Sunday, October 5, 2008
360 Degrees: Homework
Ever since we were little, our teachers have been giving us homework. And of course, being a kid, I have always hated it. Who wants to do things for school while they aren't even in the building? Nobody. But, it is proven that students learn things better when they apply the skills by themselves, rather than just hearing it from the teacher. Although this is a valid reason to give students homework, is it really necessary to give hours upon hours of work each night? The lack of sleep that many students suffer is not healthy and wears down their immune systems. In turn, this causes students to get sick and miss more school which will cause them to miss out on more learning and have more homework piled up. It's all one vicious cycle. Teachers mean well when the assign homework because they want their students to work to their full potential, but would assigning less cause us to learn more in the long run? I'm not sure what the outcome of that would be, but I think it would be an interesting theory to test. I think that parents would appreciate a lighter homework load as well because they enjoy spending time with their children too. They also have things they would like to ask their children to do, but don't because they are always swamped with homework. What is the proper amount of homework? We need to find somewhere in between swamping and not enough to have a lasting impact. Where is this happy medium? I don't know yet.
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3 comments:
Alli,
Thanks for the comment :P Just to answer your question about how homework can have negative effects, I'm talking about time constraints (in my case, specifically band stuff), sleep problems with some people, and grading issues (although grading issues mostly shouldn't be a part of it, since if your don't NEED to do the homework, that imply that if you did it, you would do well). Basically, stuff you've mentioned in your blog.
Onto the blog itself; I found it amusing that we did the same topic >_<. I agree with you on all points. Especially on the last part about having less homework. Ideally, if that were to happen, teachers would have to give out less repetitive work in order to touch bases with all things learned in class, and give assignments that require you to use what you learned in class. (In short, less work but more thinking.) In addition to that, perhaps giving students summaries of what was taught in class or examples of more complicated concepts via a website, a textbook, or a handout would help students understand what they were doing so that they wouldn't feel as swamped. Separate from that, what our math teacher does is a good idea in theory, but it can have negative consequences. Since you're learning new concepts, if you don't do your homework, you might not understand what the class has learned come test time. Responsible students would keep up with the class by doing homework when necessary, even if it doesn't count for a grade (I applaud you for that). Sadly, not everyone is responsible, so what our math teacher doesn't isn't always possible. Moreover, that method probably wouldn't work in a class that deals with more abstract concepts (English) or a class that requires you to learn outside of class (social studies). An ideal method of homework distribution to maximize learning and minimize work would be personalized homework, but as Ali said, that just isn't possible yet. (Wow, you actually read all that? Nice :D)
Alli,
I too agree 100% with your views on homework, as well as all the perspectives you addressed. Sometimes I wonder if teachers really have the right to give us so much homework. If there are legal limits on how long a school day can be, could there possibly be legal limits on how much homework teachers can assign. Because homework is basically just school away from school. The National Board of Education set a standard for ideal homework time. They say that you should receive your grade number times ten minutes of homework a night. In other words, if you're in 10th grade like we are, you should receive 100 (10*10) minutes of homework per night. I think both students and teachers can agree that our homework load FAR surpasses that suggestion.
Another interesting perspective you could have played around with is the negative side of homework for teachers. They have to either make the homework or find good homework resources and then they have to grade the homework. Both of these tasks take a lot of time for them. You would think that all those extra work hours for them would persuade them to assign less homework.
Lastly, it constantly bothers me that most jobs in the adult world have a definable beginning and ending every day. Except for jobs such as doctor or CEO or lawyer or some job with very high responsibility and fluctuation, many jobs are simply 9 to 5. For example, my mom leaves for work at 8 am and comes home at 7 pm. That's a long day, but at least once she gets home, she almost never has to worry about work until the next day. Whereas students, or at least us Academy ones, worry about school whether we are in school or at home. That's WAY more than a 9 to 5 job entails.
Great post!
Daniel B.
Oh Alli, thank you for vocalizing this! :] Of course, just about every kid or teenager has the same views on homework. It is very true that some homework is necessary to help the learning process. For example, without math homework, I would be doing even worse in that class than I already am. However, I totally agree that a huge load of homework does quite a bit of bad. I know that when teachers dump the homework on, all it does is make me bitter towards a subject and less eager to learn it. Spending hours upon hours on something at home most definitely makes me less eager to put time and energy towards it at school. And, I know my mom hates the amount of homework I get. I feel sorry for her. With my sister at college and my dad working downstate during the week, I am the only one home to be with my mom. Then, by the time I get home from swimming, it is 6 o'clock. I have to eat a rushed dinner her and then immediately labor through my homework until 9:30 at which point I have to go to sleep because I need to get up for swimming again. This is another problem with all the homework- too many teachers have absolutely no tolerance for extracurricular activities, which is extremely frustrating. Anyway, thanks for the awesome blog!
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