Poll: "There should be NO homework" A petition to get rid of homework in schools.
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Have to get people accustomed to problem solving on their own, early earl in life, somehow. What easier method is there?
Homework that is not...
1.) Reading (either for personal enlightenment and/or in-class discussion)
2.) Essay writing to practice thought development and analysis
3.) Necessary practice (ex: getting a grasp on math concepts by multiple exercises)
...is a waste of a student's time.
Were such things to be scheduled into class time, they would in turn become a waste of the teacher's time. Students need to do basic work in order to learn from teachers. A good teacher is there to guide and shape thinking, not to pound information into a kid's brain. Then again, this is assuming that a kid is in a class to learn. Such may very well not be the case. If a student doesn't want to to take the time to actually study, then perhaps a no-homework, hand holding class should be available.
Not all homework serves a purpose. There are the endless worksheets teachers love that do little other than waste a student's time. Teachers need to stop assigning this crap. However, some homework does facilitate learning and benefit the student.
1.) Reading (either for personal enlightenment and/or in-class discussion)
2.) Essay writing to practice thought development and analysis
3.) Necessary practice (ex: getting a grasp on math concepts by multiple exercises)
...is a waste of a student's time.
Were such things to be scheduled into class time, they would in turn become a waste of the teacher's time. Students need to do basic work in order to learn from teachers. A good teacher is there to guide and shape thinking, not to pound information into a kid's brain. Then again, this is assuming that a kid is in a class to learn. Such may very well not be the case. If a student doesn't want to to take the time to actually study, then perhaps a no-homework, hand holding class should be available.
Not all homework serves a purpose. There are the endless worksheets teachers love that do little other than waste a student's time. Teachers need to stop assigning this crap. However, some homework does facilitate learning and benefit the student.
Homework is pretty much useless, if you're not interested in it. Also, if they rely on it, even less - makes the school redundant, as you can just work things out at home on your own anyway, and nothing will stop you, if you're genuinely interested.
General schools should be eradicated with fire, and early specialization should be more common. The kids will step on most nails anyway. They won't understand what they want before they experience it, too.
General schools should be eradicated with fire, and early specialization should be more common. The kids will step on most nails anyway. They won't understand what they want before they experience it, too.
As a teacher myself, I'll say that homework serves and important purpose.... but that it is often used incorrectly by teachers.scorptatious said:
The correct way:
Homework gives a child extra practice on the skills they learned at school. It provides an opportunity for the child to take the lessons from class and re-teach it to themselves, thus providing an anchor for that knowledge.
Homework is also diagnostic. A well-designed assignment, if graded properly, can show the student/teacher/both what specific areas this particular student is unclear on, so that instruction can be tailored to the student's individual needs.
Homework gets some of the "labor" out of the way in some classes. For instance, in a literature-oriented class, it would be ridiculous to have the students read the book during class. That's a "reading" class. In a worthwhile literature class, the students should be discussing the work--the plot, characters, themes, all that stuff. The actual nuts-and-bolts reading should be done at home, individually, to prepare the student for discussion.
The incorrect way:
If it's not discussed/graded in any way. If it's just data that's never interpreted and applied, it's useless background noise. What's worse, it's providing extra practice... but you (as the teacher) can never know what the student is actually practicing, whether it's right or wrong, unless you assess the work.
The biggest mistake is giving too much homework. Usually, math is the culprit here. You learn a new concept in class, and then you should be given maybe ten problems to practice it. That's at a maximum. Really, think about it--if you do know how to use it, then that many is plenty to reinforce the concept without becoming ridiculous tedium. If you don't know how to do it, then you're probably just practicing it the wrong way thirty times... which makes the job of learning it correctly even harder.
Well, first of all, because of everyone's spurious claims that "public schools are failing," teachers are forced to keep a steady stream of data to prove that students are learning. Homework is part of that. All it would take is a few students to think, "Well, I know it well so I don't have to do homework," and then they fail the test... now, all of a sudden, the teacher is blamed.bloodmage2 said:
With homework records, the teacher has a way to say, "Nope. I taught it, they learned it, this student simply chose not to do the work." Good teachers are using it as a necessity to protect themselves against bogus claims of that nature (which are ridiculously common).
