Today is my youngest little ladys birthday.
She is eleven, and on a wave of excitement that is funny to watch.
The down side is she has school,
and today despite it being her birthday, she will get homework!
Maybe I am getting old,
but I am lost when it comes to modern education.
Rote learning, memorizing regular state testing, league tables,
these are our measure of success nowadays.
Children stressed, no longer having time to play, poor self esteem,
none of these are taken into account when schools measure success.
We should have all woken up and taken note,
when you no longer sent your child to “play school” but to “pre school”.
The clue was definitely in the title!
From the age of three our children are part of this educational system.
They are actively being taught from the earliest of ages.
Teachers are assessing,
Parents are comparing.
Its all about learning.
There appears to be no room for difference.
No room for play,
No room for children to be children.
The pressure continues through the years.
Is my daughter really at such a critical stage in her education,
that she must do homework even on her birthday?
Will it really mean she falls way behind her classmates?
Maybe her not getting into college could be traced back to this very day?
I don’t think so.
Homework to me is a waste of her time and mine.
I do not mind her having reading or maths,
that allows us both to catch up on how she is doing.
It also gives her a chance to get extra help if required.
But what is the point of spellings?
Have they no time in school to learn them?
(she’s dyslexic by the way so they really are pointless).
As for when they are doing written homework,
and the teacher insists they write out the question too!
That drives me wild.
In my daughters school there is a homework policy,
each class has a maximum time to complete it.
This is something I believe to be very positive.
However, guess what?
Many parents ignore the guidelines and insist their children finish all given work.
So if the guideline is forty five minutes,
they spend an hour and a half or more at it.
The reason?
They do not want to be seen to have a child below par.
The result for me?
My child seems to have serious issues!
I know many teachers,
and they all say its parental pressure makes them give homework.
Maybe it is,
but on their birthday?
I’m afraid I cant be a part of all this competition to learn.
I want my child to achieve,
but not at the cost of her childhood.
So today when my “baby”
returns home from school,
all happy and excited,
She will play with her presents,
and I will do her homework!
I got the idea for this post today after reading beingjunes post, Preschool bootcamp.
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photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkyah/2282614106/”>FUNKYAH</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>
My thoughts on a page. 
You should do it all incorrectly and make sure the teacher knows you did the homework. They’ll think your child is brilliant to do as well as she does considering her mom can’t do 6th grade math! lol. Sorry, I’m not right in the head…
Ha ha. I could send in a note but she is getting such a kick out of me saying I’ll do it. I’m not right in the head either!
After recently having a daughter and having many teacher friends I am equally frightened and appalled by the education system. Remember when being a kid was fun??? I think that went out the window the same time as lawn darts….I miss those…
I think its up to us parents to ensure life stays fun. I can tell you my small girl had a great day! Thanks for the visit and comment.
My husband has been teaching for a while and is entering into administration. He seems to have some hope about moving away from memorizing facts into more applied learning…
I think assessment is silly. Homework too. My daughter has homework in preschool! I told my husband the other day that the real assessment will be if our children can be creative enough to solve some of the things we have passed down to them.
OMG am in shock you are doing homework in preschool!
Good Luck! If it was my gang I’d be spending a lot of my day coloring in etc while they played.
She loves playing with her friends at preschool. Luckily she can breeze through it just before it is due if needed on Friday. I don’t make too big of deal out of it. She spend more time on creative projects that she comes up with at home.
I think we overlook how children are learning about many things during these years–about the world. Not just about getting smart.
I’m still learning.
Me too 🙂
I am with you. My baby girl is eleven. I feel much the same.
Long live childhood. Luckily for me the homework was short!
Most of what I was taught at school was a waste of time. I struggled with the likes of algebra and trigonometry, for instance, and to what point? Never needed them as an adult.
I think education should be about teaching kids how to think analytically and how to find the information they need to answer their questions rather than cramming their heads full of facts which they are them graded on their ability to regurgitate in examinations. Education should be about teaching kids to think for themselves and not simply repeat what other folk tell them
And it needs to be fun. Kids learn much better if they enjoy the lessons!
hear hear. And when you look around the world is changing so fast. They can google all answers so in theory we need to know very little.
Hi! I have nominated you for the Beautiful Mama Blog Award! To find out more, and to accept the nomination, please go to: http://mummyshymz.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/beautiful-mama-blog-award/
Have a great day!
oh thank you so much. I’m delighted. Now this is like saying I want your homework tomorrow.. cos I have to figure out how to link to sites and display an award!!! O am but an amateur blogger yet!.Might take a day but again thanks for thinking of me but more importantly thanks a mil for reading my blog.
Haha no worries. Love reading your posts – very real, and humorous too! Have a great day!
Happy birthday
Thanks a mil. i’ll pass it on.