Parenting can be a real drag sometimes,
especially when your child has one of those big homework assignments.
You know: a project.
These special assignments come in all sorts of
flavors. Maybe it’s memorizing a famous monologue (dressed in an
appropriate costume, of course). Maybe it’s the dreaded sixth grade
science project. Maybe it’s hand-writing every step of all
thirty items on last night’s homework, then doing it all over again
tomorrow night. And the next night, too.
It doesn’t matter what the subject is: when
my kids bring home tough assignments, something inside me dies a little bit. I might
even wonder: Is all this hard work necessary? I mean, really?
I haven’t asked those questions out loud, since
my kids would gleefully pounce on my ambivalence. But it could happen at some
point, since I’m relatively new to the heavy homework years.
If you know me, you may be thinking, "if
that's how she feels, it totally serves her right." And you have a point, because I'm not only a mom, I'm also a teacher.
So if I'm feeling overwhelmed by my children's
homework load, it's only fair: my parent-self is merely reaping the
bitter fruit of what my teacher-self has sown.
I've earned my motherly misery fair and square.
And to some degree, you are right.
Because I’m not just any teacher; I’m the one who
requires students to complete The Very Worst Assignment.
I am an English Teacher.
And I assign The Research
Paper.
And, of course, successfully completing this
homework assignment requires a hefty to-do list.
There’s the research.
The reading.
The notecards.
The documenting.
The writing.
The revising.
The printing.
The proofreading.
The correcting.
The reprinting.
Then the dreaded grade.
As an educator, I know just how hard
essay-writing can be for students. So making that list gives me the hives
every time.
As the parent of a middle schooler who just
completed his first "real" research paper, I have a new (and
hard-won) appreciation for the challenges such assignments bring to the
home-front.
And (believe it or not,) I still recall my own
senior research paper. I'll skip the dramatics, but if you imagine
piles of angrily wadded up paper, multiple nights of insufficient sleep, and
bleary eyes shedding tears (lots of tears), you have the right idea.
My mom still likes to mention it from time to
time.
Let's just say it wasn't pleasant.
So I get it: schoolwork ain’t all fun and
games.
Not for parents.
Not for kids.
And (truthfully) not always for teachers, either.
All of this begs the
question: If requiring students to complete projects creates so much
misery, why are we still doing it?
