The danger of excess duties for children
Each evening upon arriving home after several hours of class, and those corresponding to extracurricular activities, our children face homework. With hardly any time between activities and bath time and dinner. Every day there are several hours that our children dedicate to the homework, immersed in an increasingly demanding rhythm in a continuous competition and without time to play, and even to get bored.
The danger of excessive homework and homework
The school homework, for many years they have been a daily obligation for children to settle the knowledge acquired in class. We have often heard affirmations, such as "you need to work at home", "you need to take a study habit", "besides what you do in class you have to work on the content". These affirmations can be successful at higher educational levels, when students are no longer children.
During childhood, sometimes certain tasks can be recommended for home. However, it has been taken as a habit, and even as an unquestionable obligation to do homework when you get home.
Recently, the World Health Organization has warned in a report the danger of having too many duties. Children have to experience childhood as the stage that is, a stage of play, exploration and discovery. A stage that requires time and respect for maturation and development to take place. Imagine trying to force physical growth to accelerate it, it would seem a real aberration. But we try to force learning, force cognitive development, subjecting our children to a rhythm and a level of work, which is not only unnatural, but also harmful to their health.
Excessive duties have negative consequences for children
Some of the negative consequences that we can mention are the following:
1. Lack of time to play. When children have many hours of class, extracurricular activities and many duties, they hardly have time to play, to be and to develop.
2. Too many obligations. We often subject the children at too high a rate. A constant competition, where they are obliged to comply with too many obligations (which do not correspond to their evolutionary stage). It is not about disregarding responsibilities, educating on responsibility, but not imposing responsibilities and demands that are far from their natural development.
3. Loss of interest and motivation. With this rhythm and many duties, in the end they become meaningless, mechanically, by obligation and as a consequence not only is not learned, but also lost interest, motivation, etc.
4. Trigger stress and anxiety. Excessive duties and attempts to reach the rate indicated, can generate stress and anxiety.
All these consequences in childhood determine development and have negative consequences in adult life.
How to deal with the excessive burden of duties
1. Change the way you educate, teach and learn. Instead of forced duties, try to awaken interest and motivation and suggest things you can do to learn more.
2. Let them get organized. Sometimes some homework may be convenient, in these cases do not impose a date.
3. Avoid overloading activities, Sometimes a homework is enough.
4. Power playful activities that allow the game and that make it possible to learn.
5. Remember that children need time for their development. Time to play, time to be, time to realize what they think, feel and want.
Celia Rodríguez Ruiz. Clinical health psychologist. Specialist in pedagogy and child and youth psychology. Director of Educa and Learn. Author of the collection Stimulate Reading and Writing Processes.
