Homework

For any student, homework is a bane of his or her existence.

One father in Calgary has taken this bane to task and drew up a contract not necessarily to ban homework but to apply it differently and with less amount.

This leads to the question: is homework necessary?

I would argue: yes.

As a kid, I hated homework. I balked at it and waited for the last minute to do it. In retrospect, it wasn't prudent to do so. Not every homework assignment is pointless busy-work. It can also be an opportunity to review and practice the skill learned that day.

As I grew older and started teaching in South Korea, my North American perspective on homework completely changed. In Asia, education is one of the primary points in life. Shaped by Confucian ideals, much of Asia devotes its energies and resources to schooling. Hogwans- or private schools teaching certain subjects- were examples of the length to which parents would go to ensure their children were fully-fledged academics. Such hogwans could mean the difference between ending up at a top university or community college. As a result, children from the time they were seven years old had a fire lit under them. It was not uncommon to have students go to as many as six hogwans a week on top of going to regular school. Even their vacations were "working vacations". Imagine going to zoos or museums and then writing essays on them in the middle of August.

When I taught at these hogwans, I was expected to give my students English-language homework which, in truth, amounted to pointless regurgitation exercises that served only to show the parents that the kids were working. Writing a sentence five times doesn't count as constructive in my opinion. I would try to give my students homework that would require critical thinking rather than simply studying or rote memory work. Granted they had to review the daily lesson but they would also have to write their own sentences with the new words they learned or give me a "recipe" for a peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes they would be required to strike up an English conversation with their mums. For forty minutes a day, twice a week, in an homogeneous country, I did what I could. The homework, I believe, was taxing but not because it of the amount but because it required the kids to think critically about whatever English they learned that day. Anyone can say: "The fire truck is red" but how many can say: "The fire truck is scarlet in colour"? Yes, there are other words for red. I realise this is a simplistic example but when you consider that rote learning is the pillar of many schools here and abroad, a bit of word power and thinking on one's feet goes a long way.

When I returned to Canada and was informed by the students I was tutoring that a staggering twenty minutes cut into their TV-watching or hockey-playing time, I was purposefully indifferent. In South Korea, I saw kids fall asleep or have emotional meltdowns because the weight of their many private schools was bearing down on them. It was no surprise that I would have no pity for soft Canadian kids. Unless it was hockey, there was no real impetus to arrive at results. It is no surprise, therefore, that many students lag behind or become only marginally useful. This isn't everyone but it's enough to be concerned.

The problems in education in Canada, I feel, are threefold- the students, the parents and the teachers. Is the student motivated by the will to learn? Does he have a good attitude and work habits? Do the parents read to him? Do they encourage him to learn or take up a skill (Guitar Hero is a pretty strong argument against the perception that parents do encourage skills or hobbies. Why not actually learn to play the guitar instead of pressing a few buttons?)? Are the parents aware of what is being taught in the schools right now? Are the teachers motivated by benefits or desire to see a student excel? Is a curriculum properly balanced or watered-down so that student get little information and insight and topics therein can be completed by the end of the month? Are we all too pre-occupied (not necessarily busy) to care?

Homework does help the student practice and reinforce skills. Homework also teaches a student tolerance of unpleasant yet necessary tasks. Homework also gets the students to independently complete an assignment correctly and in a timely fashion. It isn't always pointless busy-work, as was previously stated. Some teachers do hand out homework for the sake it. This is wrong. Are the teachers expected by the powers-that-be to do so or are they inexperienced or even (hopefully not) indifferent to a student's skill level or time constraints? If a student does not know how to complete an assignment, is it because the teacher did not provide the students with the skills to finish the work or has the student been drifting off during a crucial instruction period? How much homework is too much? Twenty minutes every few nights can't be overwhelming. Are the parents expecting too little or too much? So a child doesn't want to do homework. That's not new. A review of the expected assignment is in order. Is the assignment something that can be done independently and with a little elbow grease? Some parents indulge their kids' whims and offer them a way out from a tedious yet important task. It might be cute when an eight year old pouts at math but not when he's eighteen. If the assignment is too difficult or overwhelming, why not discuss things with the teacher? I've found that unless a parent is unhappy with a test result and would rather have the teacher change it in an A, parents are very much absent from the academic scene.

I've posed these questions and observations because I think we are headed into a direction of softness and mediocrity instead of examining any underlying issues and dealing with them. Homework may not be fun but it is essential. Frowning at it won't make it disappear.

Just my thoughts.