Work at Home, but not "Homework"

 

Following Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, we believe the evening hours should be a time of relaxed creativity marked by the enjoyment of one another’s company, not an occasion of tears, stress, or tension. Consequently, it is not our policy to assign traditional homework in grades one through seven.  Our students, however, do use the evening hours to work at home in some of the following ways:  

 

1. Nightly reading.  All of our students are encouraged to read at home every night, either alone or with a parent. One mother, a literature teacher, said, “I have books I have wanted to share with my girls, but in their previous school there was so much homework, we had no time to read together.”

 

2. Working on an area of need.  If a student requires extra help in developing an academic skill such as reading, penmanship, or math facts, we provide parents with materials to assist their child and make recommendations for practice times.

 

3. Creative writing.  A number of our students use the evening hours to initiate their own creative writing projects.  One eleven year old boy wrote: “I love to write stories and before I came to Plumfield, all my time was taken up with homework.  This year, at home, I wrote 75 pages of the first part of a fantasy trilogy.” 

 

4. Self initiated research.  A few students have used the evening hours to research areas of interest.  One eleven year old student ended up writing several pages on her family’s place of origin in Ireland, and commented: “It’s amazing how much work you do when it’s not assigned.” 

 

5. Planned work.  Some students use their time at home to complete their assigned work for the Friday deadline.

 

6.  Extra practice.  A student may choose to bring work home in order to give more attention to a concept he/she struggled with that day in class.  One of our third graders, in her second week with us, took her math book home to practice a particular type of problem.  Her mother (who was relieved by our no homework policy) said, “Wait a minute!  I thought they weren’t going to give you homework!  Did they send that book home with you?!?!”    “Mom, Mom, it’s okay!  I took it myself.  I’m taking responsibility for my own education. That’s what we do at Plumfield.”

 

7. Outside studies.  A student may decide to take an evening course in some area of interest.  For instance, one of our 7th grade boys took a course at North Shore Community College which trained him to become a baseball umpire.

 

8. High school prep.  Reading and note taking assignments are given to 8th graders and are discussed in class.

 

Our Promise

Our teaching staff will never:

 

give your child an assignment which will require you to run out and buy supplies.

give your child an assignment which will require you to figure out what the

   teacher wants.

give your child an assigned report or project that needs to be completed by a certain

   date and which somehow becomes your burden.

 

When reflecting on our homework policy, it may help to bear in mind:

     

Our students are not passive learners; they are reading and writing all day.

 

They research their science projects in designated books and on designated websites, and prepare their reports using the school’s Power Point, Excel and Word programs.

 

They are taught to organize their materials, manage their time, and meet deadlines.

 

All of this is accomplished in the hours of the school day so that you can have a peaceful evening in the sanctuary of your own home.

 

For some of the latest research on assigned homework in the pre-high school years, see "Rethinking Homework" by Alfie Kohn