work looks like. When it’s homework time, consider working on your own “assignments,” like reading the news, paying bills, or another task!

Have a “phone a friend” option available

It might be a good idea for you and your child to pick a few study buddies — that is, two or three classmates that your child can reach out to, should the need arise. Having the option to “phone a friend” can come in handy if your child has a question about something they were assigned or needs additional homework help.

Keep in touch with teachers

If you’re able to, try to attend school events at the beginning of the year — like meet-the-teacher night or parent-teacher conferences — to open the lines of communication with your child’s teacher. These are great forums to ask what a teacher’s homework policies are, along with their expectations for how involved you should be.

If you need homework help throughout the year, don’t be shy in bringing it to your teacher’s attention. Teachers often have helpful tips and strategies to share to help with homework, but if they don’t know your child is struggling, they can’t offer you help.

Reward effort and progress

Let’s face it: homework often isn’t an activity that kids want to do, and it can be a big source of stress and frustration. As a parent or caregiver, you can boost motivation and confidence in a number of different ways. 

For example, if you have a child who lacks motivation, consider implementing a rewards system or incentive plan. Talk to your child about what they might like to earn. Watching a favorite TV show, spending time on devices, or getting a sweet treat are just a few ways to reward kids’ for their effort. Additionally, if you have a child who routinely struggles with their assignments, it might be a good idea to provide additional encouragement and support by practicing affirmations and positive self-talk. Celebrate their effort and progress rather than just the final grade.

Discover more resources and ideas to help with homework on TPT.

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Am I giving too much homework?

I am a first year teacher and I teach fourth grade. Over the past month, I’ve had two moms emailed me saying that their child has too much homework.

This is their typical amount of homework:

read for 20 minutes every day

study their spelling words for the week (20)

memorize states and capitals for a given region (they have about 3 weeks)

study for any upcoming quizzes/tests

They normally have 15-20 math problems, as homework which they all typically finish in class, during independent work time.

Is this too much?

Homework tips for supporting children in primary school

Homework can be a sticking point for busy families.

After experts questioned its relevance for primary schoolers, many of you weighed in on Facebook, disagreeing on how much, if any, homework is the right amount for this age group. 

So, what is beneficial? And what are some strategies to help make it a less stressful part of the day for both parents and kids?

What's the value in homework?

Grattan Institute deputy program director Amy Haywood says there is value in homework — particularly set reading — for primary school-aged kids.

Ms Haywood, based in Naarm/Melbourne, says time spent reading independently or with an adult "is a really good use of time because it builds up the vocabulary".

In addition to reading, other key skills such as maths can be a focus.

"In classes is where they're doing a lot of the learning of new content or skills, and then outside the school might be opportunity to practise."

She says there's "clear evidence around practice leading to mastery, and then the mastery having an impact on students' engagement in school, [and] their confidence with taking on different learning tasks".

There's also a case for homework in later primary years as you might want them to build some of those study habits before they go into secondary school.

But, she says "schools need to be careful about what homework they are setting".

Communicate with the school

Ms Haywood encourages parents to speak to teachers if they have concerns about set homework.

"[Teachers] may not necessarily realise that a student is spending a lot of time or needing quite a bit of help.

"That new information is very useful for a teacher because it means that they can go back and understand what they might need to reteach and any misconceptions that they need to go over."

Find the best time for your family

Parenting expert and family counsellor Rachel Schofield says finding the best time for homework in your family's routine is important.

Based in New South Wales' Bega Valley, on traditional lands of the Yuin-Monaro Nations, she says for some families fitting it into the morning routine is easier.

It's also about when parents and caregivers are in "the best shape" to help, "because if you've got a kid that's battling homework, you're going to have to be in emotionally good shape".

"If you're really stressed at the end of the day, then that's probably not the best time."

Ms Schofield says "parents have incredibly busy lives" but if you can carve out the time "homework can become a place where you actually get to slow down and stop".

She says children below the age of 10 need a lot a supervision and shouldn't be expected to do homework independently.

Why homework straight after school might not work 

Ms Schofield says kids "need decompression time after school".

She says there's an understandable tendency among busy parents to get homework out of the way as soon as possible, but this could be working against them.

Snacks, play and time to offload are usually what primary-aged kids need, Ms Schofield says.

Some time to play and connect with a parent after school can be "really helpful".

Even 10 minutes "can make the whole trajectory of the evening go differently", she says.

Ms Schofield says kids can come home with "a lot of emotional stuff" and rough-and-tumble-play can be a good way to spend time with them and help them decompress after school.

Ms Schofield says you can also try and engage with your child 'playfully' if they are refusing to do homework.

It's tempting to be stern and serious in response, but she says treating it more "goofily" by poorly attempting to complete it yourself or asking your child for help with a task might get a better result.

