Homework

[Rusty]

This topic has been on my mind for many years now. I can easily relate to it as I personally get loads of homework as I am in Year 10 at the moment and still have 2 more years left of schooling. I go to a fairly demanding school, academic wise. I receive homework every single week night without fail. And nights that I don't get any, my school expects me to study and to revise old notes. But why should be do homework despite going to school for many hours each day. I start at 8:35 and finish at 3:30 Monday to Friday, except Thursdays where I finish early at 2:20. But why should I even bother coming home if I am just going to do more work than what I will do at school?

I find it hard to stay focused at school with many things distracting me, including the amount of noise in each classroom. So I usually get a few hours of homework a night, including studying for upcoming tests and working on assignments that are usually due at an ridiculously early date. I don't learn anything new from homework, so what purpose does it really serve? In my opinion, homework is part of the reason why many kids are overweight nowadays. A majority of my homework is done on the computer which means that I rarely get time to go outside and exercise daily. I usually get weekend homework aswell which I find ridiculous as I believe weekends should be used for free time only. Also, it has been proven that homework causes stress to a large percentage of school students. Coming home after school shouldn't be stressful, it should be relaxing.

I simply don't have time for a part time job because of homework, especially on weekdays. My school may be fairly demanding, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who receives homework on a daily basis. So apart from studying for upcoming tests, should homework be banned in all schools? Should students receive more free time after school hours to use that time usefully like exercising and working part time?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

If you spend 8 hours a day in school then you shouldn't have to do any work when you're at home. If the teachers can't fit it all in then they should either make the days longer or give the kids less holidays.

On the rare occasions I did homework I came to the conclusion that I was teaching myself. The lessons ammounted to the teacher reading to us, or asking us to read and hardly ever asking the students input. It should be the other way round. A little reading at home, you come in and the teachers ask you questions. You don't get it, they explain how to. A line of red writing in your book isn't going to help you as much as somebody talking through it with you.

Kids grow up too soon now anyway. Instead of being inside doing work for subjects that won't help them job wise, they should be playing with friends.

 

[Tastycles]

I don't think you can blame homework for obesity, because there's plenty of fat kids who don't do homework and who just don't exercise because they don't want to. However, I do see your point. I used to live at school, so we got forced to do homework, but the thing is, is that there are always people who don't have anything to do, and who disrupt everyone else, so you end up having to do it in Chapel (yes, the daily chapel service I had to go to), or in the lesson itself.

I think people do get too much homework and all it does is alienate the people who don't do well at school, because there's no-one there to help them if it is something new, and if it is just recapping, then you alienate thekids at the top of the class, because they get bored and disillusioned.

The other problem is, with stuff like GCSE coursework, or whatever the equivalent is where you are from, that people from certain households will get their parents to do it, or someone else, so the whole thing is rendered pointless. I got paid to do someone's maths and a bit of someone else's coursework, and I think that says it all really. People's home lives are too unequal to have everyone doing homework. They should just add an extra hour to the schoolday to cover anything they think the cirriculumwould miss out on.

 

[Tim]

I was thinking of making this topic as well.

Ok, I'm in Year 9, I get at least 1 1/2 hours per night. School is from 8:35 to 3:15 on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, we have sport training after school on Wednesday til 4:45 and Thursday goes til 4:20. It takes me about 30 minutes to get home as well. I jst don't get enough time to do my homework, as I need my rest time and I still see my friends on the weekends.

Homework is just work that we've basically already done in a different form or work that we didn't finish at school. It doesn't teach us anything new, there's no real point to it, i'm not going to forget something over night. The only thing I understand is holiday homework, because we may forget a few things over the holidays. But that doesn't mean I like it.

Apart from studying, I do think that homework should be banned in all schools. Studying is your choice, and if you don't study and you fuck up in a test, it's your own fault. But homework just cuts into our social time, and there is no real need that I can think of for homework. I want to relax after school, but when I get in the door, "Have you got any homework?" And it drives me mad sometimes especially when i've had a bad day and I just need to relax and chill out in my room, but I have to do homework as well.

 

[Slyfox696]

This topic has been on my mind for many years now. I can easily relate to it as I personally get loads of homework as I am in Year 10 at the moment and still have 2 more years left of schooling. I go to a fairly demanding school, academic wise. I receive homework every single week night without fail. And nights that I don't get any, my school expects me to study and to revise old notes. But why should be do homework despite going to school for many hours each day. I start at 8:35 and finish at 3:30 Monday to Friday, except Thursdays where I finish early at 2:20. But why should I even bother coming home if I am just going to do more work than what I will do at school?

Because school is not work.

School is a place of education, where you go to learn about the various things you need in life. As a college professor of mine once said "Education is the socialization of the next generation". The school is giving you the necessary information to be successful in life.

Homework is where you take all that information, and commit it to memory and use it in real examples. If I'm teaching Algebra, for example, my lesson plan for that day might be to introduce variables. No student knows what an algebraic variable is before it is taught to them. So, the majority of the class time is the teacher explaining what a variable is, and how it is used, and giving a few examples to help students understand it. Homework, then, is where the student goes off and practices it on his own, to gain a semi-mastery level of the subject. And then you do it all again the next day.

It's the school's responsibility to teach you the information, but it is your job to learn it. There's a reason that the kids who do homework and study for tests make better grades than the ones who don't.

I find it hard to stay focused at school with many things distracting me, including the amount of noise in each classroom. So I usually get a few hours of homework a night, including studying for upcoming tests and working on assignments that are usually due at an ridiculously early date. I don't learn anything new from homework, so what purpose does it really serve?

As I said above, homework is practice for the student.

Let's say you are a baseball pitcher, and your coach just taught you have to throw a curveball. Is that one day of your coach showing you how to grip the baseball going to give you a great curveball? Of course not. It takes practice and repetition to learn how to throw a great curveball. Doing homework is the same thing. Practice and repetition to learn.

In my opinion, homework is part of the reason why many kids are overweight nowadays.

Nope. I can tell you for a fact, as a physical education and health professional, that this is not correct.

Homework these days is no greater than homework of 30 years ago. The difference is the type of food people eat, and all the niceties of the home. 30 years ago, meals were homecooked, and you didn't have fast food. 30 years ago, you probably didn't have air conditioning in your house, so you wanted to go outside and do things. You didn't have video games to play, so you went swimming or playing baseball.

That's why kids are overweight. It's the penalty for comfort.

Coming home after school shouldn't be stressful, it should be relaxing.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Which is why I make sure that all work being done in my class is done in the classroom. I DO give tests, but I give them a study guide 3 or 4 days before the test, giving them ample study time at their discretion.

Now, I know it's going to be said, "but you're a PE teacher, of course you don't give homework". Well, all I can say is that most PE teachers don't give tests either, but I do.

So apart from studying for upcoming tests, should homework be banned in all schools? Should students receive more free time after school hours to use that time usefully like exercising and working part time?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

If you want to ban homework from schools then you are going to have to make up the time with Saturday school. Going the same time as your regular school (let's say 8-3), all students would come in on Saturday to do all work assigned during the week. After 3 o'clock, all work would have to be turned in, and students would be free to leave.


