海角大神

The words slip off the tongue of the dad who triages a math assignment from his corner office or the mother who darts home from work to review dozens of spelling words: Stop the homework insanity!

I鈥檝e uttered those words myself, often late at night after my daughter is melting down from hours of math problems on top of essays and chapter outlines. Ask almost any聽parent, and they will tell you that the volume of homework聽that fills their kid鈥檚 agenda is overwhelming.

To rebel, books and websites have been dedicated to the Stop Homework movement, urging letter writing campaigns and teacher confrontation. Last week, I read about a woman who bragged that her grade school daughter had never done a lick of homework. Each year, the mom sits down with the teacher and principal and explains that her daughter will pay attention, get stellar grades and perform well on tests but she will not do homework. She tells the school they can alert her if intervention is required. Somehow, this has worked.

Yet I鈥檓 wondering if we鈥檙e taking the wrong approach. Is the homework insanity we complain about as working聽parents, the key to preparing our kids for the workplace of the future?

One father I know convincingly argues that homework, even volumes, is critical preparation for career success. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not realistic for us to raise kids to think they鈥檙e going to work 9 to 5, leave and they鈥檙e done,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese kids are going to need to be well prepared to handle all the meetings and projects and emails that come at them in the workplace.鈥�

Clearly, there are new rules we play by in the workplace today. If you want a decent job that will lead to a decent life, you have to work harder and smarter. Workplace experts say the next generation of workers will need to be innovators, problem solvers, open-minded risk-takers with the ability to learn new things, adapt to new work situations and maintain high productivity.

鈥淭he onus will be on workers to structure their time,鈥� said Lynn Karoly, a senior economist with RAND Corp. who has studied the future workforce. From her own kids鈥� homework experience, Karoly said she鈥檚 seen a shift, with teachers giving short and long-term assignments, team projects and verbal presentations. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 indicative of the way students are expected to learn and the skills they will need in the workforce.鈥�

Tell that to Debbie Regent, a mother of two girls, 14 and 10, who says homework stress is ruining her life. After a day of work, she arrives home to several hours of homework supervision. 鈥淭here is a value to reinforcing what you learned that day through homework. There is not value in torturing a kid with five pages of math problems, when they have other classes with homework assignments as well.鈥� Regent, a campaign executive with the Jewish National Fund, asserts that homework, much of which is just busywork, not only keeps kids from needed down time, it burdens聽parents, too.

Today, most working聽parents聽juggle multiple responsibilities at work, home, in the community and even as coaches on the soccer field. I suggested to Regent that our kids will be better prepared for their juggling act. 鈥淵ou could say we鈥檙e trying to prepare them for a society where everyone is having heart attacks or is on some kind of drug for stress. If you call the real world a stressful, frustrating place, then I guess there鈥檚 a point to be had there.鈥�

Cristy Leon-Rivero, vice president of marketing and human resources at Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacy, says that homework teaches responsibility, work ethic and time management 鈥� critical skills for workplace success. Today, with laptops and smartphones, few of us truly leave work behind when we exit the office. 鈥淚 think it boils down to one word 鈥� discipline,鈥� said Leon-Rivero, a mother of three. 鈥淲e鈥檙e teaching our children from a young age that they have responsibilities and that their actions carry consequences and hard work will lead to results.鈥�

Josh Merkin, a Miami public relations professional, offers a different prospective: 鈥淕enerations coming up don鈥檛 want to work as hard but they will have to work even harder. If they are better prepared, it鈥檚 not because of homework.鈥�

In fact, Merkin, father of five kids ranging from 13 to 3, asserts that homework, originally intended to reinforce learning, often gets assigned on concepts students aren鈥檛 being taught and are expected to learn on their own. He believes the unnecessary volume often forces kids to give up sports or other extracurricular activities that teach teamwork and other workplace critical skills.

The new generation of worker provides some perspective. Lindsay Parkinson, 22 and on the job as a nurse since July, said she sees value in having slogged through homework assignments. 鈥淚 learned early on what happens if you procrastinate.鈥� Parkinson said she and many of her friends are entering workplaces that are short-staffed. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot expected of us and we know how to prioritize. We鈥檙e prepared for that.鈥�

Still, Parkinson says she鈥檚 not an advocate of volumes of homework, agreeing with Merkin that it needs to be given in moderation.

Meanwhile, countless reports reveal the 20-somethings entering the workplace today put a higher value than other generations on work-life balance. It makes me wonder: Is this pushback? Are the next generation of workers burned out from years of homework insanity and college pressure by the time they land a job?

Alyssa Alonso, a 24-year-old Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., police dispatcher, says she and most of her friends will admit, even if they love their jobs, 鈥渓ife outside of work is way more important.鈥� Many have entered professions where they鈥檙e expected to respond to email or client calls at all hours and take home paperwork. 鈥淲e have the work ethic and we鈥檙e prepared to handle it,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut we want to avoid it as much as possible.鈥