Product Description

With the publication of The End of Homework, Etta Kralovec and John Buell touched off a heated debate in American culture. Their provocative argument, featured in Time and Newsweek, in numerous women's magazines, and on National Public Radio and many television broadcasts, was the first openly to challenge the gospel of "the more homework, the better." Arguing that, in assigning massive amounts of homework, teachers and schools are essentially abdicating their responsibility to teach, the authors advocate forcefully for protecting the leisure time of children and the precious resource of family time.

"Kralovec and Buell argue persuasively for a fresh look at the homework debate...A compelling case for the idea that there are 'educational mechanisms in place that serve to make the system less workable for poor and working-class kids.'" —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #356964 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this brief but thoroughly researched treatise on the evils of homework, Kralovec, a teacher and teacher educator, and Buell, an author and former editor of the Progressive, argue persuasively for a fresh look at the homework debate. Most parents take for granted that a greater amount of homework leads to higher academic achievement and thus better life chances later on. But the easy correlation between homework and achievement remains an unproven assumption, and the cost of overburdening students may be too high. This book suggests that children's growth and development might be better served by more opportunities for leisure time, social relationships, pursuing extra-curricular interests, sharing household chores or just simply playing. The growing class divide in the U.S., as well as increasing corporate demands on our lives, serve as theoretical backdrop for this book. One of the great American myths is that schools can "correct for the damage done by a highly iniquitous class structure," yet Kralovec and Buell make a compelling case for the idea that there are educational "mechanisms in place that serve to make the system less workable for poor and working class kids." Furthermore, assigning homework increases the achievement gap between wealthy students with leisure and those who have children of their own, younger siblings to care for, after-school jobs or crowded, noisy living conditions. The authors even argue that an increase in homework is a major reason for the escalating high school dropout rate in this latter group. The critical analysis of consumerism and corporate values may displease some, but this book will satisfy those who have begun to question the advanced intrusion of school, state and business into personal and community lives. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This provocative book is one of the first publications linking homework with school reform. Reviewing the inadequate studies that have been conducted and citing historical documents on both sides of the debate, Kralovec, a former teacher, and Buell, an author and former editor of the Progressive, question the value of home work, providing a compelling argument that schools must educate children without over-relying on homework and extracurricular activities. Since the burden of teaching has been shifted from the classroom to the parents, the authors advocate for the reform of homework and its role, suggesting that homework negatively affects children from low-income families, where parents work all day and then return home only to be faced with intimidating volumes of their children's homework. They are simply not able to provide the same quality of guidance to their children as higher-income parents, who are usually more educated. These controversial ideas will certainly challenge both educators and parents.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Is it possible that homework isn't good for kids? Dare we even consider such a shocking idea? . . . Does it make children, teachers, and parents angry at each other rather than allied with each other?" -Deborah Meier, author of The Power of Their Ideas and Will Standards Save Public Education?, in her Mission Hill School News "The increasing amount of homework may not be helping students to learn more; indeed, it often undermines the students' health, the development of personal interests, and the quality of family life." -Ted Sizer and Nancy Faust Sizer, authors of The Students Are Watching

Customer Reviews

An Unconventional Look at the Limits of Educational Reform
In doing a study for the state of Maine on dropout prevention programs, the authors of this books were stunned to learn that ALL of the students they interviewed listed homework or their inability to complete homework assignments as a factor in their decision to drop out.

Homework, the authors find, has long had its critics. In 1901, the California Civil Code banned homework for children under fifteen in grammar or primary school. Critics of homwork surfaced in significant numbers in the rebellious decades of the 1930s and 1960s.

Homework that is dull and boring, the authors write, is meaningless. And homework that is intellectually challenging requires significant help from attentive and well-educated parents, who are often unavailable or non-existent in many households. The research on the educational value of homework, they say, is inconclusive, while the negative effects of homework on the lives of many children and families is undeniable.

Homework, the authors allege, is undemocratic because more affluent children have more home resources--space, research materials, educated family members, the relative lack of demands for services to other family members--than do low income children. It would be much more democratic they say to have the work now assigned to the home to be done in school, where all children would have equal access to the teacher, any teacher's aides or parent volunteers, and other children.

