Homework

Te Ao Hou, March 1963, Page 51

Homework The secondary school day doesn't stop at three o'clock; some of the work has to be done at home. A child in Form Three will probably have about an hour and a half's homework to do. This means that the child must have at least that much time in the evening without interruption. The best thing of course is a bedroom with a small table, a reading lamp and a bookcase, and NO, repeat NO interruptions. Work simply cannot be done if the radio is on, other children are playing about, grown ups are talking, or there is one eye on the TV set. If you have dinner early, say before six o'clock, there will be time for homework to be got out of the way and time over for reading, talking, radio listening and TV watching, all important activities for growing boys and girls. While I think about it, why not consider excusing the high-schoolers from some of the household chores, washing the dishes for instance, if that time is spent on doing homework. If you think children should do the dishes then let them off something else, peeling the potatoes perhaps. Tell the younger children that they have to help out because so-and-so goes to high school now, and has other important things to do. You might, at this point, be thinking that all this is impossible in your household, but there are other possibilities. In one district, I know of a retired teacher who has the children in to work in her spare room in exchange for lawnmowing and hedge cutting; in another the headmaster opens up one of the classrooms for a couple of hours at night. There is always something that can be done if you are keen enough.

‘When the pakehas next door got a new fridge I got you one too.’ ‘To top it off I bought a Daimler when they bought a Jag.’ ‘What's that dear?’ ‘When they got T.V. you had to have it too.’ ‘But they've got one good thing that we haven't.’ ‘MAORI NEIGHBOURS!!!’