At LEADPrep we use the “no homework” rule for our students. Instead, our flipped classroom model allows students to review teacher-made video lessons at home and do the work at school.
But doesn’t folk wisdom say that homework has value? Your grandparents believed that homework builds character, teaches self-discipline, and instills good work habits that help us as we get older. How much should we trust that folk wisdom?
And can we trust it when other tried and true wisdom does not agree!
There is the old Latin expression “Mens sana in corpore sano”or “A sound mind in a sound body.” Physical exercise has long been considered important to maintaining your health, not just of the body but of your mental abilities as well.
And then there is the old expression, “A change is as good as a rest.”This expression advocates changing activities in order to provide your mind with some downtime. The downtown helps to process information and give us a refreshed outlook on things.
So what is true?
According to Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, “No study has ever demonstrated any academic benefit to assigning homework.” He goes on to explain that in high school there is a very weak association between homework and achievement but there is no data proving that homework is RESPONSIBLE for higher achievement. “Correlation doesn’t imply causation.”
What has been proven again and again, is that everyone, adults and children alike, need rest and exercise in order to have good physical health and the ability to undertake true learning.
Folk wisdom is not the basis for giving a child time for play and family. Reliably proven science is the basis for the no homework rule.
