Homework is back on the pages of the newspapers. This time (after so many warnings from the WHO that warned that an excess of exercises harmed the health of children and that many experts claimed that they had no educational purpose), The deputies congress has asked the government to create a working group to develop a proposed regulation of duties in primary education.
We would be talking about an educational pact. An educational pact that I would seek guarantee the right of children to enjoy their free time and reconcile with their families. Put in this way, it seems that we are treating children as if they were adults stressed and overwhelmed by the many things they have to do. And I know that some of you may be thinking what reason I do not lack.
The socialist deputy María Luz Martínez explained in the debate that “on many occasions homework they are repetitive, tedious and without a specific educational purpose ”. And now you realize? What a discovery they have made! I am 28 years old today, and it took all that time and possibly more for politicians to realize that an excess of homework is not good for any student (Not only for those in primary education as the congress says).
The Community of Madrid, Murcia, Cantabria and the Canary Islands have already approved various recommendations on the limitation of children's duties. But it seems that not all parents and not all experts agree on regulating student exercises. There are families who state that homework help children to reinforce the content learned and acquired in schools and that help them to acquire good study habits and discipline.
Albert Sáez, journalist and university professor, defended that the homework strike was a most ferocious attack on the autonomy of schools and the academic freedom of teachers. Of course, we are all in favor of schools having freedom, autonomy and that teachers can apply the teaching method that they believe is the most correct for students, but that it does not give them the right to burden students with such excess homework.
But do children really learn anything from homework? Well, such and how homework is now (and for many years) I think not. We are talking about repetitive, long, routine exercises that may not have an educational purpose. Homework does not foster a study habit in students. What they do is that they have to sit in a chair day after day when they arrive from class (as if that were not enough) to do them because otherwise some teachers put a negative point on them or punish them.
César Bona, considered the best teacher in Spain, affirms that a six-year-old cannot come home with homework and they must be allowed to enjoy childhood. And if we stop to think, children have very little free time to do what they really like. Personally, I have small neighbors who are in second and fifth grade. The two are brothers and both already have an agenda full of extra homework to do at Christmas: English exercises, language exercises, math ... The only thing that makes them think they are on vacation is that they don't have to go to class.
But what happens to homework if we move away from the primary school stage? That own high school students they have to tell the teachers not to send them so much homework because they can easily be combined with thirty exercises in biology, physics and English. And of course, on bridges and holidays they have extra tasks to have more free time. Free time that they undoubtedly invest in doing the exercises. In this way, it is fostering demotivation and school disappointment. And then there are those who are surprised at the high rate of school failure!
So what could be done? Personally, I agree to a regulation of duties. On top of that, I'd trade repetitive and rote homework for educational and neuroeducational games that really serve as a review and motivate students to do so. Are there no crosswords? Are there not word searches to acquire more vocabulary? Aren't there educational platforms on the Internet where there are math, language and English games where children could have a great time and learn new things?
Of course they exist. But it seems that we are still walking in the traditionalism of years ago: a score of exercises to solve in the notebooks and summaries of the topics of the textbook. There are some Spanish educational centers (not to mention Finland) that have eliminated homework and exams. And students are far from being less responsible. On the contrary: they have learned in the classrooms through project work to work as a team, to debate, to cooperate and to investigate. If there are parents and teachers who want students and children to review at home, there are many more ways to do it other than life-long duties.
Hello Mel, my opinion is in line with what is stated in the post. I am against the duties in Infantile (non-compulsory educational stage, which sometimes we forget) and in the first cycle of Primary. I also do not like that children take excessive homework from the age of 8, what's more, put to ask, I would ask that if there have to be homework, that they be flexible and encourage discovery: a field notebook, an investigation on the commerce of the municipality.
And at the point where I am now (since I am always learning, growing and molding myself) I would bet on flipped classroom methodologies: homework in the classroom and at home, discovering content in attractive and age-appropriate formats. If we have to evolve, let's do it, let's jump in and we'll be correcting mistakes, because if not… then we'll have children educated in traditional models who in the future will have to function in a modern and changing society, and that will be hard for them.
Thank you so much for the post ... <3