U.S. Students and Homework

The other day when I was out for a Saturday stroll near the beach I came across an Asian student sitting by himself at a table studying.

Two hours later when I again happened by the same spot I found the same student still hard at work.

During this time I noted that scores of American students were sitting around doing nothing—just "hanging out."

Then I saw in USA Today that a significant percent of American grade school and high school students don't spend any daily time at all on homework. The highest percentage spend a hour or less a day on homework.

In a University of Michigan study involving 8,000 U.S. families, 50% of the students said they did no homework. The percentage of 9-, 13- and 17-year-olds who reported doing more than an hour a weeknight on homework declined between 1984 and 1999.

Only 34% of 282,000 U.S. college freshmen surveyed by researchers at UCLA, reported spending more than an hour each weekday on homework during their senior year of high school.

This is the lowest percentage since the question was first asked in 1987.

At the same time, I know that there are many students—especially the ones trying to get into top universities—that spend an inordinate amount of time and effort on their studies.

Even so, if we are to believe recent studies, the majority of grade school and high school students in the United States, simply don't do homework.

At the university level I talked to one professor—who certainly doesn't represent the norm, at least at my university—who said he doesn't make out-of-class reading or writing assignments because many of his students work, "and they just don't have the time."

Asian students top almost every national test in the United States.

At the same time I see where some colleges are being pressured to reduce the number of Asian students because they are getting a "disproportionate number" of teaching assistantships and scholarships.

Does anyone wonder why?