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• Homework and Study

Math with Bad Drawings

Lover of math. Bad at drawing.

Is Memorization Necessary, Evil, or Both?

At  The Atlantic  today, I have an essay  weighing in  on the decades-long debate over memorization, trying to cut a middle path between two extremes:

1. “Memorization is the enemy. It’s the antithesis of critical thinking and conceptual learning. Memorization’s defenders are wilfully blind soldiers marching for an outdated tradition.”

2. “Memorization is an essential tool for students. It’s the surest path to retaining important facts. People who denounce it are letting liberal orthodoxy get in the way of our children’s achievement.”

I’d summarize my view along these lines:

3. “Memorization is a generally-not-great shortcut. It’s better than not knowing at all, but it’s not nearly as enduring, effective, and powerful as meaningful learning.”

In math, the classic example of a thing that “must” be memorized is the times tables. Amidst the din of debates about education, the one agreed-upon truth seems to be that all kids ought learn their times tables. It’s comparable to the moral rightness of  Brown v. Board of Education –a universally accepted belief.

That makes the times tables a good test case for whether memorization is really necessary. So here’s my times-table story, in which a colleague succinctly captures the entire point of my  Atlantic piece:

A friend who teaches Physics once told me that, growing up in Moscow, he’d never learned the times tables. “I don’t really get the American system, with the flashcards and the multiplication facts,” he told me.

“Really?” I said. “You don’t know 9 times 7?”

“63,” he said without hesitation. “I just picture ten 7s, which is 70, and then I take away one 7, which leaves 63.”

“You can’t be thinking it through like that,” I said. “You answered too fast.”

“Well, that’s how I learned it at first. But if something makes sense to you, and you use it enough, you don’t need to memorize it.” He shrugged. “You just know it.”

Anyway, go check out  the piece !

EDIT 9/11/2013: Just wanted to address two criticisms of the piece, each quite valid, I think. First:

@benorlin May not have been intent, but opening of piece read a bit like you were proud to catch & fail student, which I found unfortunate. — Patrick Honner (@MrHonner) September 11, 2013

I regret writing so flippantly about that case of cheating. It’s a complex, sad story (mine was far from the only test he cheated on), and I’m relieved to say it has a happy ending. The student learned his lessons, got into a good college, and I know he’ll do great things in the future. He won back my respect, and then some, to the point where I’m very proud to have known and taught him.

Second, the more common complaint:

Sometimes, memorization is really useful. Even necessary.

It depends on how you define memorization. If you accept my (admittedly debateable) definition, then “memorization” refers to the combination of rote learning and memory tricks (like mnemonics). These are almost never ideal. Memorization treats facts as arbitrary and interchangeable, which is silly. You’ll remember facts better, and use them more effectively, if you treat them as the interconnected web they are.

The exception–which nobody, from what I’ve seen, has really prosecuted–is vocabulary. By nature, words in a language bear only an arbitrary, symbolic relationship to the concepts they signify. For learning vocabulary (especially in a foreign language), memorization is a useful tool, even under my limited definition.

Share this:

• memorization
• Russian wisdom
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33 thoughts on “ Is Memorization Necessary, Evil, or Both? ”

Your example is a good one. But, your Russian friend has indeed memorized the multiplication facts. He has memorized in a different, and better, way than most students in America, but without automaticity of basic facts, he wouldn’t today be a Physicist.

Great example. The difference is that he has a way to work it out when he doesn’t know the answer straight away. Students who memorise often don’t.

Definitely! That’s a major advantage of acquiring knowledge this way, instead of by rote: it’s much easier to reconstruct.

(Most memory works by reconstruction, anyway–our methods should probably embrace that fact.)

I think the only difference is how we define “memorization.” I define it as “learning a fact through deliberate effort, in isolation from other facts.” Under that definition, my friend didn’t memorize anything, and in general, memorization is rarely the best alternative.

If you use a broader definition–like “taking steps to remember something long-term”–then my friend’s strategy counts as memorization, and in general, memorization of that type is very valuable.

Memorization is where to start from and build upon- the template which serves as guide and reference for all later information…

I think that’s a fair stance–one of the reasons memorization isn’t totally evil.

Sometimes, the rote memorization comes first and then as we use the recalled facts, the connections and non-rote features of what we’ve memorized have a chance to surface. This was certainly true for me with the multiplication tables.

That’s true, and well-said.

For some students, these connections will inevitably surface, given enough time. For other students, it takes deliberate effort on the teacher’s part to bring them to light. It’s for the latter students that rote memorization poses a greater danger–once they’ve learned a fact, they feel that they know it, and have no need to inspect it further, which closes the door on understanding deeper features.

