Walking through the halls of my child’s middle school the other day, I was delighted by how well we--my child and I--had done our, I mean her, recent homework assignment: creating a poster that illustrated the history of our family’s origins. Compared with her classmates’ work on the corridor walls, we had held our own. While some of the work had superior graphics or more extensive maps, ours was informative and well-executed. I was relieved.
After all, wasn’t that what homework was all about: parents helping their kids complete an assignment to a standard that could be displayed proudly (or at least without embarrassment)? Wasn’t that what the teachers wanted? Expected? Rewarded?