Homework and Quirky Kids

(From Quirky Kids, by Perri Klass and Eileen Costello.)

We have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that many schools assign a lot of homework, especially in the early grades, that is meant in large part as discipline for the parents. Oh, sure, the schools will claim that they are building good study habits and helping children get used to the whole idea of working in the evening, but quite frankly, we don't always buy it, especially when it comes to quirky kids.

... For many quirky kids, especially in the early grades, a full day of school is pretty exhausting.

... Many quirky kids already attend extra therapy sessions of one kind or another after the school day is over. It seems to us that these kids deserve to come home and in some ways relax.

Most of these comments apply just as well to non-quirky kids, whoever they might be.

It's interesting to me that the authors put their section on homework in the chapter called "Family Life", not one of the chapters about school. It's a sad reflection on the state we're in today that school-assigned work is assumed to be a normal preoccupation of parents in what used to be their own time.