Sorry Friedman, YOU Missed the Point

My Op-Ed review of Friedman's Op-Ed

I just read Thomas Friedman's article entitled Obama's Homework Assignment from Sunday's NY Times and didn't agree with most of it.  It may hold some truth in districts where kids are highly underprivileged and parents need to care a bit more about their kid's education, but in middle to upper income school districts I feel that kind of article would exacerbate many of the problems I see here in the Tri-Valley every day.  Friedman's type of logic keeps kids on the Race to Nowhere, spinning their wheels to get into colleges that only a small % will get into anyway, and following traditional definitions of success.  

We have to redefine success.  Friedmann seems to believe success is about high achieving kids, high test scores, and comparing ourselves to other countries - all of which can be accomplished by super-hero teachers and super involved, demanding parents.  Those performance-driven definitions of success lead to many of the problems he speaks of in the first place.  

The irony is that if kids were taught differently (by teachers and parents), where intrinsic motivation, creativity, problem-solving, and cooperation ruled, then all the other stuff would fall into place and test scores and high performance probably WOULD go up.  But demanding more of our already over-scheduled kids, or, expecting all teachers to be uber-incredible, or, yelling at our kids about how much time they spend on screens is not where our energies should lie.  Let's embrace their new tools and interests, let's look at them as people and not just as performers and work together with them (asking their advice) about how to improve education, one small, unique idea at a time.  Teachers and parents should be the supportive Guide on the Side, not the Sage on the Stage, as Alfie Kohn so aptly puts it.

Race to Nowhere coming to Pleasanton

In case you haven't had a chance to see Race to Nowhere, you will have an opportunity November 15, 2012 in Pleasanton. The Amador Valley High School (AVHS) PTSA Wellness Committee and the AVHS Challenge Success Team are hosting a Race to Nowhere screening at Valley Community Church (4455 Del Valle Parkway, Pleasanton) on November 15th at 6:30pm. This event is open to the community.

Race toNowhere is an award-winning documentary that highlights the unintended consequences of our pressure-cooker culture and education system. An eye-opening call to action, the film challenges our current assumptions about how to best prepare young people for the future.

Immediately following the screening of Race to Nowhere, a student moderated panel discussion of the issues raised in this documentary will be . Learn, ask and hear from our panelist:

·       Amador Valley High School's Administrators

·       Amador Valley High School’s Challenge Success Students

·       Members of the Pleasanton Unified School District

·       City of Pleasanton Student & Family Resources

·       Local Professional Resources

·       And other representatives from organizations that are connected to our students

Invite friends, family members, colleagues, and individuals that would benefit from this eye-opening experience! Reserve your space now by visiting this link. 

I'm an advisor to this film and highly recommend it.  It will open your eyes and hopefully inspire some personal and possibly even professional change in your life and community. 

Free Challenge Success Event

You and your entire community are invited to attend the 

Challenge Success Free Parent Education Session. 

The Knowledge to Navigate: Strategies for Raising Healthy & Motivated Kids

September 28, 2012, from 7:00pm-9:00pm

Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University

Our Keynote, Michael Riera, Ph.D. joins our Co-Founders, Stanford Senior Lecturer, Denise Pope, Ph.D. and New York Times Bestselling Author, Madeline Levine, Ph.D. for an interactive discussion about long-lasting success and how families and educators can help kids become meaningful contributors for the 21st century.

This event is hosted by Challenge Success. Please visit, www.challengesuccess.org to register and contact aalamar@stanford.edu more information.

This event is THIS FRIDAY, September 28th!

I have attended this free event several times, and strongly encourage you to attend.  I'd like to see Challenge Success teams begin in many of our Tri Valley high schools.  Challenge Success is a nice follow up to the film Race to Nowhere and all of the issues that are raised in the film that we need to continuously be working on - student stress, over achievers, resume building from an early age, college requirements, homework overload, lack of sleep, lack of balance, teen suicide, etc.

Homework Guidelines and Reflection

Are you ready for a new vision on homework?

