No homework virus spreading

by Roberta Lunghini - 2016.09.20

Abolish high-school homework. This is the aim of a very successful petition launched by Change.org. There are many reasons behind it. Once the petition receives enough signatures, it will be delivered to MIUR (Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research) in an appeal to uphold the International Charter for Children’s Rights, which clearly states “member States recognize that each child has the right to rest and free time, and to play and participate in recreational activities that are appropriate for his/her age”. The promoters of this initiative firmly believe that in addition to being stressful, homework is also:

- Useless: the type of information often learned through rote memorization at home, is often forgotten in the long-term.

- Damaging: causes hardships and suffering, especially for students already in difficulty, provoking hatred for school and repulsion for the culture, and confirming for many students with learning challenges, their sense of having an “innate” inability to study.

- Discriminating: rewards the “lucky” students who have caring, educated parents, while penalizing those who live in deprived environments, making the situation worse, instead of “compensating” for the already existing injustice.

- Abusive: impinges on the “right to rest and leisure” afforded to all workers –scholastic pursuit is an honorable and often alienating work.

- Improper: forces parents to substitute the teachers; without having the professional skills, they often have to undertake the most difficult task – to teach kids how to learn (and often end up even substituting their children, doing their homework for them);

– Unhealthy: the heavy backpacks stuffed with heavy textbooks that kids bring home each day damage the physical integrity of the children, especially the smallest ones. This has been documented extensively in published medical research.