So my daughter came home from the first day of 4th Grade with this news, “My new teacher says she doesn’t believe in homework.”
Yeah right, I thought. Last year, her 3rd Grade teacher had warned us that she had taught 4th Grade for many years and that’s when the really heavy work started to kick in.
At Back-to-School night we were presented with this information:
We have done some work this year as a staff regarding the purpose and effectiveness of traditional homework. The research is unable to produce evidence that homework improves student performance. Rather, it is telling us that if we want to improve attitudes, mental and physical health and academic performance, we must promote the following things:
- Children need to play outside for at least an hour after school each day. They should reach a high level of exertion during their play, enough to produce a sweat.
- Children should have dinner with their families at least 4 nights weekly. This is shown to decrease eating disorders in females and decrease smoking and drug abuse rates in males. Recent research suggests it teaches good eating habits with more fruits and vegetables.
- Early to bed. Research suggests that children need 10-12 hours of sleep a day to be ready to learn.
- Reading time every evening. This is a great time for the whole family to sit and read together.