no homework petition

7/31/2019 No Homework Petition

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To Whom It May Concern:

Students, faculty, and parents of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District

have come across many experiences, concerns and issues with the homework that is

assigned. There are numerous problems students face every day that have more

negative effects than positive benefits. Here are some we have come across.

Students are forced to stay up late to complete their assignments or else they will

be given a bad grade. By doing this, they are losing sleep which causes them to

be tired and not put in a 100% effort in their class assignments. Studies have

shown that chronic sleep loss causes depression, impaired motor function and

obesity. It has been found to increase a bodys production of stress hormone

cortisol which raises blood pressure, heart rate, weakens the immune system

and makes it difficult to concentrate.

It is extremely difficult for students to participate in sports and extra-curricular

activities with the addition of homework. Kids do not have enough time toparticipate in sports, pursue personal interests, complete homework and have

time to just relax. If they want to do all of these things, they are forced to stay up

a lot later than the average teen should be staying awake. The teenage years are

the years when people need the most sleep due to the amount they are growing.

Child obesity is a big problem in todays generation and excessive homework just

adds to it. Homework causes the student to stay inside and not get the amount of

exercise and fresh air an adolescent should be getting. Without homework,

students would have more time to exercise and stay healthy. Parents and

Friends Chief Jenny Branch says, as childhood obesity becomes a major

problem; homework is forcing children to sit in front of computers instead of

exercise. (1)

Class discussion is based on homework more than anything else which is taking

away valuable class time where teachers could be giving a lesson.

Numerous students are not able to complete their homework because they dont

understand the problem. Not understanding something or having to get extra

help also shows to lower a students self-esteem. If a student doesnt know how

to do the problem, they can either do it wrong and get a bad grade, or not do it

and get a bad grade. It has been years since the students parents have been in

school and doing the kind of work they do. Chances are they dont rememberthat material. And even if they do, things have changed since then and they were

taught how to complete problems in different ways. If homework isnt assigned

and all the work is done in class this problem would be eliminated and the

students can get help as needed.

Homework causes a lot of unneeded stress to students. There are so many other

things they have to worry about every day and homework should not have to be


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one of them. Extra stress put on a child contributes to drug and/or alcohol usage.

A study reported August 4, 2008 reveals that 73% of teens say that school

stress is the primary reason for drug use. (2)

Students who are sick or absent are now responsible to complete last weeks

classwork, last weeks homework, and now the new assignments for that week.

This puts a tremendous amount of stress on the student.

In middle and high school many students choose afterschool jobs over

homework contributing to poor grades. Given todays economy, kids cant

depend on their parents for money and working will give them valuable

experience they cannot learn in school. Homework enables them from doing so.

Due to homework, students are forced to come home and spend most of the

night in their room. This is limits their family time and many arent even able to

have dinner as a family. This is a very important part in a childs life.

Weekends revolve around homework and they rarely get to have time to

themselves. The weight of a backpack is an enormous load and causes back problems for

students at a very early age.The studies reveal that many pupils' backpackswere "excessively loaded", leaving students with back problems which oftenworsened with age. The authors of the report, which was published in the

Archives of Disease in Childhood, said children should not carry anythingweighing more than 10% of their body weight. But the study found nearly twothirds of the 1,403 children surveyed carried bags which broke the 10% rule". (3)

Homework is costing the school and families money they dont have. Theeconomy is extremely rough right now and wasting time and money onassignments that are proven to have very few benefits is pointless. A paid

teacher can spend precious time teaching, opposed to correcting papers andchildren can have time to just be kids.

Students do not complete the assignment by themselves. The majority of thestudents receive the assignment and copy it off a friend or someone they knowand the work isnt even being done by them. If the work isn t being done by thestudent themselves, that is not a proper way to assess how a child is doingconsidering there is no way to stop the child from copying off of someone elseafter school hours.

There appears to be many more negative effects of homework than positive. Therehave been no quality studies to prove homework improves test scores and grades.

Here are some other opinions we have found.

Have you ever heard of a child getting sick because of homework?

According to William Crain, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at City College

of New York and the author of Reclaiming Childhood, "Kids are developing

more school-related stomachaches, headaches, sleep problems, and

depression than ever before. The average student is glued to his or her desk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17365880http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17365880http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17365880http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17365880http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17365880http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17365880


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for almost seven hours a day. Add two to four hours of homework each night,

and they are working a 45 to 55 hour week. This does not include time spent

riding the bus, sports and after school jobs. Ironic considering the child labor

laws!(4)

In addition, a student who receives excessive homework "will miss out onactive playtime, essential for learning social skills, proper brain development,and warding off childhood obesity," according to Harris Cooper, Ph.D., aprofessor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. Althoughsome teachers and parents believe assigning a lot of homework is beneficial,a Duke University review of a number of studies found almost no correlationbetween homework and long-term achievements in elementary school andonly a moderate correlation in middle school. "More is not better," concludedCooper, who conducted the review. (5)

Is homework really necessary? Most teachers assign homework as a drill toimprove memorization of material. While drills and repetitive exercises have

their place in schools, homework may not be that place. If a student does amath worksheet with 50 problems but completes them incorrectly, he willlikely fail the test. According to the U.S. Department of Education, most mathteachers can tell after checking five algebraic equations whether a studentunderstood the necessary concepts. Practicing dozens of homeworkproblems incorrectly only cements the wrong method. (6)

