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I personally learned nothing from homework, besides the anxiety that came with trying to make up an excuse for why it wasn’t done. I spent more time trying to a
by dkersten 6y ago
I personally learned nothing from homework, besides the anxiety that came with trying to make up an excuse for why it wasn’t done. I spent more time trying to avoid doing homework than actually doing it.
A big problem with school for me was that very little of it was framed in a way that made it seem useful. In subjects where I either understood the value (math for example, as I learned to program in my teens, so saw value in it to do things I wanted. While many of my peers followed the “it’s only useful if you want to be a math teacher” philosophy) or had some kind of extra interest in, I did well in, but even in subjects I chose to do, liked and was good at (eg German), I struggled trying to find the motivation to do any homework. Being forced to didn’t help, I would rather stare into space for an hour than actually spend the time on homework.
A big part of it, I think, was I needed downtime. I had already spend many hours in school and now was being told I needed to spend my time doing more school stuff? No thanks!
Even now, a couple of decades later, I need downtime to process the things that happened during the day. I’m a huge believer in Hammock Driven Development because of how important I feel thinking, reflection and downtime is.
EDIT: hell, I did really bad on one subject I used to be great at because of the homework: the homework load was too high so I dropped to the lower level class instead, which was the start of my downward spiral: it was too easy so I didn’t do much in it, the teacher didn’t push me and a few years later I struggled and never recovered. If the homework load were less, I would have stayed in the higher level class and, while I’m not certain, I’m pretty sure I could have at least maintained my ability instead of it deteriorating. I still believe I would have done better in my final exam at age 13 than I did at age 17 because of this.
- rimliu 6y agoFor you claiming that math was useful there will be 20 claiming that math is one of the most useless class. And in the next sentence they will claim that school should teach practical things, like doing your taxes. It all boils down to not wanting to put any effort in the end.
- Nextgrid 6y agoIs there actually a problem with not putting any effort if not required? Why isn't it a good thing to achieve a task with less effort? Would you also say that programmers writing code on computers instead of pen & paper just "don't want to put any effort in"?
- dkersten 6y agoAnd? That doesn't go against what I said. I just said that a big problem is that subjects aren't framed in a way that makes them seem useful, regardless of if they are or not.
- watwut 6y agoFor me, homework was the time where I got to actually solve problems instead of wait till somebody faster yells answer. It was time when you could struggle and then realize that when you struggle enough, you can figure it out. In the school during lesson, there is less privace as people look at you struggling and plus there is always someone to instantly nudge you.
- username90 6y agoPeople wont scream out answers during tests. Tests is the best way to ensure kids gets to sit and think about problems. Homework doesn't do that at all for many kids. I strongly believe that tests are an underutilized way to teach. Many seems to believe that you can't learn anything during tests, that they are only there to evaluate kids. However actually sitting and thinking about stuff is really important and tests helps with that.
- watwut 6y agoTests typically have short time and there is pressure. Tests are not place for individual problem solving nor for figuring stuff out, they are for when you already learned that stuff and is proving to others that you did.