Homework, the race to nowhere

Homework is a major stress in my family’s life. It is intrusive as well as counter productive. There is no research to back up the claim that homework is good for children, makes smarter students, or makes kids more ready for college, and the challenges of the world. In fact, homework stresses children out. I am a mom to four children and I can tell you first hand it creates a lot turmoil in my children’s lives. My oldest daughter, who is now in high school, was up late into the night for most of 8th grade doing hours of homework. One night she was rocking on the floor pulling her hair and crying! It just so happens 8th grade is a big year for students taking standardized tests. We approached the middle school principal and got basically nowhere. His attitude was that stress is a part of student life. So we signed our daughter up for homework club at his suggestion. And my daughter refused to go. Instead, she sucked it up and did the homework. She complained less, afraid that we would send her to homework club if she mentioned a word about homework.

To keep up with all her work she told me she wanted to drink energy shots. Energy shots are those little bottles of caffeine and who knows what, that are sold in convenience stores. I was not too happy by her request and took it as an opportunity to explain to her how how bad those energy shots and Monster drinks are for her growing body. She explained to me that some of her friends drink them to keep up with school work. That is a problem. Are we pushing our children over the edge, to the point of using “drugs” (caffeine is an addictive drug)?

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