TOO LITTLE HOMEWORK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 177, 28 July 1944, Page 4

TOO LITTLE HOMEWORK

In your issue of yesterday a; peared a paragraph to the effect fe; school children in New South Wale |; are to be. given less homework. M Minister is reported to have spokel of children's health being undel mined by too much of it. Myor.j observations lead me to believe ttej there is no danger of this happen!::; in New Zealand. The complaint c| my wife and myself is that our ciff dren, of whom two are in "a secccf ary school and one in a prima.;! have too little homework. Such ii there is they regard as of little b| portance, and they have to be urgf every night to settle down and doi If they occupied poor positions!, their classes I should regard thats thy result of their inattention | homework, but their positions fairly good. Yet when I look® their work, or set them work toil" I frequently find that they mil careless mistakes, and someta: that they have not grasped sol elementary principle. For this its teachers, past or present, are ! blame. My opinion is that test schools which do not insist on tej work being done regularly, and mi done, are failing the child! Tti time when a child discovers raetel or not he has really understood, mi learned, is when he or she sits tod' to work unaided. If he is e[. obliged to do so, or if nobody earthen it seems to me he can rj| through a school course wittaj thoroughly learning anything. \V2fl disturbs me is the thought that see a child does not necessarily rece;[ bad reports from school, and -j parents may think, unless they ce| duct a private examination, that:fc. is doing well. Perhaps some tea:? ers will care to give their views this prcblem. „ I PUZZLED PARENT 1