Homework

[Flinsbon]

I'm currently 16 years old and going to be a senior in high school this coming school year. I am taking some of the most advanced classes my school has to offer and have come to realize that homework tends to last WAY longer than it should. On average, I think I get about 2-3 hours every night and 4-5 every weekend.

 

Here are the questions - Is it okay for teachers to give as much homework as they want, whenever they want? The definition of VACATION according to Dictionary.com is "a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday." However, this is one word that schools do NOT teach correctly. More and more schools have taken to assigning "summer work" like summer reading assignments, essays, packets, etc., but is this right? Summer Vacation is called Summer VACATION for a reason - it's a VACATION - no school, no homework, no assignments (or at least, by the REAL definition of "vacation").

 

Debate over after-school homework, weekend homework, and summer homework. I think I've made my position clear.

[CrabHelmet]

You only have 2-3/night and 4-5/weekend and you think that's an absurdly large amount? I envy your tiny workload.

[Guest JoshIcy]

Imo, Home is Home and Work is Work. They cannot cross.

However, in the cases that they do. What are you gonna do? Just try and succeed.

[MarbleZone]

Imo' date=' Home is Home and Work is Work. They cannot cross.

[/quote']

 

They can, they do, and if you resist prepare to be outclassed by every other competent professional in your field of work, unless you work at Walmart.

 

Homework makes perfect sense, it guarantees that you keep up with the subjects to a minimum, and it'll only get "worse" as you progress in your studies.

 

Seriously, everyone hates it, of course they do. I did too, and it's ridiculous to assume anyone forced to work will ever be happy about it. But it's a perfectly legitimate practice, and face it - you're 16; "periods of suspension of work, study, or other activity" no longer apply to you, not in full anyway.

 

It may not apply to you in particular, but if high-school students aren't forced to keep up with the stuff they're taught, do you believe they'll remember anything at all by the time the new school year starts? Think of it from the teacher's perspective - his/her job is to teach you something and make sure some of it stays.

[Guest Random Dude]

My teachers this past year gave me a lot, sometime in the year I decided F*ck it and just didn't do it. My grades didn't change aside from my English class. I still passed though.

 

I don't recommend you stop doing it though because if your teachers are like mine, you got lucky, but a lot of teachers are douches when it comes to grades and will fail you for missing a few assignments.

[WithTheWind]

My teachers this past year gave me a lot' date=' sometime in the year I decided F*ck it and just didn't do it. My grades didn't change aside from my English class. I still passed though.

 

I don't recommend you stop doing it though because if your teachers are like mine, you got lucky, but a lot of teachers are douches when it comes to grades and will fail you for missing a few assignments.

[/quote']

 

I don't think they can "fail you for missing a few assignments". If you miss 5 or so assignments, you instantly get a 0 or 70 for the semester? I thought the teachers have to average it along with your turned-in assignments, so instead of getting a big fat 0, you'll get along the lines of a 60 or so.

 

And I'm lucky I'm only in middle school. ._.

The few pages of homework we get is easy as s**t.

[Flinsbon]

Okay, I agree with what you guys said, except for the summer work thing. Generally, the only summer work we get is reading and writing, so there is nothing that we will "forget" between years. For this summer, I have to read 4 books and write 2 essays. However, neither reading nor writing will help me learn anything new (except maybe vocab) because reading and writing by themselves only test your abilities. They do not teach anything; that's the teacher's job.

 

So what do you guys think about the summer "vacation" thing?

[The Dark One]

because reading and writing by themselves only test your abilities. They do not teach anything;

So what do you guys think about the summer "vacation" thing?

 

That's news to me.

 

Also, learn to procrastinate and cram. I can pretty much guarantee that I get a similar workload, but I hardly ever do homework at home. I do it before school, during school, etc. If I need to write a paper, I bring in my laptop. If I need to use the internet, I borrow somebody's Iphone and tether it, etc.

 

It's all about effective time management.

[Dark]

You only have 2-3/night and 4-5/weekend and you think that's an absurdly large amount? I envy your tiny workload.

