Alright, I know I rant a lot about homework, but what other force in the universe would cause me to be writing this blog post during the witching hours?
Up until today, I though homework was a needed force, a good force that allowed use students to learn at home. Annoying, but ultimately helpful for performances on tests and retention of material.
Now I’m not so sure about that.
Today, my economics teacher was flustered to say the least. He is usually a very passionate man who really, really loves his job and will usually just talk to us about economics throughout a class period as we doze off and on or work on homework for our other classes, but today he was a little irritated that literally half of the class was in a comatose state as a result of having to work on a mixture of senior reports and internal assessments. Having had enough of his patience tried, he stood in front of the room and asked us one simple question: how much homework does he give a night?
None.
And would you believe it that 140 out of 160 kids who take his economics course score a five on the AP in May (the maximum score there is). Well, you should, because it’s true.
How can that be? That a teacher who has literally not given us homework in well over a month outscore every other teacher in every other department year after year?
Simple: he cares.
When a teacher really gets into the subject they are teaching -and when I say get into it, I mean get into it, like full out passion and joy for what they do- they tend to draw on their love for the subject they teach to connect it to us. We students, believe it or not, actually like it when our teachers show a visible enjoyment when we move from topic to topic.
And this just doesn’t hold true for economics. Thinking about what my teacher said in the morning, I was able to toy with it in every class. The teachers that drone on and on are the ones with the reputations for not giving their students the best preparation for the AP tests. The teachers that jump up and down when we move from time period to time period, who try to make math as hands on, who know their supply and demand curves inside and out, those are the teachers that kids want. Those are the teachers who build reputations in the student body as having the fun and helpful classes.
Now here’s the kicker: the teachers who are on fire with what they do, are the ones who don’t bury their students in homework. Dear reader, if you are a student and are reading this, please, please comment if this is not your experience, because it is a universal law in my academic career.
It makes total sense though! The adults who are able to span age gaps simply be enjoying what they do are the ones who get the attention of the drowsy kids in the back of the room. They don’t have to make kids learn it outside of class on their own because they already learned it in class with the teacher.
Now isn’t that a novel concept: no homework and high test scores. A kid’s dream mixed with an educator’s goal.
It really is possible. The only thing needed is a passionate teacher.
Or is it? Maybe I’m totally off. Maybe my academic life span has been an exception, and it really is the opposite way. Let me know in the comment section below!
Great post! typo at the top though
My last name is awesome
Use at the top should be “us”
Though should be “thought”
I apologize for the typos
Great post! I actually hate my homework, haha, so any reason not to do it is a reason good enough
I had a teacher who was very passionate about what they do, and they didn’t assign any homework at all. I never connected the two!
i hate, hate, hate homework! using this as a chance to not do it haha
i use ncis and this blog to put off homework. a great one!
I once had a teacher who gave us a lot of homework and really got into it BUT it was diff eqs in college so…
great message despite the spelling errors! hardly noticed them. happens to the best of us!
another home run! i had an economics teacher too who would do like EVERYTHING in class. it was great! no homework everrrrrr
AND i was able to test out of the higher level econ because he taught so well
The typos don’t matter. We get your point and we all agree. Great essay!
i’ve never had a teacher not give homework before. i hope i get one of those teachers before
*before i graduate
This essay has character. Well done.
I completely agree with this, but only to some extent. I’m in college and I find that it helps me out a lot.
would be more excited about this if i actually had a teacher like you mention. havent had one since freshman year of college
Awesome article, so true. Don’t worry about the typos dude. I’ve read all of your other pieces and they are close to perfect. Probably wrote this while staying up late doing homework. Am I right? Haha
kind of like how we are reading it
Im an Egg.
I always have so much homework, how should I handle it all if it technically is required for school?
I’m a boiled egg.
I’m egg-sellent
Im so egg-static
Im a poached egg
I am also an Egg
We unite as eggs!
You’ll be the english muffin I’ll be the crumpet ;p
Is it not a theory that many Ap classes like that of Ap World History really do require their students to do homework outside of class? The curriculum for Ap world requires that students need to put in the effort and work outside of class in order to learn all the material and do well on the Ap test. I do have a very passionate teacher for AP world, but homework does seem to be a very necessary item in order for us students to succeed. Homework is a pain in the butt, but sometimes it can be that extra help or extra push which can push us over the top.
This is hawt
also you should send a link to this to Clark
YEAH
I was actually also toying with this idea after that day. I agree with you though. Calc, HL, and econ are classes I would never sleep in, and even if we do have homework, I feel more motivated to do it because of the respect I have for these teachers.
props bro. there are just some classes that I will never sleep in because I actually learn shit in there without slaving for hours upon hours doing stupid busy work
Fool! Homework is an essential part to every student’s career! Without it, we would be lost!
