Homework is only important for maybe like a year of High School. Unless you're trying to get into an Ivy League school, school in general is a waste of time. I dropped out of High School, got my Diploma through other means (home-schooling) and now I'm starting college at UH-D a year before my classmates. **** school.
I didn't have much homework in high school, and what little I did have I would usually finish either in class (My Algebra II teacher would have the homework assignment on the board at the beginning of class, so I'd just read the book and get started on the homework from the beginning. The teacher was actually superfluous) or during our 30 minute "home room" period. Of course, I graduated high school nearly 20 years ago. When I first went to college at Texas Tech (right out of high school), there was very little actual homework, either. I had some in my math classes that was never actually graded or a paper or book report in classes like History. But the majority of classes I had early on at Tech had no homework and grades based solely on the results of a handful of tests (no more than four and sometimes as few as two). Once I got further along in the classes, there was a lot more homework (in accounting, finance and economics, especially) or more research papers or projects (marketing, management, advertising, etc.) Or, in my more-recent graduate courses, we'd have online quizzes or weekly tests each week that would essentially be homework with more important sounding names. I think the real question is terms of homework is how much of it is necessary to understand the concepts and how much of it is busy work? And that's a difficult question to answer.
come on dude If one or two instances of EXCESSS come along we have to throw out all of it . . .that is the American Way Rocket River baby . .bath water. . .everything
Homework is not necessary just like practice is not necessary. If you don't want to do Homework don't do it, but most people in life have to work hard to get where they are.
Your frame of mind here is exactly why students have five hours of homework a night. Each teacher thinks they're the only teacher these kids have. In saying that no teacher has time to grade five hours of homework a day you're forgetting that while you may give 1-2 hours of homework, other teachers might give the same amount. I can't count the number of times a teacher asked me why I was complaining when they only gave 2 hours of homework because that should leave me 4 hours to do nothing forgetting that their compatriots felt exactly the same way.
Not that there's anything with getting your diploma through home-schooling, but your attitude overall might as well be translated to this: After-hours work is only important for maybe like the first year you have the job. Unless you're trying to get a promotion to a better-paying, more responsible position, extra effort at work in general is a waste of time. I do the bare minimum at my job, have other people help me with my projects, and I'm still in the same position I was in 5 years ago. **** work.[/QUOTE]
That's weird. But I know it does happen. I'm surprised the teachers don't 1) remember how it was like for them as kids, 2) listen when so many students complain about this, or 3) remember that they, themselves, also have several other classes and are going to have to grade all that sometime.
I think most of it has to do with the fact that teachers 1) Need to get a lot of material taught to students, most of whom do not want to pay attention at all; 2) Think students are just whiners about it; and 3) Teach only one subject much of the time. So they don't think about the other subjects. Again, I have nothing but respect for most teachers and I hope BetterThanI doesn't take my post in the wrong way. I just think that teachers are so focused on their subject that they don't realize that students have many other (sometimes as many as 7) teachers assigning them just as much homework. Thus, while you may be only assigning 1-2 hours of homework, students still have 4-6+ hours of homework. Whether or not they actually do that, of course, is a different story.
Dallas ISD is now basically making homework... optional... here's a commentary... google it for more http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...DN-floyd_17met.ART.State.Bulldog.4d82ff3.html DISD's new grading policy: Dude, where's my education? 12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 17, 2008 'Dude, you know what would be really cool? It would be so completely awesome if you didn't do some lame, like, world history report and you could just tell the teacher, 'Chill, I'll get to it later,' and they, like, couldn't do anything to you!" "That would be so excellent! You know what else would be, like, completely off the hook? If you got something like a 12 on your language arts homework." "The rule says you can't get less than a 50, dog. Misty told me they changed the rules last year so that's the worst grade in the whole DISD." "Who made that rule?" "The principal, I guess. I dunno, maybe it was the may-or." "You did get a 50 on your language arts homework. You left it in my car." "Whatev. Anyway, what would be real awesome would be when you got a 50, they weren't allowed to count it in your grade! Those teachers would be so totally cheesed!" "That would be so completely cool. Also it would be cool if, like, those clueless teachers ... " "Except not Mrs. Schneider, she's hot ..." "OK, not Mrs. Schneider. But those other stupid teachers had to let you take a test again until you, like, passed it. Hey, quit hogging the bong!" "Shut up. What if, like, when you didn't read that guy's book – that Steinbeck dude ..." "Chuck read it. He said it was good." "Well, if you want to read books and do homework all the time like Mister Lame Pathetic Chuck, go ahead. Gimme a light." "Listen, here's what else would be seriously, really, awesomely cool: If they couldn't give you a zero for anything. It would be completely not al-lowed! I could be, like, 'Look at me! I didn't do any homework for, like, a very long time ... " "Like, from Halloween to Christmas!" "Yeah, that long, and they couldn't give me a zero! So we could go, like, to some big college without doing any homework!" "A party college!" "Most def! Everybody would have really good grades so you could go to any college you wanted. Someplace in Los Angeles, like Princeton." "That would be so cool! We could party at Princeton with movie stars' kids – they have the best weed." "Yeah, and when you go to a famous college, you can be, like, a bank president or a judge or some rich guy. And if they can't ever give you bad grades, you can go to any college you want!" "Awesome! I could be a po-litical dude like ... a senator." "A Texas senator or an American senator?" "They're the same thing, fool. Anyway, I could be one." "That would be so completely amazing! You could be on TV!" "Or I could be like that sci-ence guy on TV. You know, he does experiments and stuff. And he's really famous! I saw him on a T-shirt." "What did you get on your science report?" "A 50. Mr. Farber said I cop-ied it off Wikipedia." "You should have written it in your own writing instead of giving him a printout." "So what? Do you know one single person in the world who cares about viruses and bacter-ia? Like that's ever going to have anything to do with real life!" "It would be so cool if all the stuff you don't need to know anyway – science and history ..." "And government! Govern-ment sucks!" " ... If none of that stuff counted on your final grades. So the stuff nobody cares about didn't count." "God, that would be so totally awesome! Hey, let's order a pizza." "You know what would be cool, dude? If pizza was free."
