Disorder: an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions.
Would you believe my daughter informed me yesterday that her teacher already told her that she will have homework over the Winter break! Hold me back!!! There are so many ways my mind wants to go with this post!!! So hold on tight and whether or not you are a proponent of homework, you need to read on.
First I know there will be those questioning, "Students will have 10, 11 or even 12 days of break. Are you telling me they can't fit in homework during that time?" After all, it only takes a couple hours to do homework and we have days! Sounds reasonable and not at all egregious. Can they 'fit it in'? of course. But I am here to tell you...look at that strong word I used there, "tell"...not suggest, ask or posit...I am here to tell you, having the time to do the work is not the point!
The point is that if I have something I need to do, I am feeling the anxiety, worry and planning associated with that task. That is NOT a break! And if I have something that needs doing, even if I do it right when I get home from school, it is still infringing on the hard earned time away. But I am already digressing....let me get back on track lest you think this post is just going to go through the list of positives and negatives of homework. The only point I have to make in this post will put the kibosh on any other argument one might present for giving homework over a long break. ("Training them for college" anyone?...wrong!....my son just got home Thursday night from college...no homework, just saying)
I will stop playing and digressing now, I promise. This is serious.
Here is my main point, and you need to hear it loud and clear. We live in a time when we have forgotten to take our own care seriously. "Self-care" is an actual thing now, not a natural tendency as it should be. Even the most primitive animals have the natural tendency toward self-preservation, but not us anymore. We have to implicitly teach 'coping with stress', 'strategies for organizing' and 'deliberate self-care'. As teachers we must provide "brain breaks", we need to teach "mindfulness", we need to remember to eat right and exercise. How is it possible that we have forgotten how to 'do' the most natural of tasks, taking care of ourselves? Self-preservation is in our natural make-up, yet somehow we have forgotten how to practice it! That is insane! But I know how it happened...I know the reason.
Intrusive Homework Disorder, or IHD, is a result of years of schooling where we have foregone the natural tendency of humans to take a break from the stresses of school in the name of homework. We have taught nature right out of our kids. We ourselves, the adults of the 21st Century, are the product of the early stages of IHD. We need classes and tutorials and Ten Step Plans regarding self-care because in the name of teaching responsibility, we have untaught self-preservation. In a time when we need to teach people to "do" self-care, we have a lot of nerve suggesting the teaching benefits of homework. Do you see what it is teaching when we don't allow people to have the break that is necessary to come back refreshed? We are teaching that the 'self' does not, in fact, matter, and the 'self' certainly does not come first.
There is nothing, NOTHING, that we teach in our curriculum that students need to 'work on' over a break.
In case you missed it: N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!!
Please don't be a perpetuator of a poor practice! Students need to take a break from all the stresses and reminders of school. And by the way, the same goes for you! In case you are one of the casualties of IHD, here is your permission to take a break over break. Sounds insane, right, that someone should need to permit you to take a break, but the symptoms of IHD are pervasive. Together we can work through and defeat this disorder. In case you are so far gone that you have completely forgotten, a break is time to leave the work behind. It is time to enjoy the people put in your immediate vicinity to the greatest extent possible. While you are taking the break from work, you might want to consider a break from the other things that keep you from fully enjoying those you love: worry, devices, self-pity, etc...you can do it. You might need to train yourself, old habits are hard to extinguish, but the good news is that the effects of IHD are reversable. Once you feel the freedom, you will be stronger to resist its hold on you. You deserve a break! You need a break! Your students and personal children need to learn from your example of taking a break! The Road to Recovery is paved with happiness. Together we can do it!
A side note: This is one of those posts that regardless of how many times I reread it, I still am not quite sure how much of it is in jest, and how much of it I feel so strongly that I want to scream. You can decide. Thanks for reading! D.
