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Homework of Champions
Let's say you're a parent who is fed up with "helping" your young children complete their ridiculously-difficult homework (think creating model buildings or critiquing authors' writing styles). In this case, you will probably applaud the Calgary couple who have achieved a total ban on homework for their kids.
Part of the Calgary couple's thinking, of course, is that homework is a total waste of everyone's time. But that's true only of some homework assignments (the kind their kids appear to have been getting) - but not true of other kinds of homework. It's a bit like watching kids eat Twinkies and Coke for breakfast and then concluding that breakfast is bad for kids.
Just as a nutritious breakfast confers numerous benefits, so too do judicious homework assignments. The nature of good homework assignments is outlined here. In a nutshell, good homework is short and doable, practises newly-learned material, and receives timely feedback. When used properly, homework can leverage teaching time - doubling or even tripling the value of every instructional minute.
Again—since I’ve said it before—isn’t this just common sense? Parents don’t seem to understand that their children need to focus on the basics, and leave the silly projects to the kids to do themselves. Remember, it doesn’t matter about how well or poorly the children do on projects that have little or no learning outcome, because the children are pushed ahead to the next grade anyways. So come on parents, focus on your children’s literacy and numeracy skills, and don’t bother with the rest of the baloney—especially collecting money for various projects. This fundraising is just our kids collecting taxes, because public education at every level squanders our tax dollars!