by Mattie Mutare

Created on: January 22, 2009   Last Updated: April 21, 2010

There can be no doubt that too much homework will hurt the development of a child. The guiding metaphor for child development is not that knowledge is poured into an empty vessel, and therefore the more the better. Rather, the child ought to be exposed to knowledge and experiences, including play; triggering curiosity, encouraging discovery, and stimulating long-term growth and development. Bodybuilders undertake tough training sessions in the gym but muscle growth takes place during the rest periods between sessions. I will argue this further, rather unconventionally but quite effectively, from an engineer's point of view. First I will bolster the assertion and secondly suggest how to determine just sufficient homework to suit individual children.

The practical necessity for space is present in all devices and environments; concrete structures have expansion joints, dams have sluice gates and spillways, houses have air vents, vehicles have exhausts. If engineers and craftspeople didn't provide for safe venting, these structures would fail sooner rather than later because of excessive stress. The same goes for schoolchildren. They need gaps between and within homework.

The redundancy of solidness in devices is another reason to avoid packed homework schedules. Engineers soon realized that there is no solidity in natural objects. Even big trees spread their branches out and air flows harmlessly through. In windy conditions it is the sparsely branched trees that survive. The more solidly packed ones catch the gales and go down. Similarly, the schoolchild with homework overload often performs poorer than a student with breathing space to allow reflection and unforced assimilation.

Electricity pylons are mainly empty space with latticework of just the right members in just the right places to do the job. The wheels on vehicles, from bicycles to trucks, have spoke-like rims because redundant solidness has been removed. So too should be the homework load on our children; just the right quantity with ample space to stimulate, allow natural imbibing of information and self-paced discovery through curiosity.

The human brain is arguably the most complex device or machine available to human beings and it was created by arguably the best engineer there is, the Creator. He made generous provision of holes and spaces on and in the brain and the skull (noses, mouths, ears, hollow vessels, neck, sponge-like brain and so on) to allow efficient function. Even our lungs are a

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