 

I'm pretty sure homework does not include studying' date=' but then that [i']would[/i] become an absurdly large amount. :/

 

As long as the homework is not bookwork, I could care less. The only problem I have with non-college school in general is lugging home a 50-pound backpack full of books and shit. :/

[Dark]

You only have 2-3/night and 4-5/weekend and you think that's an absurdly large amount? I envy your tiny workload.

 

I'm pretty sure homework does not include studying' date=' but then that [i']would[/i] become an absurdly large amount. :/

 

As long as the homework is not bookwork, I could care less. The only problem I have with non-college school in general is lugging home a 50-pound backpack full of books and shit. :/

[Dark]

You only have 2-3/night and 4-5/weekend and you think that's an absurdly large amount? I envy your tiny workload.

 

I'm pretty sure homework does not include studying' date=' but then that [i']would[/i] become an absurdly large amount. :/

 

As long as the homework is not bookwork, I could care less. The only problem I have with non-college school in general is lugging home a 50-pound backpack full of books and shit. :/

[Flinsbon]

By themselves, reading and writing do not teach anything (besides what the book is about if one is reading) because they are testing your abilities. For example, your teacher gives you a 5-7 page paper (which is the size of one of my essays) and tells you to go write it. You write it and hand it in when it's due. Now the paper is done, but what have you actually learned? If you have poor grammar skills, then your paper has poor grammar. If you had no idea what you were writing about, you still have no idea what you wrote about. If you used punctuation incorrectly, such as quotes or semicolons, you still have no idea how to use them.

 

As for reading, yes you read the book and understood it. Therefore, I guess you can say you learned about the book, but did you improve your ability to critically read? How could you if you read it? If you can critically read, then you critically read the book and didn't learn anything new about critical reading (you already knew it). If you can't read critically, then you simply read the book and got what you could out of it, but you didn't critically read, nor did you learn anything about critical reading.

 

Also, I can't cram for school because...

1. I take the bus and get to school 20 minutes b4 homeroom.

2. My Physics teacher makes us read the textbook and take notes for homework. Then he quizzes us on the section b4 he discusses the section in class.

3. All of my English teachers have said that they can tell if a paper was crammed or not and I really don't want to test that. Honestly, for the one I had last year, I wouldn't doubt it either.

4. We have a 25 minute lunch period because the traditional 42 minute period allotted time for too many food fights.

 

EDIT: The times I gave for homework (2-3 hrs school nights and 4-5 hours weekends) do NOT include studying. That is all bookwork/assignments/projects.

[Flinsbon]

By themselves, reading and writing do not teach anything (besides what the book is about if one is reading) because they are testing your abilities. For example, your teacher gives you a 5-7 page paper (which is the size of one of my essays) and tells you to go write it. You write it and hand it in when it's due. Now the paper is done, but what have you actually learned? If you have poor grammar skills, then your paper has poor grammar. If you had no idea what you were writing about, you still have no idea what you wrote about. If you used punctuation incorrectly, such as quotes or semicolons, you still have no idea how to use them.

 

As for reading, yes you read the book and understood it. Therefore, I guess you can say you learned about the book, but did you improve your ability to critically read? How could you if you read it? If you can critically read, then you critically read the book and didn't learn anything new about critical reading (you already knew it). If you can't read critically, then you simply read the book and got what you could out of it, but you didn't critically read, nor did you learn anything about critical reading.

 

Also, I can't cram for school because...

1. I take the bus and get to school 20 minutes b4 homeroom.

2. My Physics teacher makes us read the textbook and take notes for homework. Then he quizzes us on the section b4 he discusses the section in class.

3. All of my English teachers have said that they can tell if a paper was crammed or not and I really don't want to test that. Honestly, for the one I had last year, I wouldn't doubt it either.

4. We have a 25 minute lunch period because the traditional 42 minute period allotted time for too many food fights.

 

EDIT: The times I gave for homework (2-3 hrs school nights and 4-5 hours weekends) do NOT include studying. That is all bookwork/assignments/projects.

