I know as a good mom I am supposed to do all those wonderful things to support my kids education.  Like explain to my kids how improtant homework is,  how beneficial it is to spend all night pouring over the books, how it is important to learn good work habits,  be responsible and all that stuff.  But lately I think that the homework thing is really going overboard.  It seems to me that teachers have forgotten one important fact and that is they are dealing with kids.  Not little machines that need to be programed and pressured to perform to their maximum potential.   They figure if you just add two or three more assignments every night those test scores will sky rocket and everyone will be so “WOW”ed .    They forget that kids need time to  relax and just be kids.

I love the book   The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn.  I wish I was gutsy enough and rich enough to buy a copy for every teacher my kids have ever had.  In it Mr. Kohn points out the damage homework does to children and families.  He also quotes studies that have shown how little benefit kids get from the homework they are required to do.   Two other books I have yet to read but that are on the same lines are. The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting our children and what we can do about it. by Sara Bennett and The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, overburdens children, and limits learning. by Etta Kralovec. I will be adding them to my forever growing list of books to read.

In our family homework is too frequently interrupting family time,  causing lost sleep, and making it so my daughter has no time to unwind and play.   I wouldn’t like it if my husband spent all day at work only to come home with 4-5 hours worth of more work to finish.   Yes, there are jobs that require this, but if they did he would probably be looking for work elsewhere real fast.
Thanks for letting me gripe!  I needed to get that out.  Now I can go back to “trying” to be a good mom and supporting my daughter the best as I can.