3 ms·

I totally agree that the homework load can be crazy. My son I mentioned above used to bring home an inordinate amount of homework a couple of years ago. But i

I totally agree that the homework load can be crazy. My son I mentioned above used to bring home an inordinate amount of homework a couple of years ago. But it seems that his school has seen the light, as we've noticed that he and his brother do have a much lighter daily homework load this year. But that seems to have been replaced with more longer term projects and assignments (all of which they leave till the last minute - ^sigh^)

thriftwy 9y ago
You can't expect children to plan assignments! Heck, you don't expect adults to plan anything either, until they hit management. For specialists and even team leaders, they do what's on their plate and everything which isn't, they don't. It is madness to expect from undergrads to not do everything at the last minute, but for school students it's laughable. I can plan one thing. I can't plan five assignments that just fell on me, with due date far in the future. If my work would be structured like that I'd fail it either.
- jacobolus 9y ago
  School is horrible at teaching people to tackle non-trivial projects, because almost no time is spent practicing it. Figuring out how to break a large job into small pieces, do one piece at a time, and stick with the project until all of the pieces are done is a critical skill which can only be learned through practice. Someone who is 8 or 10 years old should be able to start doing projects that take hours of sustained effort stretched over a few days (as compared to the typical schoolwork which consists of externally specified small exercises that require a few minutes each), with a lot of hand holding. By age 18, after 10 years of consistent practice at the edge of their ability, students can certainly learn to deal with projects taking a month or more of sustained independent effort for a little bit of time every day.

thriftwy 9y ago

You can't expect children to plan assignments! Heck, you don't expect adults to plan anything either, until they hit management. For specialists and even team leaders, they do what's on their plate and everything which isn't, they don't. It is madness to expect from undergrads to not do everything at the last minute, but for school students it's laughable. I can plan one thing. I can't plan five assignments that just fell on me, with due date far in the future. If my work would be structured like that I'd fail it either.

jacobolus 9y ago
School is horrible at teaching people to tackle non-trivial projects, because almost no time is spent practicing it. Figuring out how to break a large job into small pieces, do one piece at a time, and stick with the project until all of the pieces are done is a critical skill which can only be learned through practice. Someone who is 8 or 10 years old should be able to start doing projects that take hours of sustained effort stretched over a few days (as compared to the typical schoolwork which consists of externally specified small exercises that require a few minutes each), with a lot of hand holding. By age 18, after 10 years of consistent practice at the edge of their ability, students can certainly learn to deal with projects taking a month or more of sustained independent effort for a little bit of time every day.