Excessive Homework Is a Theft of Family Time

Re “My Dog Ate My Argument,” Commentary, Dec 11: I find it astounding that Brian Gill and Steven Schlossman feel that the amount of homework children receive is not a problem. It is abundantly clear, at least in California, that homework is not the “prime window into the school for parents to see.” Rather, it is the prime means of having students and parents do the work of education at home that teachers do not have time to do in the classroom. Overcrowded classrooms and the school system’s fixation on teaching students to pass standardized tests have shifted an excessive burden of schoolwork to the home setting.

Gregory Katz

Laguna Hills

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Gill and Schlossman argue that students are not getting too much homework because of studies that asked children how much homework they actually did. What sensible person would use what students do as a measure of what they were assigned?

My daughter, in the ninth grade, has enough homework to occupy her for two to three hours a night, and occasionally for four or more hours, dealing her out of family life and much of what’s left of her childhood. Many of her classmates evidently do not share this diligence, as they frequently report to her that they did no homework on a night when she was up until 10 p.m. doing math problems.

If I were the father of one of these nonchalant youngsters, I might well object that too little is being assigned, but I would be dead wrong. These studies are of absolutely no value in determining what is really going on in the schools. Only the teachers know what they are dishing out, and in my district, they are as slippery as cellphone salesmen when it comes to owning up to it.

Tony Zito

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.