Mahatma Gandhi International School

Q: My child does not do homework after returning from school. I have to keep reminding her and I end  up being ‘pushy’. What can I do?

A: Homework is one demon that haunts school-going children. It is one artificial invention destined to keep children busy after school hours and out of parents’ hair. Mostly teachers are overburdened by a large number of children in classes, so the homework becomes a way of not just revising but actually learning (by heart) the chapter. When children are young, educated parents help by way of homework. When children grow older, professional tutors take over. When the child comes to school having done the homework, the teacher is happy. The burden of learning is thus passed onto home and onto the child. What the child should learn at school, the child learns at home with the parent or the tutor.

I don’t think there are any children who actually like doing homework. It is at best an unpleasant chore. If it wasn’t, and if the child loved doing it, the child would remember. Most children remember to do homework because they are scared of punishment.

In reality, parents often end up doing the homework for the child so that the child does not get a punishment. There is a new fad of giving a project (generally making models and chart papers) to children by way of homework. As these so-called projects are graded, parents run around doing it to the best of their own abilities! So ultimately, it is a test of parents.

We do not as such give homework to children in our school. So I remember having an argument with a parent years ago on this issue. “Why should we give them Homework?” I asked continually. Finally, exasperated she said, “Because otherwise my son just comes home and plays.” “So that’s great!” “No! I have to cook in the kitchen and I get disturbed all the time by his antics,” she confessed.

Some parents feel that the child is studying because of the homework. Actually, a child is better off at playing games with other children or even indulging in solitary play as they learn more by way of strategy as well as constructing reality.

I have really no answer to the system of homework except that if a child continually forgets or procrastinates it is because the child is not interested in it. That itself is an intelligent reaction. Now the fact that the system demands it, is another issue. Either one goes about changing the system as I did it the hard way, or tries to reason with the child that it is a chore that needs to be done.

I hope school teachers will find challenging and interesting ways of giving homework, even giving them options. This could vary from playing a word game at home with parents or other kids, writing a review of a TV serial that they anyway watch, helping with groceries, noting ingredients and calorie intake at home, adding up home budgets, checking the carbon footprint at home… the list can go on.

Years ago, I had suggested abolishing the grade 10 exam much to a principal’s chagrin. It is in the process of becoming a reality. Now, I would love to see a Parliament Act that abolishes inane Homework as well!

The above article was published in the Ahmedabad Mirror on 8/12/2009