SCHOOL HOMEWORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22775, 8 July 1937, Page 15

SCHOOL HOMEWORK

Sir, —The remarks made by Miss Louden,, of the Epsom Grammar School, make interesting reading, but how are pupils to get the "period of complete relaxation" and "an adequate amount of sleep" with the present amount of homework given? I have two girls attending an Auckland secondary school, just normal girls, certainly not duds. They rise at 6.15, have a cup of milk and set into homework. Porridge at seven is all they have time for beside a piece of fruit to eat on the way to school. They leave home at 10 to eight, and it's often 10 to five when they return, often wet and cold and hungry. Dinner over at six they set right into their lessons and often at 9 p.m. T assist worn out and weary children to bed, too brain weary to be civil. 1 find with all my friends' children it is the same. A boy who was dux of his school last year had to work all yesterday at his homework because lie .had taken his Saturday evening off. My girls do not go to pictures except in holidays and one night a week they go to guides, so their Saturday or Sunday must be given up to homework. No time to help mother or take up any sport, or learn any branch of housekeeping. I

find it makes nervy, brain weary children having: school at night as well as day. .When I talked to the teacher about it she said 20 minutes a subject to revise the work was all that was necessary, but 1 find it is pages and pages of written work that has to be done and. the amount of paper used and books filled "proves it.

Mother •of Two,