Some teachers believe that assigning more homework will help improvestandardized test scores. However, in countries like the Czech Republic,Japan, and Denmark, which have higher-scoring students, teachers give littlehomework. At the other end of the spectrum, countries with very lowaverage test scoresThailand, Greece and Iranhave teachers who assign

a great deal of homework, David Baker noted. The United States is amongthe most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh and eighthgrade, so more homework clearly does not mean higher test scores. (7)

Do students in the United States receive too much homework? If schoolsassign less homework, it would benefit teachers, parents, and students alike.Teachers who assign large amounts of homework are often unable to domore than spot-check answers. This means that many errors are missed.Teachers who assign less homework will be able to check it thoroughly. Inaddition, it allows a teacher time to focus on more important things. "I hadmore time for planning when I wasn't grading thousands of problems a night,"says math teacher Joel Wazac at a middle school in Missouri. "And when a

student didn't understand something, instead of a parent trying to puzzle itout, I was there to help them." The result of assigning fewer math problems:grades went up and the school's standardized math scores are the highestthey've ever been. A student who is assigned less homework will live ahealthy and happy life. The family can look forward to stress-free, carefreenights and, finally, the teachers can too. (8)

According to the authors of "National Differences, Global Similarities: WorldCulture and the Future of Schooling," too much homework can demoralize


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students and lead to lower test scores. In particular, David Baker and GeraldLeTendre noted that students from countries where less homework isassigned, such as Japan and Denmark, score better on tests than studentsfrom countries that assign a lot of homework. They also pointed out thatthough American students do more homework than many of their international

competitors, their overall test scores are average. (9) The truth, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, is that there is

almost no evidence that homework helps elementary school students achieve

academic success and little evidence that it helps older students. Yet the

nightly burden is taking a serious toll on Americas families. It robs children of

the sleep, play, and exercise time they need for proper physical, emotional,

and neurological development. And it is a hidden cause of the childhood

obesity epidemic, creating a nation of homework potatoes. (10)

The value of homework is overrated, says Pope, author ofDoing School:How WeAre Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Mis-

educated Students. Based on her studies, Pope believes overburdenedstudents are more prone to cheating, depression, unhealthy study habits, anda distorted view of success. (11)

The campaign against homework isgaining popularity. Administrators inwealthy communities with high-achieving students appear to be the first toheed the message. Recently, David Ackerman, principal at Oak KnollElementary School in Menlo Park, California, made national news when headvised his staff to limit homework to reading assignments only. (12)

Our proposal is to have the PVRS district not assign extra assignments for

homework on a TRIAL basis. This excludes the work students didnt finish in class,special projects that require some sort of at home work, or basic reading

assignments that are required. We will see if test scores increase, absentee rates

decrease, and overall grades on report cards improve. Based on these studies we

strongly believe homework is causing more harm than good. Homework is not

proving to provide any benefits to the students and is only causing unneeded stress

to students, teachers and parents. Why assign homework if it is only causing harm

to the students? The USA is one of the lowest test scoring countries due in part to

the amount of homework that is distributed. Schools across Europe are also

experimenting with the no homework idea because of all the studies that have

proven for homework to be ineffective. The president of France just recentlyannounced that he is going to pursue the abolition of homework. There has been a

documentary written by Vicki Abeles called Race to Nowhere that gives several

good examples about what homework is doing to students. Alfie Kohn has written a

book advocating the abolition of homework called The Homework Myth and Sara

Bennett and Nancy Kalish have written a book called The Case Against Homework:

How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It. These


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books and documentaries give very well thought out and researched examples of

the harmful effects homework is having on kids.

The definition of Pioneer is to develop or be the first to apply a new method. Lets

live up to our name sake and be a Pioneer in education. With the facts provided

we hope you will take into consideration our ideas and keep our proposal in mind.

Sincerely,

Ameilia Pelletier,

Alyssa Genovese,

Emily Lanoie,

Logan Anderson,

Amelia Marchand,

Elizabeth Sweeney


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End Notes1. ABC News. ABC News. March 12

th, 2007. 10-21-12.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-03-12/homework-contributing-to-childhood-obesity-parents/2214962

2. Teen Stress and Drug abuse. Treatment solutions. August 18th, 2008.

10-20-12. http://www.treatmentsolutions.com/teen-stress-and-drug-abuse/

3. Heavy School Bags Causing Children Back Pain. Huffington Posts. 3-15-

2012. 10-19-12. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/03/15/heavy-

school-bags-causing-children-back-pain_n_1346974.html

4. The Homework Revolution. Teen Ink. 10-20-12. www.teenink.com

Opinion School / College.





7. High School Homework: Are American students Overworked? Huffington

Posts. 5-11-11. 10-21-2012.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/high-school-homework-are-

_n_1071973.html

8. High School Homework: Are American students Overworked?. Huffington

Posts. 5-11-11. 10-21-2012.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/high-school-homework-are-_n_1071973.html

9. Vivex Saxena. Pros and Cons of Homework. Ehow. 10-19-12.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8298310_pros-cons-homework.html

10. The Case Against Homework. Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish. August,

2006. 10-19-12.http://www.thecaseagainsthomework.com/

11. No Homework: A Growing Trend?. Education.com. 3-27-2007. 10-18-12.

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Ed_No_Homework_Growing/

12. No Homework: A Growing Trend?. Education.com. 3-27-2007. 10-18-12.

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Ed_No_Homework_Growing/
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/.%20http/www.treatmentsolutions.com/teen-stress-and-drug-abuse/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-03-12/homework-contributing-to-childhood-obesity-parents/2214962http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-03-12/homework-contributing-to-childhood-obesity-parents/2214962


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