Homework
So the kids are back in School, and we begin the attempt to re-establish some rigour to our daily family routine.
As we parents gain data about what the requirements are for this year for our children, critical are the letters home from the new teacher, the band teacher, and the drum/clarinet teacher, and...
This year the class teacher says we (and I mean ‘we’) should be doing 40-50 minutes of homework each night. And this despite the fact that there is little to no evidence that homework for primary students has any impact on academic outcomes; or that it is impossible for teachers to set homework with such chronological precision; or that homework is just about always academic in nature, and rarely anything to do with personal character or art or social interaction or any of life's other important areas; or that it is frequently tedious and needlessly boring; or that it is frequently given because of a failure by the teachers to manage the completion of work in class; or that it is ‘so important’ that the finished homework is rarely even looked at by the teacher.
And apparently the band teacher wants my child to promise that he will practice his band music every night. And the drum teacher expects at least some practice between weekly lessons (thank goodness drummers are such laid back people!).
As we hassle and harangue our kids to complete their schoolwork each night, and their music practice, and then, at best, we race through a quick Bible reading and dash off a quick prayer as we tuck them into bed, I wonder what we have fundamentally communicated to our children about their relationship with God?