Saturday, February 15, 2014

Is Homework Poor Time Management On The Part of the Teacher?

My children are homeschooled by my ex-wife, so I've never had to worry much about them having homework. But I've seen plenty of it on the part of my friends.

A guy I worked with several years ago claimed his son came home from school and occasionally had to stay up until 10 just working on homework.

It's been more than 20 years since I was in high school, but I doubt things have changed much since then. If anything, things have gotten worse.

The majority of teachers I had were not very good with time. In a 50 minute class, even a hard charging teacher might get 20-30 minutes of actual lesson time. After dealing with all the late comers, taking attendance and other administrative matters, there wasn't much time for actual lessons before it was time to wrap up before the bell rang signalling the end of class.

So do teachers assign homework because it's better for the student, or is it more because there's not enough time in class or they can't manage the available time?

I also wonder something. Is homework sending the wrong message to children? As an adult, if you bring work home and neglect your family and friends to get it done, you're a workaholic and there's something wrong with you. But it's OK to load students up with a bunch of crap that infringes on their personal time, only to tell them a few years later they need counseling if they continue the practice?

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