I am a modern day mom with a habit of calling home exactly by 4:30 p.m. from office to ensure kids are back. Kids mostly spend seconds to answer me so that they can rush to switch on the TV and have their snacks. Then I call at 6:00 p.m. to know if they have forced themselves to study. I would still be hearing cartoon noises from the TV and my mother-in-law would say with the usual tone that my children are still watching TV. But for the past few days, there is absolute silence at home. I am puzzled if I have dialed the right number. Is this my house? Very strange. My mother-in-law answers in a low soft voice that my children have already started doing their homework. I become a very happy mom all in praise of homework. When I reach home, my children don’t welcome me with a smile. They are upset. Like a usual parent, I think, “Oh! So, homework is making you sad” ? Then my son slowly says, “Amma, today, I have a lot to write. 10 sums in Math, 5 questions in Social, 6 more in Science, you know, I need to draw the diagram as well, added to that I have to write a creative essay in English and 20 Shabdas in Sanskrit”. He is quickly interrupted by my daughter, “Even I have a lot of writing work and the teachers want us to submit tomorrow… and two projects to be done too”. Now there is a paradigm shift in my thought process. The two shoulders carry books more than heavyweight champions, wear uniforms that don’t suit Chennai climate, sweat throughout the day, come home and then start writing, writing, writing! I slowly become very serious! Pity engulfs me. I look with almost tears in my eyes at those tender hands. Children are also scared of the dire consequences of facing the wrath of the teacher if they do not submit on time. If children always write, when will they have time to study?
According to a math teacher, she/he had only given ten sums as homework for the day. It is so less and can be completed probably in half-an-hour. And similarly think all the subject teachers. But what happens in the end is that a child is forced to write for four to five hours most of the days. I am sure no teacher would ask the children how much of homework they have already got. We do have time tables and schedules for everything, why not one for homework? I don’t deny that writing once is equivalent to reading ten times. But there should be a limit. Any exercise will be helpful only if children are made to enjoy and understand its fruits.
Here are some tips for teachers and the school management to bring down the burden:
-
1. Kindly consider that not all children stay near the school. So please take into consideration the average travel time.
2. Please make a column on the black board and jot down the homework. This practice will let you inform your peers that you have given so much and may help them adjust accordingly.
3. Nowadays almost all students involve in extra-curricular activities ranging from art, dance to sports. When it comes to sport, it is needless to say that the children will eventually be tired.
4. Teachers can decide in their department and come up with a schedule for homework when they plan the syllabus.
5. The school management can monitor the workload by checking sample notebooks randomly.
6. Kindly encourage to your students to speak out their bottle-necks when it comes to too much of writing.
Last, but not the least, children of all age groups look up to their teachers if they are kind and considerate. Kindly do not pass on your pressure on children. Even if you had an unpleasant morning at home, please ensure that you do not scream at them for small mistakes. Please guide them more and chide them less. They may test your patience but there is a saying that teachers are second mothers. A speck of kindness and a whole lot of kind words will definitely bring a lot of goodness and strengthen student-teacher relationship. This would definitely pave way for better grooming in students.
How do you manage your child’s homework at home? Write your comments below:
Comments (18)
Leave a Comment
Disclaimer: The information contained within this website is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for obtaining advice from professional experts. The ideas and views expressed here are all from the authors of the content and not from Yokibu. Please seek assistance from professional experts for your specific needs.
There are number of worries I have about what teachers ask Children. They ask Children as a part of Project Work in Hindi, EVS, English to draw pictures of Monkey, Elephant and what not. Are these children equipped to draw these. Parents end up drawing these stuff and marks are given. Main thing is how in the world pictures of these animals will improve the children’s Hindi/English/EVS. I am not sure what the drawing teacher does?
Similarly they are asked to make house from Cardboard? Can a student of Class 2, do it? No, the parents end up doing it. Is this what we want the teachers to ask children to do?
I watch everyday my child is full of works even she doesn’t have time to study Ihope using these tips students are not under pressure to finish there work.
Hi,
I too agree with Lavanya. Teachers can plan out and daily give homework for only one Subject.
This certainly help the child to get more time to do other creative activities.
Please Read my blog:
http://www.informedwoman.wordpress.com
Hi,
I too agree with Lavanya. Teachers can plan out and daily give homework for only one Subject.
This certainly help the child to get more time to do other creative activities.
even festival days also they are giving more work hence all teachers should write the Home work details on the board and approximate time for that also should be mentioned then only other teachers will know the student Burden.
Yes, fully agreed to the suggestions as well as to the comments. But will school auth have a relook on this pr system of dumping hw on kids? Hope it will be reviewed.
I welcome this suggestion and I feel all the school should follow. I worked in one cbse school in Aurangabad they followed this sytem and the outcome was excellent. Children never failed in doing the homework and also the children learnt while doing the homework. They never felt boredom and they also did not get frighten about the homework. Parents didnot have any headache in this.
please suggest these points to be bought into consideration of all teachers in all schools, and likely said teachers are second mother, really the life of these small angels ( right from 1st to the 10th ) have become miserable with lots of homework to be done, they are missing their childhood and also the bags are very heavy with such a lots of text books as well as note books they carry, some of them have started suffering with back aches and shoulder pain and stiffness in the neck at such a young age what about later stages please do something
liked ur idea of putting homework by teachers on board so that the peers know the homework load the kids hv fr the day………
Nice, &wish get it done in the earliest days
NYC………………..
hi Mamta, can you please expand NYC?
Mrs. Lavanya Your letter reflected in the commencement of the academic year. Hope it would have made the teachers and the concerned persons to think in the place of moms…
I completely agree with Lavanya and everybody. Out of my experience I can say this. People will excel in anything, only when they enjoy doing them.
When teachers behave little tough on their students, more than the pressure, the students think this is the way they should behave when they grow older. Students should be allowed to ask, talk to teacher in the class and definitely not to be suppressed.
Everybody need to understand this. Only then we develop a open world for them.
Ms.Lavanya Shivram,
Madam your letter depicted the true picture of every school where all this happens to children of every age and Class. My two sons aged 13 and 10 are studying in IX th and VI th respectively at LMOIS. The teachers should really think of the work load given as home-work to their students, without any time limit but to submit routinely the very next day. Last Friday when my son was doing his home-work the electricity went off. But my son was so afraid of the consequences, he went on with the help of an emergency lamp all through the night till 12.30 am. what if he feels sleepy the next day at school?
The teachers must really think of some time frame for the home-work they give for every subject as Ms.Jayanthi swaminathan has suggested. This way a child can be mindful about what he writes, also be healthy and cheerful at school.
Thank you Mr. Imtiaz and Ms. Jayanthi. Because no one commented either affirmative or negative earlier, i was under the impression that this is not a common problem faced by children. Happy to see your perspectives.
Let the homework schedule be flexible. Not all subjects need to be finished and submitted on the same day. The teachers can assign the homework to kids and give them a time period like, say, a week, in order to complete it. This way the children are not under pressure to complete all the homework on one day. They can plan their schedule to finish the work.
Also mindless writing of answers by merely copying sentences from the text book onto noteboooks will not serve any purpose. Many times kids copy from text to notebook while sitting in front of the TV. Instead they must be made to read and understand the subject and reproduce it in his/her words. This will help them understand the subject matter as well as improve their language skills and expression.
Homework when taken in the right sense by the right teacher in balanced manner helps the children . Homework should be planned by teachers ,parents and students to enjoy it