Homework

I was helping my oldest grandchild with her homework this afternoon. (It was arithmetic, which was a pity, and I had to pull out all the stops to make a point about dealing with fractions). But in the course of all this I realised something...

That sum with the fractions, and another one which in my young day we would have classified under "problems" (remember them?) caused Cat some bother; we had several diagrams and scribbles on scrap paper before understanding was reached and I was wondering how she would deal with this when the homework went back ... and then I saw that she had neatly written something under the answer in her book: "help needed". 

The revelation was this: she was doing the homework in order to master something. She felt pleased with the ones she could skip confidently through, but when she found a problem, she wanted to have reinforcement of what she'd learned. It wasn't just something to fob the teacher off with - a correct answer, however arrived at - but an attempt that she would like to repeat to get it right.

Somehow, it made sense of the homework that so many parents - and educational experts - deplore these days. When else does a child get the chance to build upon what they learn in the classroom?

So well done, that school - and well done, Catriona...