The horn has sounded on the controversial game of homework. The sides form up, supporters from both teams prepare to chant and the ball is thrown. Commentators call the shots, referees attempt to maintain order and players grind toward a winning point. The hapless ball bounces at the whim of those who hold it, passing from hand to hand before it is put to boot. Who or what represents the students in this analogy?
I am not a fan of the current homework game – neither as parent, nor teacher. It forces young minds to comply with outdated structures, sit indoors and remain sedentary long after the school bell tolls. It can also be a hopelessly inefficient use of thinking time. Put simply, after studying all day, students are either too tired or too wired to complete homework tasks effectively – often they suffer a paradoxical mix of both.
We know students of all ages need time to burn energy and relax. However, media commentary on the subject is often contradictory. Reports compel young people to forgo TV and computer screens so they may play outside, only to quickly call them back indoors to complete an additional hour or two of homework so they may secure the required amount of knowledge.
“Secure the required amount of knowledge” – now there’s the rub. My big question is why? Why does knowledge need to be secured? In a connected world where we have instant access to information, surely it is more important to develop skills in gathering and evaluating ideas than it is to ‘remember facts’. Supporters of homework generally assert study after school is necessary to a) consolidate learning, b) practice skills, c) promote organisation and time management, d) develop problem solving skills and in many cases to, e) gain more knowledge.
Bah, bah and bah again. Knowledge in itself is less important than the ability to access and evaluate it. Of course fundamental understanding of key concepts is a critical foundation upon which more complex ideas can grow. However, I am talking about fundamental knowledge, for example remembering New York is a major American city, not the date the Statue of Liberty was dedicated. Yes, students need to learn problem solving, organisational and time management skills. Of course a student’s ability to use these skills is improved by consolidation and practice. However in today’s world there are fresh ways to approach the acquisition of skills without resorting to stale ideas about gaining knowledge through homework. We need to rethink the relationship between knowledge and skills. We should be discussing the learning process, rather than worrying about how much work is required before a student has ‘learnt’ something.
Ok, by now you may be thinking of doctors and nurses, pilots and engineers and any other occupation which requires its members to remember key concepts. I wonder how many of them know the exact date the Statue of Liberty was dedicated… I’m sure if they wanted to know, they would look it up. ‘Wanted to know’, that is the key phrase. In any given occupation or activity, there will be fundamental pieces of information that must be remembered – information a person ‘wants to know’. However, these ideas will be coupled with specific skills that give the information a context and relevance, thus ensuring it is easier to remember. So does anyone need to remember the date the Statue of Liberty was dedicated? Yes, a tour guide operating river cruises on the Hudson would probably find remembering the date useful.
I hope by now you can see where I’m going with this. Too often homework tasks lack context or are busy work or are a desperate attempt to cover content in an overly crowded curriculum. However, even though I find most homework a waste of time, I am a firm believer in the rewards to be had from regular reading. We could all, not just school children, benefit from 10 – 20 minutes of reading followed by reflection and discussion. Now before you groan ‘typical English teacher’, I will qualify what I say. I am not suggesting everyone needs to read novels, I am simply suggesting reading with purpose. This purpose could be gathering information about an area you are interested in or it could be entertainment or an opportunity to explore different perspectives. To increase effectiveness, reading activities should be followed by a moment of reflection – a simple internal questioning of the material and your response to it. Social skills may also be enhanced by discussing ideas with friends and family. This process of reading, reflecting and relationships is an active cognitive process which, when practiced consciously, illuminates the learning process.
This post has already lengthened beyond my original intent, so I will finish soon, however there is one more homework inspired dream I would like to share. I dream of a time when ‘homework’ is redefined as ‘consolidation’ and occurs within school, during school hours. This is still a thought in process so please bear with me. If content requirements within subject areas were reduced, class time could focus on the relationship between content and skills. In secondary schools, timetables could be structured so that each 50 minute lesson was followed by a 50 minute study period. Study periods would be an opportunity for students to reflect upon what they have learnt and to practice skills. These study sessions would be supervised by mentors – teachers who actively modeled and made the process of learning visible. Then, once home, students would be encouraged to complete a reading ritual which involved 15 minutes of personal reading, reflecting on what they have read and finally chatting about ideas generated, either with family (during meal time) or on an online forum with classmates.
The world is changing at a rapid rate and the key skills a young person needs to survive in a modern working world are flexibility, creativity, critical thinking and effective interpersonal skills. In other words they need to understand the process of learning so they may become lifelong learners who are in control of their learning. Homework in its current form, even at senior school level, is not necessary. It is simply yet another facet of an outdated education system that has failed to keep pace with a connected technologically enhanced process of information exchange. Homework can murder a love of learning, it can forge anchors of resentment, stifle creative thought and fuel anxiety. Just because we had to endure homework to survive a pre-internet education system does not mean our kids have to.
It is time to blow the whistle on the homework game.
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