Editorial: Homework is excessive

An editorial in today's Houston Post takes on the issue of whether homework is excessive and should be abolished:

Assigning lots of homework seems what rigorous schools are supposed to, several teachers and principals admit. But assigning hours and hours of busywork can backfire, depriving a child of the free time he needs to develop. To be useful, homework must build on concepts already taught in the classroom and efficiently show a teacher the child has mastered the material. The teacher also needs to read and grade the homework promptly.
Homework that is relentlessly dull, takes the place of classroom instruction or completely devours a child's personal time thwarts mental development rather than enriching it.
Pro forma busywork can rob children of the sleep they need, and the essential unstructured time necessary for recreational reading, creativity and building relationship skills.
Nevertheless, a moderate amount of meaningful homework, about two hours a night for high schoolers, helps students practice what they've learned in school and prods their intellectual curiosity, say educators, including Mike Feinberg, co-founder of Houston's Knowledge is Power Program charter school.
It also might reinforce time management skills. Especially in low-income families with parents at work and few neighborhood resources, attending to homework cuts into the number of hours spent dully staring at television. That's no small educational benefit.
Splitting the difference, with what experts calls the 10 minute rule — 10 minutes per grade per year, starting with second grade — is a sane rule-of-thumb.
But even that shouldn't be blindly followed without scrutinizing what teachers assign and measuring its success. Our students' minds are too precious to be fed empty calories.