Homework: A Neccessary Evil?

It's certainly evil, and it's certainly not ALL neccessary.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050731/NEWS010202/507310367

"'Usually I get home and I eat dinner and do homework until I go to bed,' which is typically 9:30 p.m., Rebekah said. ... Such is the plight of today's active student ..."

9:30!? I wish... even in 8th grade that would've been pretty early for me, and I was getting home at 3:40, not 6:00.

"Lucian Doyle said he gives reading assignments to his biology students at Fairdale High School so they will seek answers to homework questions in the text. That reinforces what he's teaching in class and, he hopes, encourages students to seek more information on a subject."

How in the world are we supposed to seek more information when we barely have time to get through what we have!? I'd love to study more about quarks, or the histroy of Belgium, or the Iroquois Confederacy, but I have no time. Homework eats up hours that could be spent researching more interesting things -- not to mention, well, sleeping for once.

"'It seems like teachers don't realize we have other classes,' Stephanie said."

Quite true. At least, they don't seem to talk to each other enough.

"Many students hold part-time jobs and participate in extracurricular activities, and Doyle said he wouldn't necessarily encourage them to drop those. In fact, he said he wishes more students had extracurricular activities."

Yes! So do we! But we can't because of your homework!

"Doyle's advice: Never get behind."

Again, quite true, but easier said than done. What do you do when you have pneumonia, miss a week of classes, and return to find three different huge projects going on at the same time?

Now, the article says, "Teachers give homework for several reasons, the National PTA says. The reasons include helping students review what's covered in class and giving teachers a way to check whether students understand the lessons." Right. Got it. So how about making amount of homework inversely proportional to class performance?

And while you're at it, base it on the Xbox Live TrueSkill Ranking system. After all, you shouldn't neccessarily be overwhelmed with homework after one little slip-up, and with TrueSkill it can all be a bit more steady. If you get a bunch of homework for, say, Science -- and do it all -- you're probably going to do well on that test, since you know the material so well. So then you won't have homework for a while. Then, when the next test comes along, you'll do badly because you haven't been doing anything on it. That's why you don't want sudden jumps and DO want pretty frequent evaluations -- the TrueSkill rank can take into account homework, too, not just quizzes and tests. So, yes, homework must remain in some form -- but perhaps the load could at least be lightened somewhat.

All in favor say "aye."

(Aye!)