New Movement to Abolish Homework - Page 5

mtf612 · 10-11-2006, 12:10 AM

hate homework...where do i sign a petition ? lol

kchen · 10-11-2006, 12:48 AM

My friend is in Lyons' World History class, actually. She says that there isn't any homework, but they cover a lot of things in class. They don't waste any of their time, so the intense classwork makes up the stuff that would've been done at home. Basically, you just need some major focus for one class period. And personally, I wouldn't mind that.

mtf612 · 10-11-2006, 12:59 AM

kchen

If i was in that class id love it. School should teach ,e more and i shouldnt be bothored by what sometimes winds up being hours of homework. Im in 7 classes, each 55 minutes long. 2 of those are easy and dont generate hw often (theater and pe). But with algebrea 2 spitting out over 30 minutes of hw a night, english having long term projects only and no hw (but a new prject assigned everyday almsot) , biology being some random homework usually short, followed by the ever popular spanish hw taking me a half hours and than of course history, usually on the low end of hw. I than have two clubs that im president of, a compute repair company im owner and cheif technician of, and PSAT study ! My hair is falling out (literally) and im 15. I HATE HW ! I would have much better grades without homework.

bachlover · 10-11-2006, 01:23 AM

Busywork should be completely abolished. Assignments which require creative and analytical thinking should be promoted. Alas, there is often far too little of the latter and far too much of the former.

Ranks · 10-11-2006, 01:34 AM

Homework is just a way for bad teachers to force students to make up for their own failings. In my APUSH last year there was no homework, no outlines, nothing but a bunch of terms to memorize for 5 point quizzes once a week. The teacher however knew how to lecture. I passed with a 5 and I never looked past chapter 1 in the textbook.

mtf612 · 10-11-2006, 01:44 AM

bachlover

Right there with you budy. Busy work shouldnt be required.

zpmqxonw · 10-11-2006, 02:11 AM

Just scanned this thread quickly, but I'm with the whole "non-homework" crowd. When homework was required, I'd do it anyway to get the grade, but 90% of it was probably bs'ed.

Now, all my homework is optional! I love it. I can individualize my "homework" to fit my strengths and weaknesses. If I understand a concept completely, I'll skip the last few problems and do extra problems for a concept I don't understand as throughly. I think I actually probably spend more time on homework now, just because the material is more challenging, but it's nowhere as tedious as it used to be. All of my classes are pretty much lecture-based with the occasional pop quiz or exam thrown in. The lectures are a lot more fascinating when you're learning the actual theories, instead of the answer to 49B from last night's homework

Drosselmeier · 10-11-2006, 08:18 AM

Quote:

LoL. Another idiotic plan by leftist post-modernists.

Maybe we shoudl abolish testing too because it interferes with a child's self-esteem.

C'mon friend. I think this teacher is really trying to deal with a problem that a lot of kids experience today. I am not a "leftist post-modernist" (though maybe I am a bit left of center), and I definitely agree with this guy - SOMEWHAT.

It's not an either/or decision for me to assign homework. The problem I find in many schools is that they begin assigning homework too soon in children's lives - and with too much intensity. You take a third grader for whom the world is just starting to gain color and texture, and then start dumping homework on the kid, it sends a strong message that learning is work, hard, boring, ugly work that one should avoid if possible.

Homework should be assigned, but gently, and it initially needs to encourage fascination and teach exploration. I don't think it is wise to start teaching very young kids a lot of facts that are gonna be forgotten in a week. Teach young kids that learning stuff is thrilling and you'll create life long scholars.

mr_chipset · 10-11-2006, 09:00 AM

Alright, I think I need to break-down my opinion to several areas since methods of study are different and I need to procrastinate to do actually my homework.

Math.
You don't need to do hundred more problems if you're sure you can test out with 100%. In AP Calc, you sometimes ask for homework because you exhaust all problems and answers in book. Teacher only checks if he sees work (not answers or even numbers) and he puts full credit, but if you don't have it and have 100% on tests HW doesn't count. It's basically an extra-credit.

My last year's H. Geom class, I barely failed (C with >90% test average) because we had to do homework half of which didn't relate to geometry and was from third grade -- yet we had to show work.
I came to school to learn geometry, not write pages on how to add fractions. Teacher was hated by everyone and soon fired.

