Homework for Children

I learned more through teaching in schools than as a student in school and college.  

I learned more by tutoring than by teaching in schools.  

As a result, in last ten years, I have studied all grades over and over,

discovering new features and new dimensions every time.

In my times, we had to study only few subjects; English, Urdu, Islamiyat, Math, Science, Social Studies/Geography and Drawing.  Subjects were not categorized into literature and grammar.  We were used to having two examinations, they were called 'half-yearly exams' and 'final exam'.  Most of our homework assignments consisted of copying (writing) a lesson from the course book, memorizing few questions and answers that the teacher had dictated us in the school and reading a chapter.  Once in a while we had to write a composition on few topics or an application to the headmistress.  

Most of my time during last ten years was spent tutoring children of different grades.  It is not like a normal tutoring style in which ten twenty children are gathered for four or five hours to do their homework and test preparation.  I cannot teach more than two children at a time.  The reason is the type of homework they are given and their test preparation at the end of every month, at the end of the semester and then final exams. For my surprise, in the name of increasing the literacy rate in my country, it is getting worst day by day.

I helped children writing answers of questions, essays, applications, stories and even poems.  I taught them how to find the meaning of phrases and proverbs in both English and Urdu and make sentences using a dictionary and thesaurus.  I helped them solve the mathematical problems that I never studied in my time and that were not in the course books or I presumed were given because the teacher couldn't solve them.  I helped them reciting the surahs and duas that were given to them in homework correctly and learn their translation and sometimes explanations.  I wrote for them the explanations, descriptions, captions and causes and effects in their Science, History and Geography assignments.  I even drew pictures for them in Science and Drawing.  And much more.  

No doubt that these homework assignments have helped me learn new ways of teaching and describing things and have certainly been the source of increase in my knowledge.  

But the thing that has been bothering me since last year is the homework pattern of this school in Islamabad.  Along with all types of homework, they also assign computer based research assignment on the topics which mostly are not related to the chapters in the course books.  Sometimes, children are given more than three online assignments in a week.  Children are instructed to search the topic, type it on MS-Word in their own words and include pictures and cover to the project. 

I raised many questions about this type of homework assignments and asked children's parents to have a meeting with the teachers.  For some reasons, the parents couldn't do so.

Here is the list of objections:

1- Time - An online research on a topic, meaning opening multiple website, reading them and figuring out what it is all about, takes at least three to four hours for a 4th Grader.  Is it fair to give such homework to a child who has been up since 6 or 7 in the morning and had found time for not even half hour nap?

2- Limited Number of Computers - Normal families in Pakistan can afford only one PC or laptop per family.  If two or three school going children in a family get such homework, how much time they will spend on computer altogether?  Will they wait for their turn until the other brother or sister complete their assignment?

3- Load-Shedding - How can two or three children in a family accomplish such homework under a political system which justifies the heavy load-shedding of electricity as their long-term power campaign?  The power is out every two or three hours even in winters.

4- Lack of Typing Skills - Children are asked to type their research.  We don't teach typing in schools.  Children type with one or two fingers.  They are not familiar with the keys so they take more time.  They take time in finding out  proper spacing, pressing shift for capital, question mark and punctuation.  

5- Lack of Writing Skills - Children are asked to write in their own words.  They don't know how to.  Literally, I have tried this to all students of different grades that I have taught so far and they don't know how to convert somethings that they have read into a summary of their own words.  Most children as I have observed do 'copy paste' or their parents or tutors write for them in their own words.  For if they don't, they lose marks for lacking writing skills and are considered "not hard working and/or intelligent" even after being through an exhausting day in the school.  So, children get marks on something that they have not done.  At least my students leave a note for me to do such and such homework and make it ready before the due date because they feel exhausted of searching and reading online and then reproducing the information into their words after spending 8 to 9 hours of schooling procedure.

Some of the topics that were given to my students for online project in last few months and this was all beside their regular homework;

Winter Holidays (4th Grade)

One thing I can change in the world (4th Grade)

The Planet Jupiter (any planet) (4th Grade)

The Big Bang Theory (4th Grade)

Four Famous Mosques of the World (4th Grade)

Moon Landing (4th Grade)

The Significance of River Indus and Yellow River (4th Grade)

The History of Charcoal (4th Grade)

The Cosquer Cave in France (4th Grade)

This is beside researching and writing assignments on a teacher's blog.

Visit to Vendee (5th Grade)

Time (5th Grade)

Hurricane (5th Grade)

Land forms (5th Grade)

Earth is a fragile planet (5th Grade)

Athens and Sparta (Similarities and Differences) (5th Grade)

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine (6th Grade)

Case Report of Sir Charles Baskerville (6th Grade)

Force and Pressure (6th Grade)

How is Islam different than other religions? (6th Grade)

Muslim Caliphs (6th Grade)

Why are children sent to school, so they become exhausted, have no time for first hand experiences, act like slave to the elders, grow up like pets which act and serve according to the master's commands, wake up every morning in depression, never learn to live like an independent and responsible citizen of the world??????????

What should be the pattern of homework?

Should it be given on daily basis?
What should be the estimated time to finish homework?

I become restless when I see these children being used as a bull to plough fields of their elders' never-ending desires.