Homework – who does it?

stickywicket

In my day it was me. Admittedly, not always well. Sometimes on the school bus. Sometimes not at all. But it was my homework and my responsibility and I carried the can for whatever was wrong.

The second part of daffy's thread raised this issue for me coming, as it did, on the morning when our 9yr old grandson (well, actually, his Mum) proudly sent us his homework – an A4 sheet on a chosen Rio gold medallist. Except he couldn't have done the graphics or picture as he's not normally allowed to use a computer. The few written sentences are all spelled perfectly and neatly spaced. Again, unlikely.

I'm wondering what this teaches. I actually don't think I ever had homework in Primary School, apart from spellings. If the purpose is collaboration between parent and child, then good (for those whose parents will collaborate). If the purpose is to work on a piece, with help, until it's perfect, then good. But, if the purpose is to see what the child can do on his own, then what has been achieved?

tkachev

This made me laugh Sticky. I am guilty of this even though I know they need to learn for themselves. I always end up doing their art homework myself despite my efforts to make it their own work. I have had quite a few gold stars too!

But you are correct. Spellings, punctuation, research should all be their own doing otherwise they will never improve.

So did you say well done

Elizabeth

daffy2

It's the computer and/or parent(s).
To a certain extent there has always been the problem of 'additional' help with children's homework - either of taking over /doing it for the child or, more sadly, lack of appropriate help.
The secondary school where I was a governor tried various methods to tackle google plagiarism. Some success was had with those teachers who told their pupils something along the lines of 'I've seen the website 'x'(name inserted as appropriate) version so often I'm sick of the sight of it and may refuse to mark such offerings'. As one said - It's bad enough having the same things churned out 25 times, but not bothering to try and put it into their own words is even worse.
Sadly I suspect that much of this has its roots in our target driven society. Parents are frightened of their children 'failing', or of being judged as less than ideal parents for allowing their children to make mistakes and hand in less than perfect work. Schools are under great pressure to keep churning out 'acceptable' results for class work and exams. Education is no longer what many of us would understand by that term, but an exercise in passing tests and exams.

theresak

Sometimes my grandsons have homework which has to be done using the computer - which assumes all households have access to one. In this situation I can't help them - they know their way round a computer better than me!

In the interests of fairness in my teaching days - when not every home had a computer & some children would find access to one difficult - I used to explain that no extra marks would be given for work done on a pc.

Like SW, the only homework I remember from primary school is a list of spellings to be learned.