Let's face it, homework is a drag. After a long day of fire drills, fund raising drives, political correctness lectures, personal anecdotes by teachers, threats,punishments, uninspired lectures, tedious waiting for things, stupid questions by other students, pointless discussions about the way things are organized, evasion of bullies and trying to fit in with your peers, a kid wants to be free. He wants to indulge his romantic soul. He wants to be with the friends who actually like him and don't try to humiliate him. What's wrong with that?
The way I look at it, the grammar school people had their shot at the kid for five or six hours. If they wasted that time with boring triviality then that's not the kid's fault. Six hours a day in school is plenty of time to impart a good education. Teachers who dropped the ball and failed to do that shouldn't expect kids to make up for that by taking responsibility for their own education at night. Homework is a bad teacher's crutch. As long as teachers have this crutch they have no incentive to improve their classroom technique.
Homework also undermines the family. After a hard day at the job parents want to come home and have fun with their kids. Who can do that when the specter of homework looms? Homework forces parents to become jailers. How can you bond with your kid if you feel every night has to be devoted to threatening them and making them feel guilty about homework. ? No wonder kids retreat into their rooms every night as soon as they're old enough to know the score..
I know what you're thinking, that we live in an advanced society and that education, including homework, fuels that advancement. Well, I guess if I really thought the system produced those kind of results I'd buy into it regardless of the drawbacks. But I don't think the results are so impressive. We waste people and we waste time. Ask yourself this: why does it take 12 years to teach a kid the 3 R's plus a smattering of science and social science? Remember that the first 2 R's (reading and writing) are addressed to a kid who's already a fluent speaker of the language! Why does it take 12 long. long years to do that? You should be a doctor after 12 years of education!
I want to see everybody who wants it get a good, basic classical education. Let's confine homework to the subjects that absolutely require it and improve what's happening in the classroom during the day.!
Amen, Uncle Eddie!
ReplyDeleteDamn Eddie! You hung with a pretty tough looking crowd. Is that you in the center?
ReplyDeleteHow come we never had homework in Sex Education class?
ReplyDeleteSee ya
Steve
Steve,
ReplyDeleteOur Sex Ed clas was taught by a nun! Talk about the blind leading the blind!
I totally agree with you, Ed. Even though in my country the main problem still is being sure kids actually go to school, I think the best thing I got out of school is that I had a lot of time to draw. The classes were so boring that the only way I could stand them was by drawing all morning. Most of the time I didn't get caught. If you ask me the big problem with school is that it can't make you like the subjects it proposes to teach. How can anyone learn something they don't like?
ReplyDeleteEducation needs seduction!
Evan, s.g.a., Spizz: 'Very sorry that I inadvertantly deleted your comments!
ReplyDeleteEddie
Well, can't homework be a time for bonding with your kids too? Life's not all about funfunfun and TV. Just being around them, if you're not actively helping, is good too.
ReplyDeleteMaking it clear that you, the adult, think it's stinking drag isn't going to be a plus for the kids...or is it that it spoils the fun time YOU want with them--no that they want with you? ; )
How much playing do kids older than 6 or 7 do with mom & dad anyway, on weeknights or even weekends? I seem to remember wanting to hang with my peers, not my parents. No offense, dad.
I hated homework, too...but the fact is that schools are up against an outrageously competitive university system that their students are going to have to apply to, assuming they DO apply. If they want to go to beauty college or bum around, screw homework--that'll be fine.
Didn't your kids go to private schools? Was their curriculum pretty good, overall? I have no point of reference for public grade school today; mine was one of the top-performing ones in all of L.A.--and I thought it was only so-so(all my education I got from home, reading, basically; the curriculum was dumbed-down even then, with 100% english speakers. If you read ONE grade level above "the norm", you were "gifted"! ).
I used to gripe about school and homework, and my parents told me, "You think school and homework is bad?? Just wait until you go out into the REAL WORLD and have to work at a JOB!!! Then you'll wish you were back in school".
ReplyDeleteWell, now that I'm done with school, and I live in the "real world", I'm glad. I'd much rather go to a job (and even pay taxes) rather than go to school and do homework every day.
Don't let parents lie to you about how terrible the "real world" is...It's much better than going to school and doing homework!
I worked in the schools as an aide and occasional "temporary teacher". There are so many bad teachers out there I don't understand how they get to keep their jobs. Even when I was a young pupil, I would have some teachers assign lots of homework, but they would barely teach anything while in the classroom! And when I would ask them for help, I actually had a couple of them say that they didn't want to and that I should already know the material. Well they sure didn't try to teach it to me!
ReplyDeleteHomework *is* a laziness crutch and more energy should be put back into giving the kids proper, thorough lessons while they are AT school rather than having them try to figure everything out at home.
Uncle Eddie, you need your own Wikipedia article.
ReplyDeleteSome doctors practicing at Kaiser HAVE learned to be doctors with only twelve years of schooling.
