SCHOOL HOME WORK IS FOR
REINFORCING LEARNING
OR
STRESSING LIFE?
Education is the prime topic at PVAF.....Home work from school has been
defined in many ways over the last century....Homework has also caused a lot of
social turmoil in different societies on this planet earth...
Jack Laforet, B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed., of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada., who
taught elementary school from 1957 to 1979 has this very thoughtful concept of
homework:
"These children [pupils in the elementary school] are at a
period when vital energies are largely consumed in physical development, and
consequently they must have time for rest and recreation.
The school has no excuse for infringing upon the right of children to
sufficient time for sleep and play and the right of the home to direct their
activities outside of school hours. There can be no doubt that both of these
rights are seriously encroached upon by the prescription of homework, ill
chosen in character and excessive in quantity.
For pupils in Grades I to VI there is ample time during the school day to
engage in the necessary activities satisfactorily without burdening them with
additional schoolwork to be done at home.".
PVAF invites YOUR COMMENTS on this subject of homework which is very
vital in the development of every child on this planet earth in all the school
years including university years...TO EXPRESS YOURSELF WORLDWIDE please
just click on the POST COMMENT in the title
of this news posting and write away.....
To read more on the above noted concept of homework by Jack Laforet pleas
click on the newspaper hilite to read the article from
Canada Globe and Mail: or click on the next
line to read it on this web site.....
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Homework overload stresses
out children
and
frustrates parents
By ROY MacGREGOR
Canada Globe and Mail: Friday, January 23, 2004
- Page A2
One thing about homework, it never seems to end . . .
Toward the end of the last school semester, one of these columns hit a hot
button on homework overload. A woman who once adored school as a student now
found she was a parent who despised it. One Grade 6 boy said he "hated weekends"
because there was so much schoolwork it had virtually eliminated play.
That one column begat a second when readers flooded in with their own concerns,
and even a touch of contempt for those they considered whiners simply trying to
get out of doing what must be done.
The deluge has continued, and so, with the new semester under way, we open up
the topic once again. Next week we'll offer the thoughts of a University of
Missouri professor who may well be the most insightful thinker in North America
on the one topic that has led to more family screaming matches than any other.
"It's the reason I smoke pot," writes one woman, highly educated with her own
very demanding job. "Honest to God, I'm completely stressed out.
"I can't count how many nights both kids and I have been in tears after hours
and hours of homework, long nights that end up with them going to bed too late,
exhausted and frustrated. It's insane. I don't know how or why this trend
started, but it's absurd.
"I now have two jobs, a manager and a schoolteacher! And I don't ever, ever
remember having to turn to my parents to help me understand my homework."
"Insanity," says another mother. "In Grade 6, my daughter was often awake until
10 p.m. working on projects. And she needed my help to accomplish these projects
(though I was always careful not to do it for her). I was always curious how
these children were expected to accomplish these projects without the help of
their parents.
"Are we out to produce workaholics?"
"Children need plenty of time just to 'be,' " writes a young father. "Homework
in elementary school is worse than useless. It is harmful, as it wastes their
valuable time.
"Childhood is a very short, but crucial period in life. It needs to be lived to
the fullest."
Long-time teachers wrote to say that part of the problem is the "homework
parent," the parent who insists on extra work for reasons that simply baffle.
"Put me," said one Alberta elementary school teacher, "in the 'homework is
stupid' camp, unless it means completing stuff you failed to do when you were
provided an appropriate amount of time in class." An Ottawa mother wrote to say
her 10-year-old daughter has been forced to drop out of a music program she
loved because the level of homework has expanded to the point where juggling
both is impossible. Another woman says she is simply fed up with being expected
to serve as her two sons' "personal assistant." Grade school, she says, has
become a "nightmare" for the entire family.
"We learned the hard way that any project that was student-produced only was
marked harshly. How lucky for my children that their grandfather was a graphic
artist.
"Grandpa got some awesome grades."
The most intriguing letter came from another grandfather, Jack Laforet, B.A.,
B.Ed., M.Ed., of Scarborough, Ont., who taught elementary school from 1957 to
1979.
Now 81, he says the dramatic rise in homework, particularly in the lower grades,
has reached an "abusive" point.
"My grandchild," writes the former teacher, "spends many precious hours engaging
in homework that one of his Grade 4 teachers claimed was something she studied
in Grade 10 math." He includes in his letter his own carefully preserved Program
of Studies, Grades 1 to 6, and refers me to page 14, "on which you will find a
passage regarding homework which is a reprint from a 1937 Program of Studies":
"These children [pupils in the elementary school] are at a period when vital
energies are largely consumed in physical development, and consequently they
must have time for rest and recreation. The school has no excuse for infringing
upon the right of children to sufficient time for sleep and play and the right
of the home to direct their activities outside of school hours. There can be no
doubt that both of these rights are seriously encroached upon by the
prescription of homework, ill chosen in character and excessive in quantity. For
pupils in Grades I to VI there is ample time during the school day to engage in
the necessary activities satisfactorily without burdening them with additional
schoolwork to be done at home."
"We must remember," Laforet concludes, "that some parents do not seem to resent
this imposition of homework as they have apparently bought the idea that the
greater amount of schoolwork will produce the whiz kids they never were.
"That their children are being burned out has evidently never occurred to them."
It should.
rmacgregor@globeandmail.ca
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