Jocko McKean's List: Homework

• Above all, principals need to help their faculties see that  the most important criterion for judging decisions about homework (or other  policies, for that matter) is the impact they’re likely to have on students’  attitudes about what they’re doing.  “Most of what homework is doing  is driving kids away from learning,” says education professor Harvey  Daniels.  Let’s face it:  Most children dread homework, or at best see  it as something to be gotten through.  Thus, even if it did provide other  benefits, they would have to be weighed against its likely effect on kids’ love  of learning.
• Teachers  should be invited to reflect on whether any given example of homework will  help students think deeply about questions that matter.  What philosophy of  teaching, what theory of learning, lies behind each assignment?   Does it  seem to assume that children are meaning makers -- or empty vessels?  Is learning  regarded as a process that’s mostly active or passive?  Is it about wrestling  with ideas or mindlessly following directions? 
• Do students find that homework really is useful?  Why or why  not?  Are certain kinds better than others?  How does homework affect their desire  to learn?  What are its other effects on their lives, and on their families?
• There is no perfect assignment that will stimulate  every student because one size simply doesn’t fit all. 

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