History, such as APUSH.
Homework should be given and preferrably in good amounts since there is no way you can get all answers correctly on tests (at least not with my teacher) but you like to have a B

Also, 4&5 on AP test should result in A (as in our teacher's class!).
Basically, studying takes such load of time that homework doesn't even take 10% of that time. In class, methods of studying should be taught and lectures given.

Science.
Homework has to be given as an extra-credit.

So, to conclude, I'd like to see homework as an extra-credit so you either get A for excellent knowledge or appropriate knowledge and work.

Kaatu Bara Nikto · 10-11-2006, 12:50 PM

I believe in homework...but in reasonable amounts, and not "ten minutes a day" for first graders or anything like that - that until kids are reading books, and writing essays/papers homework should be very limited.

In high school, there should be less homework, but not eliminated. For one thing, teachers would base grades almost entirely on tests, which isn't always a good representation. For another, writing papers or reading in class is either hard to manage, pointless, or boring for those who work faster.

I think it's more about moderation than elimination.

esperame · 10-11-2006, 01:12 PM

i dont believe in homework. i think it should be optional after about the 9th grade. you can learn for yourself that it is helpful. if it is. but too many times its busy work. nevertheless if a student feels that it is a waste of time they shouldnt have to do it. no one will force them to do work later on in life so they need to learn how to distinguish between necesity and busy work. if they fail after they havent done the work than maybe they should be forced to but i think in an ideal world they would do it on their own after learning their lessson. that being said this isnt an ideal world and there are tons of people who wouldnt be in school if it werent the law...those people tend to be in the lower level classes...so maybe abolish it for upper level? there's no real way to justify that without cries of preferential treatment...so maybe for people who have an A test average? I dont know those are just a few proposed ideas either way I dont believe in homework.

Venkat89 · 10-11-2006, 01:29 PM

I take homework as optional (thought my teachers do not). Even if I have 5 pages of math problems (same idea with physcis) to do, I will do a few of varying difficulty. If I understand the stuff, I will skip the easiest problems. If I do not understand it at all, I will do all the work. For history (same idea with biology), I just read the book the night before the test and skim over my notes. It has gotten me As in 2 AP histroy classes and a 4 and 5 . English it is understandable to have reading assignments every night and minor essays once a week (much more frequently for AP) and major essays once every few weeks. Spanish was my busy work class because I was in regular. Homework only made up 10% of my grade so when I did not complete 5 pages of busy work each week, I was not hurt that much in my grade.

On the other hand, I have two brothers in elementary school where homework is different. The ideas for math homework are the same, and for english they have to read a few books every month, not too bad. But then spelling homework where they have a weeks worht of busy work to learn how to spell 10 words and their definitions. Also, the random projects where the student will make a poster or art project instead of just writing a small essay to answer a question are just too much work to be expected of a 7 year old. It is good to have math homework, and to encourage reading and spelling, but hours upon hours of busy work for young kids is insane. It makes kids abhor school and has made smart students shun school work because to them it seems like unnecessary busy work.

If you have that much homework that you are awake past midnight it is one of three problems
1. Your teachers really do assign too much work
2. You dont manage your time well between school, ECs, and homework
3. You are in too many AP classes and need to tone it down a little

whatismouse · 10-11-2006, 04:11 PM

im all for no homework or severely limited homework. essays and reading should be done at home, but save anything in the textbook for school. we are at school 40 hours a week anyways, add 20 to that if you do sports. it is obviously quite possible to succeed without that homework if the teach is any good. if supplementary work is necessary, you should learn how to find it on your own, and in the methods that work best for you.

Aspen D · 10-11-2006, 04:59 PM

we do not get grades for our hw and i agree with that

Not to be randomly EH
but....why do you think America's standards of education are so LOW? We're all becoming so lazy. All of the Yay hw grade ppl have been brainwashed. Seriously...you may not get that 4.0 without your hw grades causing inflation but when college comes...you'll kick some butt

whatismouse · 10-11-2006, 05:08 PM

homework causes laziness by destroying our passion for learning.