Sunday, May 1, 2016

Primary School Homework - Preparing our kids for what????

Imagine the scene......You are at the local playground on a summer afternoon, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the light breeze on your bare arms as your children run around the equipment with their playmates. Suddenly, your friend stands up and calls out to her kids, "Okay, its time to go now, we need to do 20 minutes of winter practice before dinner". Her children groan as they leave the playground and drag their feet toward the car.
"Hang on!" you cry out. "What's winter practice?"
With great conviction and passion your friend answers "Winter is only 4 months away. I don't want my children to be caught off guard by the cold weather. So every afternoon in February, the kids spend 20 minutes standing in the freezer department of the supermarket. Next month, we will stretch it out to 30 minutes a day. By May, they each hold a bag of ice for 40 minutes. Then, when winter comes, they will be totally equipped with the skills to cope with the cold weather"
"Are you serious?" I reply.
"Yes, and if you want your children to excel at coping with winter, you really should be doing the same. How else will they manage?"
Feeling momentarily inadequate in my parenting skills, I babble on about perhaps giving them an icy-pole on the way home and making them clean out the freezer for me. I even think about taking my kids out of the playground then and there to get started on our own winter acclimatisation regime.....But its an incredibly beautiful day, the sun is shining, my children are without a care in the world at this moment in time. When winter comes, we'll get out the winter coats, turn on the heaters and work out ways to be as comfortable as possible in the cold. I'll deal with that when winter is ACTUALLY here. For now, I choose to enjoy summer. Summer will be gone soon enough, I'm not about to wish it away worrying about winter.

I know, my story seems totally unrealistic. But this is actually the way parents approach homework. Parents breathe a huge sigh of relief when the Foundation students start their home reading program. The first spelling homework sheet is confirmation that the school is actually educating their children. By year one, homework is stretched out to a 20 minute exercise, gradually increasing in length until year sixes are doing anywhere up to an hour of homework a night. When I ask parents why they are so keen for their children to do homework, many of them tell me that it is to prepare them for high school. 

I grew up in an era where homework was rarely given in primary school. Perhaps I would take a poster home to finish the lettering in the title, maybe do a little research on the life cycle of a penguin....it was all pretty laid back. Then, I hit high school and I had homework to do. I hadn't engaged in a 7 year training program leading up to this moment, but I saw that I had stuff to do and I just did it. If I didn't do my homework, there were consequences. If I did it well, it was generally reflected in my results at the end of the term. I was too busy playing with my friends, practicing my netball goal shooting and riding my bike around the neighbourhood to fit in homework during my primary school years. What a childhood!

Many homework advocates give the following reasons for why homework should be given out to primary school kids. A) It reinforces the work that is being taught in class B) It gives struggling students more practice and C) It benefits students who need to be extended.
Let's look at this kids reasons.

A) Kids are at school from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. If you subtract recess and lunch, they still have 5 hours of learning to do each day. That's 25 hours a week. I have a home-schooling friend who tells me it is possible to fit in all the essentials of the Australian curriculum into 4 hour blocks, 4 days a week. 16 hours total. Fair enough, larger class sizes and the extra activities that a primary school offers, you need a few extra hours at school. But surely, if the teachers can't cover their material in 25 hours, something is wrong.

B) For struggling students, primary school is HARD. All day they are concentrating, trying their best and yet feeling discouraged because learning doesn't come as easy for them as some of their mates. How is homework meant to help this child? If they didn't understand it at school, are they going to suddenly get it through more effort at home? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Why should these children have to be reminded of their struggles at home when they could be relaxing and doing something they enjoy instead.

C) The student that needs extension does not need the teacher to set more work for them. In my experience, students who want or need extension will carry out their own homework tasks. They'll head to the library and borrow every book ever published on dinosaurs. They will develop lists of interesting facts and even create posters on their chosen topic. Doing more of the same work at home as they have done at school will not extend a child, it will only keep them busy and prevent them from extending themselves.

Soooo, what are we to do about the infiltration of homework upon our primary school kids' lives? Who is asking for all this work? Believe it or not - it's not the teachers! Most of the teachers I speak to tell me that the only reason why they are producing homework sheets is because parents keep asking for more work for their child. Parents! PARENTS! The people entrusted with giving their children a joyful, happy childhood are asking for homework when it isn't actually necessary.

Perhaps we need to open up the homework dialogue with our fellow parents. Perhaps we need to take the pressure off our kids and let them just be kids after school. Something to think about - meanwhile, I'm going to take my kids to the park.



Saturday, April 30, 2016

All good things take time....

I love my doctor. I first found out about her through a close friend. She and her parents travel 20 minutes, past multiple other medical clinics to see her. When you arrive at our doctor's clinic, you can be pretty sure that you will wait an extra 45 minutes or so past your appointment time in order to see her. Funnily enough, no one complains, or gets annoyed about it, because we know the truth about this doctor. She is REALLY GOOD at her job. She doesn't rush you in and out of her clinic to get through as many patients as possible. She sits, she listens, she ponders, she asks questions, she checks things on her computer, she reviews your medical history over the past 5 years, orders extra tests if necessary and then, and only then, she gives you her diagnosis. Her professional opinion is worth waiting for. It can be trusted as it is the product of time and consideration. No one minds waiting 45 minutes to see her, because you know that every patient is getting the benefit of her time and care. If someone needs more time, she'll give it to them, just as when I need extra time, she'll give it to me. As the patients accumulate in the waiting room, we just nod and smile at each other, we're happy to wait, knowing that everyone benefits when we give our doctor time.

