The War Against Homework

The Survey

2008-03-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

At last, something new to write about! Just today I have begun the Homework Survey at school! Already, 62 students have been surveyed. It is the first big step against homework we've had since this semester started.

Here are the abbreviated results from day 1. More in-depth reports will be made once the survey is complete.

Very Summarized Results of the Homework Survey

Day 1

62 students surveyed thus far, though some questions were left blank.

Grade: Average is 8.59th grade. Mostly made up of 7th and 9th graders.

Gender: A good many more males than females seem to have taken the survey.

How many minutes of homework a night? Average is 59.85.

In general this amount is: Too much 29(46.8%) Just right 25(40.3%) Not enough 6(9.7%)

Subject that takes up most of time: 51 answers included math. 11 others.

1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree.... Numbers you see are averaged answers.

I have too much homework. 3.59

Homework helps me learn. 2.72

Homework helps me do well on tests. 3.15

Less homework would be better for me. 4.03

More homework would be better for me. 1.64

I always do my homework. 3.4

Homework stresses me out. 3.87

I often cheat and copy answers on homework. 2.1

Most teachers give fair amounts of homework, but certain teachers overload: Most answers were True.

Does homework often make you stay up late? Most answers were Occasionally.

Would you favor a change in your school's homework policy?
Yes 83.9%

No 14.5%

Don't Care 1.6%

8th Place

2008-01-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

I competed in a Debate Tournament last weekend, which includes many other small events as well. One of these is Oratory, which is to give your own pre-written persuasive speech.

I gave mine on why we should reduce homework in the United States.

I got 8th place.

One of the judges who thought of me more highly said that although he may be "too old"(his words) to connect with the homework issue, I was very close to convincing him.

I will compete in the same event on Saturday, and hopefully do even better.

This just shows that it isn't too hard to show people how harmful homework can be!

A Backwards System

2008-01-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been challenging myself to look at everything differently. I find that I discover many new things about the society around me... It is quite interesting actually.

I have found that the school system is quite sensible from one perspective, but entirely nonsensical from another. It's hard to discern which one is right, but I think there's a little bit of both involved.

Take, for example, 'honors classes':

First perspective.
Honors classes are for the more advanced students. They get more work, and proceed in their studies faster because they need a challenge to keep them at their intellectual best. They can handle the work better, and it speeds up their learning.

Second perspective(and my favorite).
We put the more advanced students in honors classes to seperate them. But they are supposed to be faster learners, aren't they? So why do we give them more work? The work is given to teach, right? So shouldn't they require less work to learn the lesson? Plus, we could move through lessons faster, so they learn faster. It accomplishes the goals of an honors class, without all the extra work.

See what I mean? When you read the first perspective, it seems perfectly reasonable. But when you look at the second one you have your doubts.

But most people are all too content with only reading the first perspective.

Overload

2008-01-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a LONG time since the last post, but I want to make sure you realize that neither the war against homework OR this blog are even close to dead. I plan on updating at least twice a week again, starting this week!

The reason for the delay was this: after my last post, I decided that I should make a YouTube video to really spread the word about homework. But first I decided that over the Christmas break I should research a whole lot more on the subject before making the video. I planned to post the video on the web on the first day of school, then resume posting in the blog.

But, instead, I ended up doing a lot of other things over the break, and was unable to continue reading "The Case Against Homework". So there goes that plan.

Now I'm too overloaded with homework(well... maybe more other things) again to finish the book, but I plan to continue renewing it from the library untill I can finish.

So, keep an eye out for my next post! I will try to read more, but I've got so much other stuff to do!

Questions

2007-12-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

So, I asked about 6 or 7 different teachers if they think homework was necessary... and hardly any of them gave me a very solid answer.

No one said absolutely not, and no one said absolutely yes. Most of them explained how in some circumstances homework was necessary and in some circumstances it wasn't. Here were some of the reasons they gave for giving homework:

Don't have time to teach everything in class.
Reinforcing what you learned during class.
Teaching things that couldn't be done otherwise.

Now, really I could have started throwing out arguments against all these reasons, but I refrained. This was just a time to question some teachers on their views, and maybe introduce the idea of reduced homework.

And as far as those goals; it went perfect.

I wrote an oratory about how we should not have homework, and my bible teacher said he would be happy for me to speak in class on Monday. I already gave the speech during advisory, and it went pretty well.

Some teachers are more supportive of my views than others, and some think that their homework is good while other teacher's homework is pointless. Either way, the great homework debate is going to get started pretty soon, I think.

