Dreaded school homework sets us up to fail at switching off in workplace, expert warns
HOMEWORK – few like it, many hate it.
But is it actually any good for students’ development?
It can help children develop study skills, and to build on their classroom learning.
But it can cause undue stress, eat away at leisure and family time and is not always the most productive use of time.
There has been much debate and research in recent years as to whether the practice of assigning homework is beneficial or not for our young children.
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development study found Irish school children are among the hardest working in the world, completing on average 7.3 hours of homework per week.
READ MORE IN HOMEWORK
In comparison, the same research discovered kids in Finland only complete around 2.8 hours per week.
Experts say the recommended time for homework starts at around 20 minutes per day from first class, rising to about an hour at the end of primary school, but the reality can be quite different.
Here, a human resources guru argues why the dreaded after-school grind might be creating problems down the line once schoolchildren enter the workplace.
As a parent to three primary schoolchildren, I will nail my colours to the mast – I hate homework, and I hated it when I was their age, too.
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Yes, I realise I may be branded a lazy parent or ignorant to the fact that doing homework with my kids is an opportunity to spend “quality time” with them.
Those points of views do not wash with me, they are just cheap shots.
The debate for banning homework for our young children is a very valid one.
I think any time spent with my children is quality time and I do not need their teachers to map that out for me in a homework diary.
I strongly agree that our children do enough in school and that their free time outside of it should be left alone.
DEEPER ISSUES
All that aside, there is a deeper professional issue that I have with the traditional practice of homework.
I believe there is a link between the practice that is enforced upon us when we are young and our inability to achieve a healthy wellbeing with regards to switching off from work as adults.
If you take a child who enters the education system at five years of age, they will very quickly get used to the fact that when they return home after their school day, they will be faced with the task of completing their homework.
This will continue all the way through their education in primary and secondary school.
It may culminate in them completing their leaving cert exams, where it moves into an entire new level of point-chasing through the toxic practice of “the more study you can do, the more you will be rewarded”.
NO FOCUS ON WELLBEING
So, give up your evenings, give up your weekends, give up your social life, give up your days off and it will all be worthwhile.
The rewards are not achieved in school, the real rewards are achieved “out-of-hours”.
They then perhaps enter third-level education. Again, similar to their leaving cert experience, there is no clear focus on their wellbeing.
The rewards are for those who make the sacrifices and turn their out of hours into the opportunity to get ahead.
Then they enter the workplace, and all they have been taught is that when your day is over, it’s not.
STRUGGLE TO SWITCH OFF
If you want to get ahead, this is achieved outside of normal working hours.
We then hear copious amounts of opinion and debate on how we can achieve workplace wellbeing and wonder why we have such issues with disconnecting from our work or how we can or should “switch off”.
Wellbeing is one of the biggest challenges we face in workplaces.
There are many factors for this. However, there is an extraordinary problem in general – we struggle as a people to switch off from our work and this is very damaging to our mental health.
But are we set up to fail?
THE RIGHT TO DISCONNECT
As humans we will struggle with switching off or disconnecting.
However, if all of our formative years in education are spent learning that out of hours is the norm, then it is going to be extremely difficult to achieve genuine healthy workplace wellbeing in the future.
Yes, more training and education for workplaces and line managers will help in the area of workplace wellbeing and the right to disconnect.
However, the right to disconnect is no good if all we have ever been taught is that’s not the way it works.
Many educational experts, child psychologists, teachers, parents etc will have differing views on the homework debate.
I will continue to listen to all sides, but from the point of view of our children’s future work lives, I ask that the ability to learn about switching off and disconnecting for the sake of their own mental health and wellbeing be considered in7 that debate.
Damien McCarthy is the founder and CEO of HR consultancy and recruitment firm HR Buddy. He is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).