What most students don't understand (meaning: students who don't have parents as teachers) is that homework isn't given because the teacher is mean. Because, for every ONE piece of paper of homework that you get, the teacher has to grade TWENTY pieces of homework. If I give homework to all of my classes, that's 120 homework papers I have to grade and then record in my gradebook. So, I assure you, that homework is not given just because the teachers feel like it. Because it's easier on students to do one homework assignment than it is for teachers to grade 120 homework assignments.

If you spend 8 hours a day in school then you shouldn't have to do any work when you're at home. If the teachers can't fit it all in then they should either make the days longer or give the kids less holidays.

It's not really about that.

The human mind can only take in so much information at one time in the working memory part of the brain. After a while, your working memory cannot hold everything in, and it begins to lose previously learned facts. That is why the teacher teaches the subject for a class, and then you go home and practice it. The teacher puts the information in the working memory part of the brain, and the homework helps commit the information to the long-term (permanent storage) memory part of the brain.

That's why you just CAN'T get it all in during the school day. The kids have to have time to practice it repeatedly, in order to fully learn and understand the material.

 

[jmt225]

Homework was easily the best thing about school, as far as grades were concerned. I got B's and C's simply because I got a lot of homework and I did it all. If school was based on nothing but test and assignments to complete in class, then I would've failed miserably. But since homework and "special projects" played such a huge role in one's grades, I was able to do okay in school.

Basically, my point is that homework is very simple. You have all the time in the world to get it done, and you get to do it in a comfort zone. At school, a lot of time you only have about thirty minutes to get something done if the teacher says you have to complete it by the end of class, and then you add on to all the distractions one is faced with during class, it was just a bitch to do work at school. Some broad you like sitting in the same room as you, you're not going to concentrate as hard as you can. If the pain in the ass teacher keeps his or her classroom too warm or too cool, you're not going to be able to fully concentrate. If there's a couple of class clowns, you're not going to concentrate. At home, you shouldn't have ANY of these problems and that's what makes homework so great.

 

[HBK-aholic]

According to my college, I should be doing 4 hours of extra practice at home per lesson I do per week. So that's history, psychology, literature, maths, I.T, General Studies and PTE. So that's 28 hours. I get out of my house for college at 7.50. I don't get home until 5. So that's 9 hours. 5 Days at college = 45 hours + 28 hours homework = 73 hours. There are only 168 hours in week. And I work at least 14. I'm not spending half my week working. I have a life outside of that with family things, as well as seeing friends, sleeping and eating.

I also spend a lot of time training for rugby as well as playing. The college want me to join there team. How the hell do they expect me to fit it in? That'd be an extra 6 hours training a week, as well as games. There isn't that many hours in a week!

The homework we got is also stupid. At college this is different, and the work is generally something worthwhile. But at High School there was no need. It was mind numbingley boring questions that I knew the answer to in a second. Teachers set homework just to say they had, because they were supposed to apparently.

At the moment, I have no problem doing extra work outside of college. Although no where near to the extent of 28 hours weekly. They need to make it realistic. And it needs to have a purpose. If I'm not going to learn anything extra by doing it what's the point?

Homework needs to be realistic and should mean something. I'm not doing work set by a teacher simply because she was told to so the school would get a good rating the next time inspectors came in.

 

[santinoistight44]

i think homwework is just stupid! we go to school for what, 8 hours a day and work most of the time, yet they expect us to go home and do even more work for every class every day! its just dumb! its like they dont think we have it all down so they give us more work to make sure we get it. if we pay attention in class, why wouldnt we get what theyre teaching us. its just stupid to me.?

 

[Slyfox696]

i think homwework is just stupid! we go to school for what, 8 hours a day and work most of the time, yet they expect us to go home and do even more work for every class every day! its just dumb! its like they dont think we have it all down so they give us more work to make sure we get it. if we pay attention in class, why wouldnt we get what theyre teaching us. its just stupid to me.?

Do you even read a thread before you post? I've already addressed everything you just said.

First of all, not all students can get down the information in just one class. It takes repeated practice in order to gain a semi-mastery of the material. And, it's the teachers job to make sure that all students are given the best possible chance to be successful in learning the information. Furthermore, in many cases, there are various exceptions to rules and various adaptations to the rules that it's necessary to explore the majority of them.

Homework is necessary for most classes, just so students are given the best possible chance to be successful.

 

[Murfish]

Do you even read a thread before you post? I've already addressed everything you just said.

First of all, not all students can get down the information in just one class. It takes repeated practice in order to gain a semi-mastery of the material. And, it's the teachers job to make sure that all students are given the best possible chance to be successful in learning the information. Furthermore, in many cases, there are various exceptions to rules and various adaptations to the rules that it's necessary to explore the majority of them.

Homework is necessary for most classes, just so students are given the best possible chance to be successful.

Whille it make take some kids extra time and work to get a handle on the subject, I don't believe that homework should be mandatory. The teacher should give out exercises that help in understanding the concepts, but it should be up to the kid to do it and on his own ass. I personally don't like homework because I have issues with sitting down and doing the work and what not, but I always know what we are doing and I always do well on tests. I would suggest that you make the extra practice available, but don't mandate it for the kids that already know what to do. In most cases it is merely a grade booster. In my experiance it has brought my grades down, which were originally much better when based solely on test scores, and elevated the grades of kids who didn't have their stuff together when they took the test. At the end of the day, a student should be held responsible for making sure he knows the concepts. Teachers put it out there and are willing to help you, but a student should be the only one in charge of learning the subject outside of school.

 

[justinsayne]

At the moment, I have no problem doing extra work outside of college. Although no where near to the extent of 28 hours weekly. They need to make it realistic. And it needs to have a purpose. If I'm not going to learn anything extra by doing it what's the point?

Homework needs to be realistic and should mean something. I'm not doing work set by a teacher simply because she was told to so the school would get a good rating the next time inspectors came in.

I'm pretty sure the point is to keep your mind sharp, it just seems like it's easy and you're not learning anything cause you've "practiced" and learned it, now you are just doing more of the same to keep your mind sharp so you don't forget the information, kinda like when you pratice Rugby, now I have no idea what you do at Rugby practice, but I imaigine you do drills and practice different plays and shit, you may know how to do the drills and different plays but you still practice them to keep you sharp

Never really thought of Homework as practice, but it really is a good analogy, and makes sense

 

[Slyfox696]

Whille it make take some kids extra time and work to get a handle on the subject, I don't believe that homework should be mandatory. The teacher should give out exercises that help in understanding the concepts, but it should be up to the kid to do it and on his own ass.

The problem with that is twofold.

1. Many kids are not mentally mature enough to understand the necessity of doing the homework. That's not being insulting, it's a scientific fact. It's important for those kids to know that stuff, and giving them the option of doing it or not is going to result in the "not".

