One thing teens and parents can agree on is that homework is a big stressor in family life. As your son or daughter get older, the workload increases. Parents who are busy holding down one and maybe two jobs find it hard to enjoy quality time with their teens. This is particularly a problem for the parent who has to prod and sometimes threaten their teens to do their homework.
Yet homework serves a valuable purpose. Educators will tell you it is the key to reinforcing what is taught during the day. Homework also offers a chance for students to take new concepts to different levels by exercising higher thinking skills. In literature, for instance, students might learn about the concept of irony during class time, and have a homework reading assignment that requires them to identify the irony in a new piece. In math, a good homework assignment would be to use a newly learned strategy with different kinds of problems. Students who regularly complete their homework will do better in class, and they will do better on the proficiency tests the state now requires for graduation.
Students who don’t do homework are more likely to fall behind and lose pieces of information. They may be sitting in their classes and not making important connections. The trick remains seeing to it that your son or daughter gets the work done, something that can be difficult as teens gain more independence and face the time crunch that goes with extra-curricular activities or employment.
There are steps that every parent can take to help their teens along in this effort. There are also some extraordinary measures parents may want to try, if their teens are ones who resist homework.
For some families, a signed contract works. These contracts can delineate the amount of time a teen will do homework, and when and where (e.g. in study hall, at home between certain hours, etc). These contracts can also set penalties or rewards. Ruth Peters, author of Overcoming Underachieving, suggests that parents may also want to employ a daily assignment sheet for the student to fill out and teachers to sign off on after each class. The teacher could make notations of missed homework or test grades as well. Peters further suggests that completion of each assignment could earn the teen points to be turned in for money, clothing allowance and other perks.
In all cases, parental support is critical. This includes being positive – which may sometimes require parents to not voice their belief that a student has too much homework. However, if parents notice their child’s homework is causing anxiety, fatigue or illness, they should speak with the guidance counselors to make sure that homework is helping and not hindering an academic career.
Reprinted with permission from: Communication Services of the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Albany, N.Y.