Today the “Race to Nowhere" Team, as well as education and homework experts Alfie Kohn, Sara Bennett and Etta Kralovec will be presenting new Healthy Homework Guidelines to the National PTA in hopes of gaining their endorsement.

To see a sneak peek of a video they’ll be playing for the PTA promoting a new vision for homework, go here.

I am on the Advisory Board for the film "Race to Nowhere" and I support Vicki Abeles' efforts to bring homework to the agenda of the National PTA.

As Alfie Kohn says in the video, "Homework may be the greatest single extinguisher of children's curiosity that we have yet invented."

I read Kohn's book "The Homework Myth" in 2007 when my oldest son was in 7th grade. A typically happy, fun kid who loved life and liked school, he became depressed and seriously stressed out in 7th grade. Much of that was due to a bad experience with a teacher, with a subject (math), and with homework that year. It isn't an exaggeration to say he hated school that year and he will tell you even today how horrible middle school was for him particularly in 7th grade.

That was the year I got together with another parent and we took our homework concerns to the district. It ultimately ended with a creation of a homework task force (which I was on) and a revision of the district's homework policy.

Are things better now in my son's school district with regard to homework quality and quantity? Hmmm...every teacher and every child and every situation is different, so there is no gross generalization I can make about this.

The main point I try to make to parents is: don't stress out about your children's homework and grades. Their homework is THEIR homework, not YOURS. If they don't understand an assignment, they need to ask the teacher. They need to advocate for themselves. It is not your job to teach your children their assignments or do their homework for them. You can offer assistance when they ask you, but only be on the sidelines. Don't take over their work.

I'm speaking to an educated group of parents that read this blog, who are very involved in their children's lives. Perhaps we need to be a bit less involved, and let them take more ownership of their own activities and school work? Perhaps it's time to NOT stress about our children's academics and performance, but instead reflect on their spirit, goodness, character and playfulness- to enjoy their childhood before it is gone.

High Stakes Testing

A National Resolution on High Stakes Testing is circulating now and I encourage you to sign it.

This resolution is modeled on the resolution passed by more than 360 Texas school boards as of April 23, 2012. It was written by Advancement Project; Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; FairTest; Forum for Education and Democracy;MecklenburgACTS; Deborah Meier; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.;National Education Association; New York Performance Standards Consortium; Tracy Novick; Parents Across America; Parents United for Responsible Education - Chicago;Diane Ravitch; Race to Nowhere; Time Out From Testing; and United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.

Here is the link to sign the petition.

Sleep Patterns in Teens

My teenage son recently turned me onto a new App called "Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock." I noticed he was going to bed with his smart phone tucked near his pillow. He showed me the App he is using to calculate the number of hours he sleeps each night. The App also has an alarm clock that wakes you up when you are in your lightest sleep phase.

I have always been very strict about making my children go to bed at a decent hour, and they still give me trouble about my non-wavering bedtime rules (they are almost 16- and 18-years-old and the current rule is bed by 10pm on weeknights and 12am at the latest on non-school nights). I do believe all the research that suggests how vital sleep is, to everyone, especially to growing bodies and I allow my boys to sleep in as much as possible. I've never been an advocate of the extra early period their high school offers, choosing sleep over more credits.

I like this Sleep Cycle App because it shows us exactly how many hours we sleep each night and I like how it is supposed to wake you up feeling refreshed instead of feeling beat. But it does require that you go to bed at a decent hour, in order to feel refreshed.

This was from the App's information:

"The typical adult will re-enter REM roughly every 90 minutes. Each time REM lasts a little longer. Upon completion of REM, the body re-enters the sleep cycle again and will typically do so 4-5 times per night.

Non-REM is thought to help physiological processes "reboot", while REM is thought to work through psychological needs.

Recent research is showing that REM sleep is necessary for processing new information, in other words learning. We start out in life spending about 50% of our time in REM sleep, but after about the age of 10 we stabilize to about 25% in REM.

