Why burden children with holiday work?

It is enjoyable and heartening to read Ms Kelly Kishor's article on The Straits Times, Monday, June 28 2010, page A20 "Why burden children with holiday work?"

MY SENTIMENTS, EXACTLY!

I looked at the article, over and over again, savouring the entire article and what it was about. Holidays were meant to be a break away from reality, but in the article, what were the holidays? Projects? Assignments? Discussions? Final year grade? Holidays! WHERE ARE YOU! I think they are lost in the land of homework!



I believe that everyone out there had a wonderful holiday, doing Maths Revision Papers all day long, analysing poems on other days and doing some last minute work such as what Ms Lee gave us on Saturday, the second last day of the holidays. Isn't it just wonderful and brilliant to have such teachers who pile their students with holiday work?

"While the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports is campaigning for "family time"", do we even receive the family time that we always wanted during the school term? Do we even get our rest time when we are not doing work? Do we even have enough time to finish our assigned homework? Do we even sleep more, compensating for the time lost during the school term? Do we... I can go on forever, but I shan't.

What is it with the schools nowadays? Schools are constantly, generously giving out holiday work. While many children in top elite schools like us, have a lot of work, don't we too? Her daughter is just in Secondary 1 and she is already coming "home loaded with projects and assignments" Is that what schools should be doing? Should schools be giving students so much work till they come to schools after the holidays with puffy eyebags? Or should schools stop making the students slog, since the holidays are the students’ rest time? Or is it just the parents?

The parents, being too “kiasu” or rather afraid to lose, would make their children mug. The parents would want to see the results. Is this the correct attitude to life? Is this the correct attitude that they want to show to their own children and make their children adopt? Is this the right attitude that they must have in order to succeed in life? Is this the correct attitude that they must possess in order to work well and gel with their future colleagues? Therefore, parents must be a role model to their children, they must “get away from the mindset that slogging without rest is the only way to compete.” They must know that adequate rest can increase performance significantly; witout it, even the strongest-willed students will succumb to burnout. Is that the ending that parents want to see of their beloved children?

If so, then what is the use of the holidays? Why not just home-school the children? It will be like a holiday, with homework given to you everyday, piled up till it reaches the ceiling. There would be no holidays anymore, just 4 terms in a row. Instead of a 10 week term, make it a 13 term week, such that it will last till the last day of the entire year. Holidays are for students to rest, to take a break from the constant running about in school; to allow the students to catch up with their friends; to allow them to maintain a strong and close bond with their family and their relatives.

Are schools emphasising too much on projects and holiday assignments? Or is it that the parents have too high expectations of their children? Or rather, is it that the children have too much pressure on themselves? Well, it varies from one person to another. However so, one things is for sure, many children have no rest, absolutely no rest at all during the holidays, as they are continuously ladened with the work that their teachers give them. The pressure is constantly rising and the heat is always on...