Homework 'damages' children and creates family tensions

[Bonzo77]

At least these are the words of Dawn Moore, head of King Alfred School, north London.

 

 

http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/general-coffeehouse-chat-514/news-current-affairs-topical-discussion-12/1185395-homework-damages-children-creates-family-tensions.html

 

She believes that children work hard at school and need time to play and to relax afterwards. She also feels homework creates too much tension in the between parents and children.

 

My 4 year old started school this year.......even he gets homework!?

 

What's your opinions on this one??

[RonJeremy]

My 12 year old is doing a project on this subject at the moment - for ..... homework! Oh the irony.

[aliceBB]

Young children (up to 11) learn (or are capable of learning) every waking hour. They will learn through play (especially tactile play), through being outside and through interaction with adults. As long as they are not just staring passively at a screen when at home, they should not need formal homework. The problem with setting it routinely in primary school is that children can come to see it as an unpleasant chore, before they even reach the stage where it can be useful in helping to encourage independent learning.

 

Secondary school is plenty early enough for formal homework and even then it should not be 'for the sake of it', but when there is a meaningful task to do which can usefully be done, independently, by the child. In an ideal world, there should be enough time in the school week to fit all the curriculum in during lessons, so homework would be optional extension work for those who are interested. In reality, there never is time.

 

But you're a long time dead, with homework

Edited October 9, 2014 by aliceBB

[Mecky]

I'm sure some parents are up to helping their kids with school work. Even if a kid is adept, they'll forget 95% of the stuff they learned at school if they don't use it regularly

[cgksheff]

Most of the early "homework" is made up of spellings, reading, handwriting practise and learning "times tables".

Supportive parents did this kind of stuff anyway.

Since, so many children no longer get anything at home, schools have had to resort to prompting support through "homework.

[Mr Bloom]

I think my kids schools have just about got the balance right, to be honest.

 

That said, sometimes there seems to be a 'lull', followed by a massive push with short deadlines that puts tremendous pressure on children and their families - I do wish schools would organise sensible homework timetables and ensure teachers stick with them!

 

Also, with regard to the marking of homework, my kids can sometimes be waiting up to a month to get a piece of work back, marked. I don't think this is acceptable, as the kids have forgotten what they wrote by then and it devalues the teacher marks/comments then.

[Guest]

Also, with regard to the marking of homework, my kids can sometimes be waiting up to a month to get a piece of work back, marked. I don't think this is acceptable, as the kids have forgotten what they wrote by then and it devalues the teacher marks/comments then.

 

Then that's an issue with the teacher in question and nothing to do with homework in general, speak to the school if you're unhappy.

 

I didn't get homework until secondary school and never had issues.

 

There are so many parents these days that just don't support their kids at all and it's usually the ones that don't want to help that are moaning about kids being given homework.

[L00b]

What's your opinions on this one??

Homework is, by definition, personal work outside a supervisory context (even if the homework if subsequently checked by parents/a personal tutor).

 

Doing it regularly teaches kids self-motivation and self-application, with a bit of workload management thrown in, and parents can tune that with a bit of goal-orienting as well if the child might need it.

 

I make sure our child has homework to do every day (not that much, but consistently: maths, reading/writing, French, violin practice), as the school's only homework every week is a very small set of tick-box maths exercises on some online portal or other, which is wholly insufficient (IMHO).

 

I've had "homework" my entire life since the first year of primary, and to an extent still to this day (under requirements of Continuous Professional Development). Never did me any harm, in fact I like to think a goodly amount of personal diligence, work capacity and planning and self-motivation stem from that. In primary and secondary, not handing your homework on time was second only to being peer-ridiculed for a bad mark.

Edited October 9, 2014 by L00b

[Bonzo77]

Homework is, by definition, personal work outside a supervisory context (even if the homework if subsequently checked by parents/a personal tutor).

 

Doing it regularly teaches kids self-motivation and self-application, with a bit of workload management thrown in, and parents can tune that with a bit of goal-orienting as well if the child might need it.

 

I make sure our child has homework to do every day (not that much, but consistently: maths, reading/writing, French, violin practice), as the school's only homework every week is a very small set of tick-box maths exercises on some online portal or other, which is wholly insufficient (IMHO).

 

I've had "homework" my entire life since the first year of primary, and to an extent still to this day (under requirements of Continuous Professional Development). Never did me any harm, in fact I like to think a goodly amount of personal diligence, work capacity and planning and self-motivation stem from that. In primary and secondary, not handing your homework on time was second only to being peer-ridiculed for a bad mark.

 

Does it teach them self motivation and application though? I don't think it does in all cases. I think it can also lead to resentment. When you think about it, school is quite a difficult period of your life, especially if you are trying to apply yourself. It's constant lessons from 9am till 4pm, with short breaks in between. Plus there's the social aspect and, depending on your age, the physical changes you go through.

 

I know times have changed since I was at school, but we did get homework every night, and most of it was pointless. I think I'm with the head teacher on this one. Introducing homework towards the last 2 years of school sounds like a good idea to me, when kids are starting to get their teeth stuck into a few meaty projects.

[aliceBB]

If you support your child in learning to read and write in the early years, give lots of praise and make learning enjoyable, they will fly by themselves without the need for extra schoolwork outside school time. However, if they are tired when they come home from school (as 4-7 year olds usually are) and do not want to do extra spelling or maths practice, it is counterproductive to force it. Children (and adults) learn very little unless they are motivated to do so. You can be made to learn through fear, but you forget the content quickly and just remember the fear.

 

Learning lists of spelling out of any useful context is almost always unprpoductive, btw.

 

I'm sure some parents are up to helping their kids with school work. Even if a kid is adept, they'll forget 95% of the stuff they learned at school if they don't use it regularly

 

:rolleyes:Why would they forget 95% of it when they are using it every day at school?

Edited October 9, 2014 by aliceBB