SHOULD A CHILD BE GIVEN HOMEWORK?
Much homework should not be given to the child. The child already is in school from 8 o’clock to 3 o’clock. He gets up at 6 o’clock to reach school by 8 o’clock. On top of it, when he reaches home by 4 P.M., the thought uppermost in his mind is that he has to complete his homework. In fact, the school timings of a child are roughly equal to office timings of a government employee. When such employees reach home, they are usually tired and stressed out. Do they have to do any homework?
The parents also have to sit with the child and make him complete his homework, only after which, they can feel relaxed. The parents may not always be good teachers. This is because 1) they get upset when the child is slow in picking up things or doesn’t understand. This is because they are anxious that he should learn things properly and quickly. 2) The parent’s way of teaching may be different from that of the school teacher.
When they try to teach the child anything in a particular way, the child may say that this is not the way their teacher told them. And believe me a child always considers the teachers correct! So, the child who is already baffled at school will be more baffled when his parents present things to him in a different way at home.
The only solution to reduce the homework and in general the burden of studies is to reduce the syllabus of the child and not teach him things which will be of no importance to him in the future.
I still remember that in school they taught me all complex chemical formulas and reactions, equations and what not, which we were supposed to remember by heart. Why to talk of school? Even in medical college they taught me how to make mixtures in pharmacology, which has no relevance today, as all drugs are produced by companies and the doctor doesn’t have to make and dispense mixtures. Now when I look back, I realise that 70% of what was taught to me has no relevance to my job and profession as a paediatrician.
Yet the “wise” bureaucrats (present day education policy makers) sitting in their posh chambers have little practical knowledge and awareness that they are converting children into beasts of burden and creating neurotics out of them. As a result, children are made to slog and taught all type of things which have absolutely no bearing in future on their profession or means of livelihood.
SHOULD THERE BE CORPORAL PUNISHMENT?
To cane or beat a child for simple errors is not correct. Yet many teachers do so as they feel “spare the rod and spoil the child.”
Also physical punishment cowers the child into submission, so that a large part of the teacher’s headache is over. By doing so, they create a fear psychosis in the child and render his overall personality into one of a submissive or alternatively a rebellious child, that can be carried forward into adulthood. Children if dealt with a firm hand and made to understand the difference between right and wrong, between desirable behaviour and behaviour that cannot be condoned, will surely do their best to stay on the right path.
After all, there is a strong desire in the children to please their elders, particularly parents and teachers. No child will deliberately do something to annoy his teacher in school. Agreed, some children are by nature a bit aggressive, “naughty” and on the lookout for fun. Such children are few. The teacher can talk to their parents about them or even resort to other forms of punishment like making him stand, turning him out of the class etc. But, to inflict a physical blow or to pinch, twist his ears etc. to cause them physical pain is callous.
SHOULD THE CHILD UNDERGO TUITION?
Because of the vast syllabus and lots of homework, parents go for private tuition, usually employing the same teacher who teaches their child at school.
Tuition is a means of burdening the child at home also. He has already spent such a lot of time in school that he is mentally and physically exhausted. Yet on reaching home, instead of some mental rest and relaxation; he is back to the books in a never-ending drab and monotonous schedule.
Tuition fosters a culture of dependency. The child begins to depend on others for success. Some parents, as soon as they come back home from work, will “retire” with their child in a separate room and then start tutoring him. If there are two children, then the mother and father divide the onus of teaching them, one child “belonging” to one parent. If parents do not have the time and the energy, they hire a tutor.
All this inculcates a culture of dependency in the child. The child never learns how to study by himself and daily waits for his parents or the tutor to teach him. This habit lives on and even when the child goes to a higher class, he never has the confidence, habit or the will to self-study. Instead someone has to regularly sit with him and make him study. This is detrimental to the development of a child.
Therefore parents from the very beginning should encourage the child to study and do homework on his own, their role being supervisory. Definitely one doesn’t expect the child to do all the studies by himself, but then parents should only intervene when the child faces a problem and solicits their help e.g. he doesn’t know subtracting 2 numbers. Then the parents should only guide and make him understand how to do it e.g. keep 11 matchsticks and take away 6 to illustrate 11 minus 6.
An important aspect of teaching is to make the subject interesting, simple and lucid so that less emphasis is laid on mugging and greatest emphasis is laid on understanding. Once the child understands the basic concept, he gains self-confidence and can reasonably tackle similar problems on his own. Similarly for spellings, it is important for the child to learn the phonation of the word and then try to learn its spelling. Suppose the child has to spell “ball”. By its pronunciation, it is evident that it starts with “B” and also has “L” in it. So the child instead of blindly cramming the spellings and trying to remember them by heart should learn to associate the spelling with the way words are pronounced.