ReplyDeleteWhy the repeated use of the "[BLANK] Sucks!" declaration? That doesn't sound at all like your usual style of expression.
ReplyDeleteWhat did they DO to you over at Kaiser?
School bored the hell out of me. By the end of high school, I couldn't care anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with homework was that it cut into the time I spent on other things. All of these 'other things' are what I use now to make a living. My parents thought that I was a distracted kid, but they realize now that I was just preparing my own future... All those other kids who did their homework all the time are now in university taking a BA. Everyone knows that a BA is just for folks who don't know what they really want to do.
It's like those words that Paul Simon once sung: "... and all that crap I learned in high school."
I hated math class. There's only one way to do math, and that's to practice it! But if you ask any math teacher HOW this math can be applied to the world around us, they can't answer you. Sure, maybe math could help me if I was going to get a PhD in astrophysics, but I'm not. I make cartoons, and I get paid for it while all of the other astro-students are racking up huge student loans and failing all of their classes. (nothing against astro-students, though. My friend is actually one, and he's doing pretty well).
English class I hated too. They would force Shakespeare on you, but they wouldn't explore the text. They asked you stupid questions about the basic storyline, and then made you look up definitions of words that he made up. Never would they teach you about the human emotions and interactions that went on. There are depths of social and emotional struggle within his pages -- as well as amazing syntaxes and puns and poetic rhymes that just aren't presented to students in a basic english class (even the advanced english classes at my high school were taught out of a small, unimaginative booklet). Back to the point of Shakespeare making up his own words: Why teach him and preach him if not to inspire the students? English teachers never let the students write things creatively. I used to get my kicks by satirizing 'proper writing' pieces. My final english teacher didn't 'get it'... she just thought I was trying to be fancy. 'You're being too wordy,' she said to me... I liked her as a teacher, though she thought I was a slacker.
Another thing that ticks me off about the english language in general is that the rules dictate how we speak it and write it, rather than our manners dictating to the rules. How is our language supposed to change and evolve if it's stuck two centuries back?
My list can go on and on... such as how awful it is to read about things we should be learning hands-on. Industrial Arts classes are the only REAL classes in school. That and free-period (because then you can learn on your own, or socialize -- both very important things).
Grade school sort of ruined me for a while. It brainwashed me into thinking that I HAD to go to school, and that I HAD to do what work they presented me, or I would never make it anywhere in life.
How can school work if the system has been altered so many times? Scrap it all, and start over!
Everything I use today was learned from being alive, and exploring what interested me.
Conclusion: Bad Homework is the by-product of bad educational practices... which Eddie had already stated in his post.
I want to apologize to any teachers I've offended. I know you guys work hard, and I know kids lack direction. I also know that kids are a handful, and so your jobs are harder than they should be. All of this just came out of MY experiences as a student in grade school. For me, it just didn't work.
MORE RECESS!
ReplyDeletewow good rant...
ReplyDeletealthough I never did my homework and I still somehow passed all my classes. Go fig! :p
I remember always doing homework in class- and there were always bullies keeping me from finishing it all. Putting tacks in my chair. throwing gum in my hair, spreading rumors.............art school is much better thank heavens!!!!
ReplyDeleteI was a 'straight-A' student, a student that got to be in all the 'gifted' classes, an honor student. Of course, homework still sucked, and I always did JUST enough to get by. Classmates and faculty alike always viewed me as one of the top students academically, but inside, I was pure slacker like anyone else! School was boring, and I'm glad it's in the past.
ReplyDelete12 years of schooling and some of these kids cant even sprell correctly and have the worstest grammer.. for shame
ReplyDelete>>Mitch K. said:
ReplyDeleteIt's like those words that Paul Simon once sung: "... and all that crap I learned in high school."<<
Let's not forget the *next* verse:
When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder
I can think at all
One of the best lines he's ever written. (And the song is about being an artist--a photographer--of course.)
Then there's
I don't wanna work
I just want to
bang on dee drum all day...
We're ARTISTS, Goddammit. We're different. We don't learn by rote. We create things, things that weren't there before. We don't "memorize". We don't need to.
At my old advertising job, the beancounters used to give us such a hard time, constantly breathing down our necks about their precious "budgets"--aka profits--completely ignorant of the work we put into everything. ("Wow, what a FUN JOB you all have, drawing pictures all day!")
One morning we were being harangued as usual for wanting the equivalent of a new pencil, like Stimpy did for his cartoon, and after sitting through another diatribe, one of my co-workers interrupted the greedy, soulless salesman--er, I mean, "account manager", and said, "No, no--WE'RE RIGHT. We MAKE all of the crap that you sell. Can YOU do that? No, you can't. You'd be nowhere without artists. So shut the fuck up and let us get back to work."
That was cool.
I, personally, don't remember having any significant amount of homework until the sixth grade. This was the beginning of the "We have to get you ready for Junior High / High School / College (but not 'real life!')" mentality.
