Newslinks

Clerics make moral case for legalizing pot:

At least 33 members of the clergy have endorsed ballot Question 7 on the November election ballot, which if approved would make Nevada the first state in the nation to allow people 21 and older to legally possess small amounts of marijuana and purchase it at government regulated and state-taxed pot shops.

The clergy argued the move would cut down on minors' access to marijuana, reduce gang-related violence and generate money for the state to help finance treatment programs instead of making drug dealers rich.

Unfortunately, it appears the question is doomed to defeat; it's trailing by 7 points or so in current polls. This would certainly make the smoke-filled atmosphere of the casino far more interesting, though :-)

Abolish homework?

High school teacher Phil Lyons has become a heretic: He refuses to assign homework.

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He also noted that his students achieved a 94 percent pass rate on the advanced-placement test, one of the highest in the country -- and a success rate that has risen since he jettisoned homework assignments.

However, later in the article, we have other, contradictory, evidence:

The most widely regarded analysis of the effect of homework has been done by Harris Cooper of Duke University, who synthesized dozens of studies over time. He just published his most recent conclusions, based on updated research. The six studies he deemed most reliable, which compared similar students who were assigned homework with those assigned no homework, found that in the short-term, homework boosted scores on unit tests of the material, whether it was second-graders learning number placement or high school seniors studying Shakespeare.

No great surprise there -- but does it stick over time? Do students with homework achieve better overall mastery of the subject down the road?

In 12 other larger studies that linked the amount of homework to how well students perform on national academic tests -- taking into account other factors that might influence the connection -- he reports that 11 found a positive link between time spent on homework and long-term achievement.

Among research without such tight adjustments for other factors, more than 70 percent found that homework seemed to have a positive effect, but age made a huge difference. In fact, the benefit was twice as large for high school students than it was for junior high students, and twice as large again for junior high students than for elementary school students.

But at a tipping point, too much homework actually seemed to have a negative effect.

So, as with all things, it appears moderation is in order. Some homework, to reinforce lessons, but not such a staggering load that it overwhelms the students -- and the overall value lowers noticeably with age. I'm glad to say that my son, who's been on the honors track at his school, has rarely had more than an hour's worth of homework in his first three and a touch years of school (although he frequently takes three hours to get it done, because the Procrastinator Gene bred true from his dad :-(

Interesting thought, though, and a good argument against the staggering load some schools place on kids.