(Today’s column)
Everyone who has gone to school has experienced homework and projects. I have. Some homework I appreciated because they strengthened my grasp of lessons learned inside the classroom. Some projects I really enjoyed because they involved discovery–like the one about pouring vinegar in a jar with a chicken bone and finding out how long it took for the acid to strip the bone of calcium.
But some homework and projects, I plowed through. I hated doing them although at the back of my mind I knew they were about practical skills that would be useful later on in life. Like learning sewing stitches. It irked me that only the girls were required to do the project. In fact, when I was in high school, home economics was an all-girl subject. We learned about sewing, embroidery and cooking while the boys were in automotive class.
And there were those projects–subjects, even–that I considered downright trivial, irrational and dumb. Would you believe that when I was in high school there was an elective for girls, cosmetology, where the lessons were about putting on make-up and nail polish? I’m not kidding. It wasn’t the elective I chose but I had classmates who went to cosmetology class and they had homework like finding “models” and practicing the “art” of applying nail polish on them. The models, usually classmates, were presented to the teacher the next day.
Anyway, so I was talking to my daughters a few days ago about homework and they were lamenting the fact that semestral breaks and Christmas vacations don’t mean much these days. They had book reports and projects to finish during the one-week semestral break. Last year, my younger daughter had a book report to write over the Christmas break.
I sympathize. Not only because they are my daughters and I want them to have the chance to enjoy vacations but also because, as a former student, I know that there are times when homework is given for no real reason than to make students work. It’s power play. Teachers can give homework and assign projects, and so they do.
The strange thing is how the tons of homework and projects are justified as preparation for real life. Is that so? The average employee leaves all work behind the moment he exits the office building. If he is made to work during his days off, or during a holiday, there are consequences and the employer has to pay him double. And an employee can’t even be forced to work on non-regular working days except in certain industries specified in the Labor Code. And the reason is simple–everyone deserves some rest and recreation.
Some teachers seem to believe that the measure of a student’s capacity is how much he can give–not in terms of quality but in terms of quantity. That’s silly, really. There is a reason why haute couture is haute couture and RTW is RTW. If you’re a Discovery Channel fan and you’ve seen how cars like BMW are made, you’d think twice before claiming that they’re only expensive because of their brand.
Where’s the logic, really? Give a person five tasks to finish within a limited time and he will have to divide the available time and pour energy and creativity accordingly. The result? He’ll probably finish all of them but just so–just enough to comply with the requirements. But give him one task to perform within the same period and he’s more likely to come up with something exceptional and outstanding. What is in the mind of some teachers? Prepare the young to be efficient parts of an assembly line? Is that really all that education has become?
And there are worse consequences. Last year, there was this school project on making model houses out of illustration boards–a magnificent application of imagination and creativity. My daughter spent many late nights finishing that project–all by herself– along with two or three other projects. When the grades were handed down, she was disappointed. She knew that hers was not the most visually attractive project but she thought it would mean something to the teacher that she made it herself. Some of her classmates submitted far better looking projects, and they got higher grades too. But they didn’t do the projects–their parents did. And they didn’t mind bragging about it–though not to the teacher, of course.
I had a long talk with my daughter about that incident. That project taught her a lot of things. She not only learned to make a house model, and that was the goal of the project, she also learned a valuable lesson about human nature– that some students would go to great lengths to get good grades because that was more important to them than real learning.
But, more than that, it’s a lesson about how the educational system itself misunderstands the very concept of education. That’s what happens when every teacher wants to project the image that he is capable of, and is actually, teaching so many things to his students–pa-impress, kung baga–as evidenced by the never-ending parade of homework and projects. When all the homework and all the projects assigned by all the teachers are all taken together, you have a situation where the homework and projects defeat the very purpose for which they are given. Students do them not for any learning exercise but simply to comply and get passing grades.
Sometimes, education sucks. Big time.
I used to despise homework as well. Well, until I got my report card last Saturday. I found out I failed classes because of non submission of homework.
I used to think along the lines of having seatworks and quizzes are enough, but I guess they aren’t. For one, maybe homework can actually serve as practice ground before going into the requirements with larger weights.
And I did notice a significant change in my academic performance since I did homework. I actually understand Math now!
And for the other kinds of homework, like the projects, I agree it is not just for mastery of the concept or skill, but it also comes with life’s valuable lessons.
