/Portals/2/logos/cropped-666ef2f2-fea6-40d4-9f1d-93692827f264-wicketbanner.jpg en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Tue, 21 May 2013 12:04:34 GMT 15 By Anonymous Faculty Member
I’d like to take this opportunity to respond to the staff editorial from the most recent edition of “The Wicket” entitled, “How Much Homework Is Too Much?” First and foremost, I want to thank the staff for researching and reflecting on the impact of homework on their daily lives. It is vital to take a step back and survey the demands in one’s life and assess how positively or negatively they affect one’s well-being and growth as human person. While some of the points you raised are also on the minds of the faculty, such as how to better spread out quizzes, tests, and papers to make a manageable weekly assessment schedule, how to maximize in-class reflection and analysis, and how to construct a curriculum that is meaningful for your life, there are other points that I think could merit a closer look and deeper reflection. I think each student ought to reflect on the following questions. If after examining them and answering them with honesty, you still find yourself in opposition to the current homework load, then I will considering singing Pink Floyd’s anthem “Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!” with you outside of a faculty meeting. But on the off chance you give your homework another look, I think you’ll find your teachers do ultimately provide it for your benefit. 1) If I am taking an AP course, why am I taking it? In my estimation, an AP course is meant to provide the content and pace of an introductory level college or university course. While these courses certainly “beef up” one’s transcript, it can be argued that at a college preparatory school, in theory they do prepare one for collegiate studies and so have their own intrinsic merit. However, a typical college student’s schedule allots significantly more time to prepare, analyze, and reflect on the material presented in lectures and seminars than a high school student’s schedule. And, if you are taking 3-5 AP courses as a high school student, you must realize that you’re taking a college level curriculum with about one-fourth of the time to do it. 2) How do I use my free periods? I often hear upperclassmen talk about their free periods (some students have upwards of three on a given day). These hallway conversations are filled with details of who left campus early because of a last period free, who came late because of a first period free, or who spent the free period in the Lodge or in the Playroom goofing off with their friends. While leisure and relaxation are absolutely essential, I urge you to think about how effectively and efficiently you use your free periods during the day. Do you take advantage of the quiet places on campus to work on some of your homework (not the work due that day, but work due for the next day)? Do you take advantage of the library’s extended hours (which the student government petitioned for several years ago)? Do you balance which free periods you use to catch up with friends with those you allocate towards academic work? 3) Am I distracted when I’m doing my homework? I’d like you to examine what else you have around when you are reading a textbook, working on a paper, or completing a math problem. Is your Facebook or Twitter page open? Are you texting? G-chatting? iChatting? Checking your email? Does this possibly extend a 30-minute assignment to 45 minutes or more? Or do you set aside time for silence and contemplation so that you are better able to find the merit in some assignments that are designed to be more than busy work if they receive the proper attention? 4) How many extra-curricular activities am I involved in? I’d like you to think about the sheer amount of things on your plate when you leave campus in addition to your homework. Do you play a sport at Visitation? Another sport in addition to that? Are you taking music lessons? Are you involved in multiple clubs and organizations on and off campus? SAT classes? Tutoring? Involved in a high school play? This question is not meant to devalue extracurricular activities. Goodness knows they make for well-rounded persons and allow you to explore life lessons that studying simply cannot teach. But with so many other activities competing for your attention, could it be argued that homework is not the only thing on your plate that weighs you down or stresses you out? What activities take priority in your life? Where are your studies on that list? 5) Do I realize that some stress is good and realistic? While I respect and applaud the current studies on whether or not pushing our children to the brink of exhaustion is really worth it, I disagree with some scholars that all stressful things ought to be eliminated from a teenager’s plate. Certainly excessive stress is unhealthy. But the reality of the human experience is that life can be more stressful at times than others. There will be demands on you in your adult life that are unforeseen and require you to work with what seems like unrealistic demands or timeframes. You’ll be asked to pull from the deep recesses of your being to face a situation, and if you never have had to experience doing things that are unpleasant, undesirable, and quite frankly, hard, you might not be equipped to when life throws you the curve balls that it inevitably will. Practice in this can only help you in the future. If we as your teachers fulfill our mission, then we will have helped you become equipped to face your adult life with the strength, conviction, and determination that befits a Salesian woman. How does homework fit into that goal? Ideally, it will allow you to really enter into the essential questions of the human experience and to learn what your strengths are, so that you can engage the culture and enter into meaningful relationships in the present and in the future. I cannot speak to the pressure that parents or college admissions boards put on you students. My job as a faculty member at Georgetown Visitation is to educate you to in the things of this world and the next, so that when you look back on your life, you realize that you learned how to be fully alive. I encourage more dialogue about this subject and others so that we might tackle the “big questions” with a gentle spirit. ]]> Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:03:45 GMT