When we are deprived of sleep we spend a longer amount of time in stages 3 and 4 of non-REM during the next sleep period, verifying our body's need to "reboot". That also means we'll spend less time in REM sleep, leading to irritability and emotional problems."

And this recent article from The Washington Post confirms how important sleep is for teens: "Sleep Deprivation and Teens: Walking Zombies."

From the article, co-written by Vicki Abeles, Director of Race to Nowhere:

"A 2010 study in the journal Sleep found that teenagers who go to bed after midnight are 24 percent more likely to suffer from depression and 20 percent more likely to consider harming themselves than those who go to bed before 10:00 p.m...

Not only is too little sleep affecting teens, but so is their means of staying awake. Many rely on coffee, caffeinated soda, and energy drinks. Some take Adderall or amphetamines. In Massachusetts and New York they can now stay up with the help of a lipstick-sized canister of inhalable caffeine. The Journal of Pediatrics recently concluded that energy drinks are “never appropriate for children or adolescents,” citing the harmful “neurologic and cardiovascular” impact of caffeine on teenagers.

So how can we help stop our kids from racing on empty and losing years of essential sleep? The first step is to realize how much we contribute to perpetuating a work ethic that celebrates pushing ourselves and our children to the limits. We need to treat sleep as essential to our teenagers’ well-being and success by teaching them that sleep is as important as nutrition, exercise, studying, and free time. Over the past several years we’ve created national guidelines for eating and exercise, shouldn’t we do the same for sleep?"

Well, if national guidelines don't work, individual guidelines may.  So I suggest you be as strict as necessary with your children of all ages regarding sleep! You and they won't regret it.

The Secret to Success? Character.

When you think of character traits what comes to mind?

Bravery,

citizenship,

fairness,

wisdom,

integrity,

love,

humor,

zest for life,

appreciation of beauty,

social intelligence,

kindness,

self-regulation,

gratitude,

compassion,

grit,

self-control,

optimism,

curiosity,

etc.

In the NY Times article What If The Secret to Success is Failure? the author talks a lot about character development in students.

He specifically mentions 2 categories of character:

“moral character,” which embodies ethical values like fairness, generosity and integrity;

and “performance character,” which includes values like effort, diligence and perseverance.

I've noticed that elementary and middle schools are very concerned with teaching kids about moral character traits. Posters line the halls with slogans like:

“Treat everyone with respect”

“Be aware of other people’s feelings"

"Find ways to help those whose feelings have been hurt.”

“Practice Good Manners"

"Avoid Gossiping"

"Help Others”

High schools focus on performance character traits like:

"Be the best"

"Achieve your goals"

"Never give up"

"Be creative"

"We are number 1"

This reminds me of the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. We start out learning how important it is to be a good person (moral character traits) and then we go to school and end up learning how important it is to succeed and compete (performance character traits). I realize this is not always true for everyone in every school, but in my experience watching my boys go through the public school system for 13 years, this has been my observation.

As the article continues, “When I think of good character, I think: Are you fair? Are you honest in dealings with other people? Are you a cheater? I don’t think so much about: Are you tenacious? Are you a hard worker? I think, Are you a good person?”

“Sure, a trait can backfire. Too much grit, [for example] and you start to lose your ability to have empathy for other people. If you’re so gritty that you don’t understand why everyone’s complaining about how hard things are, because nothing’s hard for you, because you’re Mr. Grit, then you’re going to have a hard time being kind. Even love — being too loving might make you the kind of person who can get played. Character is something you have to be careful about. Character strengths can become character weaknesses.”

“Race to Nowhere has helped to coalesce a growing movement of psychologists and educators who argue that the systems and methods now in place to raise and educate well-off kids in the United States are in fact devastating them."

"Our kids don’t put up with a lot of suffering. They don’t have a threshold for it. They’re protected against it quite a bit. And when they do get uncomfortable, we hear from their parents."

"And yet we all know — on some level, at least — that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can."

"The ultimate product of good character: a happy, meaningful, productive life. [In order for] students to succeed...they first need to learn how to fail."

