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What Does Homework Do?

What does homework do?


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Cilogy

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Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.

Do you think it does any of the following?
- Reinforces the lesson
- Teaches responsibility
- Prepares us for real life
- And more?

I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]
 
Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.



I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]

Well, it depends what homework they give you. However the idea of homework is good.
1. First off, college and real life requires you to do work on your own. Homework is just that, work you do when you're not at school. It teaches responsibility.
2. Homework is good for learning if done correctly.

The problem in many schools in the US, is that homework counts more like extra coursework who counts a lot. Students should start learning to make their own homework because they need to do them to be able to learn the material.
 
Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.



I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]

I voted "it reinforces the lesson" and "it prepares you for the real world."

It reinforces the lesson because you're doing school work outside the school. Schools only have a limited amount of time within the school to teach certain subjects. Doing work at home gives the student extra time to learn about subjects. Also, they can work at their own pace at home, which allows them to better learn things according to their individual learning style. This increases how much they are able to learn on the whole.

It prepares you for the real world because even though you're going to be hired to work a certain number of hours a day you're going to have to take some work home with you at some point. You might strive to categorize your life at home with your work life, but at some point the two will mix and it won't be helped. Best go ahead and get used to that.
 
It really depends on the school, the teacher, and the class itself.

Some of my High School teachers have me damn good homework, even though I hated it. But some gave me homework because it was in their job description.
 
I say it depends on the homework too. Good homework forces you to go deeper into the subject you learn. My biology teacher had us look out for, and cut or print, articles that are related to biology or life sciences and write a few sentences of our take on it. I still look for articles to this day. Some teachers just give worksheets for homework because they are expected to give some homework. Those, more often than not, are an annoyance.
 
It keeps us up late into the night, that's what it does :lol: Honestly this question really depends on the class and teacher. In my Chem 2 class homework serves to teach us the lesson before the professor actually talks about what we need to know :rofl I would say that typically homework is for reinforcing what it taught in lecture, and to give students more material that goes towards their final grade.
 
Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.



I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]

School doesn't end when the bell rings. Mentally you're almost always 'in class' and homework is supposed to enable that.
 
Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.



I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]

There's a similar thread in the education forum so I'll just copy and paste my post from their.

I think it does all of those. When you go over the same subject in class and then again that night I think it reinforces the lessons learned in class. It teaches responsibility because your teacher isn't there to make you do your work you have to choose to do it. And I think it prepares us for real like since it teaches responsibility, plus some stuff you learn in school you need for real life.
 
The biggest problem with homework is if you understand the content, it is a waste of time. Personally, I don't have enough time to do all my homework, even if I work from the moment I get back to the time I go to sleep, because I have about 4 hours to do homework, when I count eating time, and personal hygiene in the time I have.

The stuff I lose out on while I'm doing homework is looking ahead at material we are going to learn, and I'm also getting ready for the SAT I and II subject tests, and my Mock Trial team is going to State (I'm the Pre-trial Attorney, and Expert Witness for Defense, and a team captain), so I have almost no time at all. Weekends are the only time I have anything close to a life.

Homework should only be necessary if you do not understand the concept. As such, teachers should give daily quizzes on material studied the day before, and if a student fails the quiz, then they get homework for the material on the test. Then, next week, the students should get a quiz for all material studied the week before. Any material you fail on, more work. Homework should be to reinforce lessons for people who need reinforcement, not just something to be handed out liberally to occupy students at home.
 
Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.



I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]

It's mostly busy work. In math it is important because repetition really helps with math concepts. It does prepare you for the continuation of this type of BS in adult life. Academics have taken over many regulatory and bureaucratic agencies and cram this crap down the throats of people all the time.
 
I did the IB program and our homework was an extension of the class discussion which forced us to either exercise and apply what was taught or force us to think critically and apply the lesson etc.

Example: How to evaluate sources in history class. Go home and evaluate 3 sources on any topic.

etc.

Id say it was useful.

I cant speak for domestic high school homework.
 
I did the IB program and our homework was an extension of the class discussion which forced us to either exercise and apply what was taught or force us to think critically and apply the lesson etc.

Example: How to evaluate sources in history class. Go home and evaluate 3 sources on any topic.

etc.

Id say it was useful.

I cant speak for domestic high school homework.

It didn't seem to help you learn to use commas or apostrophes, nor construct sentences correctly, eh? ;)
 
I havent taken a grammar class since the 6th grade.

I mind those sorts of things... on essays.:2wave:
 
It reinforces the lesson and teaches the responsibility of time management and deadlines. In the real world, that is what most people will live with to some degree or another: deadlines.

Also, the best types of homework will teach you how to learn something on your own in a disciplined fashion. How to break something up into smaller pieces and synthesize what you have learned, for example. Learning how to teach yourself is one of the greatest things a person can acquire.
 
It's something kids can help each other out with and become friends.

Kids learn neatness and organizational skills.

It teaches kids to follow instructions. The importance of being on time.

Of course it's best to do it right after school so you have the rest of the day free.
 
