The homework debate: Often overlooked is the boys angle
As this essay in Education News reminds us, homework remains a dilemma. Some argue that the bulk of “boy troubles” involve homework, as in…even if boys do it, they don’t turn it in. See Smart Boys, Bad Grades by William Draves.
I remain mixed. There’s plenty of evidence to support the observations made by Draves. When I visit schools, it’s clear that homework is a major contributor to the gender grade gap. Still, I have to assume that’s always been the case. How can homework explain the academic collapse we’ve seen only in the past twenty years?
Tags: homework
July 1st, 2009 at 6:32 am
I believe that at the heart of the homework debate is the fact that 80% of the teachers are female. Before my son dropped out of school for the fourth and last time, we had a meeting in the Principal’s office. When I asked his female English teacher to allow him to make up the homework that he was missing, which he claimed he was prepared to do, she said that she will not change for any student. Her female Principal backed her up, and he dropped out for good two months later. I never saw the English teacher again. I assume she simply luxuriated in the fact that her teaching load was made easier by the absence of my son. I think he could deal academically with the material. After I talked him into getting his GED, he later got a 640 on the verbal part of the SAT.