However, do we afford the same privilege to our children? How often do we ask our children to 'hurry up', 'get moving' or 'c'mon'? We impatiently stand over our children as they wrestle with their shoelaces, not allowing them the time to tie them securely to last out the day. At school, we tell our children to hurry up and start working, without giving them the opportunity to ensure they have all their equipment. We don't give them time to mentally plan what they need to do to complete the task, let alone giving them adequate time to complete the task at their own pace. Then we reprimand the children for not giving their work enough thought!


They shovel down only part of their lunch as they don't want to miss a moment of precious play time. At the end of the school day, we wrestle our children into the car so that they are on time for their after school commitments and then we wonder why they are moving so lethargically across the gym floor!

We try so hard to fit the maximum number of educational and recreational opportunities into our kids' lives but as a result, they never ever get the chance to feel that sense of achievement that comes from doing just a few things well. Instead, they rush from one task to the next commitment, just doing enough to get by.

What are we achieving in always pushing our children?
Why don't we organise our mornings in such a way that the last 15 minutes isn't a frantic rush out the door?
Why must children always complete their work quickly?
Why can't we give our children more time to play?
Does it matter if our children don't join the basketball team AND do piano lessons?

Is it possible that we rush our children around because of our own anxieties for our children? Are we so driven by the desire for our children to do their best, be the best and achieve the best that we spend the whole day rushing them from one activity to the next?

What would happen if we just gave our children TIME?
What sort of story could my daughter write if she was given an open-ended time limit within which to prepare, plan and write her story?
What sort of maths problems could my son solve he was allowed to just work quietly at his own pace without been asked to call out answers as quickly as possible?
What games could my children invent after school if I wasn't standing over them demanding they complete their homework before they play?
What conversations could I have in the car with my kids if I wasn't distracted by the time and our potential lateness?

I have a suspicion, that if we gave our children more time, they would certainly do a smaller variety of things. But the things they did do would be more enjoyable for them and reveal their true abilities and talents - simply because they've got time to work on a few skills and demonstrate what they can really do.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Does one size fit all?

I've been spending a fair bit of time in the high school science room lately. It's not my natural habitat. My own high school years were spent hanging out in the music room and reading history text books for fun. However, here I am, sitting on a stool at the back of the room, laptop in front of me, taking notes on living organisms and learning how to balance chemical equations.

Every now and then, the science teacher will tell us to put on a lab coat ready for a 'prac' (prac: a science lesson where students get to put on safety gear and pour harmless substances into beakers and watch it change colour). Lab coats are an interesting phenomenon. They are labelled as 'one size fits all', and to be fair, most students slip on the lab coat, button it up and proceed with the prac without any further thought. But then there are the students who have not yet hit their teenage growth spurt. The lab coat hangs off them like a toddler putting on their mother's wedding dress. Some of the kids even need me to roll up the sleeves for them so they can make use of their hands during the prac. At the other extreme, there is me......I like to wear the lab coat as it helps me blend in a little more. I prefer to not draw attention to the fact that there is a middle-aged woman lingering around the science room taking notes. However, having borne two children and eaten a few too many pastries whilst reading the aforementioned history books, my frame is on the larger size. The lab coat sleeves don't quite reach my wrists and there is a slight pulling sensation across my hips. Between me and the year 7 kid, it's quite clear that the lab coats should be relabelled as 'one size fits most'.

I'm not about to write to the science department and complain that their lab coats are discriminatory to the smaller and larger than average wearer. Let's face it, the lab coats were bought in bulk to fit the average high school student at this particular school, not to cater to every possible body shape and size. The notion that a garment can be labelled 'one size fits all' is unrealistic. There will always be people for whom the garment will not fit, for a myriad of reasons. We all get that, and we don't expect the 'teenage-sized' lab coat to magically modify itself to fit the small year 7 or the robust 41 year old woman.

Schools and their educational philosophies are a little like the science lab coats. They are built to serve the needs of 'most' students in their community, but there will always be students for whom a particular school or educational philosophy will not work. You can tell there is a mismatch between the school and the student if the student is constantly stressed about having to attend school, the student is continually falling behind in their work despite the best efforts of the student, school staff and their parents or there is a mismatch between the future aspirations of the student and the aims of the school. A school that boasts academic excellence and high ATR's may not be appropriate for the student who can't wait to leave formal schooling and start a trade. A school that has an incredible array of extra-curricular activities may not suit the student that just wants to focus on their studies without other distractions.

As parents and educators, we need to look at our children and critically assess what is the best educational option for EACH INDIVIDUAL CHILD, not what is best for 'most children'. If you suspect that the educational institution your child attends is actually not working for them, it might be time to start looking around and exploring the other options. Just like the science lab coats don't fit each and every students, educational institutions can't be expected to suit each and every student either.

louise.c.griffiths@icloud.com