[powerpress]

 

Some days I really don’t comprehend politicians.  I really don’t.

Take, for instance, Chief Moron and French President Francois Hollande. This dingbat is on a rampage to outlaw homework on the basis that it discriminates against the families of the “non-wealthy”.

In what alternate universe?

This mental giant doesn’t have the common sense God gave a gnat, that much is clear.

“When it comes to homework, the President said it should be done during school hours rather than at home, in order to establish equal opportunities,” said one French Embassy official.

President Francois Hollande believes that homework is a burden on lower-income families because those parents aren’t in a financial position to spend more time with their kids.

To be blunt, that’s nothing but a pile of bovine excrement.

Tad Cronn put it best when he wrote in his column “Socialism in Action: No More Homework for Servants of the State“:

Like all liberals, Hollande boils it down to “fairness.” Apparently, some students’ homes are better than others’, so all learning needs to take place at school, where the learnin’ is equally poor quality. 

Jonathan Turley also makes an excellent point when he writes:

There are good reasons to question the utility of homework and the loss of free time for our children. I happen to believe strongly in homework but I share the concern over the loss of time for our kids to simply relax and be kids.

However, the suggestion that homework is yet another socio-economic unfairness is wrong in my view. Plenty of working class parents spend time with their kids on homework. Indeed, there is a well-based view of many immigrant and working-class families pushing their children harder to excel in schools.

If parents aren’t spending time with their kids, that’s not an issue with homework, that’s an issue with lousy parenting.  It’s an issue with what priorities the parents place on their lives and the lives of their kids.

Outlawing homework isn’t going to change anything except, most likely, make kids stupider.  Is that really what we want?

I’ve known plenty of single and two-parent families who, while they may struggle financially, place the well-being of their children at the very top of their priority list.   If it’s a choice between spending time with their child to help her figure out her math homework or going out for the night with friends, those parents choose their kids.

Is that a sacrifice?  Absolutely.  It’s called being a parent.

Much to the chagrin of those who believe the Glorious Nanny State has the responsibility to do everything for everybody, being a parent means you have to, to a great extent, give up your life for the betterment of your child.

Oddly enough, those parents who make the choice of child over their own selfish interests don’t even see it as a sacrifice.  They see it as the only natural and obvious choice to make.

Imagine that.

Next is the purpose of homework.

Homework is every bit as much about the actual work being done as it is about teaching a solid work ethic.  It’s about teaching a person to be responsible for themselves and their commitments.  It’s about personal responsibility, a notion sadly lacking in our current age.

Now I realize this flies in the face of what most “progressives” would have us believe, since they don’t believe in things as passé as actually having a work ethic, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

When I went to high school I had a minimum of 2 hours of homework every night.  Did I like it?  Of course not.  No kid likes homework.  That’s not the point.  Whether I liked it or not was not relevant and doing that homework taught me one very important lesson.

If something needs to be done, do it now.  Don’t procrastinate.

It takes far less time to do the work than it does to bitch about doing the work.

Believe it or not, that’s an important lesson for any kid to learn.