Here is this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Papers:

Smartmom
was in one of her rages after attending Tuesday night’s discussion at
the Seventh Avenue Barnes & Noble with the authors of The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It.

And it wasn’t
just because she forgot to take her anti-depressants for a couple of
days (though that didn’t help — just ask Hepcat).

Smartmom was in
a rage because the book’s authors, Nancy Kalish and Sara Bennett,
confirmed something that Smartmom has felt for a long time: homework is
ruining everyone’s life.

There is almost
no evidence that homework helps elementary students achieve academic
success, and there is little evidence that it helps older students. The
authors draw on academic research, interviews with parents, educators,
kids and their own experience as parents at a Park Slope private school.

So what gives? If the research is so convincing, why do the schools persist in assigning super-sized amounts of homework?

In a word: parents.

Most parents are
unaware of the research and blindly believe that it’s good for their
children because the teachers and administrators say so.

But that’s not
the only reason. Parents want bang for their buck. From the Apgar to
the SAT, Slopers want high scores and high achievement from their
overscheduled kids.

For many
parents, the amount of homework their kids do is a badge of honor. Read
the subtitles: “My kid spent the whole weekend doing homework”
translates as “My kid is going to Harvard.”

But guess what?
If the research is correct, your kids can be super-achievers without
homework. In fact, one of the best predictors of academic success is
the family dinner table, which many local kids rarely have time for
because they’re, you guessed it, too busy doing homework.

But not all
family dinner tables are created equal. Sure, Smartmom’s family loves
to discuss string theory over pasta primavera. But some dinner
conversation is just not all that elevated.

A teacher did
speak up during the discussion at Barnes and Noble and defended
“well-thought-out homework” as beneficial for kids who won’t find
enrichment at home. And many parents, she said, think scads of homework
is a great way to limit the amount of television their kids watch.

But what’s so
bad about television, anyway? Less homework would mean that Teen Spirit
and OSFO could watch multiple episodes of “The Simpsons,” where they
can learn just about everything they need to know about western
civilization. And who can disagree that “House” offers a top-notch
education in medical ethics and cell biology?

So who’s right?
A teacher on the front lines or Kalish, a journalist, and Bennett, a
lawyer, who have spent the last few years trying to debunk an activity
that they said is detrimental to family relationships?

Since first
grade, Smartmom and Teen Spirit have had nightly battles about
homework. Buddha knows, she is not proud to admit that when Teen Spirit
was in third grade, she slapped (yes, slapped) him in the face when he
refused to write about a memory in his writer’s notebook.

“I don’t have any memories,” he said.

“Of course you have memories,” she said.

“Not any that I want to write about for homework.”

For those who
are familiar with these kinds of homework battles, the book offers
practical advice about how parents can change homework policies at
their schools.

At the
Berkeley-Carroll School, a private institution in Park Slope, Bennett,
a criminal defense appeals attorney, challenged the school’s homework
policy after discovering that her children were doing four hours a
night. And she wasn’t afraid to be dubbed a troublemaker when she
organized a parents group to discuss the situation.

After the
reading, Smartmom felt like throwing out every bright red homework
folder, marble notebook, homework organizer, and reading log in the
apartment. Especially, the ubiquitous reading log, where students are
required to document the name of the book and author, as well as the
number of pages, they read.

The whole idea
of making kids accountable for what they’ve read is a surefire way to
turn kids off to reading altogether. And that’s not a good thing, when
reading is the single homework activity that is associated with
academic success.

Smartmom found
herself very excited, even agitated, as she discussed Bennett and
Kalish’s book with Hepcat, who had also been at the reading.

“Parents of Park Slope, unite,” she shouted out as if processed by the revolutionary spirit of the anti-homework book.

“You have
nothing to lose but your children’s homework folders and years of
fighting about something that is useless and stupid!”

Standing on the green leather couch with her finger in the air, Smartmom suddenly heard Teen Spirit’s voice.

“Mom, Does this mean I don’t have to do homework anymore?” he asked softly.

“What are you kidding?” Smartmom replied.

“But you just said homework is useless and stupid,” Teen Spirit said.

“I said no such thing, buddy,” she replied. “No such thing.”