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Who Invented Homework?

geekandnerd.org

31–40 of 124 posts

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#31
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!

When I was failing classes for not doing homework, I was enjoying the company of other nerds from all over the world on IRC and learning to code by writing (awful) mIRC scripts instead. Pretty sure there's room for some middle ground in there. ;)

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#32

Math isn't the only class that gives homework. Should Spanish class-time be spent memorizing vocabulary and conjugations, or practicing communicating in the language? Should History class-time be spent reading from the book so you know what happened, or discussing those topics and their implications? Should English class-time be spent doing silent reading, or talking about the books/authors/time periods that you read…

Given infinite time, the latter.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#33
post #30

As an unschooler who went to school and did "homework" or any kind of "schoolwork" for the first time when I was 12, it took me about a month to catch up to my peers in terms of abilities to do the coursework, and about a year to catch up to my peers in resentment and disengagement. Except I got to spend seven years hanging out with my brothers doing fun stuff and my friends had to spend it training to be slaves. The…

"It is not productive, does not produce smarter or more learned people."

I would like to disagree, but I don't have anything to back up my claim that mass schooling makes people smarter or more learned.

Like you, I just have anecdotes.

But one thing is for sure. I would never have gotten to where I am today. If I hadn't learned english at school. Having lived in two countries, neither of which had english as a native language, I would unlikely have learned english unless it had been taught at school

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#34
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Homework doesn't really teach self-discipline, because it is an external motivation. If anything, I think it can work against that goal, because once people finish their mandatory work, they have no energy or enthusiasm left to learn for their own sake. Perhaps I'm projecting, but mostly homework taught me how to do the minimum possible so I could get back to playing video games.

All of highschool was just one big exercise in me doing the bare minimum in whatever subject bored me so I could get back to programming. I knew what I wanted to do and I'm sorry Shakespeare, but you and I both know Hamlet is of no relevance. My usual formula for a given class was skim the current chapter, maybe do a practice problem or two, then spend the actual class on my laptop doing something of value to me.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#35
post #30

As an unschooler who went to school and did "homework" or any kind of "schoolwork" for the first time when I was 12, it took me about a month to catch up to my peers in terms of abilities to do the coursework, and about a year to catch up to my peers in resentment and disengagement. Except I got to spend seven years hanging out with my brothers doing fun stuff and my friends had to spend it training to be slaves. The…

"It is not productive, does not produce smarter or more learned people." I would like to disagree, but I don't have anything to back up my claim that mass schooling makes people smarter or more learned. Like you, I just have anecdotes. But one thing is for sure. I would never have gotten to where I am today. If I hadn't learned english at school. Having lived in two countries, neither of which had english as a native…

Also, from one time when I was a temp at a primary school for 2 weeks. I saw a kid who had come to Norway at the age of 10 or so, and now one year later he could still not add double digit numbers. Worse yet, he didn't see how a problem could be solved by adding two numbers. So problems along the lines of "I have two apples, you give me three, how many do I have now?" where beyond his ability to solve without assistance.

He did however manage to learn quite good Norwegian in that year.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#36
If I work somewhere and it's 5pm, I'm off unless there is some important deadline the next day that can't be moved. And if I work extra hours, I'll get something extra (usually money but it might also be holidays or something).

In school, teachers have the power to invade our private lives, even our set holidays(!) with pointless tasks. Apparently 40 hours a week is not enough to spend on school, we also need to give up part of every evening, part of most holidays and part of many weekends.

I really hate that system. It's completely unfair, especially if you're in school just to get that shitty piece of paper in the end. I can code already, I taught myself perfectly well, but the prerequisites for HR usually include a diploma, and your salary and career opportunities is often dependent on which diploma you have. I'm just sitting it out and hate almost every assignment we get. It's outdated and moreover, boring stuff that nobody would ever want to use in practice.

Re: Who Invented Homework?

#39
post #30

As an unschooler who went to school and did "homework" or any kind of "schoolwork" for the first time when I was 12, it took me about a month to catch up to my peers in terms of abilities to do the coursework, and about a year to catch up to my peers in resentment and disengagement. Except I got to spend seven years hanging out with my brothers doing fun stuff and my friends had to spend it training to be slaves. The…

Thanks to the economic state of the US, most families can't afford the time to dedicate to their children to properly educate them in the breadth of subjects that schools (attempt to) cover. And this assumes that the parents are either educated or capable/willing to source proper materials to provide information (or the tools to access information) for their children.
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