I recently read an article on Room For Debate that discusses the impact parents make when they help their children with homework. The results are usually negative to their kids' academics because they usually end up doing the homework for them. All of the debaters discuss how parents should be supporting their children when it comes to school work.
I believe that parents should help up to a certain age. By help, I mean support and motivate. Of course, there are going to be a few easy questions here and there that they could answer to keep their kids going on the work. Overall, parents need to help create habits with their children that revolve around homework. For example, when I was younger, I was urged to do my homework right when I got home from school. In kindergarten, my mom would sit down with me when we got home. She would ask me if I had any homework, and she would make sure that I had it done by dinnertime. I believe that instilling habits like this at a young age really helps in the long run. I became more independent as I grew older. It came to a point where no one had to ask me to do homework; I took it out when I got home and I completed it by a reasonable time. By mid to late elementary school, I only remember asking for help once or twice (you know, when they taught long division for the first time). For the most part, my parents were just there to support me and get me going.
This article really caught my attention because I know a couple stories in which parents have done work for their children. It wasn't just homework either. Iv'e heard stories about parents doing essays and projects for their kids, which I found completely mind blowing. Parents definitely shouldn't be helping with school work at that extent because how will their children learn? What do you all think? Should parents help their children with homework? To what extent should they help? Do you think parental involvement has positive or negative effects?
As you said before, it should only go to a certain extent. Parental involvement is a good thing but occurring too often can cause a child to believe that they can always rely on their parents for homework help. You said that you became independent at a certain age because you were no longer in need of assistance. Well some of these children will wait there for hours, procrastinating on their homework. Waiting for the last minute to ask their parents to help them. In time the parent will become frustrated and just decide to do it all for them.
ReplyDeleteI think parents can help their children at any age but it depends on how they help them. My parent would never give me the answer or do the work for me when I needed help. They would say ,"I think you messed up at the end" and if I kept asking they would say, "You're not trying anymore. I'm not going to give you the answer. Start over and think of it differently". This usually went for math, but the same thing went for homework that required me to look up the answer in the text. They would help by reading the text and say,"No, the answer is in there just reread it." This helped me see my mistakes and in a way was rewarding because as a child doing things on your own made you feel smart and confident, even if it took you a long time to figure it out. My parent still help me ever once in a while just because sometimes I feel like I misinterpreted something and want to make use I thought the right idea, or if I can't think of a word that matches the definition I want. The point is, parents can help their child at any age, it is how they help that determines if it actually benefited the child.
ReplyDeleteIf the parent is just helping the child get through the homework I feel that it is okay but if the parent is completely doing everything for the hold it is not okay at all. When parents do their kids homework for them the child usually does not grow as it should. The child will lack problem solving skills and the child with lack independence. My parents are helpful sometimes with homework but they don't do it for me.
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