Haven’t learned our lesson on homework TIME TO RETHINK ROUTINE
THERE will be movement ★
soon on the probe into John Delaney’s FAI tenure.
When his empire started to fall four years ago there were so many FAI statements that it was hard to keep up.
We were afraid that they were going to go down the northern peace process road.
But we were taken with ★
the claim that Nadia
Forde was once paid to dance with Delaney. We’re also willing to dance with sports administrators for money.
THERE’S a chap I know who was a handy Gaelic footballer in his day.
Played at the highest level, won an All-Ireland, shone at different grades.
That brings its own pressures and I asked him once if he felt nervous before them.
His answer has stayed with me since: “The only time I felt nervous was when I didn’t know my Irish spellings on a Sunday night.”
Thing is, he was only half joking.
In these pages on Saturday, hurling legend Ger Loughnane spoke of a time when brutal violence was the norm in schools.
My friend’s concern over not knowing his Irish spellings was rooted in fear of the retribution that he knew would come with that.
Corporal punishment was outlawed in 1982, but there are plenty of kids who are still put under enormous pressure by homework.
Worth
It’s one of those things that many of us never question. Homework was always there so, we figure, it should always be there. Really?
There is a growing movement that questions its worth. President Michael D Higgins lent his voice the other day on RTE’s news2day programme.
“I think myself, really that the time at home, and the time in the school is an educational experience and it should get finished at the school and people should be able to use their time for other creative things.”
Think of it this way. There are many kids who are interested in sport and music or drama or whatever. Eventually, with many, something has to give. And it’s not homework that gets binned. That is a shame. Your school years should be about much more than the subjects on the curriculum.
Remember, U2 came out of a Dublin school, with Larry Mullen looking for potential band members on the Mount Temple noticeboard.
In their manifesto for the last election, the Green Party made a promise to scrap homework at primary school level.
The Greens were criticised for what was seen as a crank move.
But Finland shows that there can be a different way, as it’s ranked as the sixth best educational system in the world, but gives the least amount of homework. Finland puts trust in teachers to do the work during the day — and pays them accordingly.
Might be something in that.