While parents whining about homework isn't new, what is new is research beginning to pile up that homework doesn't help below a certain age.
I am, quite rightly I think, skeptical about most educational "research" (remember "new math"--aka set theory?). However, educational research has gotten much better. And there are starting to be consensus answers that conventional psychological research seems to bear out that educational systems simply ignore.
What worked to create human inputs to an assembly line may be quite suboptimal for creating humans capable of functioning in a knowledge-based economy.
I do think homework helps but it should be once a week (maybe it is) and it should be something assigned on say Monday and due the next Monday so you have the weekend if you need it. You should also have opportunities in school to actually do the homework.. maybe homeroom was supposed to be where this was done? I also had kids in homeroom who had no interest in doing homework so it was more of a social hour. Or a zero period which doesn't necessarily have to be in the morning. Or there should be opportunities to do the homework in class. Homework should be more like work.. project based..
>what is new is research beginning to pile up that homework doesn't help below a certain age.
This isn't new though. From the article, every fifteenish years there seems to be a shift back and forth between homework being useful and homework being detrimental. And every time this has happened, you could say that better methods were starting to reach consensus answers.
I am, quite rightly I think, skeptical about most educational "research" (remember "new math"--aka set theory?). However, educational research has gotten much better. And there are starting to be consensus answers that conventional psychological research seems to bear out that educational systems simply ignore.
What worked to create human inputs to an assembly line may be quite suboptimal for creating humans capable of functioning in a knowledge-based economy.