So, what was the lesson from this article for me? The secret to real, meaningful success in life is not forgetting the moral character traits we learned as young children. And, a little hardship and failure goes a long way.

My Kid Wants This Crazy Life...

I'm linking to a blog called Playborhood. I've liked many things I've read in this blog and this article called My Kid Wants This Crazy Life, So What Can I Do? I particularly like. Please read it and leave a comment if you like.

In this blog there is also a great suggestion for a holiday gift for younger kids - a custom made map of your very own neighborhood. I thought this was brilliant. Instead of driving our kids all over the place to different activities, let's try to encourage play in our own neighborhood in the new year. This map may help kids want to stay close to home, play and explore.

Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere

There’s a lot of hype right now about the new educational documentary Waiting for Superman. I saw it last spring and took some notes on it. These are my notes:

Ideas from Waiting for Superman that I thought were true:

- We all were promised the ideal that public schools could work
- We are placing our children in the hands of luck in public schools
- We all have a different definition of a great school
- A good teacher is the answer
- NEA is the largest campaign contributor to democrats
- NY rubber rooms waste $65 million/year
- The kids who get hurt are the ones in the middle
- Tenure was originally meant for university professors only
- Teacher’s unions were originally set up to protect women’s rights, yet 100 years later the union is still a major force
- Teacher’s unions say we shouldn’t make distinctions among teachers [then how do we reward good teachers or fire bad ones?]
- Cal State remediates 50% of freshman
- It is a lie that disadvantaged kids can’t learn

Ideas from Waiting for Superman that I question:

- Charters like KIPP http://www.kipp.org/schools are the answer
- A college education automatically means a career
- 1 in 5 charters produce good results (define good results)
- Up until 1970s US schools were best in the world (how was that measured?)
- Bill Gates’ emphasis on math, science and engineering only as the answer to saving schools

I’m thrilled educational documentaries are getting a lot of exposure right now because I’m on the Advisory board for the film Race to Nowhere. If you get a chance to see any educational documentaries, please do so, but if you have to choose between Race to Nowhere and Waiting for Superman, I’d recommend Race to Nowhere. And, here’s why…

Those in the media who are promoting Waiting for Superman claim the film can fix education. Be wary of anyone who claims to be able to fix education. Race to Nowhere offers a grassroots change, especially when it is screened in local theatres and schools that have discussions after the film. The film’s website also offers a facilitation guide to aid in post film discussions. RTN admits that education’s problems are vast and complex, and change needs to come from many places, including from within.

Another reason I’d recommend Race to Nowhere is that most readers of this blog will be able to relate to it. It highlights several schools in suburban communities and one urban school. I’m guessing that most readers of this blog live above the poverty line and in the suburbs, so the schools mentioned in RTN will look and feel familiar. Waiting for Superman is mainly about poor, urban schools and mentions only one suburban school, in Redwood City.

Waiting For Superman praises charter schools like KIPP. KIPP is a very regimented approach that claims to transform disadvantaged inner city kids with poor test scores into college bound students with high test scores. While this may be true of some KIPP students, KIPP schools seem to disregard a developmental, individual approach and turns kids into products that must produce at a certain level.

Even though not every charter is a good school, I like the idea of charter schools because they give parents more choice about where to send their kids to school. If there are several charters to choose from, parents can decide for themselves what is a good fit for their children.

In Race to Nowhere an innovative school is shown as an example of a school that works. This is the Blue School in New York. There are many wonderful charter and independent schools across the country. Please take a look at my sidebar on this blog under “My Recommendations – Noteworthy Schools/Programs” to see some that I’ve found to be worth checking out. One approach that I’m particularly impressed with is Big Picture Schools.

And lastly, while Waiting for Superman tends to blame the teacher’s union for many of education’s problems, Race to Nowhere doesn’t blame any one group but rather blames all involved parties. RTN asks us to question our own lives and try to make changes starting at home.

