John Hudome

Re-Thinking the Homework Struggle



Posted: Monday, February 09, 2009

by
John B. Hudome Innovative Consulting LLC

The battle to complete homework is one that has existed for as long as there has been homework. Students loathe it. Parents are conflicted about it. Teachers continue to give it. There are numerous schools of thought out there. Which is the right one? How much should parents do? When is enough, enough?

Parental involvement in the education of their is good. It's really essential to the process. The early grades are the foundation laying times. In grades 1 through 8, students establish habits. These habits can be good or bad, useful or self-sabotaging. The parent approach in Middle School should begin to change a bit. The student must become more independent and more responsible for the completion of work. In High School, the work must be turned over completely to the student. If it isn't, how will they learn to be independent?

Ask your child's teacher in early elementary grades for guidelines as to time and expectations with homework. Ask how much time should be given to homework. Many schools are advocating time limits, such as one hour for elementary school students. If the work isn't completed in the time allotted, a note is generally sent to school with the homework. This will allow the teacher to determine that perhaps too much is being given. Or, the teacher could conclude that this student is not keeping up with the others and a Child Study Team Evaluation is in order to determine if a learning problem exists.

Child Study Team Evaluations

These Child Study Team Evaluations are feared by many parents. This is unfortunate. There is nothing to fear. These evaluations are conducted by a team of education and behavioral experts. They usually include and evaluation by: a social worker; a psychiatrist; a school psychologist and a learning specialist. This team conducts each aspect of the evaluation separately and then meets to form a conclusion and craft a specialized learning plan if necessary. The parents are usually part of the plan.

There is absolutely no need to fear these evaluations or the determination that a learning disability may exist. Having a learning disability has no correlation to intelligence. Many bright high achievers in history had learning disabilities. The most notable of whom is Albert Einstein. Mr. Einstein had a learning disability that prevented him from succeeding in completing his education. We would all agree, however, that he was quite bright and well accomplished.

A Plan for Elementary and Middle Schoolers

I have been recommending my plan for many years to parents and students. It works. Actually implementing it is the only difficult part. Although it's easy to implement, it's partly counter-intuitive. Here's what it looks like.
  1. Do homework every school night. A "school night" is a night which precedes a school day. This generally means, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Sunday is optional and it depends on how your school assigns work. I think that students should have the weekends off.
  2. Do homework at a regularly scheduled time. Don't assume that the student will get to it a some point. Remember, we're teaching structure and responsibility. Do employers tell you to "come to work when you feel like working?" No, they don't.
  3. Do homework for regular length of time. Don't just allow them to rush through the written work. By allowing a time frame, we teach students to review and learn after the assigned written work is finished. This teaches study skills.
  4. Do homework in a regular location. A regular work location adds to the structure. Girls may work well in numerous locations: bedroom, den, kitchen table. Boys on the other hand, almost always need the kitchen or dining room table location. If a study area is too quiet for a boy, they don't concentrate as well (I told you it was counter-intuitive).
  5. Do homework when a parent is home. Stop your fantasy that young children are independent and responsible to work on their own. They require supervision.
Give this plan a chance. You'll like it. It simplifies things are takes the game out of the process.

High Schoolers

Talk to your local school. But, most schools will tell you that you have to let go now. You have to let them do it on their own. This could mean success or failure. Either way, it's time for them to do it themselves. You can take an interest. You can ask questions. You can point out that you see them doing a great job, or, that you don't see any work being done. The report card will tell you if they are completing work.

A big part of successful parenting is raising independently functioning adults. It has to start sometime. Check with your students school. But most will tell you that it's time for you child to succeed on his own. You and he will both feel really good about it. And the best part, you can stop yelling.

Conclusion

The approach is different with different age children. The needs of each may differ. But developmental stages play an important role in how we decide to approach the homework issue. Our job as parents is to raise competent decision makers. If we make all the decisions, how will they learn to make them on their own? This is as good a place as any to start.

Incidentally, many eduactional experts believe that homewrok is an out-dated idea. They believe that schooling should be completed in the classrooms. They also believe that an extended school day is necessary to accomplish this. I guess it's a two edged sword.

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