Teenagers who refuse to do their homework
If you think back to your school days, apart from cross country running on a cold wet day, probably the worst bit about it was doing homework. It is part of every school's curriculum that children do homework for some days or every day of the week. The idea is that children need to show their learning in an environment away from school and homework can add to their knowledge and practice of their skills. Certainly as schoolchildren enter their teenage years, homework increases and the importance of testing knowledge becomes greater as SATs tests and college entry loom.
Most teenagers grumble about homework, but some are smart and finish it after school in the library, with friends allowing the rest of the evening to be free. Others turn homework into a cooperative activity over at a friends' house, finishing it on the bus on their way to school the next morning!
Occasionally homework gets forgotten and a detention follows, or a letter comes home to the parents and the teenager ends up grounded until they are back on track. None of this is very unusual; few teenagers conscientiously complete every piece of homework set, at home, on time and get grade A's. However, there are some teenagers for whom doing homework, or rather refusing to do it, becomes a battleground which defines their relationship with their parents.
A teacher will tell you that a child, who suddenly starts handing in homework late, or not doing it at all, is going through some kind of crisis or personality change. It happens frequently with children who lose a parent either through divorce or bereavement; homework seems very unimportant in the scale of things occurring to them. A teenager who is keeping a secret from their parent will use the cover of going over to a friend's to study as an excuse to go somewhere or see someone forbidden. The first time a parent becomes aware of this is often through the detention for not doing homework.
It is actually very difficult to make a teenager do homework; you can ground them and stand over them, but you cannot actually make them put pen to paper. In that respect it is a very easy way for a teenager to defy their parents and their school. Some children do not do homework because they genuinely cannot do it, but that is easy to discover if a parent spends some time with their teen actually going through the homework. Then help can be offered and the school can also provide support. As a parent, be aware that not all children sat in their rooms, or at the library are actually there completing homework; keep an eye on them, show an interest, watch out for warning signs. Prevention is a lot easier than cure!