Homework

This evening Liz and I went to A's new school for a curriculum meeting. Ten days into term and the big difference - apart from its physical size, the number of children, getting up earlier and back later - is the amount of homework. An hour or two of it each evening. I don't remember getting that much when I was 11. I've only just learned of the '10 minute rule' - assigning 10 minutes of homework per day per grade, starting with 10 mins at grade 1 (aged 5) and increasing to two hours by grade 12 (aged 16). The research also came up with the following unsurprising statement: "The benefit of homework is lost when the parent completes all or most of the assignment for the student". Duh, really?