2. Teachers jobs depend on student success. With the No Child Left Behind act (in America at least), if students don't do well on tests, then a school pays. And if a school pays, then a teacher pays.

And here's the fucked up part. It doesn't matter if a teacher does his/her job well. Even if the students do better one year after a previous year, it still may not meet ""Adequate Yearly Progress", and the school gets punished.

Here's a great example. Our school district last year improved in Communication Arts and Mathematics. Our Middle School improved by over 10% in both Math and Comm Arts. Our High School was OVER in Math and Comm Arts. Our school district as a whole met in both Math and Comm Arts. Our graduation rate was 94% and our attendance rate was 95%, far surpassing the standards. However, because students with an IEP didn't meet the level they were supposed to, our whole school district was considered to have failed.

Now, let's think about this. The district met, the schools met, we shattered graduation and attendance rates, but because 60 students with IEPs (out of 1200) didn't meet, our whole school district failed.

Now, you might ask "What is an IEP". An IEP is an "Individualized Education Plan". Basically, it is for those students with mental problems or learning disabilities. Now think about the absurdity of this. Because students who have medically documented mental trouble learning didn't meet on the same level as everyone else, our school district failed.

That's how stupid and ridiculous No Child Left Behind is.

And that's why it is so important for teachers to make sure that ALL students understand every last concept in class and to give all students the best chance for learning everything.

 

[Shocky]

What a shock, an absolute shock, that the younger posters on this forum, the ones still in school, are the ones complaining about homework.

School and homework, it's simple. So ridiculously simple. I wasn't a big fan of high school, but if all I had to do right now in life was worry about committing an hour a night to doing homework, life would be much simpler.

It's not hard, it's simple. Sly has pretty much nailed everything on the head. If you don't like doing homework, chances are you don't like doing school work period. It's simple. You pay attention, you commit stuff to memory, and you apply it in a real world, not institutional situation. You are learning things that you will need to learn for the rest of your life, not something that you need to know for 6 hours a day.

Social life takes a back seat to education. The problem with parents today is that they do not enforce that. My kids, they probably hate me. They get a half an hour of tv a day, and an hour of reading when they come in from school. Education is far more important then what the cool new game is, what the cool new song is, or what the cool new card game is. No one is asking so much of you that you have to dedicate oh so much time to do homework.

School is what, 6 hours a day, and maybe an hour at most for homework? That leaves 17 or so hours in a day, plenty of time. Try working for 8 hours a day, coming home and getting kids to do homework, then turning around and cooking dinner, doing laundry, doing bills, running errands, getting kids ready for bed, and then see how much free time you have at the end of the night. Homework is simple, enjoy it while you can.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I'm pretty sure the point is to keep your mind sharp, it just seems like it's easy and you're not learning anything cause you've "practiced" and learned it, now you are just doing more of the same to keep your mind sharp so you don't forget the information, kinda like when you pratice Rugby, now I have no idea what you do at Rugby practice, but I imaigine you do drills and practice different plays and shit, you may know how to do the drills and different plays but you still practice them to keep you sharp

Never really thought of Homework as practice, but it really is a good analogy, and makes sense

And the reasons you're pointing out are the reasons I don't mind homework when that's the purpose of it. But last year I had 4 of my teachers admit to us they were told to give us homework because it made the school look good. We also got told it was 'easy' and 'nothing we don't already know'. I don't want work like that. If I'm going to spend time outside of there working I want to be learning something from it. I'm not learning anything from something I know how to do perfectly already.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

I think it might be time for a teacher to come into this thread. NoFate to the rescue lol. Long post coming up.

Homework is a very tricky subject to tackle because there are so many little branches to take care of. There are just as many pros as there are cons, but what makes it such a difficult concept to rule out is that its completely dependent on each and every teacher as well as each and every student.

Myself, I've always been the type of student that doesn't do any homework that isn't required (as in, graded) and I never study, but I'm basically straight-A's. Out of six semesters of college, I only had one B, and truthfully, it was because the teacher disliked my questioning him all the time. No matter how sound my argument was, if it was in disagreement with what his opinions were, he'd grade me low. You all know that type of teacher. So for me to be this type of student that can bullshit my way through practically anything and memorize what I need to with little effort, homework was nothing but a waste of time. It didn't strengthen any of the knowledge by such a magnitude that it was worth my time. But this isn't the case for most. Repetition does in fact make it easier for you to store and recall information at a later time, so homework essentially does have a purpose. "Practice makes perfect", basically. A lot of students can't grasp a concept the first time and have to do several different problems before they catch on. Some, sadly, can't catch on no matter how many they do.

The real problem isn't whether or not homework is useless. Its execution. There are FAR too many teachers that assign homework for the wrong reasons:

1. To cover their own ass so they don't have to teach as hard or as in-depth
2. Believe it or not, out of SPITE for the students.
3. Because that's what they were told to do and they have no sense of creativity. If the book tells you to do "#1-30" for homework, they'll assign it. If they tell you to "pause afterwards for discussion", they'll do it.

The only worthwhile reason to assign homework to students is to reinforce a lesson, with the "only when necessary" other reason being that a pep rally/fire drill/etc has cut into your time and you need the students to finish a lesson so you have enough time during the next class to discuss it and cover your explanation of it so everyone finishes with a clear mind about the lesson.

Now keep in mind, since everything is relative to the student, the teacher, and the course, it isn't easy to gauge homework in a general perspective. Some subjects lend themselves more easily to homework than others. Its a travesty if you have homework in a course such as Phys Ed. But math classes are especially devious in that they pretty much require homework to build the concepts in the minds of the students. English is another that requires some homework, though its normally in the form of either reading a little (something which I despise, even though I'm a writer, which is very odd I know lol) or writing an essay (something which I'm fond of, hence these elongated posts lol).

Length is another factor. In terms of K-12, too many teachers make the mistake of thinking "it will only take you one hour outside of class to do it" without remembering that the students have other classes as well. In my high school, we had 9 periods a day (one of them being lunch, though). If all 8 classes assigned homework and used the same excuse, you're looking at 8 hours of homework. If a school day lasts from 7:15 am and ends at 2:15, and you add 8 hours on top of that, by the time you're getting done all your school for the day, your day is over. Sometimes, believe it or not, less is more. Students are less likely to do your homework if you assign a lot of it and there's only so much more that they'll get out of it. Math teachers like to assign roughly 5-10 problems for every TYPE of problem that is going on in the lesson. A more adequate way of accomplishing a reinforcement is to limit it to maybe 3. The students have less problems to do, so they do them all, but they still reinforce the concept. If its too hard, they can spend longer on a problem as they have less to worry about. The time frame of homework for more flexible assignments like essays, though, that depends on the student themselves. I've written 3 page essays in 2 minutes, tops, but taken much longer on others. Other people can't type as fast or process information as fast and may struggle to write 2 pages in a full hour. But you can make sure that your time frame isn't too heavy of a burden if you give your students boundaries that can be met. Asking for a 10 page paper by the next day is preposterous, but asking for a 1 page summary isn't, and asking for a 10 page paper "by this time next week" is giving them more than adequate time.

