Was it really that bad?

The bane of my existence at the moment is the homework chore of an afternoon.  The kids have spent since 7.45am in the classroom and we get home at 3pm in the afternoon.  There is no real break for them to run around.  My 3rd grader has lunch at 10.40am and they sit in the cafeteria. There is no recess because of the required curriculum – sadly the other 3rd graders seem to be able to have a recess.  My 1st grader has lunch at 11.40am again he just sits in the cafeteria and if he’s been good he’ll get recess.  So it’s totally understandable that they are mentally tired at the end of the day and all they want to do is play and not sit down and face the pages of homework they have.  Unfortunately if they don’t do their homework, they get into trouble. Don’t get me wrong their teachers are wonderful and feel the stress of a higher power they have to answer to.

My recent plan has been to set the timer on my phone and the moment we get home I give them 30 minutes to snack and play.  Usually they just play and once the timer goes off they always want a snack before they sit down and do their homework. It’s been working but everyday its still a battle to get them to sit down and do it.

By the end of the afternoon I’m stressed because I’ve been talking rather loudly at them to get their homework done. They’re stressed as well and can’t concentrate and by the time dad gets home, well let’s just say I think he wants to turn around and get back in his car and drive back to work, even though that’s a stressful place too! Oh add in the dinner preparations and well I’m ready to run screaming down the street. 🙂

Yesterday was a particularly harrowing day and in the evening I was thinking that when I was growing up I never recalled putting this much stress on my mum and vice versa. In fact my mum never sat down and helped me with my homework I did it myself.  But the thing that really resonated in me was the fact that at their age I didn’t have the volume of homework they get. In fact I hardly recall getting a lot of homework during my primary school years. It got me thinking, did I turn out badly? Am I uneducated? Did I end up in a dead end job?  The answer is a resounding NO!!  And I certainly didn’t have the amount of stress my kids are getting.

My question is, what is the real value of homework? Does it really improve your employment outlook? I feel for my kids because there is so much pressure put on them to perform in their homework and various tests. So much pressure if they don’t keep the grades up they won’t get promoted. It’s unhealthy for them I’m sure.  Plus the required pass mark is 70%. I’m pretty sure when I was in school a pass mark was 50%. Not sure what it is nowadays. To be honest, I feel for the teachers as they are under as much pressure as the kids to perform, to achieve goals etc.

Whatever happened to letting kids be kids and play in the backyard, ride their bikes in the street.  When did it change to making them feel so much pressure that they end up in a heap at the end of the day?  When did the focus change to kids having homework in more than one subject just about every night?  Was it so bad when I grew up that most of the kids I went to school with ended up in dead end jobs? I think not, most of the people I went to high school with have all achieved some pretty awesome career goals. We didn’t turn out that bad for a generation of no homework in primary school.

I guess I missed the memo that said having no homework was really bad.

NF