This year Jon, my 6-year-old son, is doing the first course of primary education and as a result of leaving preschool behind on Fridays they always bring homework for the weekend ("to screw you up", as my grandmother used to say). There are not many, it is not to pull the hair, they are a couple of leaves, but in our case they are too difficult for 6 year olds and we have to help him yes or yes so he can take them to class on Monday.
After several weekends and after several sheets done I dare to criticize both the fact that children have duties, because I think they should not have them, and to criticize the type of duties they are sent, because I believe that children would have to be able of doing homework alone because, What is the point if we have to make them parents?.
I have never liked homework
As I have said on occasion, I have never liked homework. "Force me to do something and I will begin to hate it" is a phrase that can perfectly summarize what I felt as a child when I had to sit down to do homework. Even I got to hate books and reading because they made us read books and summarize them later, or explain them in an exam. My mother, I don't know who came up with the nonsense of pretending that forcing us to read the books we would like more. What a light. It is as if we are suddenly telling a child to write us summaries of a minimum of one page of the chapters of drawings he sees on TV.
Now, years later, I have overcome this aversion to books because now I feel like reading. I want to learn things, to read new stories, to spend the dead hours turning pages and, I assure you, that desire comes from me and not precisely from all the books that forced me to read.
Well, homework doesn't have to make children learn more and above all they won't get it too much if they're not motivated to do them. At home the time to do homework is almost an odyssey. The weekend is dedicated to doing activities that we all like, to visit family that we do not see during the week and to do some sport (well, especially Jon, who does hockey). Well, after all that, getting home and seeing the homework folder discourages anyone, and even more so because of the unattractive they are for children because they are very badly raised.
Motivation issue
I say wrong because for Jon to do his homework, Miriam has to read the sentences and explain them. Sometimes we even have to read them both to understand what they ask, and sometimes we have even met other fathers and mothers confessing not knowing what they were asking. This can be a real problem for many children if the school is confident that children learn things at home, when many parents do not know our language well, do not have average studies, do not know English or, directly, do not understand what They are asked and, consequently, cannot help children.
When I say that you have to explain the statements and help you with your homework, I want to say that in many moments you have to tell him the answers, because many questions are, of course, for older children. Considering that many of his class now start reading a little well, It is illogical to pretend that you may be able to read sentences and questions and that you may be able to answer them.
In fact, a few days ago I asked Miriam what would happen if we did not help him and we both concluded that the homework would arrive almost empty to school, but not only Jon's, but those of all the children. That is, from school they already assume that parents are going to become teachers over the weekend.
However, in the same way that my father never helped me with anything, I think that the children would have to do at home, at most, the same thing they have done in class: “today we have explained this topic, because you reinforce it at home". It seems that at home what we do is deepen and explain new concepts and with the methodology of answering complicated questions, the thing becomes more than tedious, because children are not very motivated to fill in the little leaves.
In addition, in our childhood we were not only able to do them, but we felt capable of it. Now, with duties that need our accompaniment, children immediately realize that they alone cannot do them, and it is not very educational to do things that help children lose (or not achieve) autonomy in life and work, I say.
The ideal duties
I focus on talking above all about motivation because the brightest schools, those that have stopped trying to throw up materials at children so that children then throw up on paper (homework or exams), have long since they don't put homeworkWell, they suggest them. They work in class actively, children participate continuously providing information, there is no bell that says the class is over, but it is allowed to continue a subject if the children are very interested in it (“what, are you learning a lot? Then come, let it be twelve o'clock and now all other matter ”) and so, when the weekend comes, the children are told that on Monday they will continue to discuss some topic and that they can contribute what they find during the weekend.
Imagine that you enjoyed a class and that, instead of giving yourself some boring duties that take time away from doing other things they suggest that you look for information on that subject so that on Monday you explain it to your classmates. A little different, right? Yes, the duties my son does are perfect to make children want to learn, especially if we end up making them parents. The freest duties, those that invite children to deepen the issues, help to think, help to feed the curiosity of children and helps them learn based on their motivations. That it continues to fail in this (after eight thousand educational reforms) has a crime.
Photos | Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious, Michael Bentley
In Babies and more | "The education system is anachronistic," documentary by Eduard Punset, All that parents can teach their children by completing school, do children have free time?