It reinforces the lesson and teaches the responsibility of time management and deadlines. In the real world, that is what most people will live with to some degree or another: deadlines.

Also, the best types of homework will teach you how to learn something on your own in a disciplined fashion. How to break something up into smaller pieces and synthesize what you have learned, for example. Learning how to teach yourself is one of the greatest things a person can acquire.

But if you already know it, it's just a waste of time. time that could be spent doing other important things.
 
Some kids might need to repeat things over and over to learn them, but in most cases homework is a total waste of time. If you learn the subject matter it shouldn't matter how you acquired that knowledge. For homework to make up the majority of our grading system is ridiculous. Assign it if you must, but there's no reason to penalize kids who are able to learn in other ways.

It doesn't teach responsibility, it teaches that mindless grunt work is more important than innovation or being right. It doesn't prepare us for real life, it turns our kids into sheeple.
 
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Some kids might need to repeat things over and over to learn them, but in most cases homework is a total waste of time. If you learn the subject matter it shouldn't matter how you acquired that knowledge. For homework to make up the majority of our grading system is ridiculous. Assign it if you must, but there's no reason to penalize kids who are able to learn in other ways.

It doesn't teach responsibility, it teaches that mindless grunt work is more important than innovation or being right. It doesn't prepare us for real life, it turns our kids into sheeple.

I disagree. Grunt work is part of life. Being able to do grunt work (work you dislike) is part of learning responsibility. As Einstein said: Success is 5% inspiration, 95% perspiration. It's grunt work + innovation that makes for success. Very few people succeed because they are smart alone. Most successful people will tell you they work very hard to get what they have.
 
I disagree. Grunt work is part of life. Being able to do grunt work (work you dislike) is part of learning responsibility. As Einstein said: Success is 5% inspiration, 95% perspiration. It's grunt work + innovation that makes for success. Very few people succeed because they are smart alone. Most successful people will tell you they work very hard to get what they have.

But you don't dispute that innovation is necessary to succeed in life? Maybe that's why our economy is going down the drain. Our education system, along with our jobs, work only to dull our minds, and break our souls.

I seem to recall that all of the biggies in our economic history, such as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, thought ouside the box.
 
Not "necessary" eaxactly. There are people who never take risk or have a new idea in their life and still do well in life, enough to be qualified as "successful". But most successful people are innovative people who take risks. And America's education system is not that bad a place for innovation. In my experience it's much less rigid than other systems that concentrate too much on exams and as a result produce students that score well on international science or maths tests. There are pros and cons to both. Students need to both be well educated in the formal disciplines of Science and Maths, and have enough space to be creative and take risks.
 
Not "necessary" eaxactly. There are people who never take risk or have a new idea in their life and still do well in life, enough to be qualified as "successful". But most successful people are innovative people who take risks. And America's education system is not that bad a place for innovation. In my experience it's much less rigid than other systems that concentrate too much on exams and as a result produce students that score well on international science or maths tests. There are pros and cons to both. Students need to both be well educated in the formal disciplines of Science and Maths, and have enough space to be creative and take risks.

I dunno, I personally favor the idea of teaching and taking tests. I just hate homework because it cuts down on my time for extra stuff, and I already understand it all, so I loathe having to take time I could be spending on Mock Trial or SAT prep and using it on finding the molecular formula using the amount of moles of hydrogen and carbon in a substance. It's redundant, and a waste of time.

I'm sure the smarter students would prefer just taking tests, and the stupid ones would prefer lots of homework to boost their grade.
 
Homework is just another form of learning. Classwork is typically a lecture (i.e., aural learning) and homework is writing (i.e., learning by doing).
 
Brought up by Gargantuan in this thread.



I'm a recent high school grad, and I gotta say that only in the last 3 three years of my public school life did my homework actually make me a more knowledgeable and productive human being. Other than that, its mostly just busy work.

What do you think?

[Sorry if this is already a poll, feel free to delete or move this thread.]

It all depends on how much you put into it. You can make homework nothing more than a chore to have to do, in which case you'll probably not take much away from it. Or you can treat it seriously, try to understand the problems you're solving and why you're solving them in particular manners. Then it can teach a bit about the subject, reinforce things already taught in class, and prepare a student to engage with questions which cover similar ideas but are worded differently. It really comes down to how much effort a person wants to put in. I used to have to tutor (glad that's over), and you'd wonder how some of the students I tutored made it into college. One girl would have me go through the questions at the end of the chapter, pretty much one right after another. But they'd be the same thing. Maybe one has constant acceleration where another problem has constant deceleration. And she couldn't understand how to solve one after I solved the other for her (they're the same questions essentially). She put no effort into understanding the subject, and as a result couldn't even perform the most trivial of tasks.

Homework can be a very good way for a student to sit down, think about what they learned, and to apply it on their own to see if they can figure out the challenge. But you have to be willing to put in that effort. Otherwise, you can just copy. You won't learn anything, you'll probably do bad on tests, but you won't have to put in effort on the homework and can continue going around thinking how it's useless and how you know everything already. Up to you.
 
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