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Cover Story

Grades 4-6

Summer Homework Should Be Banned

Nancy Kalish

Nancy Kalish coauthored The Case Against Homework. She believes there is no reason to overload kids with assignments during the summer.

Swimming. Softball. Camp. Book reports. It's pretty easy to recognize that one of these things does not belong with the others. Summer is not the right time for homework, and not just because kids hate it. There are some very good reasons why teachers should think twice before piling it on this summer.

Some educators say that doing book reports and math problems helps kids maintain their skills over the summer. But there's no research proving that kids who don't do summer homework experience long-term learning loss. Chances are, you won't forget how to compute fractions in a few months. You might be rusty in September. But a quick review in class should bring you up to speed. If it doesn't, you might not have been taught the skill well enough.

Summer homework can also take away from the important learning that goes on outside of school. This includes reading for pleasure, which helps you establish a lifelong love of books. Play is also essential. It gives you an opportunity to master social skills, such as teamwork, that will be key to your success as a working adult.

And if you are doing anything that helps you break a sweat, you are also helping your brain develop properly. Research shows that physical exercise is essential to proper brain growth in children. Plus, exercise helps keep you healthy.

Finally, it is important to consider how a load of summer homework will make students feel about returning to school. Should kids start the school year feeling burned-out and resentful? Or should they return to school refreshed and ready to learn? Shouldn't kids have time to just be kids and not little adults? The answers seem obvious to me. What do you think?

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