[Flinsbon]

By themselves, reading and writing do not teach anything (besides what the book is about if one is reading) because they are testing your abilities. For example, your teacher gives you a 5-7 page paper (which is the size of one of my essays) and tells you to go write it. You write it and hand it in when it's due. Now the paper is done, but what have you actually learned? If you have poor grammar skills, then your paper has poor grammar. If you had no idea what you were writing about, you still have no idea what you wrote about. If you used punctuation incorrectly, such as quotes or semicolons, you still have no idea how to use them.

 

As for reading, yes you read the book and understood it. Therefore, I guess you can say you learned about the book, but did you improve your ability to critically read? How could you if you read it? If you can critically read, then you critically read the book and didn't learn anything new about critical reading (you already knew it). If you can't read critically, then you simply read the book and got what you could out of it, but you didn't critically read, nor did you learn anything about critical reading.

 

Also, I can't cram for school because...

1. I take the bus and get to school 20 minutes b4 homeroom.

2. My Physics teacher makes us read the textbook and take notes for homework. Then he quizzes us on the section b4 he discusses the section in class.

3. All of my English teachers have said that they can tell if a paper was crammed or not and I really don't want to test that. Honestly, for the one I had last year, I wouldn't doubt it either.

4. We have a 25 minute lunch period because the traditional 42 minute period allotted time for too many food fights.

 

EDIT: The times I gave for homework (2-3 hrs school nights and 4-5 hours weekends) do NOT include studying. That is all bookwork/assignments/projects.

[Dark]

By themselves' date=' reading and writing do not teach anything (besides what the book is about if one is reading) because they are testing your abilities. For example, your teacher gives you a 5-7 page paper (which is the size of one of my essays) and tells you to go write it. You write it and hand it in when it's due. Now the paper is done, but what have you actually learned? If you have poor grammar skills, then your paper has poor grammar. If you had no idea what you were writing about, you still have no idea what you wrote about. If you used punctuation incorrectly, such as quotes or semicolons, you still have no idea how to use them.

 

[b']Erm, that's why most teachers grade the paper and use a bunch of red ink and give it back to you? So you can assess your mistakes and learn from them.[/b]

 

As for reading, yes you read the book and understood it. Therefore, I guess you can say you learned about the book, but did you improve your ability to critically read? How could you if you read it? If you can critically read, then you critically read the book and didn't learn anything new about critical reading (you already knew it). If you can't read critically, then you simply read the book and got what you could out of it, but you didn't critically read, nor did you learn anything about critical reading.

 

Knowledge of the author's writing style, +vocab, et cetera.

 

Also, I can't cram for school because...

1. I take the bus and get to school 20 minutes b4 homeroom.

2. My Physics teacher makes us read the textbook and take notes for homework. Then he quizzes us on the section b4 he discusses the section in class.

3. All of my English teachers have said that they can tell if a paper was crammed or not and I really don't want to test that. Honestly, for the one I had last year, I wouldn't doubt it either.

4. We have a 25 minute lunch period because the traditional 42 minute period allotted time for too many food fights.

 

EDIT: The times I gave for homework (2-3 hrs school nights and 4-5 hours weekends) do NOT include studying. That is all bookwork/assignments/projects.

 

Two hours for schoolnight homework isn't all that bad, minus studying. I said it was too much before, but now that I think about it, it isn't. Let's say you get home at four o'clock, latest. I get home at 2:30, but that is besides the point. From four to six you can finish your homework, presumably you do some extra-curriculars, and you can study from 9 to 11, for the most part. Unless you have six hours of extra-curriculars a day, then you are just screwed.

 

For the weekend, you have 48 hours in total to do shit. Fine, 28 assuming you sleep 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. 28 hours minus 4 for eating and sanitary purposes. 24, then. Four or five hours out of that 24 is nothing. Absolutely nothing.

[Dark]

By themselves' date=' reading and writing do not teach anything (besides what the book is about if one is reading) because they are testing your abilities. For example, your teacher gives you a 5-7 page paper (which is the size of one of my essays) and tells you to go write it. You write it and hand it in when it's due. Now the paper is done, but what have you actually learned? If you have poor grammar skills, then your paper has poor grammar. If you had no idea what you were writing about, you still have no idea what you wrote about. If you used punctuation incorrectly, such as quotes or semicolons, you still have no idea how to use them.

