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I was just scrolling through my feed when I saw a question raised related to Education. As a teacher it caught my attention right off the bat and today I would like to share my views and my answer to the question raised by @steemiteducation and the question is this :

Some teachers believe that homework is not important, and that children must do all work at school because parents are too involved in completing the projects for their children. What is your feeling about this. Do you give out homework or not?

I am a Physics teacher but I am still fresh from being a student. So basically I know exactly how it feels to be in both worlds so I would like to answer this question placing myself in both perspectives and then giving out my personal solution for this dilemma.

HOMEWORK IN STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

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I happened to have studied in one of the most (if not the most) notorious schools for giving out homeworks (a ton of homeworks) and sleepless nights, Cebu Normal University but I loved being in that University so I have no regrets. On top of that I was also a scholar so basically I had a grade to maintain and I didn’t want to fail the expectation of everybody. As a student I was definitely the type who really works his ass off so I was definitely game on all these.

The perks of doing it at home

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I enjoyed studying, I loved making sure that I was ahead of the pack, so I really did every homework given and I was thankful for it because I was able to do the homework with my laptop and the internet so whenever I had questions it would be very easy to consult Mr. Google about it. Through this, I was able to sharpen and expand my knowledge and was able to get information apart from what was given by my teacher and our books.

When my teacher asked questions, I would be able to give an answer that none of my classmates would expect because it wasn’t taught and it wasn’t found in the book. So doing school related stuff at home is definitely an advantage.

My own personal space and pace

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I was not the type of student who would actively ask questions when confused, I am someone who likes to find answers on my own. I am also the type who likes to work by myself. There are even times that I wouldn’t listen to my teacher and would literally just say “I’ll just study that at home on my own”.

But why did I love doing it by myself ???

Because if I didn’t get it on the first read, I didn’t have to continue just because there were people who got it already. And if I got it already, I also didn’t have to read it again because others were still confused. If I discovered a “world-changing” information, I had the will and the choice to pause and let everything sink in. Basically I wouldn’t feel the pressure of other people giving out instructions, I wouldn’t feel the pressure of doing something within a time-frame

Another opportunity to learn and catch up

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As a student I was really competitive but I used to be ahead so there was no problem with that. However there were really just times that some students seemed to have understood it perfectly already but I still wasn’t able to fit everything in the puzzle. If we could only continue learning the topic the next day in the class, I wouldn’t be able to catch up. I definitely needed to find another time, another place and another opportunity for me to relearn it and catch up. With homeworks I would have a guide to know what to learn, with homeworks I could make sure that I would go to the class the next day knowing that I knew what they knew and I was ready to compete again.

One or Two homeworks at a time PLLEEASEEE!!

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Though I really loved doing additional work outside school. It never made me happy when I knew that almost all subjects gave something to do. I was literally cursing watching my To-do-list. Cursing the tasks and somehow cursing the teachers who gave the tasks hahahahaha I know you did too LOL. The worst thing as well was those teachers who gave a work that needs to be done for almost a week but requires the finished output the next day it was like BU*******IT. I know you feel me. These really pissed me off big time. I was like “Do you not understand we have life outside school? Do you not understand that we are not robots and we can’t do the tasks in a heartbeat.” Too much work actually also caused some of my outputs to be mediocre which definitely defeats the purpose of giving the homework and project in the first place. Another thing that others can surely relate is that sometimes I don’t make some of my homework and I just go early to class and share answers with my classmates hahaha. Don’t be a saint, I was a scholar but I did that too. LOL

Literally a walking zombie.

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Spending a lot of time for homeworks and studying definitely gave me a lot of positive results but some drawbacks as well. I lost a lot of hours of sleep, which i couldn’t get back and would make me weary the next day. I didn’t have much time to hang out with my friends and talk over a pizza knowing I had nothing to do and most obviously I had very big eyebags and I looked so stressed out. I could literally walk on the hallways and scare everyone if I wanted to. This is no brainer, we all know that when we lack sleep it messes up our looks. I am not really good looking so if I had no sleep I would look really bad. hahahhaah

Time to bond

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As a student I actually was very independent, I wasn’t the type who seeks help or guidance from other people even from my parents but I would just like to add this one to address the concern in the question about having the parents too involved with their children’s work. I love my parents and they love me sooooo soooo muuucch but homework was just really something that I would do by myself however whenever I had something that would really have to get them involved, they were right off the bat in action as well because they knew that if I needed them, It’s an SOS, and the world will see its end if no immediate action was provided hahahaha. But the idea of having parents getting involved with the homeworks or projects of their children for me is not a bad idea at all, even though I didn’t do mine with my parents, it actually is a venue for them to bond, talk and share memories together. Not all kids are open to their parents and some parents have a hard time getting the perfect timing and the perfect opportunity to bond with their kids and doing it over a homework or a project is definitely a good place to start .

HOMEWORK IN TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE

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I was able to teach Physics to students and I must say that most of them could easily get the idea and the complicated calculations but the next day, it would be very easy to forget it as well, especially if there were no homeworks given. When additional work was given, the students apparently and clearly did better.

Faster and smoother flow of Topics

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-As a teacher it is somehow frustrating when you teach a topic for today and when you recap it the next day, everything is blank and you’ll have to start over again. WHHYY?? Because there was no retention, as a physics teacher it is difficult to make sure that the students remember the calculations and whatnot, we don’t have the natural ability to store formulas and numbers. But the best way to do this is to give a homework to the students to make sure that there is a continuity of knowledge and retention. Students can also add up more information that they might get from external sources by answering their homework. Thus there will be more retention on the topic, there won’t be a need to start all over again and there will be a faster and smoother transition from topics to topics with the assurance that the students understood the content.

A Chance to help the students

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-Not all of the students perform very well inside the classroom. Giving homeworks or projects can help less performing students to redeem themselves. School has a time-frame, the test has a time limit, the class lasts only for an hour and not all students can work within the given time. Giving them more time outside the classroom will give more opportunities for students to sharpen their minds and make sure that the score they give with their homeworks are good scores, the output they gave is a well-made output. As a teacher, making grades is the most difficult part because you don’t want to fail anyone, and homeworks and projects are definitely the students life-line.

CONCLUSION AND RESOLUTION

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Even though I am a teacher and I heard a lot about this issue. I have never really delved into it that much and I thank this platform for giving me the opportunity to check on my thoughts and ideas. But writing this post made me realized that there are actually more benefits on the studetns’ side. It was never about the teachers’ benefit it has always been making sure that the students are prepped to handle the stress, pressure and be in control of their learning.

I believe homework is important but it should be given in moderation. Because if we give too much work to the students, it results on them losing hours of sleep and productivity at school. It also causes them to produce less impressive outputs because they had to divide their time for their tasks and mostly giving more time to subjects that for them are important and investing lesser time to those they don’t think are necessary.

There should be a schedule for each subject to give additional work to their students so that they wouldnt give homeworks at the same time. The task given should also be evaluated based on its level of difficulty and amount of work needed for it to be done and give the students enough time to do it so that as teachers we can expect a quality output from them. Rome wasn’t made for a day remember?

Homework is important but it should follow a coordinated and well planned system to make it just enough and helpful because if given too much it could also destroy. Comes to show the universality of the saying that everything too much is dangerous.

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