"Do your homework!"
Is this good advice? Are we helping to create a generation of well-educated students or are we wasting the time of young people and smothering their love of learning?
That is the subject of a recent column in the Seattle Times: Homework hater's spiel makes sense.
The article is a about a recent a lecture delivered by Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing.
As a teacher and a parent, I think there is a point to this article, but the reporting here is a bit simplistic - I suspect reading Kohn's books would point out that not ALL homework is bad, but that a lot of the stuff we teachers give out is unnecessary. (I made it a policy when I became a teacher years ago to avoid giving my students "busywork". I don't know how well I've adhered to that policy, but I try!)
Keeping in mind that U.S. Constitution saays that our government was designed to promote the general welfare and that our Washington State Constitution declares education to be the "paramount duty of the State", check this article out.
What are your thoughts on how well our education system is designed? Do you think it has lost its focus as the author cited in the article does?
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2 comments:
Like Kohn says, " we are pushing children to achieve, not to learn." I agree to what he says because students might do there homework but might not learn anything. Students get alot of homework so when they do a homework they dont read every word so they dont learn. Parents want there children to get good grades and want them to have homework. Do the parents think that having homework will make their children learn?
~Joanna Izazaga~
5th period
Current event #3
There are alot of things I agree with in this article and alot I disagree with. One thing I toatlly agree on is how excessive amount of homework just makes a child stressed and overwhelmed. But that doesn't mean we shouldnt get homework, but I think there should be a limit on the amount of work that needs to be done at home and what needs to be done in class. But both are hard, because hey we're kids and when we are in class, we want to socialize with our friends and when we're not in school, we are either with friends again or want to go home and relax. not go home and stress out about the homework. Another thing I agree on is how the whole test thing is more about competition then really learning and caring about subjects. And how its not useful to give the same homeowrk to every student. Some students are motivated and are self driven. Others are not. So its a waste of time trying to get them to do certain assignments, becuase they just AREN'T going to do it. They need someone to be at their side helping them along the whole time.
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