Homework or Spring Break?

     I mentioned family decompression in a recent letter to my daughter’s teachers when I was asking for some homework help and relief. We had back to back three day weekends which we hoped to spend time together and work on some long term school projects, like the science fair project or the state projects.  The "Big Projects" as we term them in our household. We like to be ahead of when things are due, since it seems that “stuff” happens if we don’t. Crappy stuff that pushed the "Big Projects" to the last minute - the night before they are do-to be exact, and we are faced with mixed final results and lots of tension. So here we were trying to be the Good Homework Family, and get things done early, but I was beginning to feel a bit defeat when each weekend my daughter came home piled up with homework. Not just a little, either. I know, all of the teachers reading this are probably rolling their eyes just now, another whiny parent griping about homework.  I am, and I am not. Bear with me. The first weekend we did the homework which took up the time we had set aside to work on the "Big Projects." The rest of our time was spent at family functions and being with our family. We like our family. We like to spend time with family. Go figure. By second weekend she had four hours of homework to do (I know, I timed it).  As a result, we canceled our plans and spent half a day doing homework, trying to get it done at the beginning of the weekend.  It was depressing, and we sure did not feel like working on the "Big Projects" for the balance of the day. We did work on the "Big Projects" some the next two days, but our efforts were a bit deflated. It felt like we were doing school work. We just wanted to go "do" weekend stuff. I have to admit, I did not think we were very focused on our homework.

    So I wrote the teachers. Was all the homework truly homework, or was my daughter bringing home class work? (Hey, she is a kid, not a saint!) Was there some way that we could better maximize our time. It was hurting our family time to spend our weekends doing school work. I pointed out that I was very careful as a parent not to schedule doctor or dentist appointments during the school day so as not to disrupt their learning time. And the big question that weighed on my mind - Was there was going to be Spring Break homework? In my tiny, evil little mind, I dared them to assign homework.

     I received a variety of replies. One, my daughter was focusing on her school work when in school. A bit of a slow starter, but doing what she was supposed to be doing during the school day. Two, my daughter misunderstood that one of the packets sent home was optional and not required. (OK TEACHERS, I AM MORE SAVVY THAN THAT. AND I DO TALK TO OTHER PARENTS. ALL THE KIDS SEEM TO HAVE MISUNDERSTOOD THE OPTIONAL PART AS THEY ALL STRUGGLED TO MAKE SURE THEY GOT IT DONE!) Three, they like to keep kids working on activities that they cover in school to keep them engaged. And, sometimes, when they lose time during the school week, they sometimes have to send more work home.

     What? Could you run that by me again? Keep them focused on their time off? Studies have shown time and time again that individuals perform better when they take down time. Corporate America has tried to convince their employees to take their vacation days to keep them from burning out and to improve their productivity. (Granted, corporations want those employees to take their vacations when it is most convenient for the company.) Repeated studies have shown that human beings need time to relax. I call it decompression.

   And about that last part - when did the school lose time? We are making up four bad weather days this year and there are exactly the same amount of days in the school year as we started with. So what time are we making up? Was it a teacher sick day? Or is there some difficulty achieving our school goals because of the large number of early dismissal days (pushed by the teachers into the school contract), school improvement days (required by contract) and holidays? I am already irked that there is no time during the school day to teach cursive writing. Now you are telling math is a problem to teach during the day?

    No wonder I could not convince trainees to take a lunch break. It made it hard to hire the correct amount of employees if the company did not know how long it really took to do the job each day. Now I think I understand where some of their thinking came from. I have to ask teachers, do you really want to teach your students to work for free? Because if they learn that they should work through lunch and take work home so it all gets done, that is exactly what you have taught them. You have shown them that downtime is a waste of time in the eyes of productivity and obscure goals.

   Secretly I had been daring one of the teachers to tell me they were going to send homework home for Spring Break. But I was to be disappointed. I was informed that if they sent home a "supplemental" packet, it would be completely optional.

   I gave some thought of replying to the teachers in kind, but decided that I could potentially harm my daughter's relationships with her teachers, rather than do much good. Moreover, I do like her teachers. They are a caring bunch that seem to know their business. I  felt that replies would just make me defensive and cranky, not a good working partner with the school, which I am pretty sure is somewhere in my parental job description. So I contented myself with the answers (though I was rankled by two comments) and planned our our spring break trip.

   And it was wonderful and relaxing, despite the adventure at the end of our trip (you will have to read about that in my next blog). And we came back decompressed and ready to jump into our everyday lives with renewed vigor and spirit. My daughter did not forget everything she had been taught during the school year and even learned to manage her time better in school to work on small bits of her actual homework so that she would not need to bring it home in the evening.

   See, there can be time for non-productivity!