By Dale Moore |
By Dale Moore |
|
Watching Jeffery stagger down the street, I was amazed he did not fall over backward. The book bag on his back was almost bigger than he, and probably weighed as much. Jeffery, a second grader, is on his way home from school. Inside the bright yellow bag is tonight’s homework. Yes, I said homework! Why should a second or third grader be saddled with homework? Almost any developmental psychologist or pediatrician will tell you that at age six or seven, children needs to be playing, running, developing bones, muscles, motor skills and social skills. But Jeffery has to go home where he will spend most of the evening working on homework. It is not unusual today for a second or third grader to have two hours or more of homework three or four nights a week. Why do we do this to our children? First, students from kindergarten up in schools across the country are being pressured to pass state (and federal testing) on an annual basis. School boards and administrators are demanding higher scores from students lest their schools not meet prescribed standards and they lose funding, or worse, be perceived as a failing school. Testing was supposed to be the evaluation of what schools were teaching. Instead it has become the subject that our schools are teaching. Second, we are teaching (or stuffing), more information into our children at an earlier age. The child who graduates from high school in 2003 will have the equivalent education their parents had upon receiving a Batchelor’s degree from college. Third, parents are demanding more from schools to ensure their child being accepted at college, years before they even know if the child has an aptitude for college. What happened to play? What happened to Hide and Seek, and Kick the Can? What happened to children creating games, playing with friends in the street from supper till dark? What are we doing to our kids? Children as young as seven and eight are committing suicide! Teenagers are committing suicide every twenty minutes! Children are so angry they are shooting fellow students and their teachers! When will parents, school boards and legislators understand that, just maybe, if kids like Jeffery had less homework, less pressure, and more playtime, there would be less of them doing “hard time!”
And that’s my two cents worth. |