Whenever I’m teaching my math classes, I try as hard as I can to try and explain not only how to do each step, but WHY I am doing each step. I can’t speak for other subjects, but I feel like a) most math teachers don’t bother to explain the ‘why’, and b) most students don’t care about the ‘why’.

So how do we fix those issues? I haven’t fully figured it out yet.

I think both issues are not mutually exclusive (yay math terms!), either. The students’ lack of caring about deep understanding in mathematics leads to frustration and abandonment of its teaching. I think every math teacher has done it — exasperated, you exhale loudly and go “You do this and get the answer.” It’s pretty discouraging to do.

For example, I was teaching my Algebra II students the other day how to work with fractions in equations (I have a saying — ‘fractions are your friend’ — oh, no? well, at least be their acquaintance). My method is getting them to find a common denominator for each term, put each term in that common denominator and finally rewrite the equation with only numerators, essentially making the denominators — and fractions — ‘disappear.’ At first I introduce it as a trick, like a magician, but I make sure to explain many times exactly what mathematical procedure I am doing (multiplying each term by its now common denominator). I explain that it comes into play in other topics — like literal equations and finding a single variable — when multiplying by a denominator is important. I’d like to think that this explanation helped their understanding more than just saying “hey guys, remember the trick I taught you!” but I really can’t be sure.

The way I try to assess deep understanding is a written or verbal explanation of the problem. (Oh my gosh, writing and speaking in math?! NEVER!) Sometimes, I’ll have the kids get up and ‘teach’ the class and make them explain exactly what they did. I’m there for support — moral and mathematical — but hearing a student be able to explain it like I do is, to me, the final level of understanding.

I also hate memorization of formulas. I am getting ready to teach factorization of the difference of cubes, and, as I write this, I don’t remember the formula. This is the first time I’m teaching it. I’m a math teacher…so what’s the point of making a bunch of juniors memorize it? Knowing when to use it is the most important aspect.

Anyway, it’s sometimes difficult to translate abstract concepts to their usefulness in everyday life — which, largely, is problem-solving skills in the real world. When will you need to be able to factor the difference of cubes? Likely never, but knowing how to problem solve will be extremely useful later in life.

Agreed. I certainly didn’t know the formula for factorizing a difference of cubes the first time I taught it–which is fine, because it’s easy enough to determine if you just divide the original expression by the linear factor.

I know that resigned feeling of, “Ugh, fine, here’s how you do it.” I try to avoid it when I’m teaching a class, but when you’re tutoring another class, or preparing a kid for a test, it’s sometimes hard to escape.

One reason to seek computational proficiency in our students–not a very highminded reason, but a real one–is to prepare them for later math classes. You need strong algebra skills to thrive in college math, and while you might not need college math to thrive in the real world, it sure opens a lot of doors.

Ben Loved The Atlantic piece. Shared it with my department and was just discussing some of the issues with my physics teacher colleague. I have to admit that after 27 years I have not come to peace with the balance between valuing facts and equation recall with believing (REALLY believing) that testing thinking needs to be my primary goal. You seem to advocate the formula sheet in the article – do you allow it/recommend it in practice? I do agree with some of the commenters there that a well put together formula sheet rarely gets referenced due to its helpful organizing power. How do you handle this in your day to day class life?

Glad you enjoyed the piece!

The irony of my essay is that, even after the cheating experience I describe, I still didn’t allow a formula sheet. In trigonometry, I make a few concessions, giving them the Law of Cosines and sometimes the formula for cos(a-b) (but none of the related formulas).

I expect them to deduce the rest of their formulas. All the trigonometric identities are variations on a few key ones (sin^2 + cos^2 = 1, cos(pi/2 – x) = sin(x), cos(a-b) = cos(a)cos(b) + sin(a)sin(b)). Having spent several weeks in class seeing how these formulas connect, and using them nightly on the homework, students should know them cold for quizzes and tests.

Sometimes I’ll assign a formula sheet for homework, because I do agree that making the sheet can be a helpful exercise. But I don’t allow them to refer to it during assessments.

I have to confess that some students probably memorize those formulas in precisely the way I counsel against in the piece. But I urge them NOT to memorize by rote or by mnemonic trick, and most seem to heed that advice. They mostly retain them by what I consider better methods–repeated use, and meaningful connections to other knowledge.

Even though I remember memorizing my times tables in the 4th grade, there are very few Products that I quote from memory. (7×8=56 is one example of strict memorization. I was having trouble remembering the answer until I realized that the four digits in the equation are a “straight” – 5678.) For just about every other combination of multiplier/multiplicand I feel like I don’t trust my memorization, such that even if I do remember the answer, I check it before proceeding… and I use tricks like your Russian friend.

