O Homework My Homework

Or: The blog where I wonder what Walt Whitman would say about the state of American Education and how much homework we do (but probably not).

Ladies (I refrain from saying and gentleman, since I'm the only one in the class, but if you are indeed a gentleman (whatever that means), please feel free to read on), I have a confession to make: I had a wonderful weekend. I played computer games, read, did a *little* cleaning, slept in, worked some, saw a movie.

All the while, my girlfriend and my brother did homework. They read chapter after chapter in numerous textbooks. Both are college students: my girlfriend majoring in English and Education and my brother in something to do with computers.

Last night, this incessant studying broke down into a discussion on homework, success, high school, college, etc. etc. My brother, a first semester college student, was asking Steph, a hardened college veteran, about her organization strategy and approach to completing all of her homework on time. Her response was fairly daunting: basically, in college, read one chapter of every book you own between each class's meeting. I balked at first, because well, I had just had a weekend of frivolity. But then I conceded the point.

Do we do too much homework? I admit that the subject is split down the middle for me. I do think that the promotion of less homework in high school is ridiculous and poor planning if college is going to maintain its academic rigor. Stephanie was explaining how her nephew complains about his homework volume in high school--a complaint for which the only appropriate response is 'just wait 'til you get to college.'

But then, if we know that some countries with the best education systems do little to no homework, why are we so homework heavy? Is it time to let the hours and hours of homework die? Are teachers compensating for something with their heavy homework requirements?

Why do we have so much homework in college? I personally think it is because our primary education isn't doing it's job, but is not doing it's job with redundancy. Let me illustrate the point with one phenomenal class I had too long ago to admit: American History II--from 1865 to present. I think this subject gets covered at least twice in every American Primary education. And then once in college--this in itself is overkill, in my opinion. Nevermind that in this college class, I learned more than all of my primary education on the subject had ever afforded, the course actually made me interested enough in history in general that I am now something of a history buff, and I had one homework assignment all semester.

I hope everyone is as shocked as I am. I'm going to leave this here for now, because I don't really know the solution. I do have good news--the finnish seem to, and everyone who graduates high school there can tell it to you one of three ways: english, finnish, or french.