Rachel Bennett loves playing soccer, spending time with her grandparents and making jewelry with beads. But since the 12-year-old entered a magnet middle school in the fall — and began receiving two to four hours of homework a night — those activities have fallen by the wayside.
“She’s only a kid for so long,” said her father, Alex Bennett, of Silverado Canyon, Calif. “There’s been tears and frustration and family arguments. Everyone gets burned out and tired.”
He is part of a vocal movement of parents and educators who contend that homework overload is robbing U.S. children of needed sleep and playtime, chipping into family dinners and vacations and overly stressing young minds.
The objections have been raised for years; increasingly, school districts are listening. They are banning busywork, setting time limits on homework and barring it on weekends and over vacations.
“Groups of parents are going to schools and saying, ‘Get real. We want our kids to have a life,’” said Cathy Vatterott, an associate education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who has studied the issue.
Much of the debate is driven by the belief that today’s students are doing more work at home than their predecessors. But student surveys do not bear that out, said Brian Gill, a senior social scientist with Mathematica Policy Research.
Instead, in today’s increasingly competitive race for college admission, student schedules are packed with clubs, sports and other activities in addition to homework, Gill said. Students — and parents — may just have less time, he said.
Karen Adams of Villa Park, Calif., who has four children, said that heavier course loads made sense for older children but that she didn’t understand the amount of work given in lower grades.
“I think teachers have lost touch with what a third-grader or a fifth-grader can really do,” she said.
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