Homework Lessons Learned

I have been teaching for ten years.  Over those years, I've given hundreds of homework assignments, and many of them haven't come back.  I had a very self-righteous feeling about those assignments that didn't get done.  How dare those parents not value their child's education!  What could they be doing in the evenings that's more important than practicing the skills that I decide are so necessary?  How could you leave your paper/book/workbook/etc. at school?  You need those things to do homework!  Don't give me excuses- give me the work!

Then my own kid got to first grade.  There is homework every night, Monday through Thursday.  I have realized a lot about why those homework assignments didn't get returned.  I imagine that I feel very much as a friend felt when, as a successful ENT, he ended up at the emergency room getting a raisin removed from his ear.

Sometimes the kid with ADHD forgets the materials he needs.  Sometimes he puts those materials in someone else's backpack because the other kid's name starts with the same three letters.  Sometimes the parents, even with a master's degree in special education, can't figure out what the directions mean, or which words to study, or what sentences to write.

Sometimes LIFE happens.  Sometimes you have a meeting and swim lessons and dinner and family time.  Sometimes everyone but the kid with the homework feels sick.  Sometimes the parent in charge has ADHD and completely forgets about homework, even though its the same assignment every single Tuesday night.  Sometimes the idea of forcing your writing-adverse kid pick up a pencil makes the nucleus of every cell in your body scream with frustration.

I find it a lot harder now to call up a parent about missing homework.  I find that I gently remind them of the importance, and to please let me know if its too much.  Maybe just write me a quick note if it was too hard or too long or if the evening was just a wash for one reason or another.

And please, for Pete's sake, let me get teachers for my boys in the future who have learned the same lesson I have.