Poor character ruins education     015

When any teacher marks the first piece of homework received from a child that student’s character is on show. It is evident, not just in the general effort made but also in how the child approaches a question that he or she cannot do. The majority of children leave the space blank; they don’t even start. They simply pass on to the next question and then tell the teacher and their parents that they have finished their homework. And the really sad part about this is that these children actually believe they have completed their homework.

Typically when asked to explain the missing homework the child says that he or she didn’t understand what to do—probably quite true—or was not sure what to do. Sometimes not knowing what to do is the result of not listening when the teacher explained the homework, or not reading the instructions that go with the homework, or not using the dictionary. If one or two words in that section of the homework cannot be understood, for example, then the child will automatically have problems.

Well you know where this is going—all excuses are just that, excuses for being lazy, excuses for wasting precious educational time, and excuses for not being the best children they possibly can be. So often when a teacher tells parents that their child is not doing his or her homework the parents are genuinely shocked. The child has made a habit of continually telling the parents that the homework is finished, and to a very large extent the child believes that it has been finished. He or she thinks it is only necessary to answer questions where it is possible to get a right answer.

It’s time both teachers and parents stopped accepting this behaviour. It is poor character, nothing more, nothing less. It is children wasting the privilege of having a good education, something so many children around the world do not have. So when children are faced with something they cannot do, they must get out the dictionary, look up the words, read the instructions and write something. If they can’t find an answer then they should pick up a pencil, drop it onto the text, notice where it lands, and simply suppose that is the answer, and then write it. Doing something then is much better than doing nothing.

Of course if having major difficulty is a consistent situation then perhaps the teacher has set homework that is too difficult, or it has not been adequately explained. But with competent teaching this should very rarely happen. So the next time your child tells you that he or she has finished his or her homework then get the homework book out and check for empty spaces. If you find them you know what to do.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services