Education Experience Unlocked: Is the homework battle worth the fight?

Homework is a hot topic. Some parents want extra practice for their kids, while others fight the daily homework battle with their kids. The question I’d like to pose is, why has the amount of homework increased? What are the benefits to students? Are there benefits? Well, I suppose that depends on the perspective from which we consider homework in general.

Homework is no new concept. Think back to when you were in school. Picture yourself there completing homework. How do you feel about that experience? I’ll just speak for myself here, and for me, homework was just another task on my list of to do’s for the day. It rarely offered me the exposure to engaging information that my teacher may have hoped for. Projects and display boards, honestly my mom made most of them (thanks mom!), and my learning remained stagnant. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not blaming my stagnation on the lack of time I spent doing display boards. Quite the opposite. As I look back now, after having spent so long in the classroom as the teacher, I can only conclude that what was missing overall from my educational experience was engagement.

Homework was a task I completed while watching my mom’s soap operas or Oprah. I did it out of compliance and the threat of losing privileges at home if it was not completed. Ditto sheets they were called back then. Now I realize how accurate that name was. I was in elementary school over twenty-five years ago and yet homework is still just about the same: ditto sheets. In their book, “National Differences, Global Similarities”, Baker and LeTendre draw attention to the concept that the everyday vision of schools is that “school is organized to educate and socialize children in a specific way that is directly linked to the future welfare of a particular nation.” (pg. 2) What does this view imply for our children?

Consider this, as adults we process the world as a list of must do and can do items on a to do list. When it comes to non-preferred tasks, we were taught to “persevere” or “push through” and just do it. Fast forward from our early educations to now, and this method makes sense considering the jobs we likely hold. Many people work somewhere they don’t love. They work hours upon hours completing tasks they truly aren’t passionate about. We now do exactly what we were taught to do: just keep doing the list until it’s done. I can say with one-hundred percent certainty that I do not want my children to end up in this situation! I feel that the implications of this idea of the future welfare of our nation and the way we educate children points to an unsettling scenario.

Homework has long been sold as a practice that impacts the academic performance of students. When asked early in my career why I assigned homework, I would have answered that it was intended to help kids practice the skill and perform better. Now, I’d say it’s to train compliance, which, now that I think about it, is likely what I would’ve answered if I’d been asked as a child. Homework varies from school to school, and at times, from classroom to classroom. Research does not show that homework has no effect on academic performance, however, time and time again it has not proven that homework does help. Makes fighting the battle with kids every night seem like an unnecessary stressor for families and kids. Yet education continues to support a growing amount of homework for students. WHY? Just why? Kids need to be kids, not workaholics in training.

According to “What Every Child Needs for Good Mental Health” by Mental Health America, “the basics for a child’s good mental health are unconditional love from family, self-confidence and high self-esteem, the opportunity to play with other children, encouraging teachers and supportive caretakers, safe and secure surroundings and appropriate guidance and discipline.” (mhanational.org, 2000) Nowhere in that description do we see a call for more academics (just saying). Children should be utilizing their after school time for things that they enjoy such as sports, clubs, family time and socialization with other kids. So, why doesn’t this happen? Well, it appears that as a society we are more concerned with training kids for their future job which will likely also ask them to complete endless tasks even when they aren’t engaged with the process and do not have true investment in the why of the task. It’s kind of sad if you really stop to think about it. In a nutshell, society’s broken construct for it’s employees is creating part of the brokenness we see in modern day education.

It’s time that we as parents and educators come together and put an end to the senselessness around us. It’s time to stand up for mental health in this country for everyone. This includes, and in fact should prioritize this, for our children. They deserve better. Families deserve better. Unfortunately in many cases, we ourselves as the adults, are so hard wired for compliance that we “do what the teacher says” even if there is no logic behind it. In any other facet of life do we just blindly follow directives? I know I don’t. Ask questions. When the answers don’t feel right or don’t make sense, ask more questions. Could that be uncomfortable, yes. Could the teacher feel some type of way about your asking, yes. Should that stop you? Absolutely not. Be bold. Be steadfast. That’s what it will take to make change happen.