I wanted our kids to participate in church activities, have some family time, and still be able to kick back and waste an hour or two. Yet by the time their homework was done, darkness had fallen and dinnertime had arrived. Then baths were taken and off they went to bed. Something didn't feel right about that kind of pace. That's why I negotiated with our children's teachers, agreeing that they would complete no more than one hour per night of supervised homework.
Homework also generates a considerable amount of stress for parents.
Their kids either won't do the assignments or they get tired and whine about it. Tensions build and angry words fly. I'm also convinced that child abuse occurs at that point for some children. When my wife, Shirley, was teaching the second grade, one little girl came to school with both eyes black and swollen. She said her father had beaten her because she couldn't learn her spelling words.