The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-25
IS HOME WORK BENEFICIAL OR
 INJURIOUS TO
 THE CHILDREN?
(Evening N. Y. sun.)


 able discussion recently, not only among educators, who are prone to
 think of the child az an impereona1
 problem. but among parents, who get
 behind the scenes and often have to
 spend one or more restless hours a
 day helping 8 fractious and protest
 ing youngster 'tget his lessons" <
 A medical journal has just published
 an emphatic denuncfation of the prac-
 tice of giving school children work to
 take home, because of the effect upon
 their health, and many who are study
 ing the child from psychological
 home work flinders rather than helps.
 Mrs. John Dewey who is not only the
 wife of 8 professor Of psychology rat
 ed as an authority. on the education
 mother of a large family, three of whom are sti1f attending school, speaks
 very earnestly on the subject. She
 given to children in the New York public schools is truly excessive. Mrs. Dewey was asked her opinion at a re- ception at Columbia the other day.
 This is. of course, a large question: and one involving long discussion from many ang1es,'' began Mrs. Dewey cau- make any categorical statements in regard to it.. But from my personal knowledge of conditions, should say in the amount of home work that can be given out. Moreover, I feel con- vinced that the children in the grades could accomplish the same results if they had no lessons to do outside of their school hours. In the high schools, | of course, this would be mere difficult, but even here the home work should be reduced to a minimum instead of | being increased to the maximum as 1t is now.
 learned nowadays. Their school is so much with them that they begin to | think in book terms and to look at Of overstudy I regard as even more serious than the loss of exercise and the sacrifice of pIay-tfme which home to do all the e1enaenfary work-an the arithmetic, the simple English, the gel ography and history-withfn the i've the children out with more 1essons in the afternoon and at night. The man uaI training work, they say, they have much head work. It does offset it to car-tain extent, but would rather see1 the children prepare their lessons in school and get their manual training at home.'s
 .4And the best manual training they can get'' added Prof. M. K. Sfrmkho-j vitchs who had dropped in for a cup or tea between classes and who had de- clared at the outset of the discussion that he always discouraged his cllil- eiple, s.is to help with the tasks about the house. That is work that makes .or characteH"
 ..Yes,'' agreed Mrs. Dewey propmtly. it is good both for exercise and for discipline. The children waste so much ime over their homework, don't you It home filling in the amount of time hey are told to spend, but not filling t well, and they dawdae it away in chool because they know they'll have D much more of the same thing to go ,ver when they get home. If they are made to feel that they have to turn f rrrr.Er @ :. hort time they will do it much better ( han if they think they have all the t ime in the world for it. They. learn o concentrate in that way, and to dis t ipline their minds. For isn't it much t letter discipline to be made to get a ' et piece of work done in the least ! ncre time to do it in ?''
 .But if the children do not have to 2 york from one session to the next, is z here no danger of their regarding c chool as a mere pastin1e and not onething to be taken serious1y?' a
 '.On the contrary if their minds E lave g. complete rest from the time ext morning they will be all the more = ager, all the more receptive, for what 2 hey are to learn. Don't you think so 2 ourself? Isn't that the case with any n
 The questioner, having been deeply loved by the protests of an overwort- f q school teacher with whom the same f natter had just been discussed, was a E it dull at catching on to this otherl a tand pofnt-that of the parent.
 tBut wouldn't this movement to ave all lessons prepared in the school ut the burden altogether on the TT, eacher?'' Possibly But then that matter ould be readjusted The present ex- austion of the teachers, which we fl lust aM recognize ana depIore, IS, as te se it, a symptom of the pressure re -ought to bear upon teacher and chill N ren alike by too heavy a curriculum. i u ome work is as much q. burden to the hi .acher to the pupil. Eliminate it Is nd you save the strength of both. al
 But the responsibility of the pa bt mt? What becomes of thai if the W li1dren do not have to do home pI ork? What becomes of the cooper ot ion between the home and the school dt hicn we havs SSaha trying so hard to 8 [