In the case of 9 * x = 10x – x… the two operations on the right side of the equation are a lot easier and quicker to do in my head than the one on the left. BONUS: once you learn a trick like this with small numbers, you can apply it to tougher situations. For example, I can start with 45 x 9 and arrive at 405 very quickly by turning it into 450 – 45; and certainly a lot faster than “9×5=45, hold the 5, carry the 4, 9×4=36, plus 4=40, wait, what was the first digit I was holding?”. LESSON: It is better to memorize a single method (which you retain by usage) than several individual answers.

That’s a great example of how limited memorization’s power is compared with actual understanding. A memorized fact sits in place, isolated. But a deep understanding you can carry with you, and use it to acquire other facts.

This is why I don’t make my chemistry students memorize the periodic table. They already know a few elements (hydrogen and oxygen, from H2O), but probably haven’t grokked the association of O = oxygen before. They will learn a few more elemental symbols by the end of the first semester. But I really care about how they use the information. Just *knowing* that CO2 has carbon and oxygen in it tell you nothing about its behavior. Because of the elements’ positions in the periodic table, CO2 is likely to (and does indeed have) strong covalent bonds, is very non-polar, and therefore will interact well only with other non-polar molecules… now that’s more useful.

That makes sense–the parallels between chemistry and math seem pretty strong.

I remember my own (totally brilliant) high school chemistry teacher made us memorize the first three periods. That one’s an instance of memorization I think worked beautifully–it helped to have some structure at our fingertips as we learned the deeper content. But it’s only worthwhile if you actually GET to the deeper content, and I can see the advantages of not asking kids to memorize that.

When you say “memorized the first three periods”, did you memorize just element and symbol, or positions, or properties or…? Most people only memorize element and symbol, which is just an abbreviation. It’s like memorizing all of the two-letter state codes for the post office (which I had to do in 6th grade), and isn’t super useful, especially now that digital communication is much more prevalent.

Devil’s Advocate: Did memorizing the first three periods of the table help more than, say, just looking at a printed table while discussing deeper content?

What I memorized was a string of syllables (“H-He, LiBeB C NOFNe…”) that allowed me to reconstruct the positions of the first handful of elements. It wasn’t super-emphasized–just part of one night’s homework–and I don’t think it made a HUGE difference, though it lubricated the problem-solving a little to know off the top of my head that, say, Lithium and Sodium were both alkali metals. We always had access to a periodic table on tests, though.

Actually, I think that kinda proves my point. Your strings of syllables don’t tell you that Li and Na are alkali metals (because families run vertically, not horizontally). You remembered the alkali fact on its own.

Now, if we made student remember elements vertically, then it might be more helpful.

That’s fair–I think what we’re saying is compatible. Having facts at your fingertips can be valuable, especially early in learning a subject; but it’s a very small part of the picture, and absolutely shouldn’t preclude learning the important stuff.

Some thoughts on memorization:

Memorization is a stop-gap measure that allows you to use a fact while gaining enough experience to internalize it.

Rote memorization is important when you kind-of know something. For example, if you see sines and cosines repeatedly and know that sine/cosine takes things with {0,1,2,3,4,6,pi, /} to things with {0,1,2,3,/, sqrt}, then memorization helps you keep track of what exactly goes to what. For me, when I develop a general intuition about some fact, I’ve only really nailed down that fact in concept space to a small neighborhood of the fact I want to remember. Memorization helps distinguish the real fact from small deviations that might seem true based on my intuition.

Reconstruction doesn’t answer the question: if you can reconstruct 7*9 = 63 by a simple modification of 7*10 = 70, then you’re really just reducing the problem to rote memorization of another fact.

You can’t make connections between facts that aren’t in your head to begin with.

On this track, you have to start somewhere. When begins as an isolated fact, memorized purely for its own sake with no connections to other knowledge, later becomes a point of contact to which you attach new facts as you learn. When I learned European History, the year 1517 started out as a meaningless date that I needed to memorize and only later did I gather enough other facts to understand its importance. In fact, it became an anchor that secured my understanding of the Reformation.

That’s a good perspective. I think you’re quite right about the role of some memorization as an (often useful) intermediate step between ignorance and well-integrated conceptual knowledge. One might say that learning often begins with a small act arbitrary memorization, and by the end, the arbitrariness is gone, though the fact remains.

A rock-climbing analogy I use: A memorized fact is like a hand-hold. Memorize too little, and you can’t climb at all. Memorize too much, and you’re not really climbing.

Still, when possible (which isn’t always), it helps to elaborate on connections immediately, while the “arbitrary” new fact is still sitting in short-term memory.

