Homework Rant

Before a child enters the Fourth Grade, giving that child homework doesn’t do the child or his parents any good.  It is a crime against families, and kids and parents know it.   When a nine year old boy with a folder full of worksheets comes home, he knows that the school-day isn’t over.  He knows that he’ll get a break before he has to hunker down and work.  This is not a happy kid.

Young kids with backpacks full of work learn to be surly.  They may start  to work independently and to employ what they have learned in school.  They may take pride in what they accomplish .  All this may be true, but something that is  true is that homework can bring on surliness .  When he walks through the door, an eight year old kid with homework already has something he wants to avoid. 

Making sure he does it becomes the parents’ chore.  Parents are the ones making kids sit down at the kitchen table and work.  The parents are the ones who get to say fun things like, “get your butt in that chair  and settle down!” , or, “It doesn’t matter that your best bud wants you to meet his new kitten,  you’ve got a report due Wednesday!”  If parents say it too much, the kids may think they like yelling.  Who wants to eat dinner with someone who yells and doesn’t care about kittens?  Why should a kid believe that his mother wants to hear about wall-ball if all she wants to talk about his Amelia Earheart diorama?

When I was eight, my parents and I played charades and sardines in the evening; not every night, but enough times that I remember playing.  I played with my brother.  We were all watched television; our favorite show was M*A*S*H*My parents read to me.  I read books, but I read them when I wanted to read.  School-nights were never riotous parties, but they times when we had fun.

Schoolwork started coming home when I changed schools and entered the Fourth Grade.  It was part of moving to a new school with older girls.  I’d outgrown the Brooks School which I’ had attended (and loved) since I had been three: time to move into a bigger world.  Homework was part  of the change, but I never liked it.
During the Spring before I graduated from The Brooks School, , my new school sent me a list of books from which I could choose my Summer reading.  I loved Summer reading, and didn’t think of it as work.  Expecting children to read during the Summer isn’t homework, it’s a fun challenge.  I’m all for Summer reading.

As a parent, I do not approve of giving nightly homework to kids in the Third Grade. That said, if my son has to do homework, he has to do it well Goddamnit!  It is my responsibility to sit by him and help him with his work.  I proofread and correct.  It’s my job.  If children have to do homework, the parents have to help them.  At the end of a long day, it is tough on everyone.  Parents and kids all need the rest.  Nights would be more fun, and we deserve fun.

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