Well, there's a winning attitude right there if I ever saw one. Whoop-dee-doo, you're going to do well in life, sir. Quoted for PRINT. I don't think there is TRULY a black-and-white line for "little" to "a lot of" homework. Some teachers DO pile it on. Should it be totally removed? No. Do kids in elementary, middle and high school need it? I think YES. It's a way to practice what you just learned, and to see if you missed anything. Kids nowadays are lazy, and won't pay attention in class because they'll be thinking about their PS3's and how to get to the freakin' princess past Koopa when they get home. They don't practice enough at school, yet they want to be good students. In college, homework is an on-your-own process. You do your homework, and if you didn't understand a question on the homework list, you ask the professor. Of course they won't ask if you did it. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to practice and figure out if you understand it. I never did as much homework in math or English in college because I understood the material and when I saw the homework, I knew I understood it. I then got a higher-than-average test score. I'd also like to bring up the EDITOR's note on the beginning of this thread. Those people, like her, who complain that "I have so much to do as a parent already to be helping my kids to do homework" don't think about the consequences when they allow their kids to do so many EXTRA-CURRICULAR activities which prohibit them from practicing more with homework. How come you enrolled the kids in stuff you knew would take time away from them playing outside on a hula hoop or riding bikes? DUH. Don't enroll them in that crap! SHE DID THE HOMEWORK FOR HER KID, instead of instructing her kid on how to do it... "oh, my baby can't do engineering." BOO HOO.
I'm really disappointed that it appears there has been no "Seinfeld" reference in this thread (unless I missed it). So, here goes...: "What's the deal with homework? You're not working on your home!" Booooooooo!!! Welcome back to the first day of school, kiddos! Oh...does your tummy hurt? First day jitters? You have to go! Everyone experiences first day school jitters. No, you are not staying home. Get your ass out of bed and get to school! I'll ground you for the entire semester if you don't! Damn kid. Your homework for tonight is to read Chapter 1. And, prepare a little something to say about yourself in front of the class tomorrow...so we can get to know you better. LOL.
Because everyone in the world is the same as you, right? Which year should we give homework: freshman, as they're just arriving? Senior, as they're just about to leave? Sophomore or junior, to check their progress? Right. Because there's nothing in between the Tennessee School of Beauty and Harvard. The purpose of school is to educate. If you think that trying to get you to learn stuff is a "waste of time", then please, by all means, drop out so that we can focus on those who WANT to learn. Okay, let's analyze this sentence to point out the fallacies. 1. Most drop-outs don't go back to school. They end up on the dole. Are you really advocating dropping out as a means of succeeding? You know not everyone is the same as you, right? 2. Home-schooling may or may not get the job done. For some people, it's fantastic. For others, it's an effort in futility. You may be getting an adequate education, while your neighbor next door isn't learning jack. Using home-schooling as an argument against homework is a weak argument, at best. 3. Starting a year earlier than your classmates is not a measurement of the system that taught you. It just means you passed a test one year sooner. Again, is everyone the same as you? You're going to be great at UH-D! You realize college is a school, right?
In public and private schools in Houston, I never had 5 hours of homework (or near that) at any time. In public and private schools in Houston and Minnesota, my kids never had anywhere close to 5 hours of homework.
Me neither, although I did make it 5 or more hours a night sometimes due to putting a major project off until the last minute though.
Right. The teachers I have been associated with directly or indirectly, always provided a few days to turn in any assignments that may take more significant time to finish. If students choose to mismanage their time, they have no one to blame but themselves.
If you are in an AP program, 3-5 hours of homework is normal. Kids normally have 30-60 minutes for each class they take plus the 30 pages or so of reading for English. I remember taking more than an hour each morning just copying homework and reading cliff notes when I was in school.
The thing excessive homework teaches you is how to manage your work. Find the things you can't get by without doing and drop those; figure out the activities with the biggest payoffs and do those first. When you haven't read, BS your way through class pretending like you did. It'll be the same thing when you get a job so you may as well start learning the skill when you're little.