 

[b']Erm, that's why most teachers grade the paper and use a bunch of red ink and give it back to you? So you can assess your mistakes and learn from them.[/b]

 

As for reading, yes you read the book and understood it. Therefore, I guess you can say you learned about the book, but did you improve your ability to critically read? How could you if you read it? If you can critically read, then you critically read the book and didn't learn anything new about critical reading (you already knew it). If you can't read critically, then you simply read the book and got what you could out of it, but you didn't critically read, nor did you learn anything about critical reading.

 

Knowledge of the author's writing style, +vocab, et cetera.

 

Also, I can't cram for school because...

1. I take the bus and get to school 20 minutes b4 homeroom.

2. My Physics teacher makes us read the textbook and take notes for homework. Then he quizzes us on the section b4 he discusses the section in class.

3. All of my English teachers have said that they can tell if a paper was crammed or not and I really don't want to test that. Honestly, for the one I had last year, I wouldn't doubt it either.

4. We have a 25 minute lunch period because the traditional 42 minute period allotted time for too many food fights.

 

EDIT: The times I gave for homework (2-3 hrs school nights and 4-5 hours weekends) do NOT include studying. That is all bookwork/assignments/projects.

 

Two hours for schoolnight homework isn't all that bad, minus studying. I said it was too much before, but now that I think about it, it isn't. Let's say you get home at four o'clock, latest. I get home at 2:30, but that is besides the point. From four to six you can finish your homework, presumably you do some extra-curriculars, and you can study from 9 to 11, for the most part. Unless you have six hours of extra-curriculars a day, then you are just screwed.

 

For the weekend, you have 48 hours in total to do shit. Fine, 28 assuming you sleep 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. 28 hours minus 4 for eating and sanitary purposes. 24, then. Four or five hours out of that 24 is nothing. Absolutely nothing.

[Dark]

By themselves' date=' reading and writing do not teach anything (besides what the book is about if one is reading) because they are testing your abilities. For example, your teacher gives you a 5-7 page paper (which is the size of one of my essays) and tells you to go write it. You write it and hand it in when it's due. Now the paper is done, but what have you actually learned? If you have poor grammar skills, then your paper has poor grammar. If you had no idea what you were writing about, you still have no idea what you wrote about. If you used punctuation incorrectly, such as quotes or semicolons, you still have no idea how to use them.

 

[b']Erm, that's why most teachers grade the paper and use a bunch of red ink and give it back to you? So you can assess your mistakes and learn from them.[/b]

 

As for reading, yes you read the book and understood it. Therefore, I guess you can say you learned about the book, but did you improve your ability to critically read? How could you if you read it? If you can critically read, then you critically read the book and didn't learn anything new about critical reading (you already knew it). If you can't read critically, then you simply read the book and got what you could out of it, but you didn't critically read, nor did you learn anything about critical reading.

 

Knowledge of the author's writing style, +vocab, et cetera.

 

Also, I can't cram for school because...

1. I take the bus and get to school 20 minutes b4 homeroom.

2. My Physics teacher makes us read the textbook and take notes for homework. Then he quizzes us on the section b4 he discusses the section in class.

3. All of my English teachers have said that they can tell if a paper was crammed or not and I really don't want to test that. Honestly, for the one I had last year, I wouldn't doubt it either.

4. We have a 25 minute lunch period because the traditional 42 minute period allotted time for too many food fights.

 

EDIT: The times I gave for homework (2-3 hrs school nights and 4-5 hours weekends) do NOT include studying. That is all bookwork/assignments/projects.

 

Two hours for schoolnight homework isn't all that bad, minus studying. I said it was too much before, but now that I think about it, it isn't. Let's say you get home at four o'clock, latest. I get home at 2:30, but that is besides the point. From four to six you can finish your homework, presumably you do some extra-curriculars, and you can study from 9 to 11, for the most part. Unless you have six hours of extra-curriculars a day, then you are just screwed.

