Homework Many Shades

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Photo credit: online pic.

YouTube and homework. Google and homework. Copying blogs and videos does not help students because it removes the ‘home’ from work.

Teachers are looking for certain things in homework, especially written assignments. They might detect spelling or grammar gaps. They are also looking for home conditions. Where is the learner coming from? We grew up with two uncles and a grandfather. They read the paper voraciously and gave us sections to read aloud.

But, the teacher’s choice is equally important. Write about MY PET assumes all learners have pets, forgetting that pets, especially dogs are common in wealthy homes, with huge grounds where dogs can romp.  Royalty for example.

Poor parents in the east end of London U.K. and all big cities in Europe are unlikely to have dogs in their small flats. Some children were born above shops. Kate and Prince William’s kids however, will write interesting essays because they were born around dogs, the Queen’s dogs.

MY SUMMER HOLIDAY. We knew that was coming every January when we went back to school. December is summer in Africa.  Looking back, I don’t know what teachers had in mind because we all wrote about the same thing. Grandparents. No African family went skiing in Switzerland or climbing mountains in Banff Canada.

We remember the hard work in the fields, making grass brooms and taking care of chickens, but we also remember the love from ‘khulu’ and ‘bab’mkhulu’ our  grandparents, cousins and the freedom to roam over valleys.

Teachers’ choice of homework must take into consideration class or economic situation. MY ROOM for example. Do all kids have rooms? Some younger kids are scared of sleeping alone. Others grew up with family group sleep: boys in one room and a room for girls. In countries with no wi-fi, babies still sleep with their mothers up to a year or more.

A myriad of circumstances have added more things on teachers’ plates but extra caution still applies. They should avoid homework like: MY FIRST PLANE RIDE.

This is another ‘written podcast’ by Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

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