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Hassle-Free Homework: School System's Mantra of Equal Is Not Fair

By Dr. Yvonne Fournier, Columnist

Each child should be treated with equity, not equality.

My husband and I are raising our grandchildren.

Our grandson refuses to do his school work and homework. We held him back at the suggestion of professionals and he repeated kindergarten. This did not solve anything. He still won't do his work. We've talked with him about responsibility, bragged on him, punished and rewarded him. He made A's and B's last year in the last two six-weeks periods of school because the teacher focused on him and prodded him until he finished his work. His current teacher says she can't do this because it's unfair to the others in his class and his grades have dropped to C's and D's. Our granddaughter is 13 months older and we're beginning to see the same habits in her and her grades are starting to slip.

Can you give us some advice?

Marilyn K.
Jackson, TN

Dr. Yvonne Fournier Photo: Rupert Yen

Dear Marilyn:

Your letter reflects two separate concerns: What you can do at home so your grandson completes his work, and what is fair in the classroom.

In dwelling on what is fair, schools become preoccupied with sameness. They expect students to begin each grade like racehorses at the same starting gate. Once the race begins, students are expected to run at exactly the same pace by asking them to finish work within the same time limits. This is an impossible expectation and children often prove this expectation is defective.

ASSESSMENT

Education should not be a matter of sameness. Every child has an equal opportunity to be educated and each should he treated with equity, not equality.

Equity means each child gets the teaching and assistance he or she needs to learn.

Fair is not equal, but it is equitable. When fair is used as equal, then your grandson and many other children will be measured by their failure to meet someone else's standards. When fair is used as equitable, then your grandson will be measured on his personal success in achieving what is reasonable for him.

WHAT TO DO

Marilyn, talk with your grandson's teacher about his individual needs. If he was capable of making A's and B's last year, I believe he is capable of learning the material this year but he must increase his working capacity.

Working capacity is a skill that many children need to be taught and that is just not being taught in our school system today.

When a first grader is faced with a full page of work to be completed in a set time, the task can seem overwhelming. The child quickly gets a sense of, "I can't do all this," and it often overtakes him or her. The child will sit immobilized from fear yet this often appears to teachers and parents as a disinterest in doing the work, or worse, it may be regarded as disobedience, or worse yet, a disability. But as a child learns his or her personal working capacity - how much can be done within the set time limit - then fear decreases and the amount of work completed increases.

Ask the teacher to designate how much of a page of work your grandson needs to complete to demonstrate that he knows the content. Grade him only on this work. Once your grandson experiences the personal rewards of success, then he and his teacher should increase, one by one, the number of items to be completed.

Have your grandson keep in his notebook a monthly calendar with space marked "I Can Do More." In the calendar box for each day, have him put the results of the day. He can mark "B" for days to brag on him for increased efforts; "H" for days to hug him because he did as much as he did yesterday; and "S" for days when he earns a big smile as a reminder not to slip back.

Your grandson has already received a message of failure. Now his teacher and you need to help him develop a system to measure his personal success, not his inability to measure up to others. Developing his working capacity will not only help him increase his pace of learning, it will also help him increase his pride and recognition of personal achievement. These are the pre-skills of motivation and desire to succeed. Why would any parent or teacher want anything less?

CONTACT DR. FOURNIER

Have a question about education, education-related issues or your child's schoolwork or homework? Ask Dr. Fournier and look for her answer in this column. E-mail your question or comment to Dr. Yvonne Fournier at drfournier@hfhw.net.