For the most part, homework reinforces concepts that have been learned in class. It provides teachers with a way of benchmarking their students: who gets the material, who doesn’t get it but worked towards the understanding, and who scribbled something on a piece of paper 15 minutes earlier. It makes students recall what they learned; typically, even if a student takes in information, what defines their success is how they are at filing it away *where they’ll be able to easily recall it*. It’s recall accuracy and speed that makes a good memory; homework exercises that part of our brain, instead of letting us just put that on top of the other stuff to ignore. It’s true: busy work not only reduces interest in the subject, it makes us forget the material more easily after testing on it. Teachers that assign busy work are new, don’t know how to teach, or don’t care anymore and need some grades to put on the gradesheet. Some subjects are exceptions, in my view, like economics; the subject matter is complex enough that without guidance the average student cannot learn it, so homework is essentially pointless; instead, what is needed is a teacher repeating the same thing over and over and over again, so that one way of explaining it would eventually get to all of the students.
But the most important reason to do homework–and I cannot emphasize this enough–is that, if you don’t do it…
YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!
true facts
YOU SHALL NOT… *looks at post*
Damn, I’m too late.
Gandalf makes many strong points regarding the value of homework. As an educator and life-long student, I believe that to learn complex subjects one needs to engage in a variety of thinking process such as those described in the classic Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning:
Remembering: Recall previous learned information.
Understanding: Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one’s own words.
Applying: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.
Analyzing: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.
Evaluating: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.
Creating: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.
These thinking processes require time, reflection and effort. Whether they are done in the classroom or outside of the classroom, they take concentration, motivation and time. Homework that is busywork is not productive. Homework that focuses on performing the above thinking processes can be highly productive and may require a great deal of hard work and time.
Another point I wish to make is that it is short-sighted to see homework’s goal as passing a test. Sure, tests are a fact of life. But one needs to develop life-long skills, breadth and depth in knowledge, and character traits during the school years. While it may be a good thing to be able to pass an AP test in a subject without needing to do homework, homework performed in pursuit of gaining knowledge and of developing thinking skills is ultimately of greater importance.
I agree with this post 100%. Teachers such as this Economics teacher (and that Calculus teacher) really strive to make their students successful. When they’re serious about it, we the students are. If all teacher had the same passion, enthusiasm, and humor that Mr. Clark had, we’d all easily make 5′s on our APs.
nice
Simply caring about the subject and caring about the students is necessary but not sufficient for effective teaching.
A teacher’s ability to engage his/her students in exploring and learning the lesson makes a big difference. In my experience as a student in high school and college, there have been many teachers who genuinely cared about their subjects and students but who lacked the ability to connect, communicate and ignite their students.
Another thought is that students share a responsibility for their learning. While it’s great to have a teacher who can entertain while teaching important subjects, the teacher is not the performer for a passive audience full of students. The classroom is not a segment of American Idol or Dancing with the Stars.
The students need to bear some responsibility for keeping an open-mind, to giving serious thought to what they hear and see in class, and for resisting to urge to tune-out when the class is not entertaining enough. After all, the main beneficiaries of the classroom are the students.
I really liked your article. I know my son would love to have teachers that do not leave any homework. I myself sometimes feel the same, since he has a lot of activities, but as a teacher I think there are some that would benefit from that extra homework. If homework is geared to a students individual needs then it has served its purpose, but I am afraid it is not always this way.
When homework has a purpose, it’s worth the time.
In many school organizations, homework is predictable, repetitive cycles of similar format only containing new/updated information to practice.
Sometimes the purpose is for rote practice, kids do need that in some content areas…
Sometimes it’s ‘given’ to get work not completed in class made up… some need that more frequently….
Sometimes – it can be valid to argue the ‘why’ to do something that may not amount to anything later… that’s the stuff that needs to be reflected upon…
But yes, a good, strong, passionate teacher that loves their content and knows it WELL can do it, for the most part, with out assigning the homework for extra practice because they know when the students leave, by a form of assessment, that the students ‘got it’ before they walked out the door…
I think you are exactly right, Crystal. There is a fine balance. There are some times when it is necessary but not just to have homework. I think the teacher is important and how they teach impacts how the students learn which in turn impacts test scores, not just if they give homework or not.
My experience is different. I get lots of homework in many of my classes but my teachers have outstanding pass rates. My AP Bio teacher has an 88% pass rate and 54% of her students get a 5. She has so much enthusiasm for her subject and I love her class. She assigns lots of homework, but it is all helpful. All the homework that my teachers give seems helpful.