 

For the weekend, you have 48 hours in total to do shit. Fine, 28 assuming you sleep 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. 28 hours minus 4 for eating and sanitary purposes. 24, then. Four or five hours out of that 24 is nothing. Absolutely nothing.

[Flinsbon]

1. From December to February I am on the Bowling team and get home at 7.

2. You win on the weekend, though I've never had a problem there, anyway.

3. I said that reading and writing do nothing by themselves. You brought a teacher into the equation (at least, for writing you did).

4. Now that I think about it, I am usually stuck doing homework until 11 after bowling, so I guess I get 4 hrs of homework per night with 5-6 on the weekends.

 

Also, the time it takes to do homework varies, so sometimes it takes less than 4 hrs and sometimes it takes way more. I can remember a school night when I started my homework at 3 and finished at 10 (with 1/2 hr for dinner). No joke.

[Flinsbon]

1. From December to February I am on the Bowling team and get home at 7.

2. You win on the weekend, though I've never had a problem there, anyway.

3. I said that reading and writing do nothing by themselves. You brought a teacher into the equation (at least, for writing you did).

4. Now that I think about it, I am usually stuck doing homework until 11 after bowling, so I guess I get 4 hrs of homework per night with 5-6 on the weekends.

 

Also, the time it takes to do homework varies, so sometimes it takes less than 4 hrs and sometimes it takes way more. I can remember a school night when I started my homework at 3 and finished at 10 (with 1/2 hr for dinner). No joke.

[Flinsbon]

1. From December to February I am on the Bowling team and get home at 7.

2. You win on the weekend, though I've never had a problem there, anyway.

3. I said that reading and writing do nothing by themselves. You brought a teacher into the equation (at least, for writing you did).

4. Now that I think about it, I am usually stuck doing homework until 11 after bowling, so I guess I get 4 hrs of homework per night with 5-6 on the weekends.

 

Also, the time it takes to do homework varies, so sometimes it takes less than 4 hrs and sometimes it takes way more. I can remember a school night when I started my homework at 3 and finished at 10 (with 1/2 hr for dinner). No joke.

[Dark]

1. From December to February I am on the Bowling team and get home at 7.

2. You win on the weekend' date=' though I've never had a problem there, anyway.

3. I said that reading and writing do nothing by themselves. You brought a teacher into the equation (at least, for writing you did).

4. Now that I think about it, I am usually stuck doing homework until 11 after bowling, so I guess I get 4 hrs of homework per night with 5-6 on the weekends.

 

Also, the time it takes to do homework varies, so sometimes it takes less than 4 hrs and sometimes it takes way more. I can remember a school night when I started my homework at 3 and finished at 10 (with 1/2 hr for dinner). No joke.

[/quote']

 

1.) I do admit that is rough, but how can bowling practice take that long? Don't get me wrong; I've played actual competitive bowling before. But even in my school, practice starts are 3 and ends at 5. I don't understand how you can go from the minute school ends to 7 pm doing nothing but bowling. But yeah, that does eat up a shitload of time.

2.) <3

3.) Well, without writing that essay your teacher couldn't grade anything and you couldn't learn. Face it, although I brought a teacher into the equation, writing the actual essay is still necessary. You can't expect to learn any more about writing if you don't practice, and your teacher can't use red ink unless there is paper to use it on. :/

4.) I've had rough nights, too. But you really just got to suck it up and move on. Do I agree with math teachers giving sixty problems for homework? No. Because while you are getting practice, I believe there is a point where practice just turns repetitive. For example, if a lesson is split up into three subsections, you should be doing a decent amount of homework for each subsection. But assigning every problem in the damn book isn't helping shit. So while the homework load should be lessened (really, I only see that for math), I don't really agree with your first post.

 

And has it ever crossed your mind that you may do homework at a slower pace than others?

[Dark]

1. From December to February I am on the Bowling team and get home at 7.

2. You win on the weekend' date=' though I've never had a problem there, anyway.

3. I said that reading and writing do nothing by themselves. You brought a teacher into the equation (at least, for writing you did).

4. Now that I think about it, I am usually stuck doing homework until 11 after bowling, so I guess I get 4 hrs of homework per night with 5-6 on the weekends.

