Say no to homework

Laditan wrote: “My 10-year-old loves learning. She independently reads 10-12 chapter books a year and regularly researches topics that interest her (right now she’s writing a story about wolves)… But over the past four years I’ve noticed her getting more and more stressed when it comes to school. And by stressed I mean chest pains, waking up early, and dreading school in general.” Too many children resent school or, at best, look at it as a chore. As Laditan points out, children are already in school long enough to make a work day.

“How does homework until 6.30, then dinner, then an hour to relax (or finish the homework) before bed make any sense at all?” she asks.

Well, it doesn’t make sense.

Think about it. Do you like it when you work an eight-hour day and your boss gives you “homework” to do after a gruelling day of work.

As Laditan rightfully points out, Finnish students spend less time in school than most children anywhere else in the world. They have less homework and yet they are among the European students who have the highest success rate in university.

Years ago, before I became a librarian, I used to teach English.

One of my first acts as an English teacher was to ban homework. It made no sense to me. Students went home and wrote bad essays — often filled with plagiarism.

They even had their parents write their essays for them. I know that because parents called up and complained about the grades they got on the essays they wrote.

All the important essays they get graded on in life are written in class — not at home. So I managed their essay writing and projects in class. I wanted to see their work every step of the way and understand how they conceptualised structure and where they had problems continuing.

They learned to write faster and better. They became more confident writers.

What I did assign was half an hour of reading a night. This is what everyone should be doing for life so I could do that guilt free.

On most days, we had a short discussion on the reading and a five-question quiz just to make sure everyone read. We decided together how much reading everyone could do a night so that slower readers would not feel pressure.

With no homework but reading, my students, who were generally remedial students, did the best on Advanced Placement (AP) tests in geography, history and English.

(AP exams are the equivalent of CAPE.) They were among the best writers because they practised meaningful writing in class and they read a lot.

I would say that students were generally and genuinely happy in my class because I also had many Advanced Level students who took my English classes as electives.

And do not think that they took my classes because they were easier.

My classes used a textbook that was used in beginning university classes.

This book featured nonfiction writing about pop culture, and the book was quite popular. But that is a different story.

Yes, Laditan is right. Children do need downtime after school. They need to play because we forget that playing is learning too.

We are robbing children of their childhood in the name of education, and it is simply unfair.