Teachers give homework to grade school pupils primarily to assess their learning capabilities. It is also an attempt of the teacher to keep the pupils abreast with the day’s lessons away from the classroom. But who accomplishes the homework is a big question.
Teachers should not encourage parents to play an overactive role in the children’s homework. Doing so, defeats the purpose why homeworks are integrated in the child’s activities. Homeworks provide the child to work on their own. It enables the child to gain freedom in organizing and utilizing his time. A parent’s constant nagging, reminder and urging was down the principal benefit of homeworks.
The anxiety of the parents to help their children complete the homework results to an overacting performance of their duties as parents. Some come to the point of doing the homework thus leaving the child doing nothing but copy what has been accomplished by the parents. Some parents hire tutors, who, likewise, practically do everything for the tutee. This kind of assistance is dangerous to the child. Because of overzealousness on the part of the parent to help the child, the child loses the chance to prove his worth as an individual. It’s simply as imparting to the child that he cannot do anything without the help being provided.
Homeworks are implemented to develop a child’s sense of responsibility. It should be taken as a personal attempt of a child to prove something at an early stage. It is a training on how a child can cope up with the demands of schooling and prepare him for higher studies eventually. Homeworks keep the child aware of the things which should be given priority and manage his little time wisely.
Today’s parents should realize that the homeworks are given not as punishment for the child but an avenue to prove more after school hours. It is a personal responsibility and as such parents should let their children do the homeworks on their own.
By: Anna Liza P. Bongco | Master Teacher I | Orion Elementary School | Orion, Bataan
