Comments on: Homework

By: Daniel E. Friedman

Daniel E. Friedman — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:23:09 +0000

Homework has gotten a bit out of hand. Having taught junior high and high school, I have found students to be overworked. Comprehension is more important than the quantity of work, and the necessity of play should not be forgotten in our highly stressful society.

However, kids really do spend far to much time on the computer with video games. It’s hard on the eyes and not all that educational. Perhaps the solution lies in moderation with respect to homework and video game quantity.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:40:40 +0000

Homework also teaches kids discipline, perseverance and, usually, how to think.

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:37:39 +0000

Does quantity matter over quality?

Give me a phonics-based approach to reading over whole-word, and the amount of homework becomes irrelevant. If you’ve been a fan of Book’s for a while, you’ve read the horror stories of constructing dioramas that teach nothing.

You can’t measure the quality of the education by the quantity of homework. I don’t have kids, but to those here who do, I bless you and wish you the best of luck. As Book said, use the homework as a window on the classroom, to determine the value of what they’re learning.

By: InkMiser

InkMiser — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:27:14 +0000

Book – I agree with your point on oversight. It might be the school’s job to educate my children, but it is my duty. By doing the homework with them, I get to monitor what and how the schools are teaching. I can guard against indoctrination, correct errors in content and methodology, and include materials not offered by teachers. I find that I am much more demanding than any teacher any of my children have. It also allows me to teach the material. By doing this, my kids get to have the same material explained in a different way. This greatly increases the odds that it will stick.

If anything, I am often concerned about the lack of homework. In certain subjects, like science and social studies, I often see nothing coming home. This makes me nervous because I don’t know what is being covered in class. This deprives me of the ability to gauge my children’s understanding of the subject matter. I don’t get to see interim scores (formative assessments, in educationist jargon). I also fear that certain theories are being fed as fact, such as man’s effect on global warming.

Yes, doing homework every night consumes part of my life. Guess what? That was part of the commitment I made when I snuggled up with my wife.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:52:36 +0000

My daughter attended one of the most-competitive high schools in the U.S.. She typically had 2-6 hours of homework per night and often burned the mid-night oil. She ended up going to a highly ranked business school with 2-years work of AP credits, scads of scholarship money and is now ranked at the top of her class. Yep…competition works but you need to teach kids the value and benefits of competition. This is how you elevate rather than diminish them.

The Leftwing alternative is to diminish kids into obedient, helpless and dependent Eloi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine

We have a lot of such Eloi living in our neighborhood. Still in their 20s and 30s, still unable to hold jobs, still whining, still dependent on their parents. Pathetic!