Why is Homework Important?

From Ending the Homework Hassle, by John Rosemond

                      What does homework teach the student beyond the content of the assignment?

The Seven Hidden Values

Process Skills for a Productive Life

RESPONSIBILITY:

The responsibility to assume “ownership” of that which rightly belongs to the student – to fulfill the student’s obligations, to not hesitate to pick up the ball when it bounces in your court, to hold the student fully accountable for both his/her mistakes as well as his/her successes.

          When parents get too involved, they set the process on its head. The “lessons” get done, but the real lesson doesn’t get learned.

AUTONOMY:

        The ability to stand on your own two feet. Homework is the first time that someone other than the parent has assigned a task to a child on a consistent basis. In that sense, homework breaks new ground. The child is now accountable outside the family.

          The manner in which this golden opportunity is managed will either enhance or obstruct the child’s gradual emancipation.

PERSEVERANCE:

        To confront challenge with determination, to strive in spite of difficulties, to complete what you set out to accomplish.

          If the Little Train That Could had had a mother train who, upon seeing her child struggle up the mountain, got behind and pushed, there would have been no point to the story.

          Likewise, there’s no point to a child doing homework if every time the child becomes frustrated, parents absorb the frustration and make it all better.

          Many parents act to protect their child from frustration. They seem to believe that standing aside and allowing their child to grapple with frustration is neglectful, even abusive.

Little do they realize that making a child’s life easier in the

present will only make it harder in the future. *

*Thus the rise in cheating in school throughout the grades.

TIME MANAGEMENT:

        The ability to organize time in an effective, productive manner, to complete tasks on schedule without compromising quality. 

          In this regard, it’s most unfortunate that most parents tell their children when to start their homework, but not when it must be done. It sets the stage for a nightly homework marathon.

          Instead of learning how to manage time, the child learns how to waste it.

INITIATIVE:

To be self-motivated and assertive, to be decisive in defining and pursuing personal goals.

          Who decides when it’s time for the child to start his/her homework? Initiative is like a muscle. If it is exercised, it strengthens. If, on the other hand, other people are assuming initiative for the child, he/she will never develop the strength to exercise it on his/her own.

SELF-RELIANCE:

        To have trust and self-confidence in your abilities.

          Managed properly, homework empowers, affirms, enlarges, fulfills, actualizes, and enables the child’s capacity for competence.

          Mismanaged, it diminishes, deflates, and disables. And there is no

in-between.

RESOURCEFULNESS:

        The capacity to find, invent, or adapt creative means of solving problems. This is the business, the very stuff of being human.  Homework provides the form, the child provides the substance. Assuming everyone can see beyond the report card.*

          Homework provides the opportunity for children to develop positive self-worth.

HOMEWORK IS A PRIME INDICATOR OF HOW THE CHILD WILL RESPOND TO LIFE’S CHALLENGES IN THE FUTURE.

*Sometimes PROCESS is more important than PRODUCT