The Homework Ban

Using Facebook to create a petition for real social change is like trying to send email on a toy typewriter.

I'm kind of surprised that one of my facebook friends, an adult, would ask me to join the petition. Sorry friend, not even just so I could post this message in the overly crowded message boards. The sad thing is, the argument is not without merit. But the posts are so ridiculously whiny and show evidence of an overall failure of the school system. Except for the most part, the those who argue against the petition, typically express themselves better. Maybe homework isn't a waste of time after all.

As a teacher, no one in any of my classes would have homework on a daily basis unless they did not use their time in class on a daily basis. If that is what they're doing, they deserve every moment of homework. Laziness is laziness and it doesn't matter what your teacher expects of you.

I am opposed to homework for the sake of homework. If it can be accomplished in class, why not allow them to do so. Extra drill and practice of a concept you don't understand in the first place can be pointless. The cheating and parents who don't have a problem doing their children's homework for them can also make it pointless.

However, I do believe that every adult will have very important projects in their lives for which no structured supervised work time is allotted. I sometimes wonder, when an adult argues adults do their 8 hours of work a day and don't take an additional three hours home with them, exactly what those people do for a living. True, bosses don't require the exact same thing done at the office to be done at home, but most professionals do have to complete some preparation for their job outside of the office. It's important for kids to practice that during school, otherwise school is not the preparation for life it attempts to be. When I do assign homework, I try to give projects that are meaningful, can be done by the student.

So, kids who want to abolish homeork, learn how to spell "dumb." Learn to express precisely the aspect of homework to which you object. Learn how to argue in a logical rational way. Read some of the studies that have actually been done on the subject. There are some very good books and papers that argue against homework from which you could borrow ideas. Then write somebody who cares and impress them with something besides your own stupidity. Oh, wait! that might require that you use some skills you would actually learn by doing your homework.