Here is a good review and comparison of Race to Nowhere and Waiting For Superman:

In my opinion, I prefer RTN because I identify with it more, but both documentaries are worth watching and if Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere help begin a national conversation about myriad issues gone wrong in American public education, that is a very good thing.

If you feel that RTN should get as much media attention as WFS, why not Face Book about it or write an editorial for your local paper or mention Race to Nowhere each time someone talks about Waiting for Superman?

Your thoughts?

Race to Nowhere Fall News

If you haven't already had the opportunity to view the documentary Race To Nowhere you will have many chances this fall.

On Sept. 30 and Oct. 4, 2010, in conjunction with National Child Health Day, the film will be viewed simultaneously in dozens of locations around the country. It will also open for one week only at select theaters in Los Angeles and New York beginning Sept 10.

If you are interested in seeing the film, please go to the Race to Nowhere website for details about nationwide screening locations and to purchase tickets. The screenings are also being used to fundraise for schools.

There will be many bay area screenings for those of you who live here in the East Bay. I will be helping to moderate post film discussions on Sept. 30 and Oct. 4 in the bay area. I hope you can attend one of the dozens of screenings scheduled this fall.

The DVD release date has not yet been set, but you may pre-order a copy of the DVD here. The focus for the fall remains on the power of bringing communities together to see the film and discuss how the issues are impacting students, teachers and parents.

Please join the Race to Nowhere Face Book group to show your support and to see all the latest RTN news. You may use these materials for promotional purposes in your school, community, neighborhood, church, etc...

How can you personally support the film's message?

As we begin the school year let's try to remember to promote balance during the after school and weekend hours. Family time is sacred and should be valued highly. This will mean different things for different families and individuals.

Some suggestions as we dive into a new school year:

Family meals - have as many family dinners as possible each week

Homework - don't let it rule your family's life and don't do it for your children

Extra curriculars - don't schedule so many that you and your family are constantly dividing your schedules and are not able to have any down time

Reading - promote reading for pleasure over many other time consuming activities like watching tv, video games, doing too much homework, electronic messaging, etc.

Let’s try to make the Race to Nowhere become the Road to Somewhere this school year.

Please leave a comment with any thoughts or more suggestions of how to support the film’s message.

Bumper Stickers and Bragging

In my conversations with parents or in conversations I overhear around town, I’ve noticed that many parents publically mention their children’s grades to one another.

It goes something like this:

Me: How are your kids doing these days?

Another Parent: Great. Yea, _____ is getting a 4.7 this year. We are so lucky with our kids. _____ has never even brought home a “B.”

Me: Holy cow, that sounds like (s)he’s been really working hard.

Another Parent: Yea, we are so blessed. They are really great kids.

Or, a FaceBook entry from a Proud Parent: “ ______ got a 4.0 this term. We are so proud of her/him.”

Or, a bumper sticker: “Proud Parent of an Honor Roll Student at _____ School.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being proud of your child’s accomplishments, but let’s think about the message we parents are sending when we announce their grades in public. When we publically proclaim our kid’s grades, we are focusing on their performance instead of focusing on them as whole people. When we do this it’s easy to believe their (good or bad) performance determines WHO they are and HOW they are. I’m reminded of this in the documentary “Race to Nowhere,” when one of the teachers talks about this performance-driven society. Derrick, a teacher in Oakland reflects, “You never knew if he was a good kid, you only knew he was a good student.”

Another reason I’m not fond of talking about my child’s grades publically is I believe it is an invasion of privacy. Adults would never dream of asking each other publically how much money they made last year, yet they don’t have any qualms about telling friends what their child’s GPA is. I personally find it a bit offensive when someone asks me directly or indirectly what my child’s grades are. My child’s grades are his business. Not mine, or my friend’s. If we expect our children to take ownership of their grades, then we must give them the respect they deserve by allowing them to monitor their own grades and make adjustments when they feel it’s needed.

