Making Homework Interesting

(Photo by Annie Spratt)

It was a stunning, shiny Sunday morning. Golden rays of sunshine were streaming through the living room windows and strong winds were making the curtains dance. A spring day could not have been more beautiful. 

While I was reading, my son came over to do his homework with me. One of my cousins, who was visiting and having breakfast, was sitting with us as well. 

The homework went well until we came across a seemingly straightforward question: color in a circle. 

The little child dutifully started coloring in the circle. Since he had not colored in shapes before, his pencil strokes went beyond the bounds of the circle a few times. My cousin politely noted that his coloring must not stray outside the edges. To me, it was fine if, because of lack of control and practice, my son’s coloring was initially imperfect. 

My cousin has amazing academic credentials. He always took his studies seriously, was almost always at the top of his class, and went to top schools. Although I was a reasonable student, I was never at the top of my class. The idea that, to get ahead in our education system, one has to rely not on intuitive understanding of concepts but rather on rote learning never appealed to me. As a result, my grades suffered.

Color in a circle, it is a task that sounds simple. My cousin thought there was a simple way to complete it. “Color inside, and not outside. It is simple, not difficult. Also, the school wants to teach children not to break rules, but to follow them,” he said. 

“But there is no such rule and the question does not specify one,” I countered. “Moreover, should we not make our children question the question? I also think it is only after a fair bit of practice that he can start coloring correctly. To succeed, he will have to fail a few times,” I said.  

My son, who was listening, asked a question: “If I color outside the circle, will not my teacher draw a cross on my worksheet?” My cousin, with triumph in his eyes, looked at me. But then he looked at the school’s homework sheet, and pondered for a few seconds. “Why would she reject your work? The question does not say a few strokes cannot go outside the edges. You try your best to color within the circle, but do not worry if you go outside that edge a few times,” he said. 

I nodded and said, “Yes. I agree about following the rules, but first we should find out what those rules are and then think about them. Plus, we should remember that, to do something poorly does not take much effort, but to do it really well you have to practice. We should also think about this assignment more deeply. Why do circles exist, why are they useful, what is the significance of colors, why do we need to color within a circle, why are boundaries important, and are they always important?” 

We then spent some time discussing these questions. We were all learning, the child was engaged and I could tell from the shine in his eyes that he was enjoying it. I am sure he enjoyed it much more than he would have simply coloring in the circle without thinking much about it. 

Whenever I encourage my child to understand the problem and the motivation behind it, and to always ask “why” on his assignments, this experience of working through the problem and finding answers is then no longer boring, but interesting, for both of us. Such an experience also makes me realise how little I know about many basic concepts. Moreover, my son learns things that are never discussed in his class. I hope these experiences will form the habit in him of consciously engaging his own thinking and learning things deeply. 

As a young student my school lessons, homework and even exams rarely engaged my thinking. The education system also created a fear of failure in me. I want to change that for my child. It is going to be hard work, but it will be worthwhile if I can continue to cultivate an environment which helps him not blindly obey rules but submit to reason. Submitting to reason will allow him to embrace failure, think critically and do what is right. And that is important, because I believe if people think critically and do the right thing, societies can progress by leaps and bounds.