Sorry Praxius we disagee on this issue.
Fair enough.
Homework teaches time management, self-reliance and a whole slew of other worthwhile skills.
Which they already learn in class with various periods, recess, tests, exams, assignments, etc. If you are late for class, what happens? When you are late at work or with a project for a client, what happens?
Many people have jobs that require them to upgrade skills and acquire new skill-sets and knowledge as the work environment changes.
And most pay for these couses to update their employees.... at least the ones I worked for. It is in their best interests. For myself, if I want to learn something extra on my own outside of the training/seminars/trade shows, that is my choice.
We don't expect nor grant children the authority to make critical decisions,
I do. The sooner the better.
we as parents have a responsibility to make decisions and judgments on their behalf.
Agreed, but what that is in paticular varies from family to family.
Partly this is because they lack the experience and sufficient immediate information to make an informed decision and homework although "school-related" reinforces the perception that learning takes place not only in school but througout a lifetime.
Sorry, I never needed homework to tell me this.... my house burns down at 9 years of age, my critical thinking tells me to get my ass out of the house before I die. I didn't have time to wait for someone to tell me what to do. That is something parents should teach their kids as young as possible, and doing 5 different homework assignments which take an hour each from each class you take doesn't teach you this, it teaches you that you have no life. And sorry, but life isn't all about work and money.
Expectations are what the world of employment is all about after all and if we fail to provice (Provide) a means whereby the student/child is given a non-critical opportunity to experience the pressure of expecting work to be performed that meets critical criteria we do them a disservice.
And coming from a son of a teacher who's been teaching since '74, who's also the rep of the teacher's union of his district, myself a student rep in college, student educator in the same college, and an after hours computer class monitor responsible for three classrooms in another college whereby I helped various other students with their assignments/projects..... one thing I learned over the years is that homework doesn't help anybody.
A student is forced to work on assignments outside of the environment in which it relates, during time in which they require to eat, rest and socialize with their peers and family, causes them to not only lose interest in what they are supposed to be doing, is burns them out in concentration of those subjects, they are only doing what they need to get done and do not absorb what is required.
Some jobs may expect you to take work home with you and work more..... that's their loss for taking such a job and bending over backwards being taken for granted. Most jobs do not force you to do this.
This is also why there is a labour board and regulations in the real world for people and companies to follow. Certain amount of breaks are required, safety proceedures are to be followed and worker's rights are needed to be met. some jobs are 6 hours.... some are 8, others can be 12, depending on what you do. School is on average an 8 or so time frame per day. Breaks are issued and assignments are passed out to work on. Due dates are also issued for these things, not just homework. Studies have shown that homework issued out has increased a lot over the years and now takes up most of their time after school. Heck, I remember when I was a kid I never got all my homework done, because I just didn't have enough time afterwards to complete it all. Before I knew it I was spending an extra hour or two past my bed time to try and finish it, then I'd be burnt out the next day, lose marks for incompleted work and then not have the concentration requried to concentrate on the stuff taught in class.... then it'd repeat.
People wonder why the overall SAT's and such in the country are dropping each year. It is because students are losing interest, don't care, stressed out, and it's because most of their lives are taken up by one thing, even outside of the normal time frame.
In the real world, how is one supposed to raise a functioning family that cares about one another when the parents are constantly out on business trips or need to finish that deal before the deadline during their personal time outside of work? This process doesn't work and is unhealthy. Children don't get the required attention from their parents, they go unchecked, and as important as homework may seem, so too is socialization outside of the school environment and so is family time. If school is supposed to represent and prepare them for the real world, then it should act like it.
