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Down with homework!
Sep. 26th, 2006 03:15 pmI dearly love what Orson Scott Card has to say about homework and its lack of usefulness. He even explains how studies done have shown that there is no noticeable connection between lots of homework and improved learning. Having gone through a pretty average public schooling, I have to agree with what he has to say about the current state of homework. Honestly, I was the guy who never missed a single homework assignment going through school, and I did fairly well on my tests, but I can honestly say that only a small fraction of the homework I did ever taught me anything.
In fact, I have learned more geography and history from cartoons and personal reading than anything ever taught or assigned in school. I learned more math from a few problems done in class than I ever did doing hundreds for homework. I may have learned a tiny bit, but it no where was worth the amount that I had to do. I remember struggling for hours every evening, trying to do a handful of AP physics problems, and never really understanding a whole lot better. Yet, in ten minutes of class, I could understand at least half of them due to some simple explanation. What's worse, homework never taught me how to learn and recall information. It only taught me how to look up specific words or phrases and to regurgitate it back for a test, never actually keeping more than a fraction of it. I'm paying for that now, coming out of 16-17 years of schooling and not recalling much of anything.
Although, I have to say I also have a problem with the way they sometimes teach in classes as well. I have a decently large vocabulary with absolutely no thanks whatsoever to school. Any knowledge of the intricacies of the language, such as parts of speech and grammar, I learned accidentally through all my reading. My education in proper grammatical structure and parts of speech I vaguely recall as being covered for a few minutes a day for like a week, back in middle school. That was it. I have friends in college who still can barely read. I honestly think we need to go back to the older ways of learning, such as by rote, song, and mnemonic devices. I mean, honestly, would anyone remember the color scale arrangement if it weren't for ROY G BIV? I've learned the majority of the countries of the world thanks to an old Animaniacs song. I remember Magellan because of them as well. I can remember nursery rhymes from when I was like seven easier than I can remember what I learned in high school, or heck, last year.
My long-winded two cents. Five cents or so, given inflation.
In fact, I have learned more geography and history from cartoons and personal reading than anything ever taught or assigned in school. I learned more math from a few problems done in class than I ever did doing hundreds for homework. I may have learned a tiny bit, but it no where was worth the amount that I had to do. I remember struggling for hours every evening, trying to do a handful of AP physics problems, and never really understanding a whole lot better. Yet, in ten minutes of class, I could understand at least half of them due to some simple explanation. What's worse, homework never taught me how to learn and recall information. It only taught me how to look up specific words or phrases and to regurgitate it back for a test, never actually keeping more than a fraction of it. I'm paying for that now, coming out of 16-17 years of schooling and not recalling much of anything.
Although, I have to say I also have a problem with the way they sometimes teach in classes as well. I have a decently large vocabulary with absolutely no thanks whatsoever to school. Any knowledge of the intricacies of the language, such as parts of speech and grammar, I learned accidentally through all my reading. My education in proper grammatical structure and parts of speech I vaguely recall as being covered for a few minutes a day for like a week, back in middle school. That was it. I have friends in college who still can barely read. I honestly think we need to go back to the older ways of learning, such as by rote, song, and mnemonic devices. I mean, honestly, would anyone remember the color scale arrangement if it weren't for ROY G BIV? I've learned the majority of the countries of the world thanks to an old Animaniacs song. I remember Magellan because of them as well. I can remember nursery rhymes from when I was like seven easier than I can remember what I learned in high school, or heck, last year.
My long-winded two cents. Five cents or so, given inflation.
