Homework. It’s a dirty word in some households and an unpopular idea with kids across America. But while kids and parents alike hope for less homework and wish there were more time in the evenings to do fun things and less had to be devoted to doing homework, that’s probably just a wish.
Homework is indoctrinated into American culture, and it is a cornerstone of many educational theories. While popular education theory changes over time, the current thinking is that, while the intensity of useful homework differs depending on the age of the students, some homework provides a good refresher and reinforcement of the lessons learned during the school day. For high school students, the recommended maximum is about 30 minutes of homework per subject.
Another thing that differs in how homework is viewed is how it is approached by parents. Some are highly involved and help their kids wade through assignment lists and complete complex homework tasks. Others simply tell their children to go off to a quiet place and get it done. And, however the family approaches homework, there will always be some time when students are expected to work through their homework on their own, without direct parent supervision.
So, as a parent, you send your child off to her room on a Sunday afternoon, so she can complete her weekend homework. Three hours later, when you check on her, it isn’t even close to done. And of course it is quite possible that the lesson is particularly difficult or that she needs more help than at some other times. Progress can be slow in tricky subjects, and it’s not always easy for a child to work through hurdles of understanding.
Or maybe the lesson is too difficult or the teacher isn’t very good. It’s easy to start blaming others when your child struggles with school work. But what if something else is going on? What if the reason she didn’t get her homework done wasn’t that the lesson was tough or the workload too great?
What if the reason your little scholar isn’t done is that she spent the last two hours watching a movie on her iPad? Or maybe it was an hour-long call with her best friend. Won’t you look silly at the parent teacher conference if you go in complaining only to hear that your child is constantly being corrected for using their cell phone during school hours?
If you’re wondering what you can do, one option is to load your own monitoring software onto your child’s phone. That way you can see in real time what she’s doing when she’s locked in her room “studying” for that big test. Unless it’s a fashion test, her 20 minute visit to the Vogue website probably wasn’t time well spent.
Cell phone monitoring software like Highster Mobile allows a parent to see everything their child does with their mobile device, including all the websites they visit, all the apps that are installed (and which ones they use) and all the text and email traffic that comes through their phone. With this kind of insight, mom and dad will never have to wonder what’s really going on when their children go to “study”.