Research: The latest National Center for Families Learning survey found that 60 percent of parents admit they face chronic struggles helping their children with their homework, which is up about 10 percent from last year. Parents complained about their level of involvement in the process, not having enough time, not understanding the subject matter, and experiencing push-back from their kids as specific challenges.
Practice: At Chrysalis we view homework as a measure of independent learning, meaning that we ask parents to minimize their involvement in the process. While it may be important to help your child by setting aside for homework, we want and need to know if your child struggles with or is stressed by the assignments we send home. This is crucial information for a teacher and an important element of personalization. In our elementary and middle school programs homework is typically done in class or study session. We take purposeful steps to expand students’ independence and increase their capacity to do homework over time. We may choose not to assign homework when a student isn’t ready because we know it has to be purposeful to be meaningful. So if you’re not feeling the struggle this year, welcome to the club!