My mother is a public school teacher, as are several of my friends, and my take on it is that it’s a lot harder to get work done in a given time if you are working with 30 kids (some of whom have learning or behavioral difficulties), than when you are working with 2-3 kids at home. This creates some “busy work” at school as teachers help children of different skill level. (Remember doing dittos while the slower readers worked with the teacher?)

Plus, now that schools are being relied upon (culturally) to teach a lot more than reading, writing and ‘rithmatic, school teachers have to cover material in class that homeschooling parents would just see as part of their everyday interaction with their kids. For instance, my kids spend time at school every week learning about bullying, how to take care of their bodies, and how to solve conflicts. This is stuff that is ‘every day life” at home, but is part of the curriculum at school.

I don’t think homework is usually about ‘getting through’ a particular topic. I think it is to help children who are learning at a slower pace get more reinforcement on a given topic, to enlist parents in the teaching/learning process, and to let parent see what kind of things their kids are working on and how they are doing with those topics.

Also, homework that involves research reports lets kids with hungry minds dive deeper into a given topic. My “gifted” nine year old LOVES homework (most of the time.) It’s just mom that wants to blow a fuse! Which tells me loud and clear that homeschooling in Denmark needs to be taken OFF the list of options for us! :-)

Living the adventure!

Mom (aka Rachelle)