The Homework Question
It's five thirty in the afternoon and a seven-year-old child has arrived home from school. After eating a sandwich, he sits down, takes out his textbooks and notebooks and does his homework. A typical scene in a typical town. There are parents who don't want that to be so typical.
Depending on the school and on the teacher, Spanish children sometimes get excessive homework. Given that many schools still have the split day of class in the morning, lunch at home at midday, and more class in the afternoon, that doesn't leave much time for after-school activities. It's even worse in the winter when darkness falls just after many of these children get home. This year, some important parent associations have called for a strike against homework on weekends in the month of November. A growing number of people do not want children doing homework, claiming it is a failure of the school system to send home exercises that should have been covered in school. They want to follow the Finnish system of not sending any work home.
But in Finland, some children do have homework. It's the entire day that's different from the Spanish system. In first and second grades, children only go to school for a few hours in the morning. Yet, they manage to study the mother language (Swedish or Finnish, according to the area they live in), math, environmental studies, religion or ethics, music, art, crafts, and physical education. They begin school at seven years of age, though they have a kindergarten year at six. Knowing that parents have jobs that will not allow them to drop off their children late in the morning and pick them up again at midday, Finnish schools have a before and after school system of activities. In the afternoon, the children get to do any homework they have been given, with tutors to go to for help. That leaves the evening at home free to be with their parents and siblings. Importantly, everything is free for the parents. After what they have already paid in taxes, they don't have to pay any more. All the activities are free, all the textbooks and materials used in school are free, all meals are free, and all transport is free.
That is a huge difference from the Spanish system. It's not only that, in Finnish culture teachers are still respected individuals, and they are also expected to be the best in their field. There is no teacher without at least a master's degree in education or the field they specialize in, sometimes in both. They are well paid and there are few pupils per teacher. Who wouldn't learn in an environment like that?
But in the Spanish system, things are different. The school day is comprised of at least five lesson hours for all grades 1-6. Usually they are broken up into morning and afternoon, though some schools have shifted to the continuous schedule, with a little break for a sandwich or a yoghurt, leaving children to go home to eat the midday meal after two o'clock. Some schools might open an hour earlier and close an hour later to accommodate those children whose parents work. Not all schools serve meals. Those that do, serve the midday meal and breakfast if they open early. Parents have to pay for those meals. Those who can't afford it apply for a grant that they may or may not be given. The textbooks the children use have to be bought by parents every year. Regions have grants available for lower income families, but in some regions you have to be practically living in the street to be given one. Everything else, notebooks, pencils, pens, folders, etc., are a parent's responsibility to buy. Some primary school teachers even ask parents to supply paper towels and copy paper.
Spanish teachers are no longer respected as reservoirs of knowledge. Generally, when a student has a complaint, the parent takes the student's side automatically, without investigating the truth. Too many parents are not involved in their children's schooling aside from taking them to school and picking them up. Teachers are badly paid and their class size has increased. Many don't have a master's degree because they couldn't afford to study for one, and teach with the tools they learned as college undergraduates, including those who specialize in a subject.
Seeing the differences, where does homework fit in all this? Finnish children get some homework, though not much, because they apply the knowledge learned in school in different ways. Their classes are more dynamic and probably thus help the children's minds to retain information better. Parents are involved in school business and let it show. Learning is almost a community effort in Finland. In Spain learning is still considered nerdy. Children need to reinforce at home what they have learned during the day because rote learning is still key here. Memorization of facts is considered the end-all of education still. Instead of getting rid of homework, why don't we adapt the entire Finnish system to our schools? Oh, of course, that would mean allocating more money to education in the national budget. Right when they're talking of cutting back some more as soon as we get a working government someday.
I believe in homework, especially with the system we suffer in Spain. Ten or fifteen minutes of work before bed, helped by a parent, would do wonders for the youngest children. Perhaps one simple math problem, worded with things easily found in a home, a few sentences of a story to read, an observation of a natural phenomenon, a two-sentence description of something, would be a fitting way of trying to help cement what was discussed in class. But, maybe it's simply the parents who don't feel like asking, "Have you done your homework yet?"