Generally speaking, homework is not necessary for everyone, but you can't tailor your entire course for every individual student or you'll go insane. It does more good than it does harm to do homework, but it can sure as hell be frustrating if you have a teacher that doesn't know how to manage their assignments. If that's the case and you don't need to do homework to do well in your classes, just don't do it, like me lol. But if you're the type of student that doesn't do so well without studying and practicing the lessons, you should try to take the homework seriously.

 

[Slyfox696]

But last year I had 4 of my teachers admit to us they were told to give us homework because it made the school look good.

Change "made the school look good" to "to make sure all students understand it" and it says the same thing. Only, do you have a problem with the second statement?

We also got told it was 'easy' and 'nothing we don't already know'.

That's to pacify the students. Kids don't like homework, so you tell them it's nothing difficult in order to get them to do it. It's psychology.

If I'm going to spend time outside of there working I want to be learning something from it. I'm not learning anything from something I know how to do perfectly already.

Not everyone learns from the finite amount of time they get instruction during class. Many people have to work on it and work on it to make sure they understand it fully.

I think it might be time for a teacher to come into this thread. NoFate to the rescue lol. Long post coming up.

You're way behind NoFate.

I'm a teacher, and was the fifth post in this thread.

The real problem isn't whether or not homework is useless. Its execution. There are FAR too many teachers that assign homework for the wrong reasons:

1. To cover their own ass so they don't have to teach as hard or as in-depth
2. Believe it or not, out of SPITE for the students.
3. Because that's what they were told to do and they have no sense of creativity. If the book tells you to do "#1-30" for homework, they'll assign it. If they tell you to "pause afterwards for discussion", they'll do it.

I disagree with this. Are there some like that? Sure. There is going to be incompetency in any profession. But, as I pointed out earlier, for a teacher to give homework "out of spite" is completely stupid, because for everyone 1 piece of homework assigned, that's 20 pieces of homework needing to be graded.

As far as #3, if the book tells you, that's a very logical thing to assign then. Because, the books are written by people with knowledge on the subject, and they know which examples are best for understanding the full scope of the material.

Its a travesty if you have homework in a course such as Phys Ed.

Why? Is physical education suddenly less important than another subject? Don't talk out your ass about something you don't understand.

 

[Downward Spiral]

My view is, homework does not need to be mandatory.

Firstly, if a child doesn't care about their education, the responsibility to do something about that lies with the parents, not the school. The school does enough as it can in teaching the student and it should be up to the parents to decide how much extra study and homework their child does.

I don't see a lot of positives coming out of students being forced by a school to complete homework. You can't tell me a kid that doesn't give a shit about schoolwork is going to sit down every night and complete homework because it's 'mandatory'. It should not be mandatory for a student to find time outside of school to complete extra work if they themselves do not wish to. However, I believe teachers should keep tabs on which students do and do not do non-mandatory homework, and they can then let the parents know of their child's situation. This, in turn, allows the parents to know what their child is doing and gives full opportunity for the parents to step in and alter their child's work habits. In my view, parents have more control over what a student does than a school, and 9 times out of 10, if parents want their kid to start studying and doing more homework, they're going to force them to do it and do it successfully. They're the ones who live with the student and can make them do homework if they want to.

If the parents and the student couldn't care less about homework, then the school should stop trying. Fuck them, and their future 50-cent ****e of a daughter, or future 30 year old McDonalds trainee son.

--

So all in all, I believe that a school has an obligation to teach, but it's the student's responsibility to learn the information at their own pace in their own way. The best way to do this in my view, is to allow a parent to dictate what their child does outside of school. An unwilling student should not be forced by a school to complete homework, but rather by their parents. Their parents should have the best idea anyway about what is exactly required each week from their child anyway. Students aren't going to sit down and plan out their time. Not in a million years in this day and age. It's their parents who need to be the ones doing the planning.

--

Also, I think students need to learn that the rest of their lives are dependent on what happens at this moment in time. If they are finding extra study too hard to fit in, they should attempt to balance their time better. There's a thing called weekends, yes. But you're generally not socialising every second of them. And also, you are still in a school term, no matter what day of the week it is. If you're focussed on your education, you should be able to find time throughout a week. I've read some of the 'suggestions' people have been given for study times and that, but I don't believe you need to follow those to a T. If you're doing study and homework and you feel you're doing enough of it to fully understand the work, then it should be up to you to decide how long during a week you spend on studying.

Those who complain about the workload being given need to start understanding that it only gets harder from here...

--

To give you guys an idea of what type of person I am...I'm the type of person that does little to no work in class, no homework at all, no extra study other than before exams, does assignments the night before they're due and gets great marks for everything (except maths and physics, but I don't need that shit...)

I'm not struggling by doing the little amount of work because I know I don't need it. However, there are a bunch of people who have the same work habits that I do, that get shit marks. They're the ones that need to focus on schoolwork and do some extra study, or have their parents kick them up the ass in order to get them to do it.

 

[Rusty]

Because school is not work.

School is a place of education, where you go to learn about the various things you need in life. As a college professor of mine once said "Education is the socialization of the next generation". The school is giving you the necessary information to be successful in life.

Homework is where you take all that information, and commit it to memory and use it in real examples. If I'm teaching Algebra, for example, my lesson plan for that day might be to introduce variables. No student knows what an algebraic variable is before it is taught to them. So, the majority of the class time is the teacher explaining what a variable is, and how it is used, and giving a few examples to help students understand it. Homework, then, is where the student goes off and practices it on his own, to gain a semi-mastery level of the subject. And then you do it all again the next day.

It's the school's responsibility to teach you the information, but it is your job to learn it. There's a reason that the kids who do homework and study for tests make better grades than the ones who don't.

I never said I didn't do homework, because I do. In fact I'd say I work damn hard on homework but when I receive B's on my report card, it really does hurt me inside. I know I learnt and studyed hard enough to get A's. But when you don't get the results you wanted, it makes me wonder why I even bother doing it in the first place. The teachers at my school don't teach every lesson as they may teach 1 or 2 lessons a week and will give us work for the rest of the week. Plus, they will also give us homework on top of that.

You mentioned that school is giving you the necessary information to be successful in life. Well I kind of disagree as half of the compulsory subjects I study currently, will most likely be useless to me when I leave school. I know people that hardly did any homework, but still managed to be successful in the outside world. It's about how much you understand the work, not how much homework you do every night.

As I said above, homework is practice for the student.

Let's say you are a baseball pitcher, and your coach just taught you have to throw a curveball. Is that one day of your coach showing you how to grip the baseball going to give you a great curveball? Of course not. It takes practice and repetition to learn how to throw a great curveball. Doing homework is the same thing. Practice and repetition to learn.

But I am expected to practise and study, on top of doing other homework such as assignments. I have 6 different subjects a day so it gets a bit much if I am expected to practise AND do homework for each subject a night.