For example: When I define “even function” for my students, I show them a verbal definition (“opposite inputs give the same output”), a symbolic definition (“f(x) = f(-x)”), and some sample functions, while asking them several quick questions (“If (2,1) is on the graph of an even function, what other point is?” and “Is f(x) = c even?”) By the time we’re done, 5-10 minutes later, they’ve internalized the definition by connecting the various representations of a function. There’s no particular need for memorization.

That said, your example (the values of sine and cosine for common angles) may be one where a little memorization really is the best course.

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I non potevo astenersi dal commentare . Perfectly scritto !

This post is worth everyone’s attention. How can I find out more?

Hi Ben, thank you for this blog. Truly. Have you seen the study on elementary students and arithmetic by Gray and Tall? http://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/staff/David.Tall/pdfs/dot1994a-gray-jrme.pdf They found that students who were successful in math (as judged by their teachers), used a combination of memorized facts and derived facts whereas less successful students relied on counting. Memorization does have it’s place, but only alongside reasoned thinking.

its not it’s!

If you understand everything but still sometimes at the exam time you might forget a bit for that memorising is a handy tool. I will say learn everything and then memorise it all that way you know it and remember small details for longer time and even get better marks .

My daughter had a hard time learning the multiplication table. So I wrote an android application to help her 🙂

Each exercise you solve helps you to feed the cute panda. You can get daily reminders to feed the panda (solve exercises) and you get rewarded with trophies upon goals completion.

This application helped her to learn the multiplication table without noticing 🙂

* Currently the application is only for Android phones * https://goo.gl/9QutZx

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A.B. Mc Donald Elementary School —— Public School | Prekindergarten - 6th Grade | 480 students

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A.B. Mc Donald Elementary School is a public school located in Moscow, Idaho. The school is coed with 480 students and includes grades Prekindergarten - 6th Grade.

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Telephone : 208-882-0228 County : Latah County

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A.B. Mc Donald Elementary School 2323 East D St Moscow ID 83843

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CSA Name: *NR School Type: 1-Regular school Agency: Moscow District Agency Type District: 1-Local school district Urban/Rural Designation: Town - Distant NCES ID: 160222000390 State School ID: 281 104 State Agency ID: 281 Congressional Code: 1601 Charter School: No Magnet School: No Shared Time School: No Title I Eligible: No School Wide Title I: No

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Best After-School Activities for Kids: Fun and Educational Ideas

Aneeca Younas

It’s not easy to find the perfect hobby for a child. In this article, we help you by presenting a comprehensive list of suitable after-school activities for kids. Check out these suggestions and find the ideal option regardless of your children’s age!

What Are After-School Activities for?

After-school program ideas, best after-school activities for kindergarten students, best activities for preschoolers to do after school, after-school activities for elementary students, how to pick suitable after-school activities.

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An after-school activity is something that your child does outside their school and homework hours. While you can agree on a pointless but funny activity, it’s much better to pick programs from which children can learn or improve productivity.

Here’s how after-school activities can be beneficial for kids of all ages:

• An exciting way to learn . Learning new skills, such as working with computers, is more fun in a group.
• Academic assistance . Your child might be having problems with homework from certain subjects. Some programs focus on assisting them in understanding those areas better.
• Kids will feel like part of a group . A sense of belonging, such as to a dance or chess club, is vital for children’s development.
• Boosting social skills and teamwork . After-school activities help your child feel more comfortable spending time and interacting with others.
• Understand time management . The fact that your kid would have to be on time for a class should help with organizational skills.

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You can start by checking if the kindergarten or school your child attends offers any activities. The variety of available programs might depend on your location. For example, if you live in a smaller town, you might have a restricted number of activities offered by the school.

The good news is you don’t have to limit your kid to activities offered by their educational institutions. Perhaps there’s a dance club in town or a painting class for children that your kid might find interesting. Searching online can give you more ideas on the most suitable activity for your child.

Sports Teams

Enrolling your child in sports teams can help them develop physical fitness, teamwork skills, and discipline. Options include soccer, basketball, swimming, and martial arts. These activities not only promote health but also teach valuable life lessons about perseverance and cooperation.

Choose the best sports section for a boy or a girl .

Creative Arts Programs

Creative arts programs such as painting, music, drama, and dance allow children to express themselves and explore their artistic talents. These activities nurture creativity and can improve confidence and emotional well-being.

Yuriy Golub/Shutterstock.com

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) clubs offer engaging activities that spark curiosity and foster a love for learning. Robotics, coding , and science experiments are just a few examples of what these clubs can offer, helping children develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

Language Classes

Language classes provide an excellent opportunity for children to learn a new language or improve their proficiency in a second language. These programs enhance cognitive abilities and cultural understanding, giving kids a head start in our increasingly globalized world.

