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Homework’s Hidden Values, all 7 of them

By John Rosemond, child psychologist

Homework is important for obvious reasons and for reasons that are not so obvious. I’ve devoted three columns to it because most people—teachers and parent alike—see no further than the obvious.

The Obvious aim of assigning homework is to provide the child with an opportunity to practice and strengthen academic skills. By devoting adequate time to homework, the child’s stands a better chance of making good grades. Right? Right!

But homework is important for other reasons. Home can and should be a character-building experience. Managed properly by teachers and parents who have an appreciation for its “hidden values,” homework can help a child become equipped with certain essential emotional and behavioral skills. These skills—which the child will eventually need to deal successfully in the adult world—include responsibility, autonomy, perseverance, time management, initiative, self-reliance, and resourcefulness.

Let’s take a closer look at each of those attributes, the “Seven Hidden Values.”

Responsibility: to fulfill your obligations, to assume “ownership” of that which rightly belongs to you, to hold yourself accountable for both your mistakes as well as your successes. Homework is a child’s responsibility. When parents get too involved, they set the process on its head. The lessons get done, but the real lesson doesn’t get learned.

Autonomy: to be self-governed to stand on your own two feet. Homework is the first time someone other than a parent has assigned tasks to the child on a consistent basis. In that sense homework breaks new ground. The child is now accountable outside the family. The manner in which this golden opportunity is managed will either enhance or obstruct the child’s progress toward independence.

Perseverance: to confront challenges with determination; to strive in spite of difficulties; to complete what you set out to accomplish. If the Little Train that Could had had a mother train who, Upson seeing her child’s struggle, got behind and pushed, there would have been no point to the story. Likewise, there’s no point to a child doing homework if every time the child becomes frustrated, parents make it all better.

Time-Management: the ability to organize time in an effective, productive nammer, to complete tasks on schedule without compromising quality. As I said last week, the shortest route to a nightly homework marathon is to tell the child when to begin the homework, but not when it must be finished. Instead of learning to manage time, the child learns to waste it.

Initiative: to be self-motivated and assertive; to be decisive in defining and pursuing personal goals. It boils down to this: Who decides when it’s time for the child to begin his homework?

Self-reliance: to have trust and self-confidence in your abilities. Managed properly homework empowers, affirms, enlarges, fulfills, actualized and enables the child’s capacity for competence. Mismanaged, it diminishes, deflates, and disables. And there is no in-between.

Resourcefulness: the capacity ro find, invent, or adapt creative means to solve problems. After all, this is the business, the very stuff of being human, isn’t it? Homework provides the form, the child provides the substance.

And to what do these “Seven Hidden Values “add? To self-esterrm, of course. Homework gives a child a chance to develop a positive sense of self-worth. Does that answer your question?

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