Should parents help their children with homework?

It is not unusual these days to see parents finishing up their children's homework for them, attempting to copy their child's handwriting, or even feeding their child the answers so that their child can quickly finish their homework.

Parents today are sometimes in a rush to have their children complete their homework that they sometimes attempt doing the homework for their children. After all, it's much faster than having to sit next to a child and explain the questions and wait as the child finds the solutions himself or herself.

The question is, should parents help their children with homework and where do you draw the line?

Former government school teacher, school inspector and instructor in teachers' training institute Josephine Teo, 59, says it depends on the nature of the homework.

She explains that homework is just work given to students so that they can practise what has been taught in class and to reinforce that knowledge.

“Personally, I feel that parents shouldn't be helping too much. You should just guide your child and give them some tips and tell the child to refer to certain books or certain sections of a book, and give one or two examples. Then get the child to work on his own.

“That means that the parent should be familiar with the child's lessons and what is in their schoolbooks. If it's too difficult, of course the parents are not able to help and I guess that's where parents resort to sending their children for tuition. That's when they can't help.

“I don't think there's a clear boundary of what parents should and shouldn't do. I think it also depends on the child. Sometimes the child could be very weak in that subject. If the child is very smart, obviously he is able to catch up with work in class and homework should not be a problem. If the work given is very difficult and the child is very weak, I guess the parents feel obliged in a way and feel that they have to help more than necessary. So, it all depends on the child and the kind of homework given,” she adds.

Supervise rather than help

Shanda Vijayan, 60, retired master teacher (guru cemerlang), formerly with SM Taman Petaling, has been teaching for about 30 years.

Her opinion is that parents should not help; instead, they should supervise.

“If you help the child too much, the child tends to depend on the parent or tuition teacher or whoever for help all the time, and the child gets lazy.

“A lot of parents just sit there by the child and supply answers, rather than make the child do the work. That means that the child is not actually internalising the information. The child is quite happy that the answers have been supplied and the child takes the work back to school,” says Shanda.

Secondary school teacher Aisyah Sahdan, 27, has been teaching for the past three years in Kuala Lumpur. She says parents should draw the line between helping the children and doing the homework for them.

“If they are doing the children's homework, they are really not helping.

“If parents want to help, then they just need to check if the work is tidy and if the children are doing the work on time. Parents can keep track of which homework is due by checking the book that lists the homework to be done. They should have a copy of the kids' school timetable so that they know which subjects the child has the next day and they can check if the child has done the homework for those subjects.

“Parents should ask the child to check their own work first or even do their research rather than just check the work for them and tell them which answers are wrong. Then tell them to ask their teacher if the child is not sure or can't understand a question. This way, the child can communicate with their teacher instead of just their parents,” says Aisyah.

She believes that parents should do this from the time the child is small rather than supply them the answers.

Purpose of homework

Both Shanda and Teo admit that not all teachers give homework with the right intention – to help the child revise what has been taught in class.

Some, they say, do it because they have a quota to fill and so that they can show their superiors that they have done their part. Others just make the students copy lines and lines of text which serves no real function in helping increase the child's knowledge.

Teo laments the overuse of “workbooks” for homework just because the parents complain that the children have all bought the books and insist that the books do not go to waste. Some parents even ask for more homework so that their children are kept busy during the school holidays!

She opines that teachers should work out a homework schedule amongst themselves so as not to overburden the children with too much homework on any given day.

Being an English teacher, Shanda was not in a position to help her son with the other subjects at school.

“I would not have been able to help my son with Additional Maths or Physics when he was at school because I was an English teacher.

“So, I would let him do it. If I found that he had problems, I would phone the teacher and tell the teacher that the child is having problems with this concept or topic so that the teacher is alerted. Not every parent is educated and not every parent is in a position to help the child with homework, but every parent is in a position to supervise a child's homework.

“If the child needs help and the parent is there to give it, then the parent must help the child, not by providing them with the answers, but by making sure that the child understands the concepts and perhaps, later, given a similar question, if the child has mastered the concept.