Cultural Programs

Cultural programs expose children to diverse traditions and practices, broadening their perspectives and promoting cultural awareness. Activities can include cooking classes, traditional crafts, or participating in cultural festivals.

Academic Enrichment Programs

Academic enrichment programs focus on subjects like math, reading, and writing, providing additional support and challenge outside of regular school hours. These programs can help children excel academically and build a strong foundation for future learning.

Educational Yet Fun After-School Activities for Kids of Different Ages

An important consideration when choosing an activity for a kid is their age. You don’t want the program to be too demanding or not engaging enough for your children.

The activity should offer a mixture of fun and education. Don’t think about education as purely academic assistance. Learning to dance or express their creativity with arts and crafts can also be a way for children to work on their physical and mental skills.

In the following sections, we gathered some great activities for different ages. Check out where your children fit and see if you can find any suitable options!

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It might be the hardest to pick a suitable after-school activity for a kid in kindergarten age . These children can’t always express their interests, but they are quite energetic. Here are some suggestions on what your toddler can do after school!

Color Pebbles

If your child is creative and enjoys art, you can engage in the activity of coloring pebbles together. While you are in a suitable location, ask them to pick pebbles that they will paint later.

You can use different colors to paint the stones and also draw faces. It can be a great way for young children to express their emotions and understand more about feeling happy or sad. You don’t have to limit yourself to coloring pebbles—any coloring can be a fun activity!

Count an Item

Here’s the perfect activity for a kindergarten child that you drive around every day. The idea is simple—you give them a specific item to count and they look for it along the path.

For example, you tell them to count the houses on trees they see next to the road. The great thing about this activity is that it teaches your kid to count while boosting their observational skills. As a bonus, it decreases the odds of them being bored during the drive.

Learning Games

Kids360 app

Many educational games are now free on Android and iOS. All you need to do is to search the app store and install them on your or the child’s phone (if they have one). It’s also possible to look for PC versions to play.

The games can nurture reading skills or offer simple math tasks for the child to resolve. It’s not about the game being too hard, so make sure your child can feel good while working on their skills.

Many learning games feature in-depth storylines and beautiful graphics to ensure the playing experience is more immersive. You know your kid’s skill levels best, but if you need assistance, most games have an age rating to help you find a suitable one.

Too much screen time for children is a serious problem in these modern days. If your kid has a mobile phone or tablet, consider installing the Kids360 app . It limits time spent on the device and restricts how long your kid can use a particular game or app. You can add chores and other tasks for children to unlock more screen time. Kids360 is available for Android and iOS and it’s a great help to parents who want to ensure their kids don’t spend too much time on their mobile devices!

Scavenger Hunt

You can play this game at home or in your yard. It’s even possible to go to a park if you feel there won’t be too many distractions. The idea is to play hide and seek with some of your kid’s favorite toys.

For example, you can place their toy car (even a new one you purchased) somewhere in the garden. You tell them that there’s a toy for them, but don’t reveal the location. Depending on how good they are at finding the item, consider navigating them with “hot” or “cold” clues.

While they are more vocal than younger children, preschoolers still have a minimal attention span. It’s not easy to keep their focus at a high level and it will take some effort. Here are the best games that can assist in filling out their schedule and offer enrichment of the free time spent with your child!

Sing and Dance Together

It’s the simplest activity for having some fun with your preschool child. The idea is easy—pick a song they love and sing or dance together. It could be a kid song, but also one that’s more mainstream. Ask them for what type of song they are in the mood for and play that.

Another important benefit of this activity is that it can help your child pronounce difficult words. Listening to music and trying to sing along can assist in pronouncing letters and words the way they should be spoken.

Play with Clay

If there’s a class where children can work with clay or pottery, consider signing them up for it. And even if that’s not an option, your preschoolers can play with clay at home.

It’s easy to purchase clay in a local store, but you can also consider making it together at home. Some flour and food coloring are the only items you need. You add the colors to the dough to give the clay the desired shade. This is one of the best activities for children who express interest in art.

Place a Swimming Pool in the Garden

We aren’t talking about a “real” swimming pool, but rather an inflatable one that you can purchase at affordable prices. The size will depend on your child’s age, but it’s a great activity to do during the summer and hot days.

The pool should offer enough room for your kid to swim around. They will learn this skill and be more comfortable in the water. At the same time, your preschool child will work on their arm and back strength to develop overall physique.

Storytelling

Imagination is crucial for any child and they can develop various mental skills by telling different stories. You have plenty of freedom when considering the concept.

For example, you can tell a story together by alternating turns by a sentence. You begin by saying something like “Marie woke up in her bed,” and then your child continues.

If you want another twist, you can make paper chits and write some words on them. Ask your child to pick one or more papers randomly. The words they pull out are the ones that have to be a part of the story they tell.

