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The Author and his daughter haven't learnt the tricks of the trade. I was set 3+hrs of HW a day, but I certainly didn't do that much. First, they need to asses
by GotAnyMegadeth 13y ago
The Author and his daughter haven't learnt the tricks of the trade. I was set 3+hrs of HW a day, but I certainly didn't do that much.
First, they need to assess which teachers "Don't mind" if you don't do the homework. This could mean they stand you up in front of the whole class and shout at you, but if they don't give you an after school detention, don't do it. Getting in the teachers good books previously helps with this.
Second, if you've got a joke subject before one with homework due, do the homework then. Geography before Maths for example.
Third, have a homework team where you take it in turns to do the easily copied homework (Maths, DT, Science) and then copy each other in the mornings before school. Of course you need to cover your tracks.
Fourth, always cut corners. No calculator? Lol, use a calculator, but purposely get a few wrong. Use Google for everything (I didn't have a computer until yr8). Never read a book when you can read a synopsis/ watch the film whilst playing Pokémon.
Fifth, work as a team at home. The parent will have to remember things from their childhood, where as older siblings only need to remember from the year before. I used to do my middle brother's compulsory homework, whilst he did my littlest brother's, and my mum did mine.
Other tricks:
Try leaving all of you books related to that subject at home one day and claim you thought it was Thursday.
Miss out a question at the bottom of a page, they might not even notice.
Pretend you are/were ill.
Cry
Hand in last weeks homework again. This one only buys you time, but works well on a Friday.
Tell your teacher you'll hand it in tomorrow, then the next day tell them you handed it in yesterday and they've lost it.
Band together with the other kids in your class and tell the teacher they said the homework was due for next week, or that they didn't even set it.
If you are asked to hand something in on lined paper, just don't do a whole sheets worth. More convincing if both sheets start/end in the middle of a sentence. I've done this before and they didn't even comment, I suspect they felt guilty they'd lost it.
Note: I successfully used all these tricks on several occasions. I would say that it definitely had no impact on my education (Got a AAAB at A level, 1st Class degree in Electronic Engineering w/ Hons), and a very significant positive impact on my life as a whole.
- tptacek 13y agoHow caustic a lesson to teach your kid, that they should organize to cheat on homework, so they can artificially inflate their grade. I suppose it does set them up for a productive life of investment banking.
- meddlepal 13y agoDo you really need to teach your kid this stuff even? The smart and smart-enough-but-lazy ones seem to figure it out just well enough for themselves.
- GotAnyMegadeth 13y agoIf you mean, how to avoid homework, I wasn't taught any of it, it was all stuff I learnt throughout my schooling life.
- einhverfr 13y agoI have been letting this roll around in my head for a while after reading the article and the comments here and I wonder.... To live is to work and to work creatively. To live is to accomplish things. To be great is to accomplish more. If we teach kids to value doing things by the book what kind of a lesson is that? Our virtues are built out of the stuff of our vices. Productive laziness, the kind which says "I want to accomplish such and such but there must be a way without working that hard" is a virtue. My advice is to figure out what homework is really important and try to figure out what you want to do. Shortcuts aren't cheating. Picking which homework to do is not cheating. If what you learn out of school is to work hard, memorize things without understanding them, and do without sleep, then it is the perfect preparation for, say, doing data entry for someone. But if you want to be great, learning how to get out of homework is a much more valuable lesson....
- GotAnyMegadeth 13y agoI never saw school as a place to learn facts, but as a place to learn how to socialise and how to deal with life. Learning how to get a good grade is important, but only because people think that it represents your worth as an employee. My parents/TV/books/the internet taught me most of what I know.
- tptacek 13y agoI am way, way, WAY more concerned about the ethics my kid learns than I am about whether he gets a B or an A in World History.
- throwaway1979 13y agoI know what A levels are. What does AAAB mean? Does this mean you gave four subjects and scored 3 A's and 1 B? If that is correct, I'm curious what subjects you gave?
- GotAnyMegadeth 13y agoYes it does. I got As in Maths, Physics and Electronics and a B in General Studies which is a joke compulsory subject that tested your writing skills. Interesting: I would say "I took four subjects", and you say "I gave four subjects". Never heard that before!
- throwaway1979 13y agoI had a transient stay in a commonwealth country when I was a teenager. I "gave" a few A-level exams. I.e. I studied on my own and just showed up for a grueling exam organized by the British Counsel in my country. I picked the subjects that were easiest for me to study on my own ... Econ, Accounting and General Studies. Since I didn't take A-level math, I had some trouble in college (in North America).
- danielweber 13y agoThis seems horrible, but I upvoted it nonetheless because of its perspective.
- rayiner 13y agoThis is great advice (besides the cheating, obviously).
- ledge 13y agoI did some of this too. Not everything (no crying), but I had a group who would take turns copying assignments for instance. I particularly remember when writing long papers, I would do things like increase the character spacing, change the font size to 12.5, subtly adjust the margins, add a few words to the last sentence of a paragraph in order to push it on to the next line, etc. If I had to write a 10 page paper, I could get away with writing 8.5 pages and use these tricks to bring it up to the required length in a minute or two. There were kids in my school who spent 3+ hours a night on homework, but certainly not me. I in no way regret getting a few Bs and Cs, coasting by with some cheating and the aforementioned tricks, and in general blowing off most of high school. I still got into a good college, in part due to SAT/PSAT scores, and I probably learned more and certainly had a better time than most of my classmates.
- gshubert17 13y agoWhile I agree that 3+hrs of homework a day doesn't accomplish much true learning, I think that most of these "tricks" don't either. The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted. I would rather my child got interested in some areas and pursued them out of passion, getting mediocre grades; than followed these tricks to get good grades, but not have learned much else.