 

Also, the time it takes to do homework varies, so sometimes it takes less than 4 hrs and sometimes it takes way more. I can remember a school night when I started my homework at 3 and finished at 10 (with 1/2 hr for dinner). No joke.

[/quote']

 

1.) I do admit that is rough, but how can bowling practice take that long? Don't get me wrong; I've played actual competitive bowling before. But even in my school, practice starts are 3 and ends at 5. I don't understand how you can go from the minute school ends to 7 pm doing nothing but bowling. But yeah, that does eat up a shitload of time.

2.) <3

3.) Well, without writing that essay your teacher couldn't grade anything and you couldn't learn. Face it, although I brought a teacher into the equation, writing the actual essay is still necessary. You can't expect to learn any more about writing if you don't practice, and your teacher can't use red ink unless there is paper to use it on. :/

4.) I've had rough nights, too. But you really just got to suck it up and move on. Do I agree with math teachers giving sixty problems for homework? No. Because while you are getting practice, I believe there is a point where practice just turns repetitive. For example, if a lesson is split up into three subsections, you should be doing a decent amount of homework for each subsection. But assigning every problem in the damn book isn't helping shit. So while the homework load should be lessened (really, I only see that for math), I don't really agree with your first post.

 

And has it ever crossed your mind that you may do homework at a slower pace than others?

[Dark]

1. From December to February I am on the Bowling team and get home at 7.

2. You win on the weekend' date=' though I've never had a problem there, anyway.

3. I said that reading and writing do nothing by themselves. You brought a teacher into the equation (at least, for writing you did).

4. Now that I think about it, I am usually stuck doing homework until 11 after bowling, so I guess I get 4 hrs of homework per night with 5-6 on the weekends.

 

Also, the time it takes to do homework varies, so sometimes it takes less than 4 hrs and sometimes it takes way more. I can remember a school night when I started my homework at 3 and finished at 10 (with 1/2 hr for dinner). No joke.

[/quote']

 

1.) I do admit that is rough, but how can bowling practice take that long? Don't get me wrong; I've played actual competitive bowling before. But even in my school, practice starts are 3 and ends at 5. I don't understand how you can go from the minute school ends to 7 pm doing nothing but bowling. But yeah, that does eat up a shitload of time.

2.) <3

3.) Well, without writing that essay your teacher couldn't grade anything and you couldn't learn. Face it, although I brought a teacher into the equation, writing the actual essay is still necessary. You can't expect to learn any more about writing if you don't practice, and your teacher can't use red ink unless there is paper to use it on. :/

4.) I've had rough nights, too. But you really just got to suck it up and move on. Do I agree with math teachers giving sixty problems for homework? No. Because while you are getting practice, I believe there is a point where practice just turns repetitive. For example, if a lesson is split up into three subsections, you should be doing a decent amount of homework for each subsection. But assigning every problem in the damn book isn't helping shit. So while the homework load should be lessened (really, I only see that for math), I don't really agree with your first post.

 

And has it ever crossed your mind that you may do homework at a slower pace than others?

[Flinsbon]

1. We leave school at 3 for the bowling alley. It takes 1/2 hr to get there, then each match is 3 hrs, then it takes 1/2 hr to get back to school. The only practice days are usually 2 or 3 days during the week before the season starts.

2. (done)

3. Point taken.

4. We shouldn't have to suck it up. That's my point.

 

I have learned through conversation with others that I do my homework rather quickly.

 

Just as a side note, there is a school around here where students are not allowed to have more than 45 minutes of homework each night because the school knows the students have after-school activities and need sleep.

[Flinsbon]

1. We leave school at 3 for the bowling alley. It takes 1/2 hr to get there, then each match is 3 hrs, then it takes 1/2 hr to get back to school. The only practice days are usually 2 or 3 days during the week before the season starts.

2. (done)

3. Point taken.

4. We shouldn't have to suck it up. That's my point.

 

I have learned through conversation with others that I do my homework rather quickly.

 

Just as a side note, there is a school around here where students are not allowed to have more than 45 minutes of homework each night because the school knows the students have after-school activities and need sleep.