Forced to Choose Between Loves

I share your frustration with such rules. In my experience, they grow out of the activity adviser's and the school community's understandable pride in previous triumphs and a desire to have only the best and most committed players on the team or in the band. In my mind, this is akin to letting only top students take AP, even though other kids would find their academic skills greatly enhanced by such courses. I hope the professionals who run these activities can enlighten me on what justifies excluding students who want more than just one or two activities while they are in high school.

Dear Extra Credit:

My child will be entering kindergarten in Montgomery County in the fall. I have been to open houses at several elementary schools, and at each school I'm told that my kindergartner will get 10 to 20 minutes of homework most nights, and that this will increase by 10 minutes in each grade. Here is what one school's Web site said:

"Homework is one of the many activities in our students' total school life. It reinforces and extends practice of skills and concepts addressed instructionally. Homework is designed to collect evidence of student understanding and application of what has been taught. Students are responsible for completing their homework in a timely manner. Homework also promotes positive habits of learning in our students."

Help! I'm certain that I have read in your column about research that concludes that homework at such a young age not only does not accomplish what schools tell you it is designed to do, it in fact does the opposite: Children that young cannot be "responsible" for doing the homework, it doesn't help learning and it causes boredom and dissatisfaction with school. What can I do to eliminate homework for children in Montgomery, at least in kindergarten through second grade? Who sets homework policies? Principals, the superintendent, the school board? Is my mission doomed?

Karyn Wendelowski

Bethesda