The amount of homework some kids are taking home each night has tripled since 1980, according to a University of Michigan study reported in this wire story on CNN. Some teens are taking home as much as three to four hours of homework a night. The question is, does all this extra work help academic performance?
The answer depends largely on whom you ask. Teachers say they need to assign more homework so that kids can keep up and do well on standardized tests. Parents complain that between homework and after-school activities, they have no family time to spend with their children.
"The amount of pressure on these kids is too much," says Margie Rosen, the mother of 17-year-old Sarah from New York City. "I look at my daughter, and I know she's burning the candle at both ends," she says in this news service article from the Detroit News.
According to the Detroit News article, studies have shown that homework in elementary school has little impact on school performance. It isn't until children reach middle school that it makes a difference academically. But, some argue, doing homework in elementary school teaches children responsibility and discipline.
The National PTA and the National Education Association recommend only 10 to 20 minutes a night of homework for children in kindergarten through second grade, and 30 to 60 minutes nightly for those in third through sixth grade.
