The Perils of Homework

I’ve just come out the other side of my traditional weekend fight with my son about homework. This usually goes something like this ‘Have you done your spellings?’ No ‘What about your project ?’ No ‘Ok so sit down and make a start’

This simple request is usually followed by at least half an hour of protests and whining after which he’ll sit down to complete his homework and I’ll be in need of a G&T

‘Whats the point of homework mum?’ ‘I learn at school, it’s the weekend, I want to relax!’

I try to justify it – homework extends your learning at home, homework makes sure the information you learn at school is cemented, it gets you ready for when you sit GCSEs and A-Levels, you have to do homework at university, erm….teachers love marking ???

But do you know what ? I agree with him, homework sucks !

I am a teacher, and setting homework is something I do. Chasing missing homework, setting detentions, phoning home , awarding merits, marking literacy. All this I do as part of my job. I see the benefit of it in my 16 year olds’ increased understanding of terminology and theory and the research they complete helps my 18 year olds access the next lesson. But it is a headache.

I teach Performing Arts and lower down the school we do not have books – we have folders – and 99% of the work is practically assessed. So when I set homework I face a few dilemmas.

If they make an effort on their homework I always feel obliged to make a fuss, congratulate them, show the homework off , but then face the question – what do I do with it? If they have all made me a model stage for example – what do I do with them? I’m not talking 20 models here…… On average in a week – I teach over 200 different students between ages 11 and 14. That is a lot of storage space needed to keep homework. So I end up giving it back. I’m sure their parents love me!

If they do not complete the homework I face making many phone calls after school informing parents that their performing arts homework is missing, and they are to sit a detention the following day to complete it. Again we are looking at a large number of phone calls! Then I have to be in the detention, instead of marking work / planning / or rehearsing for the school production ! Things I’ll have to make up later.

I haven’t even mentioned the marking and detailed feedback I give my GCSE classes and A-Level classes.

But I am a teacher and I want my students to learn, and I have school and government policies I must adhere to. So I set the homework and follow the procedures.

So it is always with conflicting emotions that I check my son’s book bag on a Thursday evening to see what new project he has been set. I know the teacher is following the same procedures I follow, but I can’t help but feel like boycotting the work and letting my son relax on the weekend. To be honest after spending my working week chasing homework I don’t want to be spending my weekend fighting with my son over his !

My son attends jujitsu classes on Tuesdays, and football followed by his mates on a Thursday. Friday night is Scouts, so he needs to fit his homework in on the weekends in between seeing friends and family and doing the weekly shop with me. When does he get to relax ? I don’t think it’s fair.

But we battle through it, and I keep reminding him that a few spellings, times tables and sentences is not really a lot in the grand scheme of things, especially as in a few short years he’ll be coming home from school armed with a diary full of homework in a variety of subjects, all due on the same day !

So tonight after the latest battle of ‘why homework is an important learning tool and not just a way of satisfying the teachers need for marking in a green pen’ (FYI – teachers no longer mark in red as it is intrusive – we all mark in green now!!) we finally got the work done.

We even made a model sarcophagus to go with a little clay mummy ( complete with hieroglyphs , scarab beetle and four tiny clay canopic jars) for him to take in as part of his project on ‘ Ancient Egypt’ .

Ha !!!! Let’s see his teacher find somewhere to store that !!!!!

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