At an elementary school age, your child is ready for more mature activities. They’ll likely tell them the activities they find most attractive, but you can still suggest several and ask them to choose. Here are some suggestions on activities that elementary students could find interesting!

Paper Folding and Making Shapes

The Japanese call this skill origami. The idea is to cut and fold paper sheets to make different 2D and 3D forms. It’s vital to understand that scissors are one of the things your child will need to cut the paper. Make sure they are comfortable with using the scissors, and don’t forget to get ones specialized for paper cutting.

You’ll probably require special paper for origami. If it’s not available in your local store, you can order it online. You can even find videos on YouTube or sign up for an internet class to learn origami together.

Make a Treehouse

This is an activity that it’s mandatory for a parent to do together with their child. If you have a tree in the garden, how about making a treehouse? It doesn’t have to be a big one, but it’s recommended that at least your child can fit inside.

The easiest way to go is to order a treehouse online. You’ll get all the necessary components, along with the instructions on how to build it. Alternatively, you can make it a DIY project. It’s a great way of showing your child that they are capable of building stuff, which can interest them in DIY projects, and that can be helpful around the house in the future.

Old-School Photography

Nowadays, most people use mobile phones to take pictures. However, there’s something about the art of photography and using older cameras.

You can make a deal with your child to go on a field trip and make a collage out of the photos taken there. It doesn’t have to be far—you can head to a park and photograph some trees. If you have a Polaroid or a similar camera, the photos will be available in seconds. The next task is to pick an album and place the best photos there. It’s an excellent and fun way to keep memories from being forgotten.

Yoga or Exercising

Alternatively, you can also make morning or evening exercises a regular activity with your child. We suggest doing them together at least two or three times a week. It’s an excellent way of making kids develop healthy habits at an early age.

A Random Act of Kindness

Here’s an excellent way to teach your kids to be selfless and help others in need. Make random acts of kindness a regular activity after school. Allow your children to come up with a good deed they’ll do. It doesn’t have to be a large one, although try to be supportive of whatever they come up with.

An act of kindness can be baking cookies and dropping a few at your neighbors. It can be a nice message with a positive quote left on someone’s doorstep. Perhaps your kid can take a bowl, fill it with water, and take it outside for stray dogs and cats to drink.

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Telling stories and sharing memories:

• Take out your or your kids’ baby albums and tell stories about those times.
• Ask your child to tell how they spend the day, including one negative and two positive things.
• Make a sock puppet and come up with a theme to tell a story

Work on language and literary skills:

• Ask your kids if they’d like to learn sign language.
• Head to a bookstore and pick a book to read for the week. If the kid achieves the goal, come up with a suitable prize.
• Start learning a foreign language. It’s great for this to be English if it isn’t a native language in your country.

Social meetings:

• Organize a sleepover with one or two of your kid’s friends. The goal is to work on their social skills and strengthen the bond between them.
• Ask if there’s an after school kids’ group organized by teachers. It could be a reading class in the library or pretty much anything else.
• Organize an outdoor activity , such as mini golf or visiting a museum. Make it a new activity every week and avoid too much repetition.

Get creative or playful:

• Find a board game suitable to the child’s age and play together.
• Purchase a 3D or jigsaw puzzle. If your kid enjoys it, you can make it a regular activity.
• Make food together. It can be anything from ice cream and biscuits to an entire meal.

To keep track of your child’s activities and ensure their safety, consider using the Findmykids app . It allows you to monitor their location, set safe zones, and stay connected with them throughout their after-school programs!

Inside Creative House/Shutterstock.com

When choosing an after-school activity, it’s important to consult your child. Ask them some questions to get a sense of which programs or areas they’d prefer. If you notice they have an artistic talent, drawing or painting groups are a great fit. And if they seem interested in science or sports, find activities that would help them develop in those areas.

Once you have an idea of your kid’s interests, it’s time to search for a suitable activity. Here are some tips that could help:

• Ask for a recommendation. Do you have a group with other parents on Viber on WhatsApp? Can you ask a teacher from the school or anyone else relevant? They might be able to recommend the best option, especially when you can pick from more similar programs.
• Think about the frequency and timing . An afterschool program might not occur right after school, as the name suggests. It usually has two or three classes per week at specific times, so it’s important to fit them with your and the child’s schedule.
• Don’t forget the budget . Some activities are free, but others require paying for the program. The program should offer good value for money, although paying a bit extra is okay if your child has a big interest in that program.

The Art of Making the Most Out of After-School Activities

Does it seem like your kid has too much free time after school and looks like they spend aimless hours playing? After-school activities can be an excellent way to fill that gap with productive programs with a learning component.

