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05th March 2013

Nation Building is a National Awareness Initiative brought to you by the InTime Education Project & IETV (LIME ch. 32 &Karibch. 102)

How about a little heresy to begin the day with? Here’s what I believe and what I have preached here in St Lucia during the InTime Project, and for decades throughout the world: There is little justification for homework and dozens of reasons why children should not be subjected to it. So here goes!

Homework is a pain for teachers; it simply causes a lot more work and stress and puts a strain on the school day. If teachers assign homework, they are duty bound to correct it in some way. In many, if not most cases, this does not happen. In the old days, teachers would take home up to 40 exercise books and laboriously correct written homework while burning the midnight oil. If they chose not to take the exercise books home with them and elected to correct homework at school, they had three choices: Stay behind after school, do it during “free periods” in the staff room, or correct the work in class and give their pupils other tasks to do.

Homework is unfair in every sense of the word. Pupils who come from family homes where they can sit in peace and quiet at their studies have an unfair advantage over kids who have to fight for their own private space. Pupils with parents who have the time, ability and interest in helping them with their homework stand a greater chance of success than even the brightest kid who comes from a home without such adult support.

 
 

If schoolchildren were unionized, and why not, by the way they would be up in arms as would almost every employee if employers suddenly decided that the working day was from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm plus an additional three hours of “work to take home” after the day’s exertions.

The school day is from around 8.30 to mid afternoon. Often, for many kids, the day starts much earlier as it is not always easy to get to school. The way home can be just as time consuming. Kids do a full day’s work at school. Why should they be obliged to work overtime on their own time when they could be doing what kids are supposed to do – just be kids?

Homework is socially unacceptable; it fosters inequality. The advent of computer assisted teaching and learning, as initiated in St Lucia by the InTime project in schools and in homes through the arrival of IETV on the scene offers two possible solutions: Firstly, after-school access to computers should be offered to pupils who are interested in furthering their studies. This would probably mean additional supervision by staff members. Computers should not remain idle. During the school day computers could be available for private study during designated periods. IETV came into existence as a means for school to become part of every household. Teachers should encourage their pupils to spend a while in front of the television with their parents, siblings and other relatives to catch up on what might have been taught in school that day. Now that’s the sort of homework everyone could enjoy!

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