Oy, the stress. Of doing stuff. It’s nonstop.
If a California lawmaker gets her way, it will stop, though, at least in the schools. Or at least slow way down.
Consider the pressure, the horrible grinding pressure of having to practice math problems, peer at chemical formulas, read assigned readings, summarize, spell, grammarize, memorize names and dates and Spanish vocabulary, and on and on and on … en casa.…
It’s the kind of thing that can curdle a kid’s physical and mental health. Not to mention cut into playtime.
So is the legislation AB2999 justified?
Is Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo warranted in hoping to require school boards to ponder the “reasonable amount of time spent on homework per student that should not be exceeded” or whether “homework should be assigned … in any elementary school grade, inclusive” or perhaps that homework be “optional and not graded,” et cetera?
Well, if we think about this, we must admit that there is one and only one reason to ever require students to spend time at home mastering what is introduced in class. Only to prepare them for earning a living and living life by helping them obtain knowledge and skills and realize their potential.
But that’s it. That’s the only reason.
Of course, individual teachers, if competent and conscientious, already think about what homework is appropriate to assign. They must, we hope, want their students to function capably in life. And maybe also to learn that learning is not torture.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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4 replies on “The State vs. Homework”
Since boards of education are creatures of the state and mostly concerned with state-operated schools, discussion here is really about top-down versus bottom-up decision-making within the state.
Certainly, some teachers and some schools as such are too inclined to seize control of the time of children outside of class hours. But the state legislature is ill-equipt to offer guidance or even meta-guidance.
Children who are not conditioned to better themselves outside of school will not typically develop habits of successfully doing so as adults. People should not stop developing themselves when they leave school altogether. As students are graduated to middle school, to high school, or to further education (in colleges or in trade schools), they should not be caught helplessly off-balance by the increase in study required outside of class.
Nor should the demands at higher levels be reduced in acceptance of a lack of preparation by lower levels. Our rulers might want expendable, useless eaters, but we should not allow our children to be so reduced, nor should we imagine a utopia in which powerless, useless eaters are sustained by the goodwill of leaders using AI to maintain and to operate an Grand Pie-Baking Machine.
Good and bad habits are learned in childhood. A certain amount of self-discipline is required for learning. We learn by doing. Homework is necessary for the student to show that he understands what was taught in class. We didn’t have much homework in primary grades (1 – 3), but that changed in the fourth and fifth grades as workload increased each year and new subjects were taught. Being held accountable for homework assignments creates a sense of responsibility. Self-discipline and responsibility are primary requirements for success throughout life. It seems that Ms. Schiavo wants everyone to get the equivalent of a participation trophy, with no extra effort required.. That is a disservice to all students.
When I was in elementary school, homework seemed to customarily run to the 30 – 60 minute range, tops. Which seemed like far too much to me, but hey, I was a pre-teen.
By the time MY kids were briefly in government schools (early 2000s, before I pulled them out and started homeschooling them in part but far from entirely over this very issue), they were spending a good eight hours a day at school or getting to and from school, THEN 3 – 4 hours a night on homework. And when I looked at the work load, no, they weren’t malingering or exaggerating.
It was stupid. It was abusive. It was insane.
If an adult’s employer expected them to work eight hours a day and then bring home four hours of work home every night as well, the question would be “do I quit or re-negotiate my pay?”
The kids don’t get to quit, and they don’t get paid.
And if the educrats being paid to supposedly teach them can’t find a way to impart reading, writing, and arithmetic skills over the course of 6 – 8 hours per day, five days per week, nine months per year, it’s they, not the kids, who should be penalized.
I was going to comment on this, but it ended up turning into an op-ed of its own:
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/18818