It divides parents, both within families and at the school gate, like almost nothing else. Too pushy, not pushy enough, too many activities, not enough stimulation, and so on. And top of that list of education disputes, is homework; how much homework should children get, if indeed they should actually get any at ALL?
In June 2015, one of the UK’s top independent schools, Cheltenham Ladies College hit the headlines when it suggested it might ban homework altogether, to help prevent their pupils from suffering mental health problems.
But even before this, increasing numbers of schools reported cutting down on homework, or banning it altogether, in a bid to let children spend more time with their family or just relaxing and playing, instead of studying after school hours.
Two sides to every story
One camp believes in the over-riding importance of letting children play, learn through play, and become who they are by allowing their internal, natural talents to shine through naturally. For these parents, homework is a dirty word. A child shouldn’t work at home! They should be free to play and experiment, and enjoy their work-free childhood.
The other camp leans more towards stimulating a child’s mind by making it work, giving it lots of information, asking it lots of questions, and nurturing a love of learning through teaching them as much as possible. For these parents, homework is as essential a part of their child’s education as learning to read and write. Why not teach them more, if there is more to be learned, and enjoyed? It’s fun!
There is, of course, no right or wrong answer. All children are different, and where some learn best in a less structured, less tested way, others love being given tasks to do, lists to learn, and, believe it or not, many children like doing homework.
I was one of the latter. I loved learning and working as a child. A list of questions to answer was exciting for me. School projects were fun. If I couldn’t sleep, I would sit up in bed and do algebra questions. Hundreds of them. Perfectly happily. No really. I was THAT cool. But I enjoyed it. I liked tests. I liked homework.
I never saw it as a hardship, as a pressure, a chore or as something that caused me any kind of distress. It was something to do, it kept me from getting bored, and I liked getting it done. And when it was done, I went off to play.
On that note, I asked my 12-year-old son about homework. To watch him do it, you would think he absolutely hated it. It’s like pulling teeth, getting him to do his maths or Spanish every weekend. But to my surprise he told me that not only does he actually like it…and actually doesn’t think they get enough.
More to education than school
But whether homework per se is good or bad, somewhere along the line, the academic pressure on children in the last few years does seem to have ratcheted up a notch, and home tutoring, once the preserve of the very wealthy or in need of extra help, is now becoming a part of many normal households.
The proportion of children getting top-up tuition has jumped a third in the past decade, from 18% in 2005 to 25% today. In London, 44% of schoolchildren are being given private tuition. It’s a £6 billion industry.
It’s no longer unusual at all for a child not to be able to come and play, because he or she is seeing her French tutor, or having a private maths lesson after school with a recent University graduate making a nice pile of pocket money. Nobody bats an eyelid.
I’m not entirely sure where this rise in tutoring comes from, but it seems to me that it stems very much from a perceived pressure by the parents, not by the children. They worry that their child isn’t going to succeed, or out-perform their peers and thus get University places or jobs, if they don’t get extra help to get ahead.
And so this pressure is passed on to the child. Learning is called ‘working’. Finding out about stuff becomes a chore, something they must do. All the fun is taken out. All the pressure is heaped on. And it needn’t be.
We are hearing ever more about anxiety in children, stress, depression, and many other mental health problems. Whether it’s simply because more of these cases are reported than ever, rather than an actual increase, is hard to know. But certainly, children are under a lot of pressure now, to perform, and to succeed.
There is a very important place in a child’s life for parents to continue to teach their children outside the school day – every day, at home. It starts from the day they’re born; being talked to, shown things, taught words, shapes, colours, letters, then facts, maths, science, geography, history…everything!
What’s taught during the school day is only a tiny fraction of all the things children can be learning. Education doesn’t stop the minute children get home from school.
It’s everywhere, all the time.
For the love of learning
Of course, if a child needs extra help, they should have the chance to get it. Not all teachers are excellent or teach in a classroom that allows them to teach as well as they might like to, or a child might just have a real problem with a particular subject.
Extra help from a tutor can make a huge difference to a child’s confidence, and benefit them in far more ways than just academic. But let’s not fear everyday homework, and learning outside the classroom. It’s a great chance for them to stretch a bit, practice what they learned at school, and for parents to get a sense of how they are getting on with it all, and where the strengths and weaknesses lie.
Maybe it should be called home learning, or brainercise or something, instead of homework.
Whatever we call it, it’s a vital part of their education, and something that’s well worth making the time to do with your children, as often as you can.