Nope. I can tell you for a fact, as a physical education and health professional, that this is not correct.

Homework these days is no greater than homework of 30 years ago. The difference is the type of food people eat, and all the niceties of the home. 30 years ago, meals were homecooked, and you didn't have fast food. 30 years ago, you probably didn't have air conditioning in your house, so you wanted to go outside and do things. You didn't have video games to play, so you went swimming or playing baseball.

That's why kids are overweight. It's the penalty for comfort.

I disagree. Homework has increased by 50 percent over the last 20 years. I don't know anybody that got as much homework as me when they were my age in the 1980's. So your saying that doing large amounts of homework on the computer each night, has absolutely nothing to do with obese teenagers?

A majority of my homework is done on the computer by typing up word documents and researching on the internet. And since I believe we receive more homework now than 20 years ago, that makes LESS time to play sports or even to exercise. Why do you think I anticipate school holidays so much? To get out there and play sports with friends and family.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Which is why I make sure that all work being done in my class is done in the classroom. I DO give tests, but I give them a study guide 3 or 4 days before the test, giving them ample study time at their discretion.

Now, I know it's going to be said, "but you're a PE teacher, of course you don't give homework". Well, all I can say is that most PE teachers don't give tests either, but I do.

If you want to ban homework from schools then you are going to have to make up the time with Saturday school. Going the same time as your regular school (let's say 8-3), all students would come in on Saturday to do all work assigned during the week. After 3 o'clock, all work would have to be turned in, and students would be free to leave.

Sometimes teachers expect us to learn for a test over only 1 night! It's insane as I need at least 3 nights to properly study for a test. PE students at my school receive tests on a fairly regular basis, by the way. Wouldn't it be more wise to have a part time job on Saturday to start saving up for the future, instead of going to school for yet another day? I go to school for 8 hours 5 days a week, I think thats enough schooling for a week.

What most students don't understand (meaning: students who don't have parents as teachers) is that homework isn't given because the teacher is mean. Because, for every ONE piece of paper of homework that you get, the teacher has to grade TWENTY pieces of homework. If I give homework to all of my classes, that's 120 homework papers I have to grade and then record in my gradebook. So, I assure you, that homework is not given just because the teachers feel like it. Because it's easier on students to do one homework assignment than it is for teachers to grade 120 homework assignments.

A large majority of my homework isn't marked, with the exception of assignments, tests and maybe a few worksheets. But what I'm saying that if I receive over 30 minutes of homework for each of my 6 subjects, thats 3 hours in only 1 night. I would much rather be lifting weights and playing football after school than doing similar work to what I was doing at school anyway. It gets a bit much after a while as most teachers are unaware of the amount of homework each students receives each night as they only teach 1 lesson to a student and almost forget about the other 5 lessons we have a day.

 

[Slyfox696]

I never said I didn't do homework, because I do. In fact I'd say I work damn hard on homework but when I receive B's on my report card, it really does hurt me inside. I know I learnt and studyed hard enough to get A's. But when you don't get the results you wanted, it makes me wonder why I even bother doing it in the first place. The teachers at my school don't teach every lesson as they may teach 1 or 2 lessons a week and will give us work for the rest of the week. Plus, they will also give us homework on top of that.

Your not getting A's has nothing to do with homework being assigned. Those are two separate issues, and really has no need to be brought up in this discussion.

You mentioned that school is giving you the necessary information to be successful in life. Well I kind of disagree as half of the compulsory subjects I study currently, will most likely be useless to me when I leave school. I know people that hardly did any homework, but still managed to be successful in the outside world.

That's true. Much of the stuff you learn now you will never use.

But, SOMEONE will. School is not just about you, it's about everyone. You might not use English, but one person in your class may become an English teacher. You might not use math, but someone in your class might become an engineer. You might not use Accounting, but someone in your class might get their Accounting degree.

School is about giving EVERYONE the necessary information that they need to be successful in life. Not just you.

It's about how much you understand the work, not how much homework you do every night.

Exactly. But, school is not just for you. It's for everyone. So, classes need to be tailored to fit the needs of everyone.

And you can't honestly tell me that you learn and understand EVERY thing in EVERY subject just in one class period. And that you remember it for months.

But I am expected to practise and study, on top of doing other homework such as assignments. I have 6 different subjects a day so it gets a bit much if I am expected to practise AND do homework for each subject a night.

How are you going to practice doing school work, if you don't do school work? I'm not understanding.

I disagree. Homework has increased by 50 percent over the last 20 years. I don't know anybody that got as much homework as me when they were my age in the 1980's.

You're wrong.

So your saying that doing large amounts of homework on the computer each night, has absolutely nothing to do with obese teenagers?

No. It doesn't. Eating a healthy diet and working for 4 hours every night on the computer will keep you from becoming obese.

Getting fat is a simple math equation. Calories taken in > Calories expended. That's how people get fat. If you take in more calories than you use, you get fat. Being on the computer has nothing to do with it.

Laziness and the desire of ease and comfort (as well as a lack of self-control) is what makes people obese.

A majority of my homework is done on the computer by typing up word documents and researching on the internet.

Most schools aren't like that though. You either go to a wealthy school or a private school.

That isn't the case for most students.

And since I believe we receive more homework now than 20 years ago, that makes LESS time to play sports or even to exercise. Why do you think I anticipate school holidays so much? To get out there and play sports with friends and family.

You don't receive more homework now than people did back then. Maybe YOU do, depending on the type of institution you are at, but most people don't.

Schools and teachers, in general, are beginning to drift away from the traditional "lecture and homework" approach of education and are shifting more to collective learning techniques, as well as involved learning and differentiated instruction. Collective learning is less about lecture and assign and more about the class working together to figure out the answer, with the teacher being the guide that keeps them on course. Differentiated instruction is applying different methods of teaching to students, because students these days are known to learn in different manners.

I can tell you for a fact that most schools give less homework now than ever before.

Sometimes teachers expect us to learn for a test over only 1 night! It's insane as I need at least 3 nights to properly study for a test. PE students at my school receive tests on a fairly regular basis, by the way.

Glad to hear about PE students.

And the teachers don't expect you to "learn" for a test over 1 night. They expect you to learn over the course of the unit, and then review for one night. But, if you're studying along the way, like they tell you to, that shouldn't be a problem.

Wouldn't it be more wise to have a part time job on Saturday to start saving up for the future, instead of going to school for yet another day? I go to school for 8 hours 5 days a week, I think thats enough schooling for a week.

No.

Part time jobs for teenagers during the school year is so far beyond stupid, I can't begin to grasp the fact that parents make their kids do it. You have 40 years of your life in which you are expected to work. Right now, you should be expected to learn.

As for Saturday school, no one is saying that Saturday school should be mandatory. But, if you don't want homework throughout the week, then Saturday school will be necessary. It is a necessity for you to practice the information you learn repeatedly.

It gets a bit much after a while as most teachers are unaware of the amount of homework each students receives each night as they only teach 1 lesson to a student and almost forget about the other 5 lessons we have a day.

