SHESPEAKS Your Power to Influence

It can be frustrating watching your child struggle through their homework and guiding them through some of the tough parts can help to move things along. But researchers are now saying that the more we help our kids with homework the more of a decline we will probably see in their academic achievements.

Today reports about authors Angel L. Harris and Keith Robinson’s book on the topic, The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement With Children’s Education. Through their research Harris and Robinson found that helping kids with their homework does not make their grades or test scores improve and if parents are helping on a regular basis kids can actually suffer a decline in their overall academic achievements.

Harris explains, “We need to do away with the assumption that anything parents do will help. That assumes that parents have all the answers, and parents do not have all the answers. Some of the things that they do may actually lead to declines in achievement – inadvertently, of course.”

A big reason kids may be suffering the consequences from having a parent help with homework is that they begin to rely on that help without actually learning to do it themselves. Parents often end up doing to the assignment for the child without realizing they haven’t helped teach their child a thing. High school teacher Vicki Davis is very used to spotting assignments completed by parents rather than her students. She says, “As a teacher, you recognize a student’s work. It’s like seeing somebody’s face every day and then all of a sudden, their face looks different.” She adds, “I don’t think most parents meant to do it. They just kind of start taking over.”

What do you think of the new research suggesting parents should help out less when it comes to their children’s homework?

Do you think parents helping with homework benefits a child or are kids better off flying solo?