As Homework Grows, So Do Arguments Against It

As Homework Grows, So Do Arguments Against It - Washington Post

The issue with homework, relative to Blacks, is really simpler than pedagogical impact, as measured by experts. Like many things in life, the mere fact that certain people, in this case students and their parents, choose to tackle the workload challenge at all, reflects the most basic acceptance, desire and commitment to the value of education and a diploma. Mind you, in the case of Black kids, nearly 45% fail this hurdle to success in life.

Doing homework requires the basic parental assimilation of its worth, passed on to the child, toward becoming educated and productive in society. The attempt alone, to satisfy the homework demand, requires a level of parental guidance, some might call it intervention, that sets school night curfews, turns off televisions, gameboys, x-boxes, and cell phones, so that kids can get down to making the reasonable attempt to become educated.

The challenge, for Black kids, is not how effective, on the margin, homework is in particular amounts, formats, or even focuses. Rather, the challenge for these kids and their parents is that nearly half of them, inferred in graduation rates, complete little or no homework at all. This revelation compliments a greater list of non-advancing behaviors that evidence a rejection of education as the road to a better life.

Indeed, the efficacy of homework needs to be constantly challenged, but the advancing benefit derived from the commitment to complete it, in its evolving status, is paramount and cannot be served by eliminating or watering it down.

James C. Collier

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