Homework

I was reading through the pages for the classes in the kids' school. I was mainly browsing because I was interested in finding what and when and how was covered. Along the way I found more than I expected.

Starting in 3rd grade teachers become obsessed with homework - incomplete homework, missing homework and late homework. There are forms, conferences, referrals associated with all these - goodness gracious!

No teacher, however, mentioned anything about the quality of homework -the quality did not matter as long as the homework was completed in a timely fashion. This reminded me of the exams on which one is always better off guessing. This also reminded me of how much negativity is an ingrained element of the western world, ingrained by choice, habit and tradition. Everything in the west is seen from the most negatively biased lens - let's see, the sun is shining brightly, what terrible thing is this natural phenomenon a precursor to? In principle, I do agree that there should be policies to tackle in a consistent manner negative outcomes. However, I only tolerate them when there are corresponding policies for responding to positive outcomes.

Homework-I don't actually remember doing homework or having homework checked ever in my non-US schooling. Here is my reasoning to the lack of homework: if you wanted to move up a grade, or get good grades, you had to do work-what work (how much reading, what reading, how frequently, when and how) was your own business. We were allowed to figure it out on our own. There were no surprise quizzes or schedules exams- there were oral exams and there was the chance of being called on the black board to solve the problem or show the location of some natural resource on the map. Putting the burden on the student was the key. If you got low grades, it was mainly because you did not find the golden formula or you did not try hard enough, but it was your own doing. By having homework assigned, the burden for student readiness falls on the teacher.


I am also against tests. Scheduled, scripted, never-changing tests. They do not resemble anything in the real world-there is no problem that is solved by taking tests. Problems are solved by working at them, trying a strategy, failing, trying an improved strategy, failing, getting up and moving on. In fact, failure by being more frequent should be praised more than success  when the evidence for effort and diligence is present.






I am a proponent of oral exams. Not the freak-me-out-of-my-wits Q&scriptedA nightmare I know.

No, a genuine conversation in which you can learn from the student in an amicable, stress free way what he has retained from what you have related. I support individual independent research interest-driven projects culminating in a research seminar with Q&A sessions. I support full-blown large-scale research interest-driven projects resembling the large scale physics collaborations that teach dependence, accountability, responsibility, team work, respect.