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Thank you Ayelet Waldman for a refreshing article. I can't believe the figure quoted for the recommended duration of homework -- 10 minutes per grade! For me, nightly math assignments alone took minimum 1 hour starting in 5th grade. In junior high, I routinely spent 3 hours or more on homework per night. (For reference, I'm 26 years old now.) Certainly at least part of the explanation for that load is that in my entire K-8 education, I was never a class with fewer than 30 students. The most common size was 33 (I believe that was also the legal limit). I remember the in-school hours being hopelessly chaotic, with teachers spending what seemed like at least half the day standing in front tapping their toe, waiting for the class to settle down. By high school, many students were cutting class--to do homework! Other letter writers have suggested that parents' complaints about homework load are part of the "dumbing down" of our educational system. I'd like to see a system that actually educates students during the school day, instead of merely housing children for a few hours and counting on well-educated parents to pick up the slack at home.
