I was having a discussion recently with a secondary school pupil about the amount of homework he is given, averaging three hours a night.  The following issues arose in our chat:

For a start, far too much homework is arbitrary, unrelated to the actual curriculum, yet insisted upon by the curriculum as a matter of course.

This boy didn't mind finishing work at home that was left undone in a lesson and could be finished by oneself.  But for five different teachers to set half an hour's homework each day is burdensome and counter-productive.

Not only is homework a chore for most pupils, but also many parents are driven mad trying to assist, as well as having endless arguments over whether the homework has been done or not - not to mention time that could be spent on leisure.

So ingrained is the concept of homework that even boarding schools reserve a time each day for it, ludicrously called 'prep'.

The pupil I was talking with also said that, at a certain age, pupils realise how serious extra work is, but instead of being treated like intelligent people, they are set homework, most of which is redundant and time-wasting.

Homework is yet another invention of the sado-masochistic mind.  School time is usually a big enough bore without extending it beyond the school day into home.

I had a teacher at primary school who would sometimes set 'silly' homework, e.g. "Tonight your homework is to dream about a circus when you're asleep".

When one boy asked: "What if I don't dream about a circus?" , Mr Hills replied: "Well, you better have a good excuse".

I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand

This Chinese proverb is at the heart of what education really means.  Telling someone how to fish is fine, but it's not until that person actually fishes that they will appreciate fully what fishing entails.  The same applies to most areas of life and learning.

In the best sense, teachers should be guides.  Certain information has to be given, but then the whole point of education - learning to educate yourself - should be embraced as far as possible.

Many countries are quoted as having 'very high standards in education'.  But if you examine most of these countries' school systems, you will note that they teach just about everything by rote, stifling creativity, motivation and any flicker of individual thought.  'Very high standards' refers entirely to academic grades.  This kind of conformist system is best described by the American writer, Owen Jones,  who said:

School is the development of the memory at the expense of the imagination.

If any reader of my blog ever needed proof of my essential message - that school is a waste of time, energy and most of all potential - I recommend that you watch Educating the East End, a Channel 4 series currently showing.

At the suggestion of a friend, I watched last Thursday's episode and felt, at varying times, angry, amused, and bewildered.

We never saw any classroom interaction but merely a set of 'cat and mouse' games between the staff and the pupils over the breaking of petty rules, all made by the adults, the very people who would claim that they are producing self-confident graduates with a good sense of what democracy means.  Yet schools are the most undemocratic, authoritarian regimes in society.

Teachers kept challenging one boy to be 'like a man'.  But boys are not men and their behaviour needs to be looked upon as such.  That's not to say that we should make excuses for anti-social behaviour in the young, but we should look into why such behaviour exists and how best to deal with it, rather than the usual I make the rules - you break them - punishment must ensue.

So long as we view children as a different species from adults, the present attitudes towards school will never really change.  I am not optimistic.

"Children close their ears to advice and open their eyes to example" , some very wise person said.

It is galling enough for most pupils to be sent to a place they have little or no say in, a place invented and administered by adults - but then to be preached to about values and behaviour, turns them deaf to advice very quickly.

Added to this is the sheer hypocrisy of the adult world.  Pupils must obey the rules, but the staff can bend or break the rules when they wish.  Why should pupils listen and act on the advice of their teachers, who are seen, in this context, as hypocrites and autocrats?

I have sat through countless school assemblies, listening to teachers and heads preach the gospel of harmony and peace, to totally uninterested and cynical audiences.  And then, once outside the hall, a fight breaks out!

Preaching, of any kind, is a waste of time and words.  By all means state your values, but if you think that by simply telling someone to be 'good' will, in  any way, touch the roots of why they are not 'good', think again!

The French writer, Joseph Joubert, summed it up well when he said:
 
"Children have more need of models than critics".