When Todd Costa, who is 13, was assigned a social studiesproject on the state of Nebraska recently, he knew where to turnfor help: the new homework center at the Hanson Public Library.
There, the Silver Lake seventh grader, who travels fromPembroke to use the center because his town's library does not haveone, found information on the Internet using the center's computerwith help from a library homework coach. Costa made graphs usingthe center's rulers, reference books, and other resources kept onhand in the small room set aside for students to work on theirhomework.
Todd, who has a computer at home but is not yet connected tothe Internet, says he frequents the center often after school touse its computer and extensive print resources. "I come by everytime I have the chance," he said.Time was, children got home from school and hit the booksbefore their mothers would let them out to play. Now, with manyparents working, and often no one but themselves at home to prodthem into doing their school work, many children are turning to thestructure, camaraderie, and free tutoring offered at homeworkcenters or clubs in local libraries and schools.And, with today's classroom focus on large projects, oftenworked on in teams, students like Todd are finding these centersthe ideal places for one-stop shopping for information.The Hanson library is one of a handful in the region,including Kingston and Hull, that recently received $6,000 federalgrants distributed through the Massachusetts Board of LibraryCommissioners to establish homework centers. Grand openingcelebrations were planned yesterday at the Hanson and Kingstonlibraries, whose centers opened the first of last month.Officials at these libraries agree the centers will lastlong after the grant money has been spent."From what started out to be a $6,000 federal grant hasturned into a multi-thousand-dollar project here because we areinvesting a lot of library funds into it," said Jackie Rafferty,library director in Hanson. "We have made a large commitment toit."A homework center, established at the Holbrook PublicLibrary last year with a $6,000 grant received in the fall of 1996,is still operating.More schools are getting into homework help, too. At DuxburyMiddle School, students attend an after-school homework club. InQuincy, a homework center is open before, after, and sometimesduring school at three of the four middle schools (Broad Meadows,Sterling, and Atlantic). The fourth, Central, does not have aseparate room, but students are offered the opportunity to come inbefore school to work on homework if they need it. Sterling alsohas a Saturday morning homework program available. Parents andstudents at some city schools also can call a homework hotline tofind out the evening's homework assignments for each class.Homework centers, with their ample, often state-of-the-artresources, and one-on-one coaching, offer equal opportunities atsuccess to children of diverse economic backgrounds, localeducators and librarians say."A large part of the reason why we need them is that somekids have access to technology, to computers, in their homes andsome don't," said Joan Enriquez, children's librarian at the AdamsPublic Library in Kingston, who wrote its grant proposal. "Thiskind of levels the playing field."Eugene Creedon, superintendent of schools in Quincy, agrees."One of the reasons for homework centers is, when you look atthe failure rate, many times a factor is they didn't pass in theirhomework," he said. ". . . You ask yourself, `Why are they notdoing their homework?' Many times they don't have a place to do itin, or they don't have the equipment at home that contemporyhomework demands. Both parents are working. There is no one therefor them to say, `Hey Mom, how do you spell . . .?' We try tocompensate. We will have a homework center, stock it withrudimentary materials that used to be in the home -- a dictionary,pens, pencils, maybe a computer. Many times a teacher is there. . .. We try to help them to compete."Often, such centers are set up strictly formiddle-school-aged students because many of those students needhelp making the adjustment from basic elementary school assignmentsto the more rigorous discipline required for project-based tasks ina variety of homework subjects.Hull's center is geared toward children in grades 3 through 8."It isn't a new service that we provide, just a better, moreconcentrated facility," said Kathleen Hickey, Hull children'slibrarian.Educators and librarians hope such centers will offer studentsa safe alternative to malls and other teenage hangouts and helpestablish good study habits and a working knowledge of libraryresources before these students reach high school.The centers are especially important at a time when schoolbudgets are tight because many school libraries do not havefull-time staff, they say. And the demands of education reform makegood study habits more important than ever, they add.The homework center at the Adams Public Library in Kingston isgeared toward students in grades 5 through 8. It is open Monday,Tuesday, and Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m."Teachers are encouraging them to come, and what we arehoping is that as kids get used to using it in the fifth and sixthgrade, as they get into seventh and eighth grade, they will comeeven more," Enriquez said. "I see it as a growing thing."Kingston's center, in the children's room, has a multimediacomputer with three encyclopedias, CD-ROM software on poetry,dinosaurs, world history, the human body, and mythology. Afterconsulting with teachers, librarians purchased print materialspecifically aimed at subjects covered in school.The center is staffed with 18 trained volunteer homeworkcoaches, who are mostly Silver Lake Regional High School students.The work benefits the student volunteers because many of them puttheir hours toward a community service requirement for graduation,Enriquez said. The center is a good place for older students tostudy, too.Educators and librarians agree it is not enough just tosupply a space for homework. Homework coaches, who act as mentors,point students in the right direction, rather than do the work forthem, they say. And, they can take some of the pressure off harriedparents."People are not in the best mood to help out when they comehome from work tired and hungry and their children tell them theyhave to go to the library, which closes in two hours," Hickey said."It doesn't create the right framework for working successfully."Also, some parents today are at a loss when it comes to theintricacies of Internet use, those interviewed said.In Hanson, Rafferty said she expects many Whitman-HansonRegional High School students to sign on as coaches. "This is thegeneration that has grown up with computers. They can help theyounger students," she said.Since Dec. 1, 129 students have signed into Hanson's center,which has one computer with two more planned. The library is nextdoor to an elementary school and across the street from anintermediate school. Its center, open Monday and Wednesday fromnoon to 5 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m., andFriday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is designed for use bystudents in all grades.Along with the computer, the center contains four corrals,a large round table, a cabinet filled with pencils, pens, rulers,electric pencil sharpener, and clipboards, maps and a globe, andbookshelves stocked with reference books."I think that the earlier that children can develop goodstudy habits the better," Rafferty said. "If the discipline of aroutine is developed early on, they will have more years to besuccessful in school."In Quincy, teachers do the coaching."When you get into reports, expanded projects in math andscience, generally children do need assistance," Creedon said. "Foryears it was assumed parents would be those assistants."Students like the centers, he said, because they are underno obligation to go. Educators like them because they leavestudents with few excuses for not completing assignments.In Hanson, response to the new homework center has beenpositive, said children's librarian Nancy Cappellini, whose10-year-old son, Scott, walks over from the Indian Head Schoolwhile she wraps up her work day."It's just been overwhelming," she said. "I didn't expectthere would be this many kids using it."
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