This work is a compelling expose of homework - its negative effects, why it's so widely accepted, and what we can do about it. Whilst they're free of many of the worries of adulthood, one of the inevitable downsides faced by kids is the idea that after spending the day at school, they must complete more academic assignments once they're home. The results are predictable: stress and conflict, frustration and exhaustion. Parents respond by reassuring themselves that at least the benefits outweigh the costs. But do they? In "The Homework Myth", Alfie Kohn, one of America's leading educators and parenting experts, systematically examines the usual defences of homework - that it promotes higher educational achievement, "reinforces" learning, and teaches study skills and responsibility. None of these assumptions, he shows, actually passes the test of logic, research, or experience. So why do we continue to administer this modern-day cod liver oil - or even demand a larger dose? Kohn's incisive analysis reveals how a mistrust of children, a set of misconceptions about learning, and a misguided focus on competitiveness have all left our kids with less free time and our families with more conflict. Pointing to parents who have fought back - and schools that have proved educational excellence is possible without homework - Kohn shows how we can rethink what happens during and after school in order to rescue our families and our children's love of learning.
The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
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"A good book to have on hand when defending the idea of homework-free elementary schooling."--"San Antonio Express-News"
About the Author
Alfie Kohn is the author of ten previous books, including Punished by Rewards, The Schools our Children Deserve, and Unconditional Parenting, which have helped to shape the thinking of parents and educators across the world. He lectures widely and has appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", the "Today" show and many other TV and radio programmes. He lives with his family in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By catie
Format:Hardcover
As a parent have you ever yelled at your children to get them to do homework, have you tried to "help" them by fighting your way through masses of mass-produced worksheet and have you ever wondered if there was a point ? Did you give up a trip, a walk, reading, talking with your kids because they have homework?
As a teacher have you ever had a great lesson with your students and watch the joy go away and heard the moans as soon as you mention the word "homework"?
If the answer is yes then this is the book to read. Parents and teachers know it and Alfie Kohn proves it : homework is useless. Fight it , replace it with home learning and spend time with your kids doing what you and they like. It will "teach them" more thing than another worksheet.
As a teacher have you ever had a great lesson with your students and watch the joy go away and heard the moans as soon as you mention the word "homework"?
If the answer is yes then this is the book to read. Parents and teachers know it and Alfie Kohn proves it : homework is useless. Fight it , replace it with home learning and spend time with your kids doing what you and they like. It will "teach them" more thing than another worksheet.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Kohn's book on homework is superb. He systematically demolishes the 'popular culture perspective' on the benefits of homework and what it is designed to accomplish and highlights that, as prescribed, it can have a deleterious effect upon children and families. He is critical but not totally anti- homework - just anti-homework-as-homework-is-done. I like how he writes - and have read a few of his other books as well - and find even where I disagree, I am better off from being provoked into thinking about an issue from his perspective than I would otherwise have been.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Once again Alfie Kohn does the impossible - he breaks into the heart of our dearly held assumptions about human nature and in this case our views of homework for children and counterintuitively shows how wrong we are! This is so refreshing and liberating!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
well well
confirmed what ten years of teaching has told me. homework sucks. I've adapted my own homework provision to a more open, project based approach that has proved very popular, and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by s s todd
3.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable conclusions but heavy going.
Whilst the conclusion of the writer (that homework is of little, if any proven benefit) is vitally important, I felt the book is written in a dull and tedious way that will deter... Read more
Published on 1 May 2008 by Mr. K. B. Thomas
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