Most parents sometimes feel as though they have returned to the classroom as they spend hours doing homework with their children.
“Isn’t that why we pay school fees, so that our children can learn at school?” asked Farhana Ganchi, of Melrose in Johannesburg.
Shereen Dindar, education specialist and trained Demartini life coach and facilitator from Mpumalanga, described homework as being a means of “re-enforcing what the pupil has learnt at school and to cultivate a habit of being able to work independently, which requires discipline, for future projects once out of the school environment”.
Benefits of homework
“Homework teaches perseverance, self-discipline and internalises new concepts,” said Shanette Tiquin, principal of the Carleton Jones High School in Carletonville. An added benefit was that it drew parents and guardians into the school life of the child.
Soraya Modan, head of department at the Star International Primary School in the Western Cape, said that “doing homework is important in order to ascertain whether the pupil understands the work or not”.
Modan said parents should be involved in homework as “family involvement in education is crucial if parents want their children to succeed in school and throughout life”. However, it was important for parents to be “aware and understand how to help without crossing the line”. “Parents must make a conscious effort to limit their help to the bare minimum,” said Modan.
“There is a major difference between assisting with homework and ‘doing’ homework. I believe that parents are supposed to assist with homework in order to guide their children in sifting out important and relevant information required to complete certain homework tasks,” said Dindar.
Let the child do the work
“Pupils accomplish nothing if their parents do their homework for them. In fact, the self-esteem and perseverance of the child can be eroded. Parents are simply fooling themselves as the child will not be able to cope in the exam if the parents have been doing all the homework,”
said Tiquin.
“Tasks done by parents and caregivers and not done independently by the pupils are reflected in the classroom as children do not get the opportunity to practise what has been learnt in class. On the other hand, children who spend time on their homework, on average do better in class and then in school as a whole,” said Modan.
Dindar said that “parents who continue doing their children’s homework also deprive the child of being able to think independently or develop their mental skills, since their creativity and personal opinions are being stifled and their true worth would not be known, let alone be developed”.
How parents can assist — effectively
- Designate a specific place for the children to do homework, away from distractions.
- When frustrations set in, parents can combat this by helping children to get and stay organised by encouraging good study habits, talking and brainstorming a task before it is tackled.
- Re-enforce what has been learnt in other practical ways to develop long-term memory.
- Attend to signs of stress in a calm way.
- Recognise and offer emotional support where needed.
- Work together to review, check and help correct tasks.
- Encourage children to complete homework.
- Encourage children to take pride in their work and make available all possible resources so that children can conduct the necessary research.
- Carefully monitor whether or not they require assistance.
- Give children few guidelines and then leave them to work independently. They should only ask for assistance if the they are unable to understand the requirements.
— Shanette Tiquin, Shereen Dindar and Soraya Modan