this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 95 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

homework is such an incredibly idiotic concept. a kid gets sent to school for 7 hours (if not more, at times) of mental work, and then they're required to do even more work after they go back home.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago

That's why I always refused to do it. To me it was two things. 1 An insult of my need of personal time. And 2, you had hours that day to teach me something and failed to do so, and I'm expected to learn it on my own? That's on you.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Homework is quite handy, but homework should not be the "making" part, but rather the "info" part. Teachers should rather spend time doing stuff in class in stead of presenting and explaining when students could easily read a book at home or watch a video. The paractical stuff is much more important and the guidance of a teacher is much more valuable in the practical part of the lesson.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Good luck trying to watch over 30 kids doing the practical part.

The biggest problem is the size of classes imo. If you have 10 pupils you don't have the same pressure to neglect children who can't match the speed of the curriculum.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Agreed. Teaching is a fun job, but not getting to do the best parts because of bad funding, more administration, bigger groups, bad salary, etc.. is sucking the fun out of it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I remember when I was a kid and we were learning algebra and no one ever explained why on Earth we would ever need it. It would have been vastly more helpful if practical examples had been given rather than us being given a bunch of homework.

A much better homework assignment would be "These are the scenarios under which you would need algebra. See if you can find them in your everyday life." But nope, just more arbitrary questions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It’s probably something personal, but I never questioned that. For me it was an abstract challenge, and that was rewarding enough.

I also intentionally moved into a field that heavily relies on math afterwards (computer graphics), so maybe I’m just weird like that.

[–] Dan68 46 points 8 months ago (2 children)

IMO the original purpose of homework was to keep the children occupied while the adults prepared dinner. That isn’t really needed anymore. Plus studies have shown the benefits of homework are negligible. Stop teaching kids there is no solid work/life balance.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

There is some argument for doing spaced repetition as homework for memory heavy learning like vocabulary for example.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Edit: Just read that this covers grades 4 - 8 so what I said doesn't apply.

Idk there are definitely some courses that I don't think could have been covered in just the allotted class time without additional practice in order to be prepared enough for the university level, particularly high school mathematics and AP Calc, and physics.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The Polish government has introduced strict limits on the amount of homework pupils must do in a bid to modernise the education system.

Teachers will no longer give required homework to children in the first to third grades.

β€œI’m happy because this homework, I did not like it too much,” said 11-year-old Warsaw pupil Ola, β€œIt didn’t really make much sense because most people in my class would copy it in the morning from someone who had done the homework.”

SΕ‚awomir Broniarz, the head of the Polish Teachers' Union, says that while he recognises the need to ease burdens on students, the new rules have been imposed without adequate consultation with educators.

Broniarz argues that removing homework could widen the educational gaps between children who have strong support at home and those from families with less support and lower expectations.

Poland's education system has undergone a number of controversial overhauls with almost every new government making changes.


The original article contains 256 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 39%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] -5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Y'all must have had horrible teachers in this thread.

Homework is a tool to train the concepts you learned at school and teach you some self management. It should allow you to learn the concepts by repetition and apply these concepts to similar problems to the ones already learned at school.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

So extend the school day then?

A kid should be able to get taught everything they need in the confines of the school day, outside of that time they shouldn't be given any more work, it's ridiculous. No one would put up with being expected to work for free outside of office hours, so why is it acceptable for children?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

You can't 'learn concepts by repetition', that is not how learning works. You can learn a concept & repeat its application to be faster at it.

And that's the problem. What if the student didn't catch the concept during the lesson? He or She needs help by a guardian or be punished for not completing the task.

Same thing with the supposed self management skills. What if the student fails at it? He or she needs help by a guardian or will be punished.

At the end of the day homework is a tool to offload tasks of the school to the guardians of the student. A schools system, that relies on homework, is a system that fails in its task of creating a level playing regardless of socioeconomic background of the student.