Down with homework

No, really.

I agree it might be getting out of hand, but somehow I doubt this is the solution. Or at least, not without reforming other areas of education as well.

Heard of Alfie Kohn? Here's his Amazon page [1].

Haven't heard of him, but some of his ideas do sound better than what goes on in public schools.

On the actual issue of homework, I'd like to see some of the research he's citing as showing the supposed uselessness of the whole thing.

Is stuff like this the reason why the USA lags behind in international tests?

Toss out the bullshit reading check questions and assign some real homework like, I don't know, actually reading instead of having to scavenger hunt the text for answers to the questions.

Four or five math problems per concept are good enough—we don't need twenty. If people need more they can do more.

edited 22nd May '11 9:45:50 AM by annebeeche

Homework assigned should be given when needed. Heavy homework loads are a sign that students are not being productive in class, or that the curriculum is too large. Or a hundred other errors.

Of course, from what I hear, the American education system is shambolic anyway.

The big issue, I think, is that the skillset to succeed in public schools isn't exactly the most practical when it comes to real world problems.

For example, obviously that article doesn't tell the whole story. We have no way have knowing the time management skills of these students, which you'd think teaching how to schedule stuff would be priority.

I'm not sure how giving students massive homework burdens promotes good timekeeping. If there was, say, an hour of homework, then it would be; a student good at timekeeping finds time to do it, a bad student does not.

I am greatly in favour of academia for it's own sake, but examples of homework I've seen from friends in the States have not given me a terribly good impression.

Never saw a real benefit to homework myself. Just mindless repetition for most of it.

Abolishing it is silly, come high school it's essential that you at least have a little time management skills but a reformation wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe make it research based instead of work sheets.

Homework was had it's uses. Math classes in particular and even then if I paid attention in class and actually did my work in class I could get by just fine without doing the homework. The homework just helped sort of kept it in my head more. The mindless repetition was helpful to me.

Other than that assignments that required me to read the textbook were helpful to me. I never wrote notes though which was usually required of me. I retained the information well enough without the notes for the most part. Again save in math, but math is a terrible thing that refuses to be learned easily and in the same ways.

The only other homework assignments I found useful were things like essays or questions that required me to apply the knowledge I had. These sorts of assignments popped up in theatre, psychology, AP psych, English classes, and my history classes (they were taught with the English classes in a double period). They did not pop up regularly save in AP psych and psych were a good portion of our homework and tests were application of knowledge to certain situations and analyzation as opposed to defining things and repeating info mindlessly. It also showed up a lot in our class assignments. Instead the things like the discussions and questions of this sort showed up in the classes themselves for English, history, and theatre. Homework was a rare thing for these classes and it was usually reading. Things like essays and questions were rare. We did that in class.

Now the work sheets from Spanish? Completely fucking useless save for points.

edited 22nd May '11 10:21:28 AM by Aondeug

The idea behind homework is to reinforce a second time what you learned that day, to allow it to "stick" better. The problem is when homework becomes rote instead of something actually intellectual. If it's rote, then you're not really thinking about it, so it's in one ear and out the other. There's an argument that most academics really takes that form anyway so why bother.

But yeah, in some places it's totally out of control, and that results in the anti-homework movement. Which isn't really "anti"-homework, it's more keep it reasonable. A question or two instead of a page of them. Just enough to "prove" knowledge. Put the focus on the learning and not the work. The other side of the movement, which is something that may be unreasonable, would be to have teachers actually work together to remove the "boom-bust" mechanics of homework, and make sure that it's somewhat balanced.

One of the major concerns, believe it or not, is health concerns over having kids carrying bookbags with all of their books in them.

And they're taking lockers out of schools because that's an issue, so they can't even switch out then.

My high school had lockers to hold books. My middle school did not. Many teachers would let you keep the book at home or in class all the time because of this. The ones who kept it at home either had class sets to use or would find a way to teach without the text. We also were given a short physical exam every year to see if our backs were getting messed up by the books if we did have to carry them about.

edited 22nd May '11 10:40:31 AM by Aondeug

Wow, an actual exam? That's...interesting.

Yeah. Our backs were checked in the locker rooms after we were measured and weighed. Then we were asked some questions regarding back pain and the like.

I am going to agree with annebeeche, homework as it is viewed most places got a bad reputation for a reason.
I have also heard that in the US your homework is basically a too long assignment over the entire year, that majorly affects your grades. Which again turns it into complete bullshit.
The entire point of homework is to properly get done with the few lasts repitions needed to properly understand a concept, and you are suppose to stop flat after that. If it is a year long assignment, and there is too many tasks assigned, you got something that is entirely useless.
The reason it is useless is because after doing what you need to do to proply get it ingrained, everything after that slope will turn into pure negative feedback. And that feedback over several years just increase your general hatered towards school and academia, especially when academia got nothing to do with homework.
Which in turn means that homework is nothing more than randomly tacked on tasks because it is acceptable for the teacher to hand them out.


Wait what do you mean "health problems related to carrying books", over here in Norway roughly every single kid carries a overstacked sack/bag filled to the brim with books.
That sounds... a bit weird from my perspective.

Very, very bad idea. Homework exists for a purpose.

But it is true that some teachers seem to have a passion for assigning lots of repetitive and, frankly, completely worthless assignments. I guess that that's because these are easy to grade, and give one the feeling of making one's students work hard.

Ideally, I think that one should give relatively little homework — but hard homework, stuff that would require one to do a significant amount of individual research and thinking to answer. Stuff that is challenging to solve, and even more challenging to grade, but that teaches how to think about the topic.

Assigning the students, let's say, fifty linear equations to solve, instead, is a worthless waste of time.

If you know how to solve them, trying a pair just to make sure that you have understood everything correctly is more than enough; and if you don't, your time would be better spent revising the theory, making sure you get the point of the procedure and then trying to solve one or two again.

"Wax on, wax off" is an idiotic and ineffective method for learning a topic, be it martial arts or anything else.

edited 22nd May '11 10:48:39 AM by Carciofus

I hated it at the time because I resented having to continue schoolwork at home. It interfered with nice things and I always left things to the last minute, being a ridiculous procrastinator (actually, as I type this, I'm putting off a 2,500 word essay for university that's in for tomorrow). I did everything I could to get out of doing it.

Now? I suppose I'm kinda ambivalent about it. I wouldn't mind seeing it gone, but I basically don't care because I'm not at school anymore. I think it's more-or-less pointless until you start writing independent essays (speaking as an arts student, anyway).

edited 22nd May '11 10:49:39 AM by pagad

x4

Checked how?

They stripped us of our shirts, straightened out our backs, and ran something over them see if they were straight. It wasn't a terribly in depth thing, but it was there. Never had that happen anywhere else though.

@Blueharp: I think she's talking about testing for scoliosis and being given a basic physical. In my elementary school they had a nurse come in and check your sight, hearing, reflexes, and your back. They basically just felt your spine to see if it was growing straight.

I wonder if they got a grant for the study or something.

Not what I'd call an in-depth exam though. It might catch a few, but it wouldn't show some real damage.

My elementary school did nothing like that ever. They were like "Fuck you people". My high school too unless you were on a sports team or something.

Oh, and the looked for lice too. It only happened with the little kids though, and I think it was just them covering their ass so the parents couldn't sue them for damaging their poor little dear.