No they're not. That's one of the biggest misconceptions students have. Teachers aren't unaware you have 5 other classes. We know. We have 5 other classes to. It's not like we believe you come to our class and then go home the rest of the day. We know you have other classes, and we know that you get work in those classes to.

However, we also know that it doesn't matter what other teachers do or give, because they're not teaching our material. Your science teacher giving you three pages of homework has nothing to do with the fact that it's a necessity that you learn your algebraic variables. You have to learn your earth science and you have to learn your algebra.

It's not that teachers are unaware, it's just that it has no impact on anything. At the end of the day, you have to remember that teachers were students to. We know what it's like. But we also know it is just something that has to be done.

 

[jmt225]

Why? Is physical education suddenly less important than another subject? Don't talk out your ass about something you don't understand.

Lol, Sly you take yourself way too seriously.

P.E. is a giveaway coarse and everyone knows it. Hell, at my high school, to graduate, you had to get 23 credits. Two full credits from P.E., which included one semester of Health Class. But the best part was that after you complete those two credits, you can sign up for P.E. again and it'll count as an Alternative Class credit, which you needed 8 of to graduate. There was a limit of course to how many times you could take P.E. after you fulfilled the requirement, but I and everyone else I knew took full advantage of the opportunity to use P.E. as an Alternative Class credit because P.E. is AWESOME. It's not suppose to be about homework and test and all that bullshit. It's suppose to be fun, which EVERY P.E. class I ever took since Elementary School was. If everything you say is true, you're completely ruining what's suppose to be a fun memory for kids.

Seriously man, who are you trying to be, Coach Cutlip from the Wonder Years? Let the kids have fun. Give them something to look forward to, instead of them having to dread going to another "class" every single day. P.E.'s not suppose to be a "class"; I don't give a fuck what you say when you quote this. Anything you test these kids on will not help them out in the long run. It's all very unnecessary and seems to me a way for you to try and come off as just important as the REAL teachers, which, whether you want to believe or not, is not the case because P.E. teachers are not real teachers. P.E. just gives coaches an easy way to 'teach a class' so they can get a full paycheck, and that’s fine because most of these coaches end up being our friends, instead of some pain in the ass teacher.

For you to try and be something you’re not Sly and completely ruin a fun class for kids, I have zero respect for that. Seriously, if you want to be a real teacher and give out test and homework, then be like NoFate and become an English teacher or a Match teacher. P.E. is not the right subject to "teach" if you want to be considered a real teacher. I highly doubt there's ever going to be one parent to come visit the "P.E. Teacher" during Parents Day, because even parents know that P.E. is suppose to be nothing more then dressing out and participating in whatever sport the coach tells them to. It’s not about "learning" and they all know that P.E. won't help their kids get into college or become a more intelligent person. Even the parents who care more about of their kids doing well in athletics don't give a fuck about P.E., because they know it's not important.

 

[Rusty]

Your not getting A's has nothing to do with homework being assigned. Those are two separate issues, and really has no need to be brought up in this discussion.

So your saying none of my homework goes towards my grades? Hardworking students should always receive good or decent marks, or deserved to be recognized for their efforts.

That's true. Much of the stuff you learn now you will never use.

But, SOMEONE will. School is not just about you, it's about everyone. You might not use English, but one person in your class may become an English teacher. You might not use math, but someone in your class might become an engineer. You might not use Accounting, but someone in your class might get their Accounting degree.

School is about giving EVERYONE the necessary information that they need to be successful in life. Not just you.

What I'm trying to say is that why does a majority of subjects have to be compulsory when I know personally, I either don't like the subject or wont use it when I leave school. Classes should also be smaller, having over 25 is already ridiculous as it personally distracts me somtimes due to the amount of noise. I brought that up so that it would make it easier if most subjects were selectable instead of compulsory.

Exactly. But, school is not just for you. It's for everyone. So, classes need to be tailored to fit the needs of everyone.

And you can't honestly tell me that you learn and understand EVERY thing in EVERY subject just in one class period. And that you remember it for months.

No I don't remember everything I learn, but nobody does. I could study for a test for hours and I still wont get full marks, it's just the way things are. But revising every single night isn't easy to stay focused for 4 hours straight.

How are you going to practice doing school work, if you don't do school work? I'm not understanding.

I do both. I'm saying teachers should give you more time during class to do the work, instead of giving everything to you for homework.

You're wrong.

No other response? I'm right.

No. It doesn't. Eating a healthy diet and working for 4 hours every night on the computer will keep you from becoming obese.

Getting fat is a simple math equation. Calories taken in > Calories expended. That's how people get fat. If you take in more calories than you use, you get fat. Being on the computer has nothing to do with it.

Laziness and the desire of ease and comfort (as well as a lack of self-control) is what makes people obese.

So your saying if every student eats a healthy diet but spends endless hours on the computer, means that everyone doesn't need to exercise after school? From a PE teacher, I expected the opposite. Exercise is very important in living a healthy lifestyle. I get minimal exercise due to the amount of homework I receive each night.

Most schools aren't like that though. You either go to a wealthy school or a private school.

That isn't the case for most students.

You don't receive more homework now than people did back then. Maybe YOU do, depending on the type of institution you are at, but most people don't.

Well, yes I would say I go to a wealthy private school and therefore my school pushes us students very hard. I don't know if EVERY student in the world gets as much homework as me because I'm only speaking from personal experience. Maybe I'm in the minority, but my school focuses on academic strongly which is both a positive and a negative, I guess.

Schools and teachers, in general, are beginning to drift away from the traditional "lecture and homework" approach of education and are shifting more to collective learning techniques, as well as involved learning and differentiated instruction. Collective learning is less about lecture and assign and more about the class working together to figure out the answer, with the teacher being the guide that keeps them on course. Differentiated instruction is applying different methods of teaching to students, because students these days are known to learn in different manners.

I can tell you for a fact that most schools give less homework now than ever before.

Well yes I do hardly any homework from books as my school prefers to use the computer for homework purposes. But MY school gives more homework than students from 20 years ago received. Maybe the school you teach at and the school I attend are totally different in regards to the homework limit.

Glad to hear about PE students.

And the teachers don't expect you to "learn" for a test over 1 night. They expect you to learn over the course of the unit, and then review for one night. But, if you're studying along the way, like they tell you to, that shouldn't be a problem.

But I don't get time to learn over the course as I'm always busy with other assignments and projects. Studying for 4 hours straight every night is a difficult task to ask.

No.

Part time jobs for teenagers during the school year is so far beyond stupid, I can't begin to grasp the fact that parents make their kids do it. You have 40 years of your life in which you are expected to work. Right now, you should be expected to learn.

As for Saturday school, no one is saying that Saturday school should be mandatory. But, if you don't want homework throughout the week, then Saturday school will be necessary. It is a necessity for you to practice the information you learn repeatedly.

