Hollande now officially the world's best leader

[Camerus]

Giving busywork as homework is retarded, and shouldn't be done.  However, giving no homework at all (especially for such reasons) is about 100x as retarded.

[Eddie Teach]

Barrymore's career peaked in E.T.

[Josquius]

He also however advocated a return to the four-and-a-half-day school week from the current four-day week in place in most French schools.

4 days!?!? Those lucky fiends.

[crazy canuck]

Giving busywork as homework is retarded, and shouldn't be done.  However, giving no homework at all (especially for such reasons) is about 100x as retarded.

I am confused.  You think giving no busywork homework is 100x worse then giving busywork homework even though giving busywork homework is retarded and should not be done?

[merithyn]

I mentioned this to my 17-year-old son who's in the 11th grade. He thought it was a really bad idea of the French to do this, since he feels that homework is really beneficial to most kids. When I asked him why he didn't bother to do his then to up his grades, he said, "Because I'm lazy. That's not a good reason to have a policy against something." 

[Syt]

Uhm, I thought that the work itself is not abolished, only that it's to be done at school (to ensure all students get equal support) instead of at home?

Actually, this kinda makes sense. One of the biggest problems in education in Austria for example, is that your academic success of the parents pretty much determines the academic success of the children. If daddy went to university, then it's more likely that sonny goes to university. If Mom and Dad are uneducated, then most likely you won't go to a higher school either.

One part of the problem is of course that if parents are unable to help their kids with their homework, then the kids' education suffers; and by far not all parents are willing (or able) to pay for private lessons to make up for it (a very popular feature in Austria).

[merithyn]

This is across the board, Syt, not just an Austrian thing. But, as a first-generation college girl, I can say that my going to college had little to do with whether or not my parents when to college and everything to do with the emphasis that my parents put on an education. They never helped me with my school work (mostly because I never needed their help, but also because the work I did was beyond their education level), but always made sure I knew that doing it was essential. So, having support at home wasn't about the homework, but rather was about instilling a work ethic and a sense of importance to learning. Taking away homework isn't going to make any difference to those kids if their parents still don't understand this aspect.

My son's point was that by doing the work at home, it reinforces the lessons at school so that there isn't a gap of 18 hours (or more on the weekends) between when you learn it and when you work on it again. He pointed out that fairly intelligent people ("like your friends on Languish") may not need that reinforcement, but average kids and below probably do.

[The Brain]

Socialists don't want school to teach children anything. People who know nothing make the best and most loyal Socialist voters.

[crazy canuck]

My son's point was that by doing the work at home, it reinforces the lessons at school so that there isn't a gap of 18 hours (or more on the weekends) between when you learn it and when you work on it again. He pointed out that fairly intelligent people ("like your friends on Languish") may not need that reinforcement, but average kids and below probably do.

I think it has more to do with the fact that some kids dont learn the lesson of the day in class and so it has very little to do with forgetting anything in the short time they are away from school and more to do with the fact they didnt know the thing in the first place.

Perhaps for those kids homework might be beneficial to help them learn what they should have picked up in class.  But it would be preferrable if they simply learned it in class in the first place.

That is what the bright kids do.  Then if there is anything that they have a question about they can do further reading or ask the teacher after class.

[alfred russel]

My son's point was that by doing the work at home, it reinforces the lessons at school so that there isn't a gap of 18 hours (or more on the weekends) between when you learn it and when you work on it again. He pointed out that fairly intelligent people ("like your friends on Languish") may not need that reinforcement, but average kids and below probably do.

I think it has more to do with the fact that some kids dont learn the lesson of the day in class and so it has very little to do with forgetting anything in the short time they are away from school and more to do with the fact they didnt know the thing in the first place.

Perhaps for those kids homework might be beneficial to help them learn what they should have picked up in class.  But it would be preferrable if they simply learned it in class in the first place.

That is what the bright kids do.  Then if there is anything that they have a question about they can do further reading or ask the teacher after class.

I never could understand what was being taught in class. I got really fustrated in math classes in college when I couldn't follow the lectures at all, or answer the basic questions posed in class, but on tests frequently got the highest scores. My father then told me that when I was a small kid they noticed I never understood verbal instructions, and I was taken to a doctor and was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. Back then, there wasn't treatment so that was the end of it--now I would probably get extra attention as having a learning disability.

But I would have probably been screwed without a lot of homework. That was the primary way I learned.

[crazy canuck]

My son's point was that by doing the work at home, it reinforces the lessons at school so that there isn't a gap of 18 hours (or more on the weekends) between when you learn it and when you work on it again. He pointed out that fairly intelligent people ("like your friends on Languish") may not need that reinforcement, but average kids and below probably do.

I think it has more to do with the fact that some kids dont learn the lesson of the day in class and so it has very little to do with forgetting anything in the short time they are away from school and more to do with the fact they didnt know the thing in the first place.

Perhaps for those kids homework might be beneficial to help them learn what they should have picked up in class.  But it would be preferrable if they simply learned it in class in the first place.

That is what the bright kids do.  Then if there is anything that they have a question about they can do further reading or ask the teacher after class.

I never could understand what was being taught in class. I got really fustrated in math classes in college when I couldn't follow the lectures at all, or answer the basic questions posed in class, but on tests frequently got the highest scores. My father then told me that when I was a small kid they noticed I never understood verbal instructions, and I was taken to a doctor and was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. Back then, there wasn't treatment so that was the end of it--now I would probably get extra attention as having a learning disability.

But I would have probably been screwed without a lot of homework. That was the primary way I learned.

Ok so homework should given to kids on the off chance they have an undiagnosed learning disability?

[garbon]

I think it has more to do with the fact that some kids dont learn the lesson of the day in class and so it has very little to do with forgetting anything in the short time they are away from school and more to do with the fact they didnt know the thing in the first place.

Perhaps for those kids homework might be beneficial to help them learn what they should have picked up in class.  But it would be preferrable if they simply learned it in class in the first place.

That is what the bright kids do.  Then if there is anything that they have a question about they can do further reading or ask the teacher after class.

I'm not sure that's correct as a lot of class (at least thinking back to high school) focused on the teacher telling us things / telling us how to do things - rather than actually focusing on making sure we could said things on our own, or explain them ourselves.  I'd say I probably learned more on my own - grappling with things than I did simply being talked at.  Did I have an undiagnosed learning disability that took me to Stanford?

I really think that if you are going to largely do away with homework, you need to make sure then that classroom time is spent effectively both by teachers and the students. I'm not sure that can be said about a lot of public schooling.

[alfred russel]

Ok so homework should given to kids on the off chance they have an undiagnosed learning disability?

Apparently I was diagnosed, but I wasn't making some larger point. Although I do think some children learn better independently while others learn better in a classroom setting.

[MadImmortalMan]

Ok so homework should given to kids on the off chance they have an undiagnosed learning disability?

Apparently I was diagnosed, but I wasn't making some larger point. Although I do think some children learn better independently while others learn better in a classroom setting.

That doesn't require assigning all that work to all the students.

[alfred russel]

Ok so homework should given to kids on the off chance they have an undiagnosed learning disability?

Apparently I was diagnosed, but I wasn't making some larger point. Although I do think some children learn better independently while others learn better in a classroom setting.

That doesn't require assigning all that work to all the students.

No it doesn't. But learning shouldn't be a passive process. Homework demands a bit of discipline and self reliance too.

It isn't as though our children are being worked in coal mines. They have time to do some work outside of school.