Saturday, May 18, 2013

Children's Mental Health

There's a news item going around about the increase in child mental health problems. Here's one reference to this article in a Miami newspaper. The buzz is that we are not treating the increase in children's mental health problems. I'm a true believer that homework is a source of these problems and that homework reform is a non-costly method to treat children. Here's the response I left to the article:

This article mentions that problems of mental health affect children in their education among other things. We overlook the fact that our educational policies are, to a great extent, causing mental health problems. Our teachers are trained to teach, but they receive virtually no training in the theory, research and practice of homework. Yet, homework demands keep increasing with disastrous results. Homework undermines parental authority, increases stress in the family, and exacerbates the difficulties children who have trouble with handwriting, reading and auditory processing have. These relatively minor learning problems some children have are non-problematic in the class, since the school day is bound by the clock. They have huge implications for the child at home, as the demands expand and consume the time the child has at home. Place true time boundaries on homework. Give parents full and final authority on matters in the home. Let the home refuel the child for the next day just as it refuels adults for their next day at work. You'll see a significant reduction in children's mental health problems without investing additional resources for mental health treatment.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Examples of success with The Homework Trap

I have two examples of success using the model of The Homework Trap. I recently shared an interaction between a parent and me over her child's homework problems. She has since been sending me periodic updates. She set time limits on homework. Although the school frowned at the idea, they accepted it. Her child proved more cooperative doing his homework. She took the role of observer rather than enforcer and, as often happens, highlighted handwriting problems as the culprit. She has since explored the problem and, in her most recent communication with me, indicates that she is proceeding with occupational therapy to help her child out.

Two days ago, I had a conversation with another parent whose child had been homework trapped. She took the same position of limiting her child's homework time. She went on to making sure that the school had ample supplies of the book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. This created a buzz in her child's school district about homework policy. As expected, teachers responded in different ways and many did not directly agree. Yet, the attitude changed and they stopped punishing her child for work that was not done. He is now an honor roll student despite the fact that he fails to do some of his homework. The key is that teachers may grumble and may hold onto their past beliefs, but no one works in a vacuum, and, to some degree, everyone has to bend. The teachers may be used to bending to what their superiors (e.g. the principal) say yet remain resistant to bending to parent demands. But if parent's demands are reasonable and made in authoritative ways, many will bend.

I have no doubt that, for both of these parents, the story has not come to an end. Their children will advance one grade at a time, and face new teachers, with new systems, and different attitudes. They may have to refight these battles. But that are winnable battles, and logic and reason are the tools they have on their side.


I welcome all feedback, through public posts on this blog or The Homework Trap Facebook page, or through private communications to me, that can be made through The Homework Trap website and can be conveyed to others in anonymous ways. And I am open to feedback of situations in which my model has not worked. From what I hear, time boundaries is proving to be one of the most powerful and effective steps a parent can take.

For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Why Boys Underachieve at School

Here is an interesting article about boys underachieving academically. The author attributes this to a misguided notion of masculinity. I think homework policy plays a role. Here's a link to the article.  Here is the comment I left to the article.

I think we miss the point if we do not come to terms with the fact that, in our frenzy to improve education, we have pushed kids to work much more than they should. We've allowed the school to co-op the home with increasingly large amounts of homework to do. Typically, boys are less mature than girls, they have more difficulty sitting still and paying attention, and, although they are better at gross motor functions, they are weaker than girls in their fine motor coordination. The notion that they will come home, at young ages, to mountains of homework which strains their patience and hurts their hands, runs counter to what boys can easily do. I don't think a misguided notion of masculinity creates a disinterest in school. I think that pressures to work beyond reason as young children, creates a negative feeling about school. In the past, kids went to school and then came home to play, or at most, to light amounts of homework. Today, we are forcing kids (in fact forcing them over their own parents' best judgments) to work far too much. This is the primary reason why boys get turned off to school.
 

For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

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