Irish teacher: Homework is an attack on childhood — get rid of it

Jennifer Horgan, Diary of an Irish Schoolteacher.

There is a lot I’d like to change about our education system. 

I want it to be kinder to so many young people and parents, principals, teachers and special needs assistants.

But I also hear that when it comes to changemaking, it’s best to start small. So here it goes — my first small step towards a brighter world for Irish children, parents, and teachers: GET RID OF HOMEWORK.

When it comes to primary school teachers, this is less of a proffered resolution. It’s a blanket order. No ifs or buts, teachers must step away from Aladdin or whatever torture platform they’ve set up for their class. They might use it to share messages and pictures, but any more than that is an attack on childhood.

Teachers, it’s time to consign the Mental Maths books to the classroom cupboards. You must put the English in Practice daily tasks in long-term detention. 

Young children from this day forward, as I decree it here, in my slither of a weekly column, must only work in their primary classrooms and then, they must stop working. You know, relax. Watch TV. Play a board game or a sport.

Our ministers still offer “no homework days” to the country’s children on special occasions. I am most certainly going against the accepted norm here, but I’m not being as outrageous as some might think. 

We are obsessed with homework in this country. 

The research is clear that homework for younger children is unnecessary and potentially detrimental to their wellbeing. Their school day is long enough.

When they arrive home, dragging themselves through the door with their half-eaten apples and lopsided hair, parents should kick them outside to play. And parents should let them play freely, without hovering around, banging on about phonics and fine motor skills. Teachers and parents must let children be children.

If a child needs individual help with something. If, perhaps, they are struggling with reading, maths or spelling, and need a daily routine, that’s a private matter between the teacher and the parent to sort. But for the most part, for many Irish children, running around outside and climbing trees is what’s best. Anything that gets them moving!

Ireland is well on its way to becoming an obese country. Our health system is buckling. Our shoddy planning and warped car culture means that most children get driven to school and back. 

They are far too sedentary. It’s harder in the winter months and I’m not going to lie, my three are screen zombies right now, but come spring, they’ll spend their afternoons outside, being bored and making stuff up to play. Like many parents, I battle with screen time. I do my best. 

The teeth brushing is also a challenge. Hair brushing is below par when it comes to the youngest. But one thing I won’t concern myself with is their bloody homework.

In The Homework Myth Alfie Kohn calls homework a “modern cod liver oil” for kids that makes them “bored and anxious”. 

He explains that: “People are active meaning makers. They are not passive receptacles into which knowledge, or skills, or dispositions can be poured.” 

Children are individuals. They are also unequal. 

This inequality is true the moment they leave a classroom. Some children live between two or more homes. Some will have no home at all. Knowing this, teachers must keep the work and expectations within their primary classrooms. Our deadlines and targets and assessments should rely on class work alone when it comes to young children.

Another academic, John Buell, contests the idea that completing homework helps develop discipline. Far more impactful is the situation in the home. It all seems so very obvious. And yet, homework persists.

Harris Cooper finds more evidence of homework being meaningful the older a student gets. That makes sense to me also, and I will, on occasion, as a secondary teacher, give longer projects and essays. In exam years, in our current system, such homework is essential.

Cooper says we should think about homework as medication. “If you take too little it will have no effect. If you take too much it will kill you. If you have the right amount, you’ll get better.”

The right amount to me starts in secondary school. It is meaningful and well-timed and prepares students for the demands of our (completely bonkers) exam cycle.

And in case any parent need reminding, constitutionally, you are your children’s primary educator. Make your voice heard in your school community if your child is being subjected to lengthy homework.

Make a change. One tiny step at a time.