The Huffington Post – Tamar Chansky
“One of the big questions weighing on parents’ minds each year (and haunting their dreams at night) is just how much they should be pitching in at homework time. To some parents, there is really no question. After all, they care about their child’s future. Sit side-by-side with their child after a long day at work and labor over every word problem? Build a model of the solar system? Make the midnight supermarket run for more sugar cubes for that igloo? Of course! You know these parents, sometimes you are this parent — the one who talks in “we” language — as in, “What homework do we have tonight?” or “How did we do on our math test?” Other parents want the best too, they might confide guiltily, as one parent recently did, “I don’t know if I can go through another year of doing my daughter’s homework with her every night. Is this what we are supposed to do?” Let’s slow down here a second and take that question of homework help out for a spin. First, note how this question is a relatively new phenomenon. At one time not so long ago, homework was not so much as even on a parent’s radar, let alone their second shift obsession. It was a transaction that occurred between a student and a teacher. Parents read the paper. Kids built dioramas by themselves.”(more)