The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Penny Arcade - Comic - Dante’s Etcetera
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Dante’s Etcetera
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
Unknown User on
+5
Posts
FFRK: 9rRG
As they get older, they get occasional assigned academic homework, but it's not a regular, daily thing. And it's often designed with student choice on which thing they'd like to do. It's minimal (like maybe 20-40 minutes) and doesn't involve a bunch of busywork. And it's often designed with parental involvement in mind, in a way that doesn't just amount to you doing the homework for them.
Not really. I'm not smug (the aspect I'm going to have to assume you are applying to me), but just rather desperately relieved. And hoping to spread awareness. Most people know you could not eat meat (and eggs, etc.) It's kind of obvious. But not many people know about non-mainstream education methods. I know I had no idea about the homework thing before I looked into Montessori schools.
I also bring it up to show the real pointlessness of homework. If every education system did it, it would reinforce that it was really necessary. But others don't and it turns out they don't turn out illiterate, innumerate children.
(Also, it would be "Montessorians".)
When I take PTO from my work, my boss doesn't "assign" me a project to keep me busy on my vacation. Schools shouldn't assign work, either. Having too much work to do in what's supposed to be their leisure time is what makes kids hate school and resent learning.
This is especially true given the breadth of homework assigned. As many of us who are decades past our K-12 years know, there's a huge chunk of what was taught that is just not useful knowledge, mixed together with a huge chunk that is vital. I have never needed to know the precise date of the Battle of Hastings, but I very much have needed to be able to compare two products, one priced at per lb and one in per oz. Practicing your reading, writing and math skills is almost always going to pay off. But spending time committing bulk knowledge to memory which will probably not last is more dubious.
The national recommendations that so many mainstream schools follow is 10 minutes per grade level per night. So sixth graders are supposed to do an hour a day, and seniors two hours. A day.
And that's the story of how I stopped at Calc 2.
That comparison works in some ways, but if there is too much work to be done in the regular business hours, some employers will ask employees to put in extra hours. Depending on the workplace, it can even be a mandatory thing.
I'm probably old enough to be old school, but I don't have a real problem with classroom time being for lecture and instruction, while homework time is for practice with what was learned. If nothing else, it gives kids a taste of what will be expected of them if they further their education beyond high school. Perhaps some argument could be made that some grade levels don't truly need homework in addition to classroom time, but I can't imagine being able to get through college material in the classroom alone. At that point, it's pretty much expected that almost everything that you get graded on will be done outside the classroom.
I like Tofystedeth's mention of Calc 2. I've been taking night classes for computer science for several years now and when I was catching up on all the math I had to take in the beginning, I had Calc 1 and Calc 2. Man, I spent so much time doing calculus problems in my own time those two semesters. Thank goodness for the internet, which offered me alternative instructional videos when what I got in the classroom didn't quite click with me. I've managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA this whole time, but I don't think I would have done so without YouTube. lol
-Tycho Brahe
Then I tried to do the same thing in college. And I still aced the tests there...but flunked half my classes until I dropped out anyway because of mandatory attendance and homework still being a big factor in my grade in certain classes.
Thankfully for me homework was only 20%. So I still graduated with honors, for all that matters, at an 82% average thanks to extra credit on tests.
It was very much apropos to the conversation based on the comic.
Unlike jumping in to try to insult people.
Same for me. I think homework is awful but I wish I had learned better study habits rather than just go off memory or deductive reasoning to ace my tests. Some kind of ongoing independent study where each student picked topics they had actual interest in and then learned self reliant study techniques might have worked.
Also my geometry teacher made me a deal - be willing to tutor my classmates instead of homework. That seemed to work out beautifully for all involved