Here are some more questions put on the "Ask Teachers" agenda:

Have you had any classes or studies on the effectiveness of homework?
Is your homework worth it?
How much time do you think your homework takes kids?(if their estimate is way off, tell them)

Answers

2007-11-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

Not so long ago school wasn't required at all. You could go if you wanted to, but even then it wasn't nearly as intense as today's education. Were we so much stupider then? Has all this education made much of difference? Well, yes... I guess there are many ways that this has shown a difference.

But why do we need a difference? Ignorance is bliss, so why is such education required today?

Well, because the country wants advancement. They want to have a higher literacy rates, and higher GPA's. They want to find the secrets of Mars before the other countries get at it. We want to cure cancer; we want to own the only efficient alternative fuel. The U.S.(and most other countries, too) are in a race. And without education of the masses, they have little hope of winning that race.

So that's why the government set a requirement. That requirement was for schools, and kids are given an allotted amount of time in which they must be educated BY LAW.

But that actually isn't what is bad. What is bad is that teachers continue to feel like they need to reach past this allotted time of education. They feel like without extra hours of work at home, the kids won't learn what they need to succeed.

Schools think that they should make kids do MORE work than the government has deemed necessary. And still, I can't find a sound answer for why.

Why can't we fit all of our learning into the 7 hours you ALREADY take up every day?

Is homework needed, and if so, why?

Really... I want an answer. If anyone would like to give me one, please drop it in my inbox at robotboy1993@yahoo.com.

I promise not to be critical of your comment.

Over the next few days I am going to ask this question of many teachers and anyone else who will answer. My next post will hold some of the answers I received.

315 days.

2007-11-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

7 hours a day X 5 days a week X 36 weeks a year X 6 years= 7560 hours of school during High school/junior high.

Converted into days: 315. WOW! That is almost an entire year! We spend nearly an entire year at SCHOOL! And did you know that many studies say that you could fit everything you actually LEARNED(and kept) into a 6 month class? Wow... talk about waste.

Wasting Our Time

2007-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

Every year, since 7th grade and on till I graduate, I will have a 45 minute period set aside for math. I will have this 45 minute period once a day 5 days a week for an entire school year. That is about 200 days all together. Multiply that by 6, it is 1200 days. 45 minutes multiplied by 1200 days is 54000 minutes or 900 hours. Yup... that is 37.5 days.

Wait... but we are forgetting the additional homework. Math is, afterall, the class with the MOST homework. There have been many a night that I have had over 45 minutes of math homework. That doubles the amount of that days math! But of course, taking into account all of the days we have little or no homework, lets say that in my grade we have an average of 15 minutes a night. So now we change that 45 minutes a day to 1 hour a day. So now that is 1200 hours... or 50 days altogether.

Now THAT is a lot of math during high school! Fifty entire days between age 12 and 17 are filled with MATH! Not necessarily even USING math, just 'learning' it!

So I must need math pretty bad to go on with life, right? I don't think so.

What about those of us whose careers won't involve math at all? There are journalists, writers, firemen, many types of military service... there are countless jobs that don't use an ounce of math! So how do schools justify wasting our time in such a way?

Well... they say that they want to leave all the job oppurtunities open for us in case we change our minds! You say "They're children; they can't choose their career now!"... but we can.

Think about all of the Chinese schools, the Korean schools, the German schools! They put their children on their career path as soon as age 5! Sure, many people don't end up liking their jobs... but I would say even less like their jobs in America!

If you confront us with a serious choice at an early age then chances are we will make the right choice. I have set my mind towards journalism, and I don't see myself changing my mind anytime soon. So that means those 50 days of math are just wasting my time.

Now, I realize its hard to change some things. We can't just knock math right off of students agendas, because there are some things we can't change. But why do math teachers have to give SO much homework, when other teachers give nothing? If all the other subjects produced that much homework, we would never have time to do anything after school at all!

All I'm asking is that we lessen the load of a class that is just wasting away so much of our time!

Stopping Homework: Step 1

2007-11-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

If you are a student reading this blog, you are probably delighted. But if you are an adult you are probably clicking your tongue at our "foolishness".

Most of you probably think that we are just acting like children. You think we are complaining about something we can't understand.

But trust me; we understand. Or at least some of us do. I could possibly even use the phrase "I've done my homework." I have looked at the studies. I argued with people. I have read essays. I have seen all perspectives of this argument, and I must say that HOMEWORK IS NOT A GOOD THING!

So there it is. That is the first step to stopping homework. Realizing that it isn't good. This might be the hardest step for many people, because society has always told us that students are meant to do homework.

We aren't.

"Homework wrecks families." - Orson Scott Card, Author of Ender's Game, a book on CAC's own reading list.

"But the level of homework and anxiety my son deals with on a daily basis is well beyond anything healthy." - Jeff Opdyke of the Wall Street Journal

But wait... some of you may not believe me, right? Well just wait and see; I promise I have a strong case.