Why Should the Kids Do Home Work

A couple who are both lawyers made the news earlier this week by negotiating with the Calgary Catholic School Board that their kids will not have to do any home work. I will not be surprised if the threat of legal action by not so busy lawyers persuaded the authorities to give in rather than spend taxpayer money on a long battle in the courts. In any event, it appears from the report that the parents were the ones doing the home work when kids were playing hockey, attending ballet lessons, playing video games, “learning social skills” with mates in the mall, whatever.

It reminded me of a flight to Ottawa a few years ago when the middle-aged passenger in the next seat spent all four hours complaining to this south Asian immigrant that his kids were not able to go to good professional schools because “yellow and brown” immigrants had filled all the available places. When I asked him about their grades he responded that the immigrant kids who had “nothing else to do” set the bar so high that his kids had to make do with the C average. By “nothing else to do” he perhaps meant that they did the home work rather than do all the things C graders do, some of them I listed above.

We should have learnt what we don’t seem to have done, globalization means that the Canadians compete with Chinese and Indian professionals and blue collar workers not only in Canada but also in their home countries. China has been able to lend the U.S. two trillion dollars, and the U.S. had needed to borrow that humongous sum, for two main reasons. First, the workers there are prepared to work for less. But second reason is also important, may be more so. Not only the workers have shown ability to learn new skills quickly, they work as long as it takes to get the work done. North American workers have failed on both accounts and therefore, the manufacturing industries have moved to more hospitable environment.

We may get out of current recession theoretically by statistical manipulation or by unproductive jobs created by various levels of governments. However, for sustained employment and prosperity we must compete with the countries we have contemptuously called “Third World” for so long. In view of the history of China, Brazil and India it should not have surprised us that these countries are leaping ahead not only in industries that need muscle but also in those that need brains. Unfortunately, developing the capacity of brains needs hard work and discipline. These faculties are developed in childhood and schooling plays a major role in it. The children who cooperate with their teachers and get the most out of their schooling are better prepared to cope with high expectations at the University and in a professional career than those who consistently complain about “home work.” Perhaps, the term home work puts people off because our culture looks down on work. If we called it “life preparation” it might be more palatable.

The Western world is lucky that so many immigrants from these countries have settled here to make up for the chronic shortage of professionals and their children still retain the culture of considering hard work in youth as preparation for life. However, I have a warning note. On my visits to India I used to be inundated by requests for help in emigration by young and not so young professionals – doctors, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs. On my last visit a year ago, not one individual contacted me. Canada hadn’t become colder and otherwise less pleasant destination; just that they were doing fine and had no need to leave home for a strange land.

It is imperative that we rediscover the will Canadians had one or two generations ago to develop the innate skills from an early age. That means doing the home work in all meanings of the term. Alternative is to too depressing to contemplate.

Calgary Herald, November 21, 2009