It’s such a pity that my friends work for the sake of grades. Fine, I admit, I’m guilty, but now I do it for the sake of learning.
i agree with everything.
) our home economics class had a lesson on make up and nail polish. as in kailangan talaga namin “aralin,” not just as an elective. 
)
I feel for your daughter. Of all the homeworks, the ones from the Practical Arts subjects were what I hated the most. Aside from the sewing stitches, I remember making rugs out of sack, yarn and some needle like thing they sold us, making wallets out of leather (again sold by the school), making a letter holder out of coconut shell pieces (again sold by the school). Back then I wasn’t good at crafts and my works were sloppy. But it irked me that the honor students finished their projects faster, much neater and bigger in sizes because they had yayas to do it for them. It never occurred to my parents to have our househelp finish our projects for us and even at the young age of 12 I knew that to do so was dishonest.
Teenwriter, you got your report card last Saturday, you’ve been doing homework for less two schooldays and you already “notice a significant change in my academic performance since I did homework”?
chiara, you got it worse, huh? required nail polish classes. ouch.
geri, re “the honor students finished their projects faster, much neater and bigger in sizes because they had yayas to do it for them”
Exactly!
Cosmetology is offered in many high schools in the US as an elective. It’s not a class meant to be trivial but to prepare those that might be interested in pursuing a career in cosmetology. This elective is just one of many technical/vocational classes in high school. Among the other electives are automotive technology, culinary arts and computer repair technology (just to name a few).
I had friends that took cosmetology and it wasn’t all about girls just sitting around and putting on nail polish and talking about the latest fashion! While it might seem trivial to learn to put on make-up, think about how valuable that can be later on when you want a more polish look when you dress for an interview. Oh yeah, they did put on a fashion show where they had to find models to represent their work of which they were graded on.
If it’s an elective and students have a choice NOT to take it, that’s fine. Still, there are vocational schools apart from regular schools and there’s no reason why those interested cannot go there. I can understand life-saving skills as elective subjects (auto repair, cooking, etc) but cosmetology?
I actually did.
). Our Math teacher is such a homework addict who gives us homeworks then quizzes with problems similar to those of homeworks the very next day. I did the homework due the Monday after card day. And, it’s my first time to perfect a quiz, and also my first time to perfect two math quizzes in a row, which I attribute to the homework done Monday night.
I think that’s something. Hopefully it also works with subjects aside from Math.
Hay, I know some parents who would rather do the homework themselves than try their patience at watching their kids do it on their own.
I try to make my kids realize that the most important thing about doing a school project or a homwerok is the learning and pride that they would have after finishing the job.
My son’s recent project was an apron that he will also use for their cooking class. Siempre, hirap na hirap ang mommy magturo pero hinahayaan ko na talaga siya ang magtahi by hand (running stitch lang naman), pero nung matapos nya yung apron, he was so proud of himself! At sabi nya, pagkatapos daw niya gamitin sa school, ibibigay nya daw sa akin
ms connie, was about to enter the pinoycook site and got this —>>> http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-US&site=http://pinoycook.net/
what’s happening? hope this will be resolved soon. need to cook!
Teenwriter, so it has nothing to do with you paying more attention during class because the grades you got on Saturday scared you?
Dinah, I know some mothers who make their office secretaries do the kids’ projects and homework.
Rose, there was another hack attack. Site’s clean, just ignore the warnings. They should go away in a day.
It also comes with that. I don’t have attention problems in class, my teacher told my mom. He insists it’s just the fact that I don’t do homework, hence the loss of opportunities to practice.
If you have to do homework in order to pass, there’s something seriously wrong with the classroom situation.
Education not only sucks, it’s expensive…
Many subjects in high school (or even college) are useless. I took up cooking in my Technology and Home Economics subject because it was the easiest, even though I don’t like to cook. Some high school subjects, like Geometry and Calculus, ought to be reserved for college. Despite the heavy emphasis on tough subjects in math and science, we still lag behind our Asian neighbors in competency tests. Ironic.
Well, not really. I have to admit, not doing homework made me go “What’s this? How do I attack this kind of problem? Is this kind of problem even related to the topic?!?” during quizzes.
