How Much Homework to Give Kids?

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How Much Homework to Give Kids?

To many kids in elementary schools, homework is a menace. It takes away quality time from a student’s daily life and activities. In Romesh Ratnesar’s article “The Homework Ate my Family”, Ratnesar mentions about a student named Molly and her daily routine. Her daily routine consists of “spending two hours doing homework, practicing the piano, doing more than 100 math problems, labeling the countries and bodies of water and reviewing a semester’s worth of science” (Ratnesar). Molly barely has time for dinner. Ratnesar also mentions about a girl named Christina who “does not want to go to middle school, high school or college because of homework” (Ratnesar). Jonathan Keys, a parent of two boys in Orange County, says that his “boys aren’t doing things normal boys are doing.” As a result, parents like Jonathan Keys complain that elementary schools are assigning too much homework to kids. They believe that the amount of homework should be greatly reduced in order to make way for quality family time and friends. Boys should go out and do things normal boys do, and girls should go out and do things normal girls do. As Jonathan Keys puts it, “Kids should go out, play, and have fun”. However, these parents are missing a major point: the real world does not work this way. Our homes and neighborhoods are surrounded by corporate buildings and government facilities. The employees of these corporate buildings and government facilities are not playing or having fun. They are busy trying to use their education to make a decent living. So the question is: how much homework should children in elementary schools get? I agree that some teachers give to students too much junk homework and not enough clas...

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...s. I strongly feel that elementary school children need to do at least 15 minutes of homework a night but keep a social balance as well. However, parents need to do their part in putting major emphasis on the importance of homework. If every parent this duty, our nation would probably rank number one in the world.

Works Cited

Allen, Carol. “Re: Child Life. This is Tu Do!!!!!” E-mail to Tu Hoang Do. 11 March 2004.

Keys, Jonathan. Telephone interview. 15 March 2004.

Mauldin, Deena. Lecture. University of California, Riverside. Riverside. 3 March 2004.

Van Linge, Mona. “Re: Child Life. This is Tu Do!!!!!.” E-mail to Tu Hoang Do. 12 March 2004.

Ratnesar, Romesh. “The Homework Ate My Family”. 25 January 1999: 312-319. Article. Perspectives on Contemporary Issues – Readings Across the Disciplines – Third Edition. Ed. Katherine Anne ckley. MA: Boston, 2003.

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