Establishing routine important: MacLean
Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Mar 16/01) - Parents, staff and students are finding out that homework works.
The Beaufort Delta Education Council (BDEC) issued a directive last year that, as of January 1, schools develop policies so that every student receives homework each day.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie school principal Bernie MacLean said 98 students had perfect homework records for the month of February.
"It's not really defined as what you have to do," MacLean explained. "You don't have to do five minutes of math, five minutes of language, five minutes of social studies."
He added reading is counted as homework and that this is employed a lot among the younger grades.
"It (homework) goes in increasing amounts from Kindergarten up to Grade 6. The staff have been very supportive."
MacLean said part of the reason things have gone well is that for some time SAMS has had a homework policy.
"We have had in our handbooks a statement indicating that we expect homework to be done each day. But certainly the BDEC announcement has focused more attention on it," he said.
"We do have very strong support among parents. It's not 100 per cent, but what is."
Mary Beckett, chair of the Inuvik District Education Authority, agreed that support among parents seems strong.
"It seems to be not really a matter for discussion or dispute or anything," Beckett said.
"I haven't heard very much from parents. The few people I've talked to about it, you know, it was me bringing it up more than them."
Carson Atkinson, principal at Samuel Hearne, also said he hasn't heard much from parents about the directive. But he said parents and guardians are being encouraged to support the initiative and to check to see that their children do their assignments.
Atkinson said efforts are made to ensure no student has more than two hours of homework a night. He pointed out that tutoring is available after school Monday through Thursday.
Reasonable policy
Beckett said the policy is reasonable and will do a lot of good.
"The kids appreciate that if they don't do their homework, they don't get all their marks."
MacLean agreed.
"We don't expect kids to be overburdened by homework," he said. "But establishing routines is very, very important, and establishing that work is expected is important. So it's not just a product of learning, it's the process of getting used to work."
"We're trying to build the literacy skills here," said Atkinson. "It's a positive step. We're continually reinforcing with students the importance of homework."
Beckett said part of BDEC's role is to set standards and examples for others to follow, adding the homework directive is a good example.
