SCHOOL HOMEWORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20203, 13 March 1929, Page 8

SCHOOL HOMEWORK.

QUESTION OF ABOLITION. COMMENT BY COMMITTEES. The question of school homework is discussed in an article in the latest number of the School Committee Journal, which is published quarterly by the Auckland Primary School Committees' Association. Referring readers to a recent report by S'r. C. W. Garrard, senior inspector of schools, that "the tendency had been to a large extent to restrict the setting of homework," the article states it may justly be concluded that the practice of giving excessive homework did not apply under the Auckland Education Board.

Dealing with the recent decision of the Mount Eden School to abolish homework, the article states:—"lt should be remembered that since the Kovhai Junior High School was opened the Mount Eden School teaching does not go bevond tha fourth standard and while many ir.ay agree that homework up to that standard might safely be abolished, they would hesitate before agreeing that; it should be abolished in the higher standards.

"We agree that excessive homework is not good and where it exists in a school the practice should be quickly stopped, yet where judiciously given, it should have no bad effect upon t&e children. It must be remembered that homework, after all, should be, in a measure, a ievision of work that has been done during the day or a preparation of work that will be done in school during the morrow, and surely such work cannot entail any great hardship upon the average child and must enable the lesson to become more firmly grasped by the little mind. Many children have no fixed duties allotted to them in their homes and we imagine mothers are frequently grateful when they find their children have school homework to engage their attention and keep 'them employed." *