Spare them the load: they're just kids, not study mules

No more homework for children of Classes I and II: HRD ministry orders. The new directive by the Centre to rationalize the burden of school bag. “The weight of a school bag should not exceed - making it a norm not to carry more than 10% of the child’s weight.” Children are neither weightlifters.

Key areas within the broad domain school education need critical attention; for example areas like early childhood education, curricular studies and pedagogy, educational leadership and inclusive education.

In order to prevent burden on young minds by a faulty educational system, the High Court has ordered prohibition on homework for students in classes I & II, across CBSE as well as other state schools across the country.

Children are moulded as memory chips to store information and to download them in the examinations to prove their memory capacity which is the yardstick to assess and measure the alleged merits of the children.

In Early childhood: Children are entitled to minimum sleeping hours as per their age… which is a fundamental right as per Article 21 of the Constitution.”The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, has said that children aged three to five should sleep 10 to 13 hours every day. Those aged 6 to 12 should sleep 9 to 12 hours and teens between 13 and 18 years, 8 to 10 hours.

Sleeping the number of recommended hours regularly is associated with better health and improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life and mental and physical health.

The school day is already long and it feels developmentally inappropriate to make children continue to work in the evening.Getting kids to do their homework can be a hassle in any household. If your child has learning and attention issues, it can also be a challenge to figure out how much to help. 

It’s often remarked that children go to school and play while they come home to study.Many parents accept this conflict with their children as an unavoidable consequence of responsible parenting. 

More often than not, battles over homework lead to vicious cycles of nagging by parents and avoidance or refusal by children, with no improvement in a child’s school performance - and certainly no progress toward what should be our ultimate goals: helping children enjoy learning and develop age-appropriate discipline and independence with respect to their schoolwork.

 Parents should never assume that a child who resists doing homework is “lazy.

How much homework is too much?
There’s a limit to how much time your child needs to spend on homework. The NEA recommends something called the “10-minute rule.”

According to this rule, students should spend about 10 minutes per grade level on homework every night. That means a second grader should typically be able to complete homework in about 20 minutes. A sixth grader should be able to get homework done in about an hour.

If your child is spending more than 10 minutes per grade level on homework, consider speaking with the teacher about how to reduce the homework load. 

The worst part of the student’s day begins when he heads home. He’s in school for six and a half hours a dayand the kid is tired.All I want him to do after school is to relax and unwind-and get a chance to be a kid.But homework thwarts all that. 

Homework is the bane of the students.There are so many ways he could be learning at home.Home works suck the life out of him.Given time and space, children have a natural inclination to be learning all the time-through the power of play, free exploration, and gentle nudging from their parents.Homework tends to extinguish that inclination. And I hate that. There has to be a better way.

Homework gives parents a glimpse of what their kids are being taught in the classroom. Parents should “Involve kids to help them practice math skills, help with gardening, introduce basic science principles or take them on short educational outings after school to encourage learning.

Kids have different learning styles; some may be visual learners while others favor written words. “Some kids may need that extra time at home to master certain subjects, while for others, class time is sufficient. Helping your child learn at home allows you to experiment with different learning techniques and determine what works best for your child.”

To help prevent “brain drain”, ‘break up’ the work to do at home; every night it’s a different subject. “Monday can be Science, Tuesday -- English, Wednesday -- Math, Thursday -- History and so on.

Homework elimination, gives young children plenty of free time after school in which to pursue music, art, sports, and leisure; provides adequate time for family meals, reading, and rest, and ensures ongoing enthusiasm for learning by allowing sufficient mental separation from academic activity. “Rather than resulting in laziness and a lack of desire, I believe homework elimination has exactly the effect of motivating children to dive more deeply into activities which most interest them.”

— Prof. Dr. N. Prabhudev is the former Director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology