Homework for the Kids or for the Parents?

I go to the Hawthorne Library a little earlier than I usually do for a recruitment meeting. It’s a new location so I wasn’t sure what I would expect. Whether the room would be set up for me or would I have to set up, where signage goes, etc. I got here extremely early so instead going straight to the meeting room I decided to sit down at a desk, pull out my computer and do some work. I was hoping to go onto the internet unfortunately I need a library card t and currently I do not have one so I sit and play bubble breaker on my phone.

As I look around I notice two ladies at a table next to me working on a project that looks like it is meant for their children. They are hard at work painting, gluing, scraping, coloring, etc to make it look decent. Whatever they are building looks like a scene of Native Americans. (Maybe in time for Thanksgiving). They had fake trees, Indian figurines and fake grass, etc.

As I sit here watching them two work a thought comes to me. Is homework really for children or is it for the parents? I’m sure as parents they want their child to do as well as they can in school to ensure that they receive the best education possible. However, does it come to a point where as a parent you do the homework, projects, reports or whatever is needed so that your child gets the best grades possible?

When I was a child my parents did help me do my homework when needed but I remember most of the time it was myself figuring out the math problem, writing the book report, looking in an encyclopedia for answers. My parents had a way of helping me with homework. They made sure that they didn’t give me the answer right away but made sure I knew the process in getting to that answer. (This came less and less especially when I got into Algebra and other subjects past grade school. Hahahaha)

Shouldn’t homework be about teaching the student not the parent? If the children don’t succeed through the homework how is the child going to learn?

At the end the kids whom I’m assuming that the project belongs to eventually came around and it turns out they were playing and running (or as my parents would like to say – gallivanting) around the library.