Memoirs of a Saudi Ph.D. student: No schoolbags and no homework?

Have you finished your homework? Not yet? Why not? You’re tired? That’s not an excuse you’ll get into trouble at school! Of course that isn’t my mother speaking to me here, I am referring to my kids who are with me while I am working on my Ph.D.
Honestly, homework is one of the most dreaded parental chores for me. I used to feel that my relationship with my children would be wrecked because of the homework fiasco every school night. We send them to schools from 7:00 a.m. until to 3:00 p.m. As if that isn’t enough, they return with tons of homework that they need at least three hours to finish, and during those three hours, you can imagine what happens to the mothers. They become homework-monsters running behind the child from room to room to get him to sit down and reluctantly do the awful chore of reading, writing and arithmetic that he/she already spent seven hours doing in the morning.
When I came to the UK, and after I registered my children at school, I was prepared to go and buy the usual school equipment we are used to buying in Saudi Arabia, like: Oversized bags or backpacks, notebooks in all sizes, various pens, pencils, crayons, in all colors, etc. etc. you get the idea.
To my utter surprise, I saw all school children wandering around after school with no backpacks, no school bags of any kind. What’s going on? Is it a special happy no-school-bag day? Is there something wrong with the school? Is this bag-less school good enough for my little ones?
When I asked, I learned the astonishing news; children here go to school with no school bags and return home with no homework. What? Am I dreaming? This must be heaven on earth! This is too good to be true. I wanted to shed hot tears, because I remembered our lost childhood doing endless and pointless homework. I remember not having any rest when I came home from school because I had to finish all tasks before my favorite cartoon came on TV at 5:00 p.m. I remember how my mum used to chase my younger siblings to get them to sit down and do their homework; I still remember the shouting and the whining. Now I feel our childhood was compromised, stolen from us. I want it back.
I also remembered the two years I spent trying to get my son to do his homework. He used to come back from his supposedly international school at 3:00 p.m. and after lunch we started the homework nagging. Deep inside I knew it was unfair to him. I knew that children deserve to rest and play after a long day at school, but I could not let him go to school with his homework not done; the school would overreact and label him as a careless and lazy pupil — even at such a young age.
Here in the UK, after they started going to school, I kept on asking them everyday if they had homework to do, and they would laugh at me and remind me that we are not in Saudi Arabia.
Of course this made me uneasy. I worried about it and had a sinking feeling that they were not being educated properly. How come they don’t bring books home? How come they don’t have a notebook for each subject? Come on, you have to understand, I spent my entire life in a totally different educational system, this was just too much for me to accept lightly.
OK I am sophisticated Ph.D. student and of course I know things are totally different here — but I still need reassurance. I was only reassured after the first parents’ meeting, when were shown our kids’ work at school and how they were progressing. OK then, now I get it. Schools are for education, and home is for family life, and actually living life. OMG this is so simple yet genius. Why in our educational system home is considered an extension of school for young kids? Hang on, I am not suggesting that education in the UK is the best or the perfect one, but I won my children back. When they come home from school we hug and chat and then play together. They do bring home homework but once a week at most and with plenty of time to finish it.
In Saudi Arabia there is a strong trend for international education. Suddenly, all private schools are becoming international, but what most of them actually do is take British or American curriculums and teach them to kids in the same old-fashioned passive way. The result is just much more homework, more stress and higher tuition fees.
Well, until we go back to Saudi Arabia, what I will to do now is savor each homework-less moment with my children because I know it’s not going to last, but I will try to stay optimistic that back home things might change, eventually, maybe.

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