Well, see I kind of agree but my parents are always on my case about getting a part time job. I think I have to focus on my school work as that is more important. BUT, earning money to buy clothes and entertainment goods wouldn't hurt as I'm not a spoilt kid therefore I am expected to buy my own goods, not clothes though. I am against homework and Saturday school. I already spend hours on homework on the weekends anyway.

No they're not. That's one of the biggest misconceptions students have. Teachers aren't unaware you have 5 other classes. We know. We have 5 other classes to. It's not like we believe you come to our class and then go home the rest of the day. We know you have other classes, and we know that you get work in those classes to.

However, we also know that it doesn't matter what other teachers do or give, because they're not teaching our material. Your science teacher giving you three pages of homework has nothing to do with the fact that it's a necessity that you learn your algebraic variables. You have to learn your earth science and you have to learn your algebra.

It's not that teachers are unaware, it's just that it has no impact on anything. At the end of the day, you have to remember that teachers were students to. We know what it's like. But we also know it is just something that has to be done.

But what they don't know is the amount of homework us students receive each night. Knowing students have other subjects is one thing, but knowing all the tasks and assignments we have to do for other subjects is a totally different thing. Also, I get no free lessons so all my homework has to be done at home. Next year will be a different story, but Year 10 is pretty demanding as we usually get no time to do homework or assigments during school. At the end of the day, teachers should understand how much pressure us students go through every night. We need a life outside of school aswell.

 

[justinsayne]

So your saying none of my homework goes towards my grades? Hardworking students should always receive good or decent marks, or deserved to be recognized for their efforts.

Of course homework should go toward your grades, your teachers grade you on it don't they?

What I'm trying to say is that why does a majority of subjects have to be compulsory when I know personally, I either don't like the subject or wont use it when I leave school. Classes should also be smaller, having over 25 is already ridiculous as it personally distracts me somtimes due to the amount of noise. I brought that up so that it would make it easier if most subjects were selectable instead of compulsory.

Dude life is full of shit you don't want to do but have to, you mind as well get used to it when your in school, their are plenty of times through out the day at work when I have to do shit I don't want to, that's just life, get used to it

and I agree classes should be smaller but I fail to see how that has anything to do with homework

No I don't remember everything I learn, but nobody does. I could study for a test for hours and I still wont get full marks, it's just the way things are. But revising every single night isn't easy to stay focused for 4 hours straight.

You may not remember everything but I'm sure you retain most of the information, and why is that?, cause you do your homework, and a little tip when studying for a test, take a break every 30 mins. or so, other wise your brain will just get exhausted, the more rested your brain is the easier it ease to remember shit

(there is probably a better way to word that, but I couldn't think of it at the moment)

I do both. I'm saying teachers should give you more time during class to do the work, instead of giving everything to you for homework

Teachers only have so much time to teach you the subject, are you suggesting they cut back on the amount of time they spend teaching you the information just so you got more time to do more homework?, you seem like a pretty smart kid, please tell you I don't have to explain why that's a bad idea

No other response? I'm right.

No your wrong, kids in any generation have always had to do homework, I used to bitch about the same thing, and I've had my parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, you name it, all tell me the same thing, that they all had to do shit loads of homework as well

So your saying if every student eats a healthy diet but spends endless hours on the computer, means that everyone doesn't need to exercise after school? From a PE teacher, I expected the opposite. Exercise is very important in living a healthy lifestyle. I get minimal exercise due to the amount of homework I receive each night.

Yes you should go outside, take a break from your studying and exercise and shit, I beleive I stated this before, saying homework makes some one obese may be one of the silliest things I've ever heard

Well, yes I would say I go to a wealthy private school and therefore my school pushes us students very hard. I don't know if EVERY student in the world gets as much homework as me because I'm only speaking from personal experience. Maybe I'm in the minority, but my school focuses on academic strongly which is both a positive and a negative, I guess.

Dude, you parents must really care about your education if they are sending you to a wealthy private school, you should take full advantage of that, as that school may be giving more opportunity that you might get in a public school, you should really take advantage of that

Well yes I do hardly any homework from books as my school prefers to use the computer for homework purposes. But MY school gives more homework than students from 20 years ago received. Maybe the school you teach at and the school I attend are totally different in regards to the homework limit.

How can you possibly know that you are given more homework than students for 20 years ago for fact?, Now i could be wrong about this, but I beleive most schools are set up to better prepare their students for college, something schools wern't doing 20 years ago, so in reality you're school is giving you a better chance to succeed in life

But I don't get time to learn over the course as I'm always busy with other assignments and projects. Studying for 4 hours straight every night is a difficult task to ask.

Dude, it's no different when you get into the "real world" I have had weeks at work where I work 12 hours a day, then have to come in on the weekend for 10 hours, I have to work two full weeks like that already this year, it's no different than you getting 4 hours of homework, other than you get to do that in the comfort of your own home and take breaks when you choose

But what they don't know is the amount of homework us students receive each night. Knowing students have other subjects is one thing, but knowing all the tasks and assignments we have to do for other subjects is a totally different thing. Also, I get no free lessons so all my homework has to be done at home. Next year will be a different story, but Year 10 is pretty demanding as we usually get no time to do homework or assigments during school. At the end of the day, teachers should understand how much pressure us students go through every night. We need a life outside of school aswell.

Yes they do know the amount of homework yuo get, teachers talk to each other, I know this for fact, and it's called HOMEwork, you should expect to get it done at school, and finally teachers DO understand pressure students are under, the question you should answer is do you understand how much pressure teachers are under?, not only do they have to grade all the homework (and many teachers take that home with them) they hand out for each student they are also the ones held responsible when it comes to students understanding the information so thet they can pass the class, and they have to do those for hundreds of students in many cases, not to mention they also have to balance this with their personal lives as well, which is also pretty demanding, you see you don't have to worry about such things as rent, bills, and general living expenses, not to mention if they have kids that's a whokle another thing to throw on top of everything, you ask me you got pretty easy, if all you have to worry about is a couple hours of homework

 

[TheOneBigWill]

Back when I was in school, I heard rumors about how they were attempting to shorten the length of Summer Vacation or possibly even do away with it all together.

The ideal theory was because over the course of Summer Vacation, the amount a student has learned fades away and when they return a grade higher they also return slightly less educated because the amount of time in between being 'forced' to study and learn has been too far.

In my opinion that is slightly true. The connection this has to homework being a need is because a lot of times students will fight trying to learn, or keep the stuff they have learned within their brains.

As a result, you have 8-9 monthes of knowledge all drained and wasted over the course of 2-3 monthes that the children get 'free time' throughout the summer. And because of that, it causes more and more students to fail when they come back, into an "advanced" level of learning with being a grade higher the following year.

I understand that homework, as you get older and move on, becomes more of a problem because as you get older you have to attempt fitting into "the real world" and let's face it.. how many Adults do you know, who's jobs require them to stay and home writing lectures on history? Or doing Science projects? Not a lot.

So my belief is homework is a must-have until you react High school, at which point you need to start transitioning into the real world by finding a beginner's job and balancing out your study's inside the classroom while also learning how to pick up job skills to better yourself in the real world.

