A mum has shared an email she sent to her daughter’s school explaining why her 10-year-old will be drastically reducing the amount of homework she does.
Mum blogger Bunmi Laditan, from the US, explained to her followers that her daughter was “done with homework” because of the stress it causes.
Laditan said her daughter loves learning and regularly does research off her own back, but she’s recently been getting physical symptoms of stress.
“I just sent an email to her school letting her know she’s all done,” the mum wrote on Facebook on Tuesday 25 April.
“I said ‘drastically reduce’ but I was trying to be polite, because she’s finished.”
Laditan’s email to the school read: “Maya will be drastically reducing the amount of homework she does this year. She’s been very stressed and is starting to have physical symptoms such as chest pain and waking up at 4am worrying about her school workload.
“She’s not behind academically and she very much enjoys school. We’ve consulted with a tutor and a therapist suggested we lighten her workload. Doing two to three hours of homework after getting home at 4.30pm is leaving little time for her to just be a child and enjoy family time.
“We’d like to avoid her sinking into depression over this.”
Writing on Facebook, Laditan explained that her daughter often does homework until 6.30pm and has as little as an hour to relax after dinner.
“Is family time not important?” the mum wrote to her followers. “Is time spent just being a child relaxing at home not important? Or should she become some kind of junior workaholic at 10 years old?
“Children need downtime after school the same way adults need downtime after work. They need to play with their siblings.
“They need to bond with their parents in a relaxed atmosphere. Children need time to just enjoy their childhoods.
“My kid is all done with homework. If the school wants to punish her for it, then I guess I’ll have to figure out how to homeschool.”
The mum added that she wasn’t blaming her daughter’s teachers (”who are incredible”), but just feels the system isn’t working for her child.
“I can’t watch her unravel anymore and be filled with so much stress at age 10,” she added.
The post has had more than 12,500 shares in two days. Many parents commented that they agreed with Laditan’s stance on homework.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” one person wrote. “I support this 100%. My son worries if his homework isn’t up to scratch. They need time to have fun, enjoy family and relax.”
Another person commented: “As a child psychologist, I’d like to say thank you for being brave in taking this stance, and standing up for what you know to be the right choice for your daughter.
“You’re modelling so many positive values that go beyond academics here.”
In April 2016, thousands of parents in the UK called on the education secretary to drop the SATs tests children take in Year 2 to “let kids be kids”.
The petition was started by a group of parents who felt the tests were too difficult and putting children under “unnecessary pressure”.
“We really are just a few parents fed up of endless complaining about the education policies affecting our young children,” a spokesperson for the campaign told HuffPost UK at the time.
“We all felt that fellow parents in the school yard were at a complete loss as to what to do to fight back and have their voice heard.”
What’s your stance on homework?
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