I’ve started to help my son Kai a bit more with his homework. Today it was word problems as well as a spelling test I had to give and I just had a flashback to my own childhood and experience with homework.
I suddenly remember that I hated homework and just realized I still hate homework. But as an adult I had mostly forgotten until a few moments ago. I remember college and loving foreign languages, the origins of words, pronunciation, everything about language. I loved university, learning and feeling smart! There definitely was a moment where the love of learning switch turned irrevocably on during college and hasn’t turned off since. Therefore, I had forgotten the feelings that homework of grade school and high school brought with them when that switch was constantly in the off position.
Suddenly those long forgotten feelings came rushing back. When I was a kid I just wanted to get my homework over with and guess what!? I still do. I don’t have “homework” these days but from time to time I need to do something that resembles homework. Examples would be sales training, worksheets in preparation for upcoming team meetings and so on. That definitely feels like homework and I hate doing it. The only reason it is less bad than my elementary school homework is I can complete these assignments while I’m at work and not have to do them after work! After work is for relaxation and a bit of fun!
You know what, I’m against homework. Kids are at school 8 hours a day, isn’t that enough time to get all the work done? What is the purpose of having to do it at home too? Why don’t the schools use those 8 hours more effectively or perhaps incorporate an hour of that time to get homework done such as they do in high school with study hall???