 

[Slyfox696]

Lol, Sly you take yourself way too seriously.

P.E. is a giveaway coarse and everyone knows it.

It's ridiculous ignorant attitudes like this which are a prime cause for the rise in obesity in America, in my opinion.

As for the rest of your completely uninformed post, I'm not even going to bother such complete and utter bullshit with a response. If you had half a clue as to what you were talking about, I might be inclined to care. Do you even know what PE stands for?

So your saying none of my homework goes towards my grades? Hardworking students should always receive good or decent marks, or deserved to be recognized for their efforts.

Of course it does. But, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about quantity of homework, not quality.

Your grades on homework is quality, not quantity. Completely separate issue.

What I'm trying to say is that why does a majority of subjects have to be compulsory when I know personally, I either don't like the subject or wont use it when I leave school. Classes should also be smaller, having over 25 is already ridiculous as it personally distracts me somtimes due to the amount of noise. I brought that up so that it would make it easier if most subjects were selectable instead of compulsory.

Because most students aren't aware of all the things there are to do in this world. Some people, like me, know exactly what they want to do in life. However, some, like my girlfriend, change their majors a couple of times before they realize what they want to do.

If you don't have that background in ALL areas, then your education can't meet the needs of your changing interests. And your interests will change as you get older.

No I don't remember everything I learn, but nobody does.

Which is why homework is assigned.

I do both. I'm saying teachers should give you more time during class to do the work, instead of giving everything to you for homework.

Then you need to add time on to school.

There's just not enough time in a day to teach everything AND give class work time. Which is where I brought up Saturday school.

No other response? I'm right.

I address it later on. Thanks.

So your saying if every student eats a healthy diet but spends endless hours on the computer, means that everyone doesn't need to exercise after school? From a PE teacher, I expected the opposite. Exercise is very important in living a healthy lifestyle. I get minimal exercise due to the amount of homework I receive each night.

No, you're not focusing on our discussion.

You talked about homework being the reason kids are overweight, not being the reason that kids don't exercise. Kids are not overweight because of homework, they're overweight for the other reasons I mention.

Pay attention.

Well, yes I would say I go to a wealthy private school and therefore my school pushes us students very hard.

The fact that I pegged that perfectly should show the very fact that your school isn't like most. Just the fact you have homework on the computer is enough information.

I don't know if EVERY student in the world gets as much homework as me because I'm only speaking from personal experience. Maybe I'm in the minority, but my school focuses on academic strongly which is both a positive and a negative, I guess.

Don't go there then. Go somewhere else. If you're from America, then you have the right to go to a public school.

Well yes I do hardly any homework from books as my school prefers to use the computer for homework purposes. But MY school gives more homework than students from 20 years ago received. Maybe the school you teach at and the school I attend are totally different in regards to the homework limit.

I bet the homework given by your school now isn't as much as the homework given by your school 20 years ago. It may be more than most schools, but I bet it's less than what it used to be.

In general, homework is down at most schools, because of the different teaching practices across the country.

But I don't get time to learn over the course as I'm always busy with other assignments and projects. Studying for 4 hours straight every night is a difficult task to ask.

Then go to a different school.

I mean, you can't have it both ways. You can't pay for a top flight school, and then complain about the school's way of teaching.

Well, see I kind of agree but my parents are always on my case about getting a part time job.

Tell them to fuck off.

It never worked for me (probably would have gotten my lips smacked right off my face if I'd tried), but you never know.

BUT, earning money to buy clothes and entertainment goods wouldn't hurt as I'm not a spoilt kid therefore I am expected to buy my own goods, not clothes though. I am against homework and Saturday school. I already spend hours on homework on the weekends anyway.

What do you have to spend money on? I never spent any money on anything. I just hitched rides to the school or rode my bike to the park when I wanted to do something.

In the end, you can complain all you want, but you're going to have to accept the fact that school is a place for education, not practice. The teachers' job is to teach the material, but it's your job to learn it. And homework is where you learn it.

But what they don't know is the amount of homework us students receive each night.

Yes we do. Hell, as often as students bitch about it, we probably can tell you a week ahead of time how much you're going to have.

Knowing students have other subjects is one thing, but knowing all the tasks and assignments we have to do for other subjects is a totally different thing.

We know. Believe me, we know. But, like I said, that doesn't change the fact that you still have to do OUR work and learn OUR material.

At the end of the day, teachers should understand how much pressure us students go through every night.

Yes we do. We were students once too. Some of us probably did more than you do. For example, at my school, there were and still are several kids who went to school, and played football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball or track in the spring. They were literally at the school EVERY DAY after school, competing in extra-curricular activities, representing our school. They still had to do their school work as well. Not only that, many of them had lawn mowing jobs on the weekend, as well as chore tasks.

I assure you, your generation is not being picked on.

We need a life outside of school aswell.

I agree. Which is what Saturday and Sunday are for.

I mean, what do you think teachers do during the week? Work the school day, go home, and not think about anything else? Want to know what I did this weekend, even while I was on WZ? I was setting up a message board, adding hack codes so a teacher at school could have a message board forum for her students to respond to a book. If I wasn't doing that, I was creating graphics for the school web site, AND trying to write code so school alumni can be displayed on our school web site.

And I'm a PE teacher who doesn't give homework. Imagine your teachers, with 120 students, all of which have homework. I bet their pretty busy, what do you think?

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

You're way behind NoFate.

I'm a teacher, and was the fifth post in this thread.

Ah, I didn't know you were a teacher, Sly. Kudos. What do you teach?

I disagree with this. Are there some like that? Sure. There is going to be incompetency in any profession. But, as I pointed out earlier, for a teacher to give homework "out of spite" is completely stupid, because for everyone 1 piece of homework assigned, that's 20 pieces of homework needing to be graded.

Some teachers are like that, which is unfortunate. Not all are, thankfully, but I've met my fair share of them over the course of my years. The teachers that I have met that willingly admit to assigning homework out of spite don't actually grade the papers, either. They typically alter the assignment to be something along the lines of "if you handed it in, you get credit", so they don't read it, they just count 20 papers and they're done with it.

As far as #3, if the book tells you, that's a very logical thing to assign then. Because, the books are written by people with knowledge on the subject, and they know which examples are best for understanding the full scope of the material.

I'm not 100% against following the book. I'm just referring to the teachers that have no flexibility. You know what I mean? Usually, math courses are better suited to follow the book's guidelines. Science as well. But people are rarely ever able to get through an entire book throughout a course and when they are able to do such, its usually because they don't do every little exercise inside.

Why? Is physical education suddenly less important than another subject? Don't talk out your ass about something you don't understand.

I've never seen gym classes as being particularly important. Why waste 40 minutes asking kids to play tennis or something when some of these kids can't even do basic math or tell the difference between "to, two, too"? Health classes, yeah, that's important, but phys ed (by which I mean "gym") is virtually only useful for getting exercise rather than actually learning anything. How many kids become professional athletes that aren't exposed to sports outside of school as it is?