Homework, they charge, impinges on the lives of the children and the lives of the family. It both limits unstructured family time and forces the family to be focused on the school work. Combined with the lengthening work day faced by many adults and the decline of the stay at home mother due to economic reasons, homework undermines family life and leads to the much warned against disintegration of families.

Time poverty, they find, is a major national concern that homework contributes to. Overstressed parents worn out from work and household chores often simply don't have the time to study the children's course material to help the child overcome difficulties. Hiring tutors is obviously more an economically available option in some families than in others.

The authors see corporate influence as a menacing influence here. They believe businesses are trying to get young people used to extremely long work days. They believe businesses know that large numbers of children will fail to meet the demands for excessive homework, and are seeking to pay low salaries to these people and blame their own inadequacies for those low salaries.

The authors give an unequivocal endorsement to efforts to raise the minimum wage. "An adequate minimum wage," the authors find, "is the single most important and most immediately achievable step that can be taken at state and national levels to address the poverty of families and thus ensure conditions in which young people are likely to thrive."

This book does not give directions as to how courses can be reconstructed to reduce or eliminate homework. It's advice on the construction of studies on the effects of of homework asks some good questions but does not include recommendations for measuring the prevalence of children who do much better in classwork than in homework, or kids who do much better in homework than in classwork. The idea that homework is an independent variable in predicting and causing student decline and droppping out could be better documented than was done in the research that the authors compiled. The authors' call for further research implicitly acknowledges this.

Despite this book's limitations--and its intriguing but questionable eagerness to integrate the abolition of homework into national liberal agendas for for reform--this is a book to read and ponder for anyone interested in dealing with what educational reform means and should mean, and anyone interested in families spending more time together and doing a better job of helping students navigate the transition to adulthood.

The teenage years, the authors believe, should be years in which students learn to socialize with their peers and with adult society as a whole. Homework retards this process, they allege.

This a book that challenges existing assumptions long hours of school work being a path to educational excellence and international workforce competitiveness. It is a book that desrves a wide national audience of parents, educators, educational reform experts, and corporate and media opinion makers. By raising fundamental questions, the authors are providing a signal national and international service.

It succeeds in making a point - but not much else
The book The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning refutes the popular, traditional theories about homework's benefits to teachers and students. The authors insist that studies about the positive aspects of homework (better retention, curriculum enhancement, enhancement of time management and personal responsibilities, etc.) are deeply flawed. Instead, the book portrays homework as an almost universal negative - especially before middle school. The authors demonstrate using research, case studies, and anecdotal evidence that homework can be discriminatory, impractical, and damaging to students. It examines the widely agreed upon negatives of homework and concludes that anything with that many negatives - loss of interest in school and decreased time for families, communities, and enrichment being the least of them - doesn't have a place in education.

While the book is very convincing and well-researched, it offers little advice for teachers short of complete curriculum revision. It doesn't provide a suggestion for a starting point or answer questions about the breadth of curriculum being reduced to accommodate more in-class time for working on assignments. While the authors admit that their message will fall on many deaf ears due to the background of the target audience - they would have won more converts with a little more practicality and helpful tips for willing reformers. As a result, the book ends up spending too much time trying to prove its title and too little actually being a catalyst for change.

As it stands, this is an important book that is worth consideration by all educators and parents with school-aged kids.

The Truth about Homework
How refreshing to come across a book that questions the value of homework. As the parent of three children, 16, 13 and 10 I have seen the damage homework can do to children's enthusiasm for learning and to my relationship with them. Children need free time to explore their own interests and to figure out who they are. Homework will not solve the too much TV and Video Game problem, but it will quell children's innate desire to explore their world and find out who they are.

"The End of Homework" takes a much needed critical look at the real effects of homework on learning and development and shows just how empty and unsubstantiated many of the claims from the "more homework" camp really are. Anyone with a stake in the current debate about how children use their time, the changes in the way they grow up, the shift in the balance of power away from families towards corporate institutions, and above all the role of homework in these trends should read this book.