Depending on the school and on the teacher, Spanish children sometimes get excessive homework. Given that many schools still have the split day of class in the morning, lunch at home at midday, and more class in the afternoon, that doesn't leave much time for after-school activities. It's even worse in the winter when darkness falls just after many of these children get home. This year, some important parent associations have called for a strike against homework on weekends in the month of November. A growing number of people do not want children doing homework, claiming it is a failure of the school system to send home exercises that should have been covered in school. They want to follow the Finnish system of not sending any work home.
But in Finland, some children do have homework. It's the entire day that's different from the Spanish system. In first and second grades, children only go to school for a few hours in the morning. Yet, they manage to study the mother language (Swedish or Finnish, according to the area they live in), math, environmental studies, religion or ethics, music, art, crafts, and physical education. They begin school at seven years of age, though they have a kindergarten year at six. Knowing that parents have jobs that will not allow them to drop off their children late in the morning and pick them up again at midday, Finnish schools have a before and after school system of activities. In the afternoon, the children get to do any homework they have been given, with tutors to go to for help. That leaves the evening at home free to be with their parents and siblings. Importantly, everything is free for the parents. After what they have already paid in taxes, they don't have to pay any more. All the activities are free, all the textbooks and materials used in school are free, all meals are free, and all transport is free.
That is a huge difference from the Spanish system. It's not only that, in Finnish culture teachers are still respected individuals, and they are also expected to be the best in their field. There is no teacher without at least a master's degree in education or the field they specialize in, sometimes in both. They are well paid and there are few pupils per teacher. Who wouldn't learn in an environment like that?
But in the Spanish system, things are different. The school day is comprised of at least five lesson hours for all grades 1-6. Usually they are broken up into morning and afternoon, though some schools have shifted to the continuous schedule, with a little break for a sandwich or a yoghurt, leaving children to go home to eat the midday meal after two o'clock. Some schools might open an hour earlier and close an hour later to accommodate those children whose parents work. Not all schools serve meals. Those that do, serve the midday meal and breakfast if they open early. Parents have to pay for those meals. Those who can't afford it apply for a grant that they may or may not be given. The textbooks the children use have to be bought by parents every year. Regions have grants available for lower income families, but in some regions you have to be practically living in the street to be given one. Everything else, notebooks, pencils, pens, folders, etc., are a parent's responsibility to buy. Some primary school teachers even ask parents to supply paper towels and copy paper.
Spanish teachers are no longer respected as reservoirs of knowledge. Generally, when a student has a complaint, the parent takes the student's side automatically, without investigating the truth. Too many parents are not involved in their children's schooling aside from taking them to school and picking them up. Teachers are badly paid and their class size has increased. Many don't have a master's degree because they couldn't afford to study for one, and teach with the tools they learned as college undergraduates, including those who specialize in a subject.
Seeing the differences, where does homework fit in all this? Finnish children get some homework, though not much, because they apply the knowledge learned in school in different ways. Their classes are more dynamic and probably thus help the children's minds to retain information better. Parents are involved in school business and let it show. Learning is almost a community effort in Finland. In Spain learning is still considered nerdy. Children need to reinforce at home what they have learned during the day because rote learning is still key here. Memorization of facts is considered the end-all of education still. Instead of getting rid of homework, why don't we adapt the entire Finnish system to our schools? Oh, of course, that would mean allocating more money to education in the national budget. Right when they're talking of cutting back some more as soon as we get a working government someday.
I believe in homework, especially with the system we suffer in Spain. Ten or fifteen minutes of work before bed, helped by a parent, would do wonders for the youngest children. Perhaps one simple math problem, worded with things easily found in a home, a few sentences of a story to read, an observation of a natural phenomenon, a two-sentence description of something, would be a fitting way of trying to help cement what was discussed in class. But, maybe it's simply the parents who don't feel like asking, "Have you done your homework yet?"
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