It's what's for dinner
by Katie Allison Granju
I was eating lunch with a friend the other day when he asked me whether I was happy that my three elementary-age children will soon be returning to school for the fall semester. I think I surprised him when I said that I actually don't look forward to the first day of school. I enjoy the more leisurely pace of summer schedules, and my kids do as well. But the primary reason I dread their imminent return to the classroom is homework.
I hate homework.
Homework has gotten a lot of press in recent years, as experts and parents have debated how much is too much and at what age children should begin doing it. But everyone seems to agree that in general, homework is a necessary and worthwhile part of the total academic experience for children. Everyone, that is, but me.
Actually, that's not exactly true. There is a small but vocal minority of parents out there—many of them homeschoolers—who question the point and purpose of homework, but sometimes I do feel like the weirdest mama on the block when it comes to my opinions on this topic.
Several years ago I attended a parent meeting at my oldest son's school in which all of us were asked to anonymously write down our ideas for school improvements on pieces of paper and then drop them in a hat. Then each suggestion was read aloud for discussion. When my idea—that homework be abolished—was read, everyone burst into hearty laughter. You would have thought I had suggested replacing teachers with chimps or something.
When the other parents stopped guffawing, I rather timidly raised my hand and explained that I hadn't meant my suggestion as a joke. I explained that in my opinion, five to eight hours of schoolwork a day during school hours was plenty for kids under age 14 or so.
"After all," I offered up, "We don't bring work home from our jobs each and every night, do we?"
In fact, when we adults return from our offices and factories and stores each evening, we look forward to relaxing at home and leaving work at work. Few of us would be interested in any job in which we were expected to do one to three more hours of paperwork each night after dinner. Yet, that's exactly what we expect of our kids.
When children attend school all day and work on homework all evening, it leaves little time for their own intellectual exploration. If, for example, something a child learns at school one day sounds interesting, she should have the chance to do some further reading, thinking, or talking about the topic at home that evening. But with a pile of homework to complete, that often isn't possible. Homework takes away most of the only time each day when a child might choose to read or write or draw for pleasure, curled up on the couch or under a tree in the yard. It eats up the period at night when fantastical Lego creations might be assembled or living-room theater takes place.
Homework also cuts into important family time in an age when family members are already separated all day long by our post-industrial jobs and schools and schedules. As a working, single parent with three children, homework often devours whole evenings at our house, leaving no time for relaxed discussion or even shared chores like cooking or cleaning up the kitchen. My children, who are separated by age into different classrooms all day long, are left with little time to connect and play with their siblings due to the fact that homework carries that artificial distinction over into our home life on weekday evenings.
I don't buy the argument that homework teaches kids responsibility. And even if it does, there have got to be better ways to impart lessons in follow-through and self-discipline. I'd rather raise a kid who loves to read or write for pleasure, help around the house, and debate interesting subjects with family than one who can complete five math worksheets in under 90 minutes.
I am aware that my minority views on this subject aren't likely to resonate with my kids' teachers this year any more than they have in years past, so I guess I had better get stocked up on the necessary homework supplies to get us all through the interminable weeknights that lay ahead: glue and blunt scissors for my kindergartener, pencils and paper for my third grader, and binders and blank CD-ROMS for my middle schooler. Oh yeah, and Tylenol and red wine for me.
Katie Allison Granju lives in Knoxville and is the author of Attachment Parenting (Simon and Schuster/1999). Her website is www.locoparentis.blogspot.com.
August 14, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 33
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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