Section 24: Homework Policy
(April, 2004)
Our approach regarding homework reflects our overall approach to learning. We focus upon assisting our children to learn how to achieve balance in their lives, to make positive and responsible decisions independently, to creatively and empathically solve problems, and to develop and maintain constructive social relationships. We coach them to capitalize upon their innate talents, interests and motivation, in order to develop themselves as whole persons, while they design and fulfill their own goals. Therefore, homework is redefined as being those activities that promote learning at home. This may consist of work on academic projects that originate from the School, or they may consist of activities delineated within the family. This could include lessons within the outer community, such as karate, synchronized swimming, ballet, skiing, scouts, piano, kickboxing, and so on. It could also include self-initiated projects that then come to the School to be shared, such as topic-oriented projects about hamsters, woodworking, volcanoes, or even a dragon cake for the Feast of St. Michael’s. Other learning activities could be reading books, playing board games, practicing math or reading skills through games, attending concerts, rollerblading with parents, putting on a puppet show, visiting an art gallery, traveling nearly anywhere…and most of all, participating in those exciting conversations that go along with all of these shared experiences! It is the child who needs to decide which activities to engage in, not the parent, because it is part of their learning how to make reasonable decisions. This does not mean that parents are out of the loop! Recent research has shown that parental inattention is the most significant problem contributing to children’s aggressive behaviour, more important than all other factors put together, even those as significant as abuse, poverty, or genetic predisposition. Therefore, we believe that parents need time to be with and talk to their own children, and we do not want to use up all the time that children have available at home before bedtimes or on weekends, simply to assigning hours of homework. What the parents’ role becomes, in this scenario, is one of suggesting activities within the family’s means, providing transportation to sites of interest, assisting their children in procuring materials of interest, participating in projects wherein the child wishes the participation, talking to their children about life and sharing nuggets of their wisdom, and cheering their children on to believing in themselves.
Does this trust in young people’s ability to organize the timing of their own academic achievement have an impact upon their productivity and pace at school? Not necessarily, because students may work very efficiently in our student-paced environment at school. Our students do not spend every moment here listening to lectures, or participating in the housekeeping necessary within large classrooms, in the manner common within typical schools, wherein students are forced to complete so much of their work at home. Our students can get a lot of study or project work done at one sitting. Nevertheless, some students may progress at a slower rate than their peers; however, there is always a reason why this is happening. Understanding the reasons is another topic all on its own. The curriculum at the Elementary level, is designed for average students to complete within a one-year time framework, without homework. All students are not average, however. Some may be able to complete a course quicker than one year, while others may take longer—if we are attempting to ensure that they have learned the material to mastery, which we are! Although ample time is allotted for academic study to occur at our school, Secondary students are encouraged to add to their study time while at home, in order to achieve a standard of excellence. Although some gifted students may complete their courses without homework, most cannot. Our Secondary teachers assign the students their work, which is, in essence, the course requirements. Students may then accomplish this work whenever—at school or at home. How they manage and prioritize their time is their affair, and needs to take into account the number of courses they are handling, their extra-curricular activities, and so on. Mentors become involved in this process, to advise students on these issues. Because some of our students semester themselves, whereas others cover courses throughout a one-year period, students will take different amounts of time to complete their courses. In the case of students languishing longer in a certain course, homework may definitely help them to progress faster. We would recommend, however, that this homework not be at the expense of their familial relationships or recreational pursuits. Balance is very important in every human being’s life. Really, does it matter if a student completes high school one year, or half a year, later than usual? The gain in maturity over this time period may help these students with their post-secondary studies and decisions about their futures.
There are other factors at play here as well. The relationship between parents and their children is one to value and devotedly nourish. Homework may interfere with these positive feelings between family members. We have found that many parents discover negative results from enforcing homework or even from assisting their children in their completion of assigned homework, because many children are embarrassed to display their ignorance or their difficulty understanding new concepts. When parents and teachers are not empathetic or respectful towards their children’s interest, abilities or motivation, so many problems can ensue! This is yet another topic in itself. We have concluded that such compulsion to perform homework is not worth the pain it engenders. Forcing children to do difficult homework may actually be counterproductive to their learning anything from it. The distaste they feel from this compulsion will colour their memories of the learning experience. We must understand that it is natural for youth, particularly when they are faced with difficult material or fluctuating skill development, to avoid the pain that is certain to come from studying this material. They would rather be doing almost anything else. And perhaps they ought to be. At home, they could be exploring other facets of their talents and interests that go far beyond the school curriculum. We advise our students to fully engross themselves in their activities, both those we term “play” and “work”. It is healthier for all of us to be fully involved in the happenings of our lives than spending these fleeting moments in resistant and resentful behaviours. Thus, if academic work is the bane of children’s leisure time, perhaps they could address these difficult issues at school, under the individual attention of their teachers. In this way, our youths’ leisure time can be spent doing activities they are already intrinsically motivated to pursue, and the stress caused by power struggles between parents and children can be alleviated. Moreover, when homework is not compelled, and therefore ceases to be a negative activity, children will often eagerly choose to do academic type activities at home. They tend to enjoy activities they choose, and this intrinsic motivation tends to continue over time.
A concluding principle behind our non-policy toward homework is that lifelong learning cannot be installed without children experiencing the processes of learning in a variety of places, including, but not limited to, school, home and the larger community. All human beings need to continually learn new skills to master their environment. The goal, therefore, for the issue of “home learning” is to create a positive atmosphere at home, where students may develop their curiosity about the world on diverse topics. Thus young people will develop a lasting and positive attitude towards learning about their lives and the world they live in.