Requiring homework on a consistent basis is not an evidence-based practice and actually introduces worse outcomes for kids whose parents/guardians are less present, which disproportionately affects poor kids and kids of color.

Why do we do it? Because there are some parents (you know the ones) who will pester the school and lobby for dropping their funding if they don’t see consistent tangible output from their students. If the kids aren’t coming home with half a dozen papers each day and a bag of books, how can we verify that the teachers aren’t just sitting around on their phones all day not doing shit and collecting a paycheck WITH OUR TAX DOLLARSSSSS?!!!?!?!

So, homework largely serves as busy work to signal to parents that teachers are doing things. And the system is designed for parents to actively encourage and participate in the development of the skills required to regularly complete homework independently by high school. Kids whose parents have less free time are inherently disadvantaged, often labeled as bad kids or lazy early on, and can have a seat on the prison train before they’ve entered middle school. It also harms kids’ self esteem and sets an unhealthy precedent for expectations around work-life balance.

There isn’t a single thing that homework accomplishes by accident which couldn’t be accomplished better on purpose via other methods. Fuck homework.

  • PaX [comrade/them, they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Well I believe that the default position is considered to be "homework good" for the same reason that the default position of many things is the status quo. It "works well enough right now" for the purpose that it is purported to serve and any improvements should come with studies that support that it is better with good methodology and examining the impact over multiple generations (in my opinion with regards to education).

    Is it working well enough? Maybe by the metrics of standardized testing but my understanding is that even those aren't showing too great. This entire educational system including homework, the "banking model of education", is founded upon the idea that we can just force people to learn for ~10-20 years and then they're good for the rest of their life when we should be restructuring society to provide the conditions for enthusiastic, life-long learning.

    Capitalism is working well enough by its standards, as in providing shareholder value and innovating or whatever. There's many studies "proving" capitalism is the best system. Just because it's in a study doesn't mean it isn't effected by the whole socio-political-economic context in which the study takes place. I don't think there's been any studies looking at the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th order effects of socialism but that didn't dissuade you.

    But could it not be that and still be beneficial to the education of children in regards to the knowledge that we as a society are determining is important to pass on to our children? Further, if that doesn't sit well with you, then could homework be reformed to not be primarily a coercive measure to make children learn in a society that doesn't care about personal improvement and collective self-actualization and only seeks to exploit them? And if so wouldn't that be a more fruitful pursuit than running to the support of a policy position over articles in the German equivalent of Vox news, that aren't peer reviewed, and which hasn't examined the social impact over generations of time to show that it will be a net-neutral in regards to our education?

    I think you might be right in that homework does serve a purpose under this system in forcing compliance with this model of education, so maybe it is beneficial for learning. I don't think you can take the coercion out of homework by reform under this system but I think we should try to resolve the contradiction between home and school in some way. Maybe homework has to stick around... for now? Maybe. That being said I think we should definitely be reducing its use where we can.

    • EffortPostMcGee [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      There's many studies "proving" capitalism is the best system. Just because it's in a study doesn't mean it isn't effected by the whole socio-political-economic context in which the study takes place. I don't think there's been any studies looking at the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th order effects of socialism but that didn't dissuade you.

      Yeah I think that this is a good point and I really needed to think about this when you pointed it out. I think for me at least there doesn't seem to be a way to even really "study" this though. Plus I agree that anything that we would think would make progress for kids and their education should be investigated, but ultimately even if socialism fails, we will just simply move past that with whatever would come after it. However if we lose tons of knowledge on something that we could actually study before implementing.... I guess I just see it as completely avoidable as opposed to knowing that socialism with always be smothered in the crib by capitalists and thus cannot be put under rigorous scrutiny to be judged on its merits until capitalism dies.

      This entire educational system including homework, the "banking model of education", is founded upon the idea that we can just force people to learn for ~10-20 years and then they're good for the rest of their life when we should be restructuring society to provide the conditions for enthusiastic, life-long learning.

      Super agree with this. I think there are lots of things we could be doing better, and all of them deserve to be looked at.

      • PaX [comrade/them, they/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        I definitely agree with you that we should carefully consider next steps before we take any action, anti-homework aktion or not. I think education reform/restructuring will end up being a core component of the socialist programs of the next world-historical revolutions.

        And I do think we can study it and determine if it's a good idea. We just have to take a class-based perspective instead of giving into the usual technocratic, "objective" metrics of how well students are doing (standardized testing, job placement, rates of crime or "behavioral issues", etc). With the bourgeois state in control of education it will always prioritize the interests of the ruling class over the interests of students and teachers. Thanks for the discussion, I've been really thinking about this stuff too. I think homework (in the sense of learning being done outside of a classroom) isn't inherently a bad idea but we do need an alternative to the way it's currently practiced.