Homework sucks. Kids know it. Parents know it, because they spend so much time doing it.
Come on. Let’s not pretend that all kids go home, sit quietly at a table, finish their homework, then run outside and play. Around Australia – and around the world – there is a massive amount of parental involvement in homework. Maybe it’s not meant to happen, but it does.
I remember, years ago, looking over at a colleague’s computer at work, and seeing something about house construction on her screen.
“I’m just researching my daughter’s homework,” she told me. “She gets given so much.”
Her daughter was in kindergarten at the time.
So many parents do it. Maybe they test their kids on their spelling words for that week. Maybe they make that incredibly intricate model of an alien from a toilet roll. Maybe they rewrite that essay on the French Revolution.
They’re only doing it because they care about their kids, and want the best for them. But is it the right thing to do?
Top Comments
"the quality of teaching being given by parents is going to vary". Probably as much as the teaching given by teachers. The most important 'help' I gave my children was in attempting to decipher the incoherent, poorly spelled, crappy grammar instructions that the teacher sent home. Then they got on with it for themselves
I can understand teachers sending home practice sheets for math and spelling for younger kids, not as homework that has to be done, but as something to help them remember their lessons. For older kids though, middle and high school age, a couple assignments a week to reinforce lessons, but not the load they give out these days. I remember when I was in high school, I would frequently have hours worth of homework from each class every night and my parents couldn't believe how much I got, and this was almost 20 years ago. Now a days kids in elementary school come home with hours worth of homework and older kids are struggling to get theirs done for the next day. To make matters worse, the new nationwide curriculum, makes no sense to anyone, not even those who teach it.