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Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

economist.com

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Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#41

Post by snarf21 »

maire wrote: post #38

Ideally, parents shouldn't spend any time on their children's homework. I can understand answering occasional questions and giving encouragement but nothing more. Children learn by figuring out homework on their own. Otherwise, why have homework?

I would guess that you've never been a teacher. The problem is that any teacher has a classroom with students with abilities and aptitudes that range between some Low and some High. The teacher must always teach to the middle kid in that spectrum. Going slower/lower bores the kids in the top half and going faster/higher completely loses the kids in the bottom half. Half of the kids may just "get it" and not need help but the bottom half will need help that the school system can't provide. Note: I don't condone the parent just doing the homework for their kid.

The problem here is that the parents best able to help their children are more likely to have kids in the top half (who don't need help) and the ones least able to help have the kids who need help the most. This can be solved with a restructuring of our school system but very few schools are willing to try. Instead we stick with the ridiculous age == learning level method.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#42

Post by watwut »

Possible explanation - parents in rich countries have enough power to pressure on schools to assign homework that requires less parental involvement. If you are "suspect parent", you are less likely to argue that there is too much homework because that might badly influence how teachers perceive your kid. If you are rich parent with good social standing, you are free to say so and while teachers might complain at home about "spoiled rich kids", you are likely get your way.

Also, I am more involved where I think school is not sufficient to fix the issue. Where I trust the teacher and school, I am involved much less.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#43

Post by potatote »

Hmm...a bit different experience by me growing up and graduated from high school in a poor Southeast Asian country.

There, a lot of parents (esp. from lower and mid-middle class) invest a good chunk of money/resources on their kids' education. BUT, unlike this article claims, they aren't that heavily involved in kids' homework. The parents in my country seem to believe that once they pay money to send kids to after-school classes, the progress in students' learning is up to the teachers in those after-school programs.

Most of them don't have time or mental energy left to tend to their kids' homework because they are too busy working (both parents working is typical in poor countries too) and/or running errands (thanks to inefficient bureaucratic system and insufficient infrastructure such as frequent power outages, life's chores take enormously more time than they would in developed world...)

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#44

Post by jchrisa »

CannisterFlux wrote: post #37
lighthazard wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An argument can be made that doing homework with your child is the leisure.

Ha, I think that argument is made by people who don't have kids (with homework). It's not leisure for me at all. While I worry about being branded a terrible father for this comment, I will admit that I am a terrible teacher. I have no patience for it. My kids mess around, constantly want breaks ("Well I've written a line! time for a 10 minute break!"), waste hours doing shit that should take them minutes... When the…

If my kid's school had homework I'd probably start looking for a new school.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#45

Post by sp332 »

jchrisa wrote: post #44
CannisterFlux wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, I think that argument is made by people who don't have kids (with homework). It's not leisure for me at all. While I worry about being branded a terrible father for this comment, I will admit that I am a terrible teacher. I have no patience for it. My kids mess around, constantly want breaks ("Well I've written a line! time for a 10 minute break!"), waste hours doing shit that should take them minutes... When the…

If my kid's school had homework I'd probably start looking for a new school.

How many schools do you have available?

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#46

Post by [deleted] »

yoz-y wrote: post #12
mjburgess wrote: post #4

It's important to add here that homework has never been shown to improve grades or educational outcomes generally, and it's a very well-studied topic.

It has absolutely helped me to drill in my multiplication tables and learn to write at least somewhat legible letters. If there is one thing I regret about my college years it is not doing math assignments.

[deleted]

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#47

Post by senorjazz »

lighthazard wrote: post #33
westiseast wrote: post #31

Very surprised the article doesn’t mention a few things: 1. Some places just have more homework than others . Chinese kids have mountains of homework aged 7, vastly more than British kids. Chinese parents spend much more time either managing or literally doing their kids homework for them. 2. Efficiency/productivity - What are kids doing in school if their parents are still spending hours and hours after school helpi…

An argument can be made that doing homework with your child is the leisure.

As the parent of a child in a poor South American country, the daughter was getting 2hours of homework most days from 7yr onwards and I Can assure you it was not leisure. The kithen table resembled a battlefield with screaming and cries every night.

Some reasons why there was so much home work 1) large class sizes so a lot of the time in the day the teacher is just controlling the kids not teachinig them. So teaching of new things was assigned for homework, then in class they would just do excercise based on what learned at home

2) No money for resources.I have read about issues with US schools and no money for text books and teachers having to buy them. Here you have to buy your own, nothing is provided, so a lot of the home is "prepare the materials that will be needed for class".

3) and honestly, the daughter didn't want to do it, so what should have taken 40 minutes would take 2-3 hours. It was turn off from learning. So much homework is self defeating, that at times I would just do it for her to save the battles and I just didn't have 2-3 hours to talk her through the concept. We also learnt how to use a calculator

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#49

Post by senorjazz »

CannisterFlux wrote: post #37
lighthazard wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An argument can be made that doing homework with your child is the leisure.

Ha, I think that argument is made by people who don't have kids (with homework). It's not leisure for me at all. While I worry about being branded a terrible father for this comment, I will admit that I am a terrible teacher. I have no patience for it. My kids mess around, constantly want breaks ("Well I've written a line! time for a 10 minute break!"), waste hours doing shit that should take them minutes... When the…

^ I don't remember writing this comment, nor do I recognise the username, but I must have wrote it :-)

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#50

Post by walshemj »

devdas wrote: post #17
meric wrote: post #2

National income is correlated with percent of population in workforce. Poorer countries are correlated with lower levels of total employment. Assuming all else being equal then parents with less time involved in employment will have more time for other activities, including spending time with children. Is this right?

In poorer countries, getting an education is the easiest way out of poverty. All else is not equal here.

But India - the top on the list is not a poor country and I suspect that the really poor in India are not doing this but the growing middle class are.
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