Is it ok to bribe your children to get better grades? That, to me, is like bribing your spouse (with a new gadget or vacation or massages for a year) if he or she brings home a bigger paycheck. Would we ever do that? No! Yet we do it with our kids. What good will come of bribing kids? It will most certainly improve their grades, but at what cost? They may cheat or lie to get a better grade. They may even develop stress-related illnesses to get better grades. And, bribing or rewarding takes the focus off learning. Our kids are supposed to be getting excited about the new things they are learning in school and in life. If we bribe them to get a higher measurable result on a test or in a class, we are overriding the importance of learning with the importance of the outcome--the grade, the number.

It is true that we live in a numbers driven society. In fact, our definition of success is often determined by things that can be measured numerically – grade point averages, salaries, price of house we own, price of cars we drive, price of college we attend, etc. It’s easy to get caught up in this, and harder to stop. But we must stop this focus if we want to value the whole child and his or her learning experience.

The next time someone mentions their children’s grades in public, what are some good responses? How about, “That’s great, but does he/she have any hobbies or time for fun things outside of school?” or, “What else does he/she like about school besides getting good grades?” or, “Who are your child’s closest friends these days?” or, “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about my kid’s grades, but I’ll tell you what he/she is really into these days…”

My husband had a great idea for a bumper sticker. Instead of “My child is an honor roll student” he suggested, “Honor the student, NOT the roll!” And, here’s another one I like, “At ____ school, EVERY student is an HONORED student.”

What You Can Do

The "Race to Nowhere" documentary website now includes a petition. I've copied it below. You can go there to sign the petition.

"We invite you to add your voice to a growing movement of educators, parents, medical professionals, policy makers and concerned citizens who want to see real change in education policies and practices.

Too many students in all grades in the U.S. are under undue performance pressure and stress, get too little sleep and exercise, have too much unnecessary homework, and attend schools that are overly focused on standardized test scores, grades, and/or college admissions. Too many teachers are unable to engage in quality teaching because they have inadequate resources or are under too much pressure from federal, state, district and board mandates that force them to “teach to a test” as they attempt to “cover” an unrealistic volume of content.

As a result, students are no longer in classrooms that challenge them to solve complex problems and think creatively, to work collaboratively on projects, to explore issues with real-world connections, and to develop the real skills needed to succeed in the 21st century and the global economy. Many students are exhausted, anxious, disengaged, unhealthy and unprepared for the future.

Petition

We the undersigned demand educational policies and practices that recognize EVERY child as a “whole child” and promote quality teaching in EVERY school so that every child has an opportunity to engage in meaningful learning, recognizing there are may paths to a successful future.

We ask to see a transformation of U.S. education in the 21st century and demand policies and practices that are in line with the known developmental needs of children and adolescents and which authentically engage students in developing inquiring minds without interfering with their right to a healthy childhood.

This petition will be presented to all major stakeholders including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, members of Congress, as well as members of state boards of education, state legislators, and local boards of education. We also encourage the use of this petition in your local school community."

Please pass on the link to friends, family, students, educators, spouses, etc. I've also included a direct link on the right side bar of this blog.

Why a Blog about Homework?

Homework is a hot button topic. Anyone who has ever been a student, is currently a student or who is the parent of a student has an opinion about homework. Today when I Google “homework ” I find 40,100,000 results. Many of these homework sites offer tips to help children with their homework and accept the status quo – that homework has been a part of the American public school tradition since the early 1900s and will remain a big part of our education system for many years to come.

I hope not.

But I didn’t always feel this way. I’m trained as a middle and high school teacher of English, history, and reading. During my teacher training, I accepted and believed in the validity of homework. After all, I went through school, did some homework, became a teacher and turned out fine, so homework must have helped me achieve those goals, right?

But I didn’t have a lot of homework as a child, and I didn’t mind doing the homework I did have. It wasn’t until I had my own children that I really began to question the value of homework. But, sadly, that didn’t happen until they were in the 6^th and 8^th grades. Why did it take me so long to really examine their homework and question its importance?

It took me so long because I believed everything I was told about homework. “It reinforces learning. It teaches discipline and responsibility. It prepares students for class…”

But what happens when it doesn’t do those things? What happens when I did everything I was told to do by the school – set up a regular homework routine, gave my children a healthy snack before they start their homework, provide a quiet, well-lit place for them to do their homework – yet they still struggled with it?

