When Homework and Lesson Review Teach Self-Discipline

In the job world, results are the bottom line.

We’re given performance goals. We come up with action plans and deadlines. We’re regularly trained on time management and resource optimization.

When the results come in, we analyze them and look for ways to do better. Constantly. And then we set new performance goals. We come up with new action plans and deadlines.
And so on.

That’s not at all how it works in elementary school.

Homework shouldn’t be treated as part of some action plan to help students get better grades. In fact, as several elementary schools have already proven, homework isn’t even essential to academic achievement.

But just because it isn’t directly linked to tangible, quantifiable results doesn’t mean we should do away with it altogether. Homework is still a key lever to keep kids in school, not to mention a critical success factor in high school and post-secondary school.

Doing homework does not guarantee good grades. But it is still important.
Homework forces students to take the time in an otherwise busy day to sit down, work independently, and develop self-discipline. And this can be hard for both children and parents.

Sitting quietly, getting out their materials, disciplining themselves, and taking responsibility—these are skills that my kids will be able to use in every sphere of their lives. The earlier they learn these skills the better, regardless of whether it translates to better grades on the next report card.

I recall a Saturday morning when one of my daughters, in Grade 2 at the time, didn’t want to do her homework. I was working full-time, so the goal was to tackle homework on Saturdays and focus on studying on weeknights. Her homework assignment was to write out six words. Then she could go back to playing with her sisters.

Six words and you’d have thought the world was coming to an end. At nine o’clock in the morning.

She cried and cried. Threw her book. Dumped everything out of her pencil case. Scribbled all over the worksheet. “You don’t get it! I don’t know how to do it!” Then she threw a pencil against the wall, and then another. “The teacher says it’s okay if you don’t do your homework!” And then she threw a temper tantrum under the table. “I want to play! It’s not fair. My sisters don’t have to do homework!” Cue dramatic gasps for air. “I have no life! It’s going to take me hours!”

The tantrum was so intense that my partner and the other kids went out for the rest of the morning. Most nights I would have lost my cool and given in, but this time, I sat down in front of her and remained calm. Armed with a cup of coffee, I told her she wasn’t allowed to leave the table until she had written out all six words : 

We sat there, staring at each other, for three hours.

Like the cowboys in the final showdown in Once Upon a Time in the West. And then, she took her pencil and wrote out her spelling words in the neatest handwriting I’ve ever seen.

Three hours for six words. Talk about a moment for our family’s history books.
My daughter may not have gotten the best grades that week, but she did learn that her parents think that homework is important.