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Who Invented Homework?

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Re: Who Invented Homework?

#11

Post by Morgawr »

LukeB_UK wrote: post #8

I only ever did the homework I was interested in and quite a few times it helped me understand it better.

As somebody who's never (or almost never) done homework, I have to say that I regret not doing it. I've always understood most of the material being taught and I've always seen homework as a waste of time (this is also a good excuse because I simply was lazy), however I have to admit that the very few times I've managed to sit down and do some homework, it really was useful (but I never admitted it).

Just practicing math problems, or typing out notes and essays, or even practicing a new language... That's all stuff that is useful. Sure you can go without, and probably schools assign way more than they should (I know it was the case for me), but homework itself at least is not a negative thing.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#12

Post by Morgawr »

KON_Air wrote: post #4

I thought geeks an nerds enjoyed homework for the fact it is mental exercise if nothing else. Bazinga generation nerds and geeks get out of my cyber-lawn!

>I thought geeks an nerds enjoyed homework for the fact it is mental exercise if nothing else.

Not really. Obviously there are different types of "geeks" and "nerds", but generally those type of people enjoy tinkering and playing around the stuff they care about. They certainly don't like being forced to perform menial and repetitive tasks (as often homework is) because somebody else told them to.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#13

Post by Bretlei »

My brother is studying to be a teacher (In the UK) and I asked him what his opinion was on homework.

He told me that it's a good way to get students to do some study/open up the text book when they wouldn't have without a punishment if they didn't.

This, in my opinion leads to more stress and more work on those trying hard to study AND do homework. Each subject wants at least 1 hour of your home time and a student can have anywhere from 2-8 subject to study a night.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#14

Post by clentaminator »

I'm sure the countless hours of homework in every subject that I was never interested in (of which that number was a majority) has helped me in my current career in not-any-of-those-subjects. /sarc

I feel like the most important things in school at that age are:

- Exposing people to a broad range of subjects that they might be interested in (and thus curious enough about such that they end up learning by themselves)

- Having teachers that can teach their subjects with enthusiasm, so that other people can see what the teacher finds exciting so that they too can (potentially) share in that enthusiasm and curiosity.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#16

Post by samsolomon »

clentaminator wrote: post #14

I'm sure the countless hours of homework in every subject that I was never interested in (of which that number was a majority) has helped me in my current career in not-any-of-those-subjects. /sarc I feel like the most important things in school at that age are: - Exposing people to a broad range of subjects that they might be interested in (and thus curious enough about such that they end up learning by themselves)…

Good teachers teach, great teachers inspire.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#17

Post by jib »

clentaminator wrote: post #14

I'm sure the countless hours of homework in every subject that I was never interested in (of which that number was a majority) has helped me in my current career in not-any-of-those-subjects. /sarc I feel like the most important things in school at that age are: - Exposing people to a broad range of subjects that they might be interested in (and thus curious enough about such that they end up learning by themselves)…

Homework can be a good bridge to university studies imo. I would certainly have benefited from learning self-disciplined study earlier on rather than coasting through the Swedish equivalent of high school and then swapping straight into university.

For under 12s or so I dont see a reason for homework. For 12-18 year olds I think gradually moving to a more self-driven study environment would be a good thing given that most people will end up going to university by now where that is the norm.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#18

Post by mac01021 »

elcct wrote: post #15

That trains you to work outside your agreed working hours and to make you feel bad if you don't do it. Essentially this is how you train slaves.

I've only ever had two kinds of jobs. In the first I was paid hourly and only ever worked the shift agreed upon. In the second I was paid a salary and there was never any agreement about what my normal working hours would be.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#19

Post by dingaling »

Bretlei wrote: post #13

My brother is studying to be a teacher (In the UK) and I asked him what his opinion was on homework. He told me that it's a good way to get students to do some study/open up the text book when they wouldn't have without a punishment if they didn't. This, in my opinion leads to more stress and more work on those trying hard to study AND do homework. Each subject wants at least 1 hour of your home time and a student ca…

I concur with your perspective. If students aren't opening their text-book outside school-hours then that indicates a lack of inspiration being imparted.

I used to sit and read my Ecce Romani! text-books at the weekends because my Latin teacher was such a wonderfully eccentric and inspiring person that I wanted to learn more for myself and to please her. I don't remember her giving us homework other than 'learn the conjugation of this verb'.

I didn't open anything else unless forced to by homework.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#20

Post by lordnacho »

My feelings now are that there really shouldn't be any mandatory homework.

- If you do it badly, you may as well not do it. Who else remembers flipping through "The Catcher in the Rye" so fast they don't actually remember any other character than Holden Caulfield?

- It's an easy way for teachers to not teach, yet gives them an alibi. "Look I'm teaching, they have loads of books to read. Can't help it if they don't."

- If you already understand it, you don't benefit from solving more quadratic equations. You benefit from doing whatever the next step is. You just burn time plugging things into (-b +- sqrt (b2-4ac)) / 2a. And you learn the wrong lesson, which is that you have to get it exactly right, rather than why that's the equation in the first place.

- You end up testing which kids have peaceful homes, and parents who care. Some kids just can't do any homework with the home environment they're given. School should be such that it doesn't matter if your parents are drunks or academics.

- Totally fine with doing like in University: here's a mega list of interesting things related to the subject, go and browse around, get a feel for what the landscape is like. Come back more interested.

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