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Editor's Note

The homework debate Too much or not enough? By Lynn ArmitagePublished: August, 2008

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The best thing about summer for us moms – besides not having to make breakfast and lunch early in the morning (AND dinner, if you’re crock-potting it) while simultaneously coaxing sleepy, cranky kids to get up, get dressed and get out the door to school (whew!) – is that there’s no homework to fret over for THREE whole months! It’s a well-deserved break for us, isn’t it?      There’s a lot of talk going around (read our cover story!) about whether or not our children should even be given homework after spending six to eight hours a day in a classroom. Are we piling too much stress on them with another hour or more of reading, writing and arithmetic? Or helping to reinforce important lessons taught that day?      I’m the wrong person to weigh in objectively. As a schoolgirl, I loved homework and would run home from the bus stop every day to jump into it. But then, I didn’t have piano lessons or karate or a zillion other activities today’s kids are wrapped up in, either.      Personally, I believe that schoolchildren should do the majority of their work in class, supervised by a teacher. After all, teachers are paid to teach. What I resent after a long day at work is coming home and having to help my daughters with fractions or iambic pentameters. With dinner and bath times yet to orchestrate on my second shift, I have very little patience to call upon classroom skills I learned decades ago.      When my oldest was in kindergarten, she was given the audacious task of building a leprechaun trap. Cute idea, but what does a 5-year-old know about engineering? Single-mom-hero that I am, I built it for her. My very unsophisticated contraption involved a Barbie slide and a cup of honey. I was actually looking forward to getting an “A” from the teacher (old study habits die hard).      But when I saw the leprechaun traps of her classmates, with pulley systems and electric fences – built, no doubt, by parents employed at McDonnell Douglas – I vowed that my homework-helping days were OVER!      Maybe it’s more about balance. Teachers should give kids just a little homework each night, leaving plenty of time to ride bikes and hula-hoop. That way, we can ALL enjoy a little downtime after a long day at work.

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