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"A little hard work never hurt anyone." Time and time again my aunt would drone on as she endeavored to inspire me to ascend to great heights and reach the pinnacle of a sound education. I often thought that if she wanted to aspire to great heights then perhaps she herself should climb the mountain of homework in front of me instead.

I could have been outside playing football with my friend ,Joe. He didn't have to do homework for hours and hours after school. He didn't have to sit there like some galley slave forced to listen to some time keeper like my aunt beat out the pace and drone on monotonously, "Read your books. Read your books. Read your books," over and over until I was repeating it my sleep.Even when my aunt finished her visit and was satisfied that I was sufficiently hypnotized ,or just to see me automatically reach for my school books to complete the homework , she would still insist in reminding me that a little hard work never hurt anyone. "Really Arthur" she would admonish my father as she was getting in the taxi to take her home." Don't listen to the boy when he complains about the amount of homework. Make him do it.Look what happened to you when our own father allowed you to skip homework"

I never did get to find out just what happened to my father because he skipped homework. Every time I broached the subject he would simply say "Look what happened to your aunt when she did do her homework." That only served to confuse me more at the time because I considered my father to be a happily married man ,well paid and content in his job. I can only surmise that my aunt because of her acquisition of a fine education combined with her determination to achieve her degree she had no time for marriage . "She valued education so highly, " explained my father as he sipped on his cold beer," that she would rather be free to do what she wanted to do without being under the constraints of one man's thumb"

To that end I must thank my aunt immensely . She did indeed instill in me a love of books and a thirst for knowledge far greater than dad's beer. I don't work under any man's thumb so as to speak either.I would therefore be prepared to swear on a stack of bibles that no child can be hurt by too much homework.

Remember Joe? He was the guy that didn't have to do hours and hours of homework after school and played football. It seems that at his school children are assessed and are detained after school to do extra schoolwork only if they are lagging behind or failing to pass examinations. Joe was fairly clever and rarely needed to be detained after school. Consequently Joe never got mountains of homework to do. Instead he used to pick up school books whenever he felt the need or just wanted to read. He reasoned that he could absorb more that way.

Joe may have been naturally gifted or simply the product of a new approach to the subject of excessive homework . Even if my aunt didn't approve of him skipping homework she would be proud to know that he achieved a degree. Joe is the managing director of the firm where I work along with my father until he retires.

Learn more about this author, Barry Williams.
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