About writing of homework's ask

The excess of tasks with which children are charged outside the classroom equates their working hours with that of adults

Experts warn of the bill of this overload in motivation at early ages

"The boys and girls of Primary cannot regulate everything because they need time to discover on their own, play, imagine ..."

 Doing homework becomes for many children a tedious task that encourages rejection towards school and learning itself. Cayuse

Doing homework becomes for many children a tedious task that encourages rejection towards school and learning itself.

Five hours of work, one more of complementary activities and even two other tasks at home. It might look like an adult's full day, but it's the day-to-day life of Amanda, a nine-year-old girl. Go to school in the morning, return home to eat at noon and back to the classroom until 16.30. Then comes the dance, which he is passionate about. But when you set foot at home, you have to deal with the most tedious task: doing homework.

"She comes very tired and she needs to disconnect, but the burden of tasks is so great that she hardly has time to do what she likes," says Carlos Perez, his father. Since the beginning of the Primary, the evenings have become eternal sitting at the table in the room. "Minimum is two hours a day and sometimes we despair.About writing of homeworks as in Assignment.essayshark.com because it provides the best services, There are even days that cannot finish everything they ask," he complains.

Duties, yes or no? It is a debate whose answer, most agree, and cannot be reduced to white or black. "There is no study that shows that homework is a guarantee of educational success, nor is it the opposite," says Enrich Roca, professor of Education Sciences at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Now, he adds, "what is not tolerable is that the tasks at home become a tedious and boring exercise because that is counterproductive for children."

"Learning does not mean being with the elbows glued to the book"

Some experts even warn that work overload at low educational levels may lead to rejection of one's own learning. "The curiosity to learn is a natural stimulation of children that can be dangerously broken with an excess of tasks," explains Marta Alvaro, technical advisor of the National Center for Innovation and Educational Research of the Ministry of Education. This pedagogue emphasizes that the development of competencies "does not have to be synonymous with being with the elbows glued to the book". "What we always call homework has to be understood as rather small tasks for children to take autonomy, not so much curricular issues."

Here is very important, says Alfaro, the work in families. "Homework should encourage reading as fun and accompany children in learning in a playful way and with daily challenges, but never replace the work that is done in school," he explains. "Fathers and mothers - he adds - cannot be substitutes for teachers because then we are generating inequality.

"What cannot happen in any way is that homework becomes the easy resource that completes what the teacher has in his program and does not give time to see in class," says in the same line Enric Roca. Instead, work at home "should work rather as enrichment outside the classroom, as a reinforcement that has to boost the satisfaction of children's natural curiosities." "They need time to waste time, to play, to create, to imagine ... You cannot regulate everything, as it happens in the adult world," he added.

For Maria Remedies Belinda, professor of Social Pedagogy at the Universidad Complutense, the duties are beneficial in that they help to "promote discipline, organization and responsibility." But, he warns, they may also have a troubling counterpart. "In some cases, the tasks cause problems of stress and low self-esteem if there are difficulties to develop them."

The threat of discouragement

It's the feeling that invades Amanda every time she gets in front of the English book. She studies in a public school with a bilingual program in which three subjects are taught in English: Science, Art and Music. "He feels unable to follow the level and at home we help him in what we can. We have had to find a person who comes home to give him a little more support because he has a bad time," José Carlos says.

"When these kinds of obstacles are accentuated by an excess of tasks outside the classroom, it is very easy to find discouragement at very young ages."