10 Minute Homework Rule

           Currently I am a teacher at an after school program in McFarland. My job is to pick the kids up from school, and the first thing I ask them every day is, “Hey guys! How was school? Do you have a lot of homework?” Almost every response is, “No, we never get homework.” These are kids ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, and none of them have homework. I think that it is understandable for a kindergartener, but once they hit second, third, and fourth grade they should be getting some sort of work to do beyond the classroom. In an article written by Cathy Vatterott, she says that students should get a certain amount of homework every night based on the grade that they are in. For example, first graders would get ten minutes of homework, second graders would get twenty minutes, third graders would get thirty minutes, and so on. I think that this would be a great system, especially for the students who are in high school getting up to 4 hours of homework every night. I do not think that it is an effective strategy for kids in fourth grade to never get homework because soon they will be in middle school and then high school and will not have a routine of doing homework. Soon these kids will feel overwhelmed and surprised with the amount they have. If the amount of homework is eased into these students daily routine, it will only become less stressful for them in the future. 

woodleywonderworks, CC

           I also believe that this is an effective idea because from kindergarten to fifth grade I never got homework. Some nights I might have had to read for 15 minutes, but that was it. Then once I got to middle school I felt like I was drowning in the amount of homework I was given, and then homework in high school seemed almost impossible to complete in one night. I did not have a good study habit developed into my daily routine, so I struggled. If teachers would ease the homework and studying process into these children’s lives before they hit the middle school and high school range, I think that students will succeed and be saved from becoming overwhelmed and stressed about their amount of homework.

Along with the study habits, I think that the 10 minute increase by grade is a smart idea because in high school it seems like students get three hours at the minimum every night. With sports and extracurricular activities that schools encourage, three hours every night is almost unachievable in relation to getting a healthy amount of sleep. For example, I played volleyball all throughout high school. I had games every Tuesday and Thursday, and practice the other three days. On game day, we didn’t play until 6:30 PM, which is late enough where there is plenty of time between school dismissal and game time to get a chunk of homework completed. Our coach, similar to other high school coaches, encourages her players to sit and watch the freshman and junior varisty games that are played before ours. Yes this was encouraged, but it was more along the lines of, "watch the other teams or you will not be playing tonight." This gave us no time for homework after school. Seniors in high school should only be getting two hours of homework each night, where my senior year I was given at least three to five every night. Teachers throw out the excuse that they are just preparing us for college. Yes, this is understandable, but if their goal is to prepare us for college, a better route would be to ease us into the amount of homework at a younger age.