Don’t rush with just signing up for an activity. Talk with your child or monitor their behavior to discover more about their interests. Consider the classes and programs available in their school or nearby. Give the program a shot, but if your child doesn’t like it, don’t force them. Instead, find a new activity they’d like more.

What are your experiences with children’s after-school programs? What do you think is the best kid’s activity once they finish school classes? We encourage you to share and discuss the activities we mentioned. Sharing our experiences can be the best way for everyone to find the most suitable activity for their schoolers!

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What are the most common activities after school?

It’s common for boys to join a sports team, such as football or basketball. Girls might prefer volleyball, or even dancing. If active programs aren’t the kid’s preference, hobbies like arts and crafts or science are quite common, too.

What is a good activity for a school-age child?

The best activity is the one that suits your child’s personality and preference. Some kids would enjoy dancing, while others prefer sports. Children might have an interest in chemistry or another science, while others express more affinity towards arts and crafts. Any activity that boosts productivity and learning is a good choice for a school-age child.

What to do after school when bored?

A portion of the time can be spent playing video games or having pointless fun. However, there should be productive time, which makes after-school programs a perfect choice. Children can pick an activity that suits them, ranging from sports and science to music and crafts.

Read also: Bored Kid? 53 Activities That Will Keep Kids Busy And Happy !

How do you entertain kids at school?

Teachers can make a regular class more interesting by adding some twists to the way they teach. For example, they could make a quiz where children would divide into teams and compete for a small prize. The game-like concepts make learning fun while promoting teamwork.

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MacBooks for Moscow’s elementary schools

Moscow authorities promise to equip schools with a MacBook Pro laptop by 2014. Source: RIA Novosti / Sergey Pyatakov

Moscow officials promise to equip all teachers and first-graders with a MacBook Pro laptop by 2014. Children love the laptops, but parents suggest that they are too expensive and unnecessary.

Investing in IT school services

How to improve Russia’s secondary education

The start of the new academic year was marked by the launch of brand new Apple desktops and MacBook laptops in Moscow schools. The first Apple computers were provided for first-graders in Moscow back in 2010, when students from 180 schools were equipped with MacBook laptops. By 2011,  at least 1,500 Moscow schools had received laptops for their first grade pupils. This year, second-graders were to start using MacBooks on Sept. 1, the first day of school. Supplying schools with expensive computer equipment is part of the government's campaign to switch to a new state standard for elementary schools. This standard envisions studying in a digital/electronic environment, with electronic journals, textbooks and records.

According to officials, the introduction of MacBook computers is also part of the federal Our New School program, which was promoted by former president Dmitry Medvedev, a known Apple enthusiast.

What, how much and how

One of the objectives of Moscow’s municipal Information City (2012-2016) program is to equip Moscow schools with computers at a rate of 17 machines per 100 students by 2014. However, new laptops are not distributed evenly among schools. Because of the inconsistency of supplies, some schools have enough computers for both the first and second grade classes, while students in other schools have to share during classes. There are also schools that have no Apple computers at all, parents of first-graders told Moskovskie novosti.

The contract for the “supply of computing and telecommunications devices equipping educational establishments of the city of Moscow in 2012” also specifies the software to be used with the schools’ MacBook laptops. The list includes the mathematics software packages Matryoshka and Live Mathematics, Live Word software for writing skills and the open creative environment PervoLogo, which enables first-graders to include cartoon illustrations in essays and older pupils to simulate science experiments.

"This software works fine on Windows"

Parents are divided on the introduction of these new computers, as their enthusiasm for their children operating MacBooks is usually clouded by the high prices of Apple machines.

“My daughter was in the first grade not so long ago. The main problem was that their teacher was always telling them: ‘this is very expensive equipment - if you break it, you'll have to pay for it to be fixed repair.’ The children were scared and didn't like those classes. They mostly worked with Matryoshka. You could access it from home, on the Internet. I thought it was exciting,” Ksenia Sochilova, the mother of a pupil of school No.191, told Moskovskie novosti.

“My son was doing jigsaw puzzles during his first year and learning how to combine syllables. There was also some sort of a typing tutor.

The kids loved it, and were not intimidated by the price. Teachers attended some special training. It was all fine, except for the project cost... This software works perfectly well on Windows. I'd rather they bought a regular laptop for everyone - it would be better and cheaper,” says Andrei Prokofyev, the father of a student of school No. 1286.

Konstantin Okunkov, whose son has just started third grade in school No. 1454, agrees. “I am familiar with software development, and I can say that, of all the software programs adopted by schools, none are made exclusively for Mac computers. If our aim is to have economically justified software solutions for schools, then Windows will do just fine, while Linux or Android could take care of other tasks, as they would be much cheaper," said Okunkov.

First published in Russian in Moskovskiye Novosti.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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