Recently, we were advertising for a job opening at the school. The week after the competition closed, a young woman arrived at my office with her resume. I explained to her that the application was too late for the current position (we had filled it that morning), but that I would keep her package on file should something else arise in the future. She was flabbergasted. "How could it be closed?", she demanded, "the deadline was only last Friday!"

When I was growing up, the fear of missing a “deadline” was all consuming. There were deadlines for assignments, deadlines for applications, deadlines for tax returns; you name it, and there was a deadline. Miss that key date and you were dead in the water! 

But, to be honest, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, we have become a society of “fudgers”. Everything seems to be up for negotiation. Payment deadlines get routinely missed, airline check- in times are ignored, movies buffer their published start time with a raft of previews and ads; and even the concept of “last call” at the pub seems to have blurred. We are more than willing to pay a little extra, argue a little harder, or lie and obfuscate a little bit more if it means that we don’t have to be held to a hard and fast rule (that, of course, should apply to everyone else!) We live in a society that feels that it always has the right to renegotiate. Even the so-called "fiscal cliff" that kept me awake over the holidays turned out to be something that actually could be pushed back a few months without serious consequences. 

Is it any wonder that our kids sometimes take the same attitude towards their bedtimes, their computer use, or their homework? At Kenneth Gordon, we work with many students who have challenges with their "executive function" (that is the ability to organize and execute a specific task in a time-effective way). We help them to develop organizational strategies and external, intermediate "deadlines" to pace themselves and to create short-term, attainable goals. It is hard work for them to rewire themselves to think in this fashion especially when all of the empirical evidence from the outside world would seem to indicate to them that it is not that important!  
So, the question is, do deadlines really matter? Are we simply more enlightened about things than a generation ago, or have we slowly begun to miss the point? 

In his book, “Predictably Irrational” MIT Prof. Dan Ariely tried an experiment with three classes of undergraduates taking the same course. In Class A he announced three assignments with due dates of: October 15th, November 15th, and December 15th with penalties for lateness. 

In Class B, he announced the same three assignments and stated that they could be submitted anytime on or before December 15th. And, in Class C he gave the students a choice, they could opt for the same ground rules as Class A or the same open ended approach as Class B. Class C, split pretty much down the middle. 

At the end of the term he had his TAs mark the papers (he was a university prof after all!) and found that the class with the deadlines — who were forced to be organized and systematic - scored the highest, the class with no deadlines (who could procrastinate and then rush at the end) scored the worst, and that the other class split the same way depending upon what option they chose.

So what does this mean for us and our kids? The research is clear, deadlines and clear, well-defined goals do work (just ask anyone who has to report weekly to weight watchers!) Secondly, it is our responsibility as parents and educators not to just ensure that our children meet deadlines but that they learn how to effectively set, and follow them as well. There will come a time when there won’t be a teacher or parent setting and enforcing the rules, and our students have to be prepared and supported, by us, to master that skill for themselves.

It is time that we adults began to model the attitudes and behaviours that we expect from our children. So hurry up and take care of this, you are on a deadline! 

Don’t be confused, this is not a quote from one of your children. This is a quote from you and me and every other parent who has had to hover over their daughter or son sitting motionlessly at a recently cleared kitchen or dining room table with pencil poised over a blank page.

For most of us, who endured years of our own homework purgatory, there is a cruel irony about listening to our parents’ voices come out of our own “enlightened” mouths as we encourage, cajole and threaten the next generation about the consequences of unrequited homework expectations.
One of the issues that haunts children who struggle with a learning difference is the volume and frequency of homework. It has come to be conventional wisdom that the watershed of learning is a child's ability to complete any and all assigned tasks sent home by their school. Parents will often wade into the process; researching, scribing, editing, even completing their child's homework rather than have them face the imagined wrath of their teacher if they arrive at school in the morning with a blank or half-completed page. There are even educators and schools that claim to have "high standards" based upon the height of the mountain of homework that they pile on each evening. The successful completion of this work, relevant or not, is seen as a clear indicator of future academic success!

Having said all of that, the traditional approach to homework is not the sacrosanct institution that we sometimes believe. There is considerable research evidence to indicate that years of school-assigned homework may not have had the impact on the teaching and learning process that we once thought.

For example, a recent study  in the United States found the following discouraging statistics:  65% of homework assigned is unnecessary and marginal (at best) to student learning; 45% of all homework is never referred to again in class; 75% of overnight work is not marked, shared or evaluated in any way to ensure accurate completion or to address concerns; 80% of “taken up” overnight homework is peer reviewed to ensure completion or accuracy but there is not meaningful analysis to aid in student understanding; 35% of all submitted homework is never marked or returned; and, 67% of of what is returned is not done so in a timely fashion.

Are you depressed yet?

Given these stark statistics, should homework simply be scrapped? The answer, obviously, is “no”, but what is clearly necessary is a rethinking of how we use homework to enhance learning, the extent to which the homework that is assigned reflects the academic priorities and philosophy of the school, and, the establishment of a truly collaborative approach to the assigning and completion of homework that involves on-going discussions both among educators, and between home and school.

According to the research, homework definitely has a role in a number of specific instances: when reinforcement of a newly  learned concept is clearly necessary; when time (as in “there isn’t enough in the school day!”) is a factor; and, when you want to actively engage parents in the learning process.  So, what can schools do to ensure that students and their parents appreciate the value of doing work beyond the end of the school day? To begin with schools have to ask themselves so hard questions: Is what we are assigning essential? Is it better done at home than at school? Is it effectively integrated into our programme plan for the next day? Clearly, some things simply must be done at home in the evening or on the weekends: completing work not finished in school; review and revision of written work; test preparation; assigned reading; project work; research that is beyond the resources of the school; in short, almost anything that can’t be accomplished within the constraints of a regular school day. At Kenneth Gordon, we try to minimize the amount of homework and keep it only to essentials. Our students work hard enough during the day without piling in on in the evening as well.  Our goals are: to monitor the type of tasks that we assign for students to do; to prune the unessential, prioritize the rest; and, to maintain collaborative discussions among staff to guard against inconsistencies and overloading.

What are we asking of you in our drive for more effective homework?  Be involved. Sit at the same table as your child and do some of your own "homework". Read with them and take the time to ask them about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Please try to remember to monitor your children’s assigned work and look to see not just “how much” but also “how valuable”; and, let us know if you think that it is out of whack. And finally, if it becomes too angst-ridden a process, tell them to put it away and let it go.

One request from every educator and every school is to try not to negotiate away your child’s responsibilities for homework with a late night email to the teacher. We are a flexible  bunch, but let your child take ownership of the situation. We will work it out with them.

In the final analysis, we are all working in concert to manage the learning process at school and at home in a way that is meaningful and respectful to the needs of each and every child. Homework should always be a bridge between home and school and never a battleground!