But as to the student-centric purpose of homework, your idea blows major ass. Assign it, but don't use it for anything? The entire purpose of homework is to reveal to the teacher (and student) what each student does and does not understand about the concepts being taught. It's possible that even you, as the "super student," may miss a concept here or there, and the homework will show you that when you and the teacher go over it.
Teaching is not about grading. Grading is about teaching. We assign the homework in younger grades so that we can see what is/isn't being learned. In later grades, it's about showing the student what he/she is/isn't learning. Either way, the data is only useful if it's interpreted and applied. Without it, you have schools that do nothing to improve students--they just let the ones that are "good at school" appear to succeed, and the others just sit and fester.
Other.scorptatious said:
I'm not for more homework in grade schools. I remember what my homework load was like in grade school and I know how it has increased in the years I have been out.
I think there should be less homework. Kids should have time to be kids.
The thing I think is stupid are the talks I would always get from my teachers and parents back then, "Stop complaining college will be a whole lot worse."
That is false. College is a cake walk compared to grade school. I never got extensions on papers and assignments in grade school; I get them all the time in college. In grade school we had one night to do a 2 to 3 page paper, when we had 6 other subjects of homework to tangle with, but in college I get 2 days to a week to work on a paper that size, and sometimes I don't have any work for a whole week. One of my classes hasn't even met in the past 3 class days.
I say less homework and more in class teaching. I know Teaching Majors that say they are student teaching in classes in the high school level, where the students don't know what a verb is. I think the problem lies with Math and Science getting more attention than English. I think above all subjects English is the most important, because without good skills in English, students will do worse in the other subjects.
Even then, I think the hand-holding class does little but turn school into some kind of educational hospice--just keep the kid comfortable until he passes from the system. The idea should be to take a student who can't learn things on their own and turn them into a student who can.thespianicism said:
It simply doesn't matter how the student "feels" about learning, any more than it matters how I "feel" about paying my water bill on time. It's necessary. Maybe learning algebra isn't necessary, but learning to do something I don't like, and do it well? That's a vital life skill. I'm just sick of the idea some people have that if kids aren't "having fun" while they learn, that it's bad learning.
Sometimes it can be fun. Sometimes it's work. Sometimes it's a bloody chore. So's doing the dishes. So's cleaning the bathroom. But you do them because they need done, and it doesn't matter how you "feel" about them every day. If the kid doesn't want to do homework, tough tit. Get over it and do your damned job--which, in this case, is homework.
You're right, 12 hours every night is excessive, but if the adolecent is engaging in heavy physical activities/exercise they may well need that sleep.Snake Plissken said:
I'm 20 and I still try to get 10 hours a night. Not just because I'm lazy, but because it's bloody good for you. I'm still growing in both height and muscle mass, it'd be foolish to think that I don't need the sleep.
The education system is incredibly flawed in many ways, but on the issue of homework within the current system, i would say that students should be given a work-load that can be realistically be completed within the time allotted for class. If you waste time in class, then you will have to catch up in your own time.
Note: I also think much more of the learning should be practical and hands-on, and that copying whats written on the whiteboard is absolutely retarded. That's what printers/books are for. no one absorbs information this way and it time that could be spent discussing the topic at hand etc.
Note: I also think much more of the learning should be practical and hands-on, and that copying whats written on the whiteboard is absolutely retarded. That's what printers/books are for. no one absorbs information this way and it time that could be spent discussing the topic at hand etc.
Without enough homework kids will have too much free time and do stupid things like drugs or post of forums about how much they hate homework. Then where would we be?
As an FYI, statements like that are one of the reasons the main cause of death for teenagers is suicide. Srsly.Lilani said:
"The best years of your life" my ass. When you're a kid, you have zero freedom, and spend what is your parents workweek putting in similar hours for no money whatsoever. (Don't get me wrong, they get an education, but from their perspective, there is zero benefit).
When you're an adult, you work about as much, maybe more, but at least you get paid in cold, hard cash, and you can spend it on just about whatever you damn well please. Yes, there are limits, but not nearly so much as when you were a kid.
Life sucks as a kid, as you grow up, it gradually starts to kick more and more ass. Once you reach a certain age, you can even call minorities racial epithets, and get a free pass because of your advanced age. It's awesome getting older.
OT: Homework sucks when you're a kid, but frankly, one hour a day isn't enough to adequately inform anyone. I'd say the school day/week/year should be extended, in which case there could probably be less homework, but otherwise it's necessary, because otherwise there's no damn way students will learn what they should be.