ReplyDeleteI see these li'l pee-wees in grade school schlepping humungous backpacks around and wonder. Back in my grade-school days (wheeze!) we had desks with flip-tops that would hold all our worldy possessions. Then, in Jr. & Sr. High there were these things called "lockers" in which we could store our books, etc.
WHY MUST THESE KIDS LEAD A NOMADIC EXISTANCE WHEREIN THEY HAVE TO CART EVERYTHING TO-AND-FROM SCHOOL EVERY DAY?
My guess is that they finally ARE preparing our kids for "real life" beyond school. That is, they will all be homeless and carting their belongings around with them from shelter to shelter.
Hi Uncle Eddie,
ReplyDeleteI've been on both sides of the desk when it comes to school. I agree with you about homework to a point. If the homework assignment is "lame" (for a lack of a better term), like having the student answer the questions in the back of the chapter, then I agree with you. However, some assignments teach the students skills that will prepare them for the real world (God, I hate that phrase, but I can't really think of anything else right now!). Let me give you some examples:
- Math and computer programming assignments require repetition in order for the student to be able to understand how to use it. If the student is preparing for a career in engineering or programming, the student needs to be very comfortable with the concepts and the application.
- Writing assignments (ex: essays) are supposed to improve a student's writing ability. At university and in the workplace, written communication is an essential skill. In some fields, getting published in journals is a must!
- Preparation for oral presentations is an important assignment. In many fields, people are required to do prepared presentations to their colleagues or clients.
Sorry my post is so long, but I had to defend the reason behind homework. I still love ya, Eddie.
-- J
Jennifer: I heartily agree with everything you said. Homework, even lots of homework, is essential in some subjects and where it can't be helped I say lay it on! What I'm against is unnecessary homework.
ReplyDeleteI wondered how you'd react to that piece because I knew from looking at your blog that you're a conscientious teacher. Believe me, if there were more teachers like you I wouldn't feel the need to rant about this.
Everybody: I just re-read all the letters on this page. I have to say all over again how impressed I am with the people who visit here. It's fun posting for an audience with taste and intelligence!
ReplyDeleteEddie
The most important thing I learned in school was how to bull s!*t and talk myself out of trouble for not doing my homework. Which in todays society has been rather useful, but all in all I think it's sad. I'm in total agreement, homework should be minimal and teachers should have to take some sort of social competense license to teach.
ReplyDeleteTesting shows that our kids are pretty much retarded when compared to those in the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI never understood why until I went to college, the money teachers make is so poor that the people going for degrees in education are pretty much the least ambitious and intelligent students at any University.
If they paid teachers a decent amount of money, the quality of people going into education would improve dramaticaly.
Toren: I wrote the name of the book down. Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteeddie
my school expect me to do an hour per night for every subject i do at school that day. this totals about FIVE HOURS of homework per week night. I'd like to tell em' their dreamin but they reckon hw 'helps reiterate what you learn in class'. what a load! homework sucks. why do people bother?
ReplyDeletei think kids have enough homework but we need less projects
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky. I have to do 15 hours per week, and I'm only freshman. 10 hours of physical activities and one hour in each subject. And the thing is, I don't learn a single thing from homework.
ReplyDeleteReading this article and all the comments on here has actually made me feel a lot better to discover that i'm not in a minority on this whole homework thing. one problem i think is significant is that some teachers have the mindset that school is the only thing kids should be doing. gimme a break. I'm involved in band, other music programs, volunteering, and cross country (practice 6 days a week!). I have so much other stuff to do during the week that sometimes i simply DON'T HAVE TIME. These things that i would rather be doing are pushed back in priority because i have to do homework for a class i'm not all that interested in. Ugh. i mean, i understand why these some of these classes need to be taken. just not why the heck the homework has to be so excessive. math homework, essays, reading, and grammar application are really all i can think of that's truly necessary. then if other classes of interest to the STUDENT were taken in addition, the person could expand their knowledge in a more diverse way.
ReplyDeleteif you teach everybody the same darn classes with little leeway for things they're truly interested in, those areas of interest in their mind remain unexplored until several years later in college. the sooner you remove those boundaries, the more diverse the knowledge of the students becomes. and because those topics would be of interest to the student, they'd have more enthusiasm to deeply research it, thus expanding their knowledge more, leading to overall progress...
I'm in seventh grade and i have to at least an hour of homework for each subject every night and more when i get long projects. like last week i was up till 2 in the morning fishing a paper isn't that whats supposed to happen in collage not SEVENTH GRADE!!
ReplyDeleteim up until at least 11 everyday doing hw. what really pisses me off is that other kids in my grade have fuking coloring hw. COLORING HOMOWORK. godamnit, that's kindergardner's work! and what's sad is that i actually saw the hw they had to do. well, i do deserve real hw for being in 2 honors clases. but when those coloring kids enter the real world, they will be USELESSSSSSSSS. :)
ReplyDeletefuck homework i know a guy that killed himself from the stress, he lost his social life and being outside
ReplyDelete