As a daughter of Japanese immigrants, English was a challenge in school. It was especially more so when I told them, “I have homework.” Their usual response was: “We don’t know English, so don’t ask us.”
Because of this, I would take home my assignment and bring it back to school untouched. (Besides, the whole point of homework is taking the work home, right?) This went on from grade one all the way to grade four.
It was in grade four. My teacher, seeing that I brought home blank pages, finally cornered me, and had me stay in class after school. I remember crying my eyes out in the office, telling my mother over the phone that I was told by my teacher to stay after school because I did not do my homework. Imagine my shock when my mother said, “Ok. Just come straight home when you’re done.”
Interestingly, I was not angry at my teacher for keeping me after school. I knew I deserved the punishment; however, the problem remained: I did not know how to do homework. The easiest answer is “just do it!” but to me it was more than that. This was a report that was assigned to me. I was told to do research by looking up information in books and write a report based on a subject I chose, but I did not understand how to write a report. Kids in my class knew how to put their thoughts into writing on paper and would write something that showed their understanding of their researched topic. I, however, struggled to put my thoughts on paper, let alone write up a report.
In the end, my teacher did not directly help me, but had me sit in class to finish my report while she did her teaching preparations for the next lessons. Much to my surprise, I wrote up the report and handed it in. Later in the week, I got it back with a positive mark that was other than a “D” or a big fat zero.
After that incident, I did my homework promptly and turned it in on time.
I hope that one day I could meet my grade-four teacher and say, “Thank you for having me stay after school and finish my assignment.”
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