August 13 2013 at 11:59pm
By Lebusa Monyooe
INLSA
A pupil tries to complete his homework under a tree. The writer suggests that homework be banished to set children free from anxiety and burn-out
I recall my formative years at school with mixed emotions because of a love-hate affinity I had with it. I, however, enjoyed friendships and the new stuff we learnt.
Extramural activities made me discover my sporting abilities – I excelled in football and athletics.
Recent rumblings about homework and its relevance to pupils’ performance and achievement reignited the long-buried emotional scars. My love-hate affinity with schooling had homework as the common denominator.
My first experience was an abrasive encounter with my grade teacher – Mr Winterbottom. He had a sly smile and used corporal punishment to enforce rote learning. Then teachers had carte blanche to beat pupils without any recourse to social justice. Corporal punishment formed part of classroom routine and norms.
Each day ended with lots of homework to be submitted the following day. It was hell on earth. I bailed out by playing truancy to escape humiliation and battering.
My reprieve was short-lived as my mother busted me for truancy. She dragged me to school wailing like a sick dog and my grade teacher endorsed my arrival with some spanking. It was hell.
I recall one Tuesday morning, immediately after prayers. We got lined up for uniform and homework inspection. It was time to showcase our homework prowess to Mr Winterbottom. I was a culprit and ready to take my spanking like a “man”. I had no recourse to explain my case - get spanked and talk later.
I stayed some distance away from school and the long walks left me exhausted. I was demotivated to indulge any school work.
There was another complication to my story. I stayed in the rural hinterlands far from the city. My parents owned a herd of cattle. When I was at school my uncle looked after the cattle. I had to relieve him after school. By the time I got home, I was too fatigued to think.
No electricity to read or do homework. It was a struggle for survival.
My mother had no formal education and she could not help with homework. Getting spanked for unfinished homework became a sorry part of my school life.
I however persevered and passed.
I celebrated hoping that my torturous school days were a thing of the past. Eish!
It was a premature celebration. Teachers moved up with grades and Mr Winterbottom took me all the way to Grade 7. I tried to bail out many a time without much luck. I could not have made it with my mother’s wisdom and perseverance. I love her dearly, she showed me the ropes.
My school experiences seem to resonate with many pupils, given the homework rumblings. While a lot has changed, the rumbling about “tons” of homework is worrisome. It might create anti-schooling perspectives.
Unleashing homework will not enforce quality, high performance or yield desired outcomes. Globally governments have deployed various strategies to monitor school performance and pupil achievement. Homework is not a good indicator of performance.
Commenting on the state of education in the Netherlands, Ype Akkerman says “quality of an education cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”.
My encounters with my grade teacher contradict what Akkerman postulates.
Winterbottom used an abrasive disposition to conceal his professional deficiencies. He exuded terror and negativity about schooling and education in general.
We have many teachers like Winterbottom who do more harm than good by being entrusted with young minds.
Qualified teachers understand the craft of teaching and turn classrooms into challenging spaces for enquiry and discovery.
My teacher represented the opposite and so could many teachers in our schools.
William Ayers cleverly captures the ideal classroom scenario that every teacher must aspire to fulfil, “in a democracy teachers must be models of thoughtfulness and care; exemplars of problem-solving and decision-making”.
My teacher did not teach me problem-solving skills. He did not care about the welfare of his pupils. He beat us with impunity. He exuded counter-educative skills. How can pupils display creative learning skills when the classroom environment is fraught with terror and disregard for the rights of pupils?
What Winterbottom failed to deliver in class, he foolishly expected to be accomplished through “meaningless” homework.
Despite the beatings we suffered at school, parents invariably colluded with teachers. When I bunked school for failing to complete homework, I did not get support from my folks. It is not that they did not care. It was due to a confuted understanding of parental roles in education.
Our parents were not legally empowered to rein in teachers who acted unprofessionally. What teachers proclaimed was the gospel. Our laws have outlawed corporal punishment in schools and give parents space to engage schools. There are governance structures, too, with oversight over school matters. Whether they deliver on their brief is a moot point.
In 1995 Frank Smith made profound observations about the quality of education when he said: “Education is on the wrong track largely because of ‘solutions’ that have socially isolated teachers and students from one another and from sensible ways of spending their time.”
He argued that “we should stop worrying about problems of education, declare it a disaster and let teachers and students get on with their lives”.
Smith contends that a disaster is not a “collection of problems” that require solutions. The only plausible approach is to “extricate” oneself from the problem and deploy various strategies.
In 1950, HJ Otto wrote in the Encyclopaedia of Educational Research: “Compulsory homework does not result in sufficiently improved academic accomplishments to justify retention.”
PR Wildman put it quite eloquently that “whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, whenever it usurps time devoted to sleep, it is not meeting basic needs of children and adolescents”.
It increases loss of interest in academic activities, creates intense parental pressures and emotional fatigue for those involved in it.
To change the situation, Stephen Tung recommends the Finnish approach because “school hours [are] cut in half, little homework, no standardised tests, 50 minutes recess and free lunch”.
He argues that this unconventional approach to education has catapulted Finland as one of the top performing countries according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
South Africa needs a new approach to school and classroom management to enhance school performance. The unleashing of homework will not and has not brought success. We must create conducive space for children to play and refine creative (aesthetic) skills without being overwhelmed by homework. Homework perpetuates adversarial roles between school and parents.
Banish homework and set children free from anxiety and burn-out, especially at foundation phase.
* Lebusa Monyooe is a Pretoria commentator with a special interest in education.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Newspapers
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