This week our letter to the Agnes Irwin parent community comes from Mariandl Hufford, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG), in follow-up of the Race to Nowhere special screening the CAG presented this past Monday night.
Dear Parents,
On Monday night, many members of our community gathered to watch the movie Race to Nowhere and to hear noted author and pediatrician Dr. Ken Ginsburg speak about authentic success for children and teens. Monday night was not the beginning, nor the end, of conversation on some tough issues. It was part of an ongoing dialogue among Agnes Irwin faculty and administrators – one in which we have engaged for some time – and one in which we will continue to engage with each other, with our girls and with our parents.
Monday night gave us new food for thought, as we widened our circle and welcomed the wisdom and knowledge of Dr. Ginsburg. Monday night provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on how we shepherd our girls through childhood and adolescence and how we will ultimately allow them to measure their success.
I know that in part, because of Monday night, the issue of homework has become a topic of conversation in our community. How much is too much? Does homework even accomplish what it sets out to do? What DOES homework set out to do? Can an academic program be considered truly rigorous if students do little or no homework?
These questions have occupied much conversation at school. In fact, our Upper School girls’ experience with homework is the topic of a practitioner’s research project I am completing for my graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania.
As you can imagine, I have read a substantial amount of research on homework: from its purported impact on achievement to the differences between how girls and boys tend to approach the task itself. And yet, I would be hard-pressed to tell you that I have definitive answers to the questions posed above.
The research is as revelatory as it is confounding – on the one hand sits academic literature that strongly promotes a link between homework and achievement at the upper grades (less so in earlier years), and on the other sits a body of research that calls all correlations between homework and achievement into question.
What is an educator to do? How do we know what is best for our students? And you, as parents, when does your encouragement become undue pressure?
While I cannot answer those questions, I do know a few things (and yes, the research backs me up on this – unequivocally):
1. You can gauge when homework becomes “too much” if your daughter is so exhausted from lack of sleep that her head hurts, or she has a stomachache.
2. Every child deserves at least one adult in her life who loves her unconditionally, as Ken Ginsburg talked about Monday night. Robert Brooks, one of my favorite writers about the healthy development of children, calls that person who loves so completely “a charismatic adult.”
We may not have the answers – but we will keep talking, we will keep grappling. And our girls will continue to be great for as long as the conversations continue to happen. Please e-mail me at
mhufford@agnesirwin.org if you have any thoughts or questions.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mariandl Hufford, Director
Center for the Advancement of Girls