What happens when we explored more avenues of homework help for one of our boys in particular (multiple tutors, special education resources, psychological testing, medication) and he still struggled with homework?

At some point, I finally stopped blaming my child for his homework limitations and started blaming everything else around him. I blamed the school, I blamed the teachers, I blamed the administration, I blamed the system, I blamed myself, I blamed my parenting, I blamed it on his ADHD. But when the blaming didn’t change the fact that he still struggled with homework, and still had hours and hours of it, I finally changed my attitude about it.

All this homework turmoil was a blessing in disguise.

One day I finally started really looking at the homework he was being asked to do. I read “The Homework Myth” by Alfie Kohn and I had a revelation about homework. I agreed with almost everything Kohn wrote in that book, and felt a huge sense of relief that I wasn’t the only educated person out there who disagreed with the idea of homework and hated what it did to our family evenings, weekends and holidays. “Most kids hate homework. They dread it, groan about it, put off doing it as long as possible. It may be the single most reliable extinguisher of the flame of curiosity.” (17)

I found Sara Bennett’s website www.StopHomework.com and that became an excellent daily resource for me and helped me see that there were many more educated people all over the US who disagreed with the idea of homework. I also read her book, “The Case Against Homework,” and got many good ideas from it. I read countless Internet articles and more books on homework. I talked to and emailed people about homework. I learned about Challenge Success, Denise Pope’s program at Stanford. I started learning about many other pro-child programs that shared my views of homework. See the sidebar “Recommended Blogs & Websites”

I enlisted the help of a friend, Julie, who shared my feelings about education and homework. We got a small group of parents together to talk about homework. We found that as soon as we starting discussing homework as a group, the talk quickly morphed into discussions of parenting, education, standardized testing, ADHD, teacher-training, college admissions, curriculum development, student stress, AP classes, childhood obesity, mental health issues, competitive sports, tutors, over-scheduled lives, finding balance, etc. We concluded that there were many problems surrounding homework and no simple solutions, yet we wanted to do something about it.

We took an informal email survey about homework from other parents in our district and got 100 responses that we collected in a spreadsheet. We brought that along with many articles and books on homework to a meeting we had with our school district’s curriculum instruction director. A week after that, the district (which serves over 27,000 students) formed a homework task force to rewrite the outdated policy. I was fortunate enough to be on the taskforce as a parent representative. The taskforce had 19 total participants – a combination of parents, teachers and administrators.

We rewrote the policy in under a year. It was a difficult process where 19 opinionated individuals had to agree on something cohesive to be presented to the Board of Education. I personally enlisted Sara Bennett's help during this process. While I think the new policy is better policy than the original one, I think it still has a long way to go to being a really great, “outside of the box,” forward-thinking homework policy. To read the policy, go here.

For example, I would have liked to include an “opt-out” provision where parents could sign a statement saying they are opting out of having their child do homework with no negative consequences to the child. I would have liked to see a statement included about the fact that any homework assigned would not be graded. I would have liked to see shorter time limit guidelines on homework. I would have liked to see that homework would be the exception and not the rule. I would have liked it to be more similar to Toronto’s homework policy. You can read that here.

Even if I didn’t get exactly what I wanted in the homework policy, being on that taskforce was a good experience for me and has led to other projects I’m working on now. See the film “Race to Nowhere.” The experience also helped me formulate more conclusions about homework. One of those is that homework is not the cause of, but rather a symptom of many problems in education.

Teachers often give homework because they say they don’t have enough time to complete everything during class time. If we changed the mindset from believing that we need to teach a set amount of information in a limited time, to focusing on individual needs and learning goals of each student, we would approach education differently.

Without pressures from above to fulfill state mandates and without pressures from administration to teach to a test, teachers would ideally be free to collectively and creatively decide how students learn best. This is no simple task, however, and it involves a shift in thinking about the principles of education that will then naturally lead to a change in practices of education. See my sidebar for my favorite books on education. And, another great resource I just linked to is this "Too Much Homework" page.

