School

[Belgarath]

I fucking hate school. I don't mind going there and learning, I actually somewhat enjoy that, but what I really hate is how the teachers have NO problem whatsoever giving you assignment after assignment to do at home...So basically, school not only dominates your day, but also your nights, weekends, and holidays, because teachers don't seem to think that we need to have free time to unwind.

It's way too stressful, 4 people in my classes have had nervous breakdowns this year because of the huge amount of stress that the teachers constantly put us under...I myself almost had one...It's bullshit. Why can't they just keep school stuff in school time, instead of forcing us to give up our free time just so we can do well?

[piñata]

Just do what I did at your age... refuse to do homework on principle.

[SuperBassX84]

I didn't do homework either, until I reached college level.

Interestingly enough, I did, in fact, reach college level, despite not doing homework. w00t.

[Ape]

I don't do ANY homework at home. w00t for studyhalls

As for projects, meh, fork them and do good on tests and you'll be fine ;D

[Elfie]

piñata said:

Just do what I did at your age... refuse to do homework on principle.

How'd that end up working out?

[Belgarath]

Ouch.

[devo2]

Before you get too bent out of shape, understand a few things.

I give homework. No amount of complaining will change that. I don't do it because I feel that you shouldn't have free time. Besides, free time is relative. You have enough time to play video games, don't you? I haven't had the opportunity to play more than 5 hours of Star Ocean since I bought it over a month and a half ago. Welcome to the real world.

I don't give homework just to be mean. I don't give homework because everyone else does. I give homework because I have to. When I don't have to, I don't.

Teachers are charged with the job of instructing the students on the subject matter in their field. While the school year may seem long to you, there is simply not enough time to teach the students everything that needs to be taught in a given school year. That does not prevent the principal, the district, the government, etc. from expecting the teacher to teach it all. So what you have is homework. There are too many things that a teacher has to do to devote class time to it all and expect that anything is learned. Homework is a way of getting through some of the stuff without wasting class time on it. I for one assign as homework anything that a student can do on their own. I refuse to waste a half hour of my class time giving an assignment and then sitting down and watching the student do nothing anyways. Students work at different speeds. What may take you ten minutes to complete may take another student an hour to do. So how much class time do I dedicate? Give an hour and after your ten minutes you're fucking around in my for fifty minutes because you're bored, most likely preventing others from finishing. Give ten minutes and most students won't complete it. Plus, that's time that I could have been doing some actual teaching. At home, everyone will have all the time they need to complete the assignment.

If for one second you think that teachers are taking the easy way out when they give homework, then you're wrong. Let's say I have 10 Identify terms from the textbook that I want kids to look up and ID. If I give it to them in class, that will pretty much wrap up the rest of the period for me. I can sit down with a newspaper and relax while the class is working on it. Easy day for me, but no teaching is taking place. You might as well be home-schooled. If, however, I give the same 10 IDs as homework the night before, then I can spend the period either actually teaching about those 10 things to make sure that students understand, or move on to the next thing if I feel that you've "got it". Plus, I still have those IDs to grade. This is a far more difficult day for me, because not only do I have to correct the damn thing, I have to plan a lesson as well. But more learning takes place.

I also believe that homework is necessary for another reason, and that reason is parents. I firmly believe that a parent needs to take a role in the education of their child. Too often parents nowadays drop their kids off at school and go off to work/yoga/golfing/skiing/etc and expect the school to raise their child. This is terrible from a developmental standpoint. The raising and education of a child should be a team effort between the school and the parent. Homework allows for that. If a student is not doing work in the classroom, I can basically tell the parents but they can't monitor it. The parents will say "little tony swears that he is doing his work in class and I believe him because my son/daughter is never wrong". If, however, the work is homework, and the student is not doing it, I can email the parent, tell them that their child has not been doing their homework, give the parents a copy of the assignment list, and ask them to check the homework every night to ensure that it is complete. At that point, the kid can't lie to their parents, and if they do, I have another step: I can request a parent's signature on all completed assignments and then email to verify that the signature is in fact theirs.

Homework is life. Deal with it. True, it takes away from Warcraft, but tough shit. We're trying to give you the best possible opportunity to become successful in life. I doubt Blizzard is doing the same. And if you feel like complaining again, think about the teacher. Not only do they have to make up the assignment, but they have to correct all of them, and they have to do this for every class. Over my winter "break", I chave to read 85 essays, read 100 pages in one textbook, read another 100 pages in another textbook, prepare in-class lessons for all of it, write a final exam, and offer tutoring sessions every day between Christmas and New Years. And for all this, I get paid just enough to afford rent on a one-bedroom apartment, pay down my student loan, and eat ramen soup and mac & cheese for the rest of the month.

I give up all of my free time to make sure that my students become educated. If I didn't, I would still make my money and basically be happy, but I do it for them. At the very least they can give up some of their free time for it too.

[AnimaStone]

Just do what I did at your age... refuse to do homework on principle.

How'd that end up working out?

*considers who this quote is aimed at*

*vows to actually do homework now*

[piñata]

Elfie said:

How'd that end up working out?

Let's just say I had a LOT more sex than other people in my age group at the time.

[Elfie]

piñata said:

Let's just say I had a LOT more sex than other people in my age group at the time.

How does that tie to not doing homework? More free time?

[piñata]

Exactly.

[SuperBassX84]

So...who was too lazy to read all of Devo's post?

-=Raises hand=-

[devo2]

*Raises Hand*

[Belgarath]

Devo, I see your point, but the cirriculum I am in at the moment is teaching me things that before weren't taught until 1st year University in some cases, most people just can't keep up with it.

I'm not saying that homework isn't bad, like answering questions from the book, I have no problem with those, they help me learn...But when a teacher tells me to write a 15 page report on the 3 different accounting designations, how the fuck does that help me learn? All that accomplishes is taking up my free time, which I deserve, taking away from the time that I have to do other homework in, and stress the fuck out of me. And on top of that, most students have jobs and play sports, as I do.

A study showed that teenagers need at least 10 hours of sleep a day to be healthy. I on average get 7-8, as well as every other student. We have to get up early every day, go to school for 7 hours, then get home tired as hell, and do 4 hours of homework? To be honest, after coming home from 7 hours of school, the last thing I want to do is do more school.

School should be for school work, home should be for relaxing and unwinding, not school.

And people wonder why the drop out rate is so high...

[SpasticChicken]

you can totally tell Devo is a teacher lol A friend of mine actually had this out with a teacher and she says that We she gives us hw it's like giving herself homework also since she has to grade it and stuff she says she does it cuz she loves uo <_< i like that teacher lol ANyways scchool isn't that bad but i do agree having project after project gets annoying...