Doing the homework gives me a good idea of what to expect from the quizzes. So instead of throwing myself those questions I used to ask during quizzes, which have a greater bearing on the grade, I get to encounter them while doing homework. I get to work around the problem in my own pace, I get to understand how it works, and I eventually relate them to the main lesson. So instead of being clueless during quiz time, I know how to attack those problems in the pace given. My math teacher does love giving quizzes which are based from the homework items, he just changes some variables, exponents and the like.
Moreover, without doing homework, I can’t recite. I’m a slow learner when it comes to working around with problems so I can’t do the processing in class, and I only get to get that processing time when making homework. Besides, when I already know how to, I don’t stall and process anymore, I just analyze the similar problems and attack it the way it is meant to be attacked.
I’m sure my Math grade is going to improve, and somehow, failing really is part of the learning experience. I wonder how I perform if I never got to be alerted about not doing homework, therefore missing the grades, rather the learning experiences that come with it.
Loy, I agree. Imagine the waste of time, the waste of energy and the waste of money.
Good for you, Teenwriter. From what you say, homework should be OPTIONAL and only for those who need reiteration of the classroom lesson.
I used to be guilty of that, Ma’am, but what I’m trying to say is that it should be taken by students like myself as an opportunity to improve skills instead of how I used to look at it.
When my son was in Grade three, one of his assignments was a poster or something. One day, the teacher approached me to say that he hasn’t submitted his assignment yet. I told her that’s impossible because I saw him doing it the previous night. The teacher said she’ll take a look again. The following day, she told me she found my son’s assignment. The reason she missed it was because she was expecting it to be extraordinary as I am an artist. I told her if that were her expectations, then she should have given me the assignment instead. hahaha
Anyway, that was an exception. Also, we don’t give assignments on weekdays and vacation time as a rule precisely because the student should be “vacationing”.
Teenwriter, I agree with you. But there is the presumption there that the amount of homework (goven by all teachers) is reasonable. Because otherwise the intention to learn from the homework becomes nil.
Naku, Tito Rolly, I have a similar experience. There’s this teacher (ggrrrrr) who expects my daughters to be super well-versed with current events because I am a newspaper columnist. Asus! Maybe I should enroll?
Sabagay. Some of my classmates had a Math teacher in our first year who gave them about 50 homeworks per quarter. My math teacher then gave us at most, 12. We generally had higher grades than those students under the other teacher, so I guess I can’t find the intention to learn there.
Hello Connie. I agree, some homeworks have no other purpose than to make the child do mindless repetitive tasks.
About the sewing, cooking, cleaning and other home related stuff, I now find them very useful. I used to think otherwise and have also been told by relatives around me that they weren’t important. I guess if I had stayed in the Philippines I really wouldnt have made much use of these practical skills. There, a working woman can afford to have not just one househelp but two or three. But here in Chile, for example, most of the people wouldn’t be able to afford a full-time househelp or pay someone to fix every little thing that needs mending everytime. Nowadays I often find myself trying to remember those things I learned from those home studies in elementary and high school.
i have my mom helping me with practical arts, hhahaa. anyway, my girl is now in grade one and you know what? the teacher told us parents that homeworks should be done in 30 mins and after that, kids should be told to relax or else they would hate doing homeworks already. and the system here is points – they encourage kids to bring homeworks. if they bring home more than required and finished them on time, then they could collect points. until they’d have a free homework day. which they could use anytime they want to. galing di ba? and also, they usually dont have homeworks during weekends and holidays – kasi daw it would be the time to realax and play and be with the family.
My comment may be a lot late but i jaz want to say my piece.
Mr. or Ms. Raqgold.. well thats a great school..
Well for me, i’m currently having problem with my homework now. I still got so much HW to do and it is due this sat. ! I still got 14 cases to digest, then write on my non-writing hand the 48 laws of power also chapter 1 to 3 of Arts of War. I also have to read “The Prince” by Michiavelli. The reason for this is that these HW’s were given to us during our recent christmas break and I just said to myself this is vacation time so why should I spend it on HW’s, am I that stupid. I’m also doing my OJT now, so it seems like I just want to die because of so many challenges that’s in my way now. Since I am a graduating student in college, so it so pressuring. I need inspiration or anything just to get me through this week.. All of my classmates also are struggling with this. I still have to do my thesis..Sigh.. It’s so hard being a student!>>>>>