The good news is that there are great teachers and schools doing this, successfully every day. See my sidebar “Noteworthy Schools/Programs.” Even a big, public school can learn from these smaller schools and teachers that have discovered how kids learn best. Learning is an organic process, not a linear one. We can’t fill up a kid’s head with knowledge, have him do his homework, take some tests, graduate and call it success.

We have to figure out what turns kids on to learning and how they learn before we can help them learn. In our new technological age of constant information, we have to shift from memorizing and regurgitating facts in school to making sense of all these readily-available facts by analyzing, synthesizing, creating, innovating and problem-solving. We have to move from teacher as expert, to teacher as facilitator. We need more student choice and voice. We also have to redefine success in this culture.

The truth is, I don’t actually mind if my kids have homework, AS LONG AS IT TURNS THEM ON TO LEARNING, and as long as it isn't just a spewing out of facts, and as long as it doesn’t consume their whole evening, weekend or holiday. But what I've observed over the last ten years is that their homework usually does TURN THEM OFF to the subject and it's usually a teacher-created exercise focusing on how well they follow directions rather than on how they synthesize and use information. I've only seen a few really inspired assignments through the years.

Sadly, what usually happens is this type of scenario: After doing a time-consuming English project last June, my older son said, “I’m so glad that’s done because now I don’t have to read another book until next year when school starts.” That was a perfect example of a homework assignment that killed the joy of learning (and reading!).

I hear comments like this from my kids much more often than I hear comments about how excited they are about what they are learning in school. The things that excite them in school are their friends, the extra-curriculars, and the precious few days without homework.

As I sit here typing, my son (who is doing his homework) just said "I hate school. But school wouldn't be that bad if we didn't have homework. Why do we have homework on the weekends?"

I rest my case.

Race to Nowhere - at the Mill Valley Film Festival

I met Vicki Abeles, the producer of "Race to Nowhere" last year. A mutual friend put us together (thanks Liz!) after reading a Diablo Magazine article on homework. You can read that article here. It turns out that our husbands know each other, small world, and Vicki and I also learned we share a passion for educating people in our community about raising well-balanced children. Since meeting Vicki, I've been lucky enough to see her in action - making her film, promoting it, lecturing about it, networking about it. She has also included me as one of her Advisors to the film.

Diablo Magazine ran a short article on her recently. You can read that here. But in case you don't, here's a blurb:

Vicki Abeles was a high-powered attorney who practiced in the lucrative fields of corporate law and investment banking. Then, through friends, this Lafayette mother of three got the chance to help make a short film for education experts on how kids today are under intense pressure to succeed.

A career-switch lightbulb went off, and, with her new production company, Reel Link Films, Abeles entered the cash-starved field of documentary film. Like many others in this field, Abeles does not care about profits but about changing society.

With her first cinematic effort, she hopes to spark a national dialogue about the U.S. education system. She has seen how her kids and others suffer from being taught only what is covered on standardized tests, and how they are pushed to be superhigh achievers.

The school district my kids are in enrolled in (San Ramon Valley USD) promoted the film last year by allowing Vicki to show advanced screenings of it (in its various unfinished versions) followed by Q & A sessions with Vicki. These multiple public and private screenings were viewed by hundreds of parents, teachers and some students. The overwhelming response after viewing the documentary is usually something like, "Wow, what an eye opener! How can we change this type of thinking in our community? How can we help our kids?"

Race to Nowhere will hold its world premiere at the 32nd Mill Valley Film Festival October 10 and 18, 2009. You can get more information about the film festival and order tickets here. I just bought 2 tickets and I hope to see you there!

In case you can't attend, you can always visit the film's website www.RacetoNowhere.com and get information about future local screenings. You can even pre-order a copy of the DVD there. The film's website has a bunch of reading resources, website links, a blog comment forum, ideas for educators, parents and students, and much more. Check it out!