Does Homework Work?

Does Homework Work? My major is social psychology, so you can imagine the amount of homework I’m dealing with! Don’t get me wrong â€" I still did my homework before, but now it’s completely different because I don’t see this process as a tedious thing I can’t wait to get over and done with. It only takes a few minutes to apply for an absentee ballot at mnvotes.org. Once it comes in the mail, voters also can be encouraged to take their time filling out those ballots. A lot can happen between now and the primary and between now and Election Day. The co-op board meetsâ€"and over my objections makes me secretaryâ€"before I can start on Esmee’s homework. It is now time for me to struggle with Earth Science. By late afternoon, I am tired after filing a magazine article on deadline. When I arrive home, a few minutes ahead of Esmee, I consider delaying my week of homework, but then I realize that Esmee can never put off her week of homework. That is the advice of my 13-year-old daughter, Esmee, as I struggle to make sense of a paragraph of notes for an upcoming Earth Science test on minerals. “Minerals have crystal systems which are defined by the # of axis and the length of the axis that intersect the crystal faces.” That’s how the notes start, and they only get murkier after that. However, one thing I can do is setting priorities when it comes to homework. I’m Chris and If you’d ask me six months ago whether I liked doing my homework, I’d answer something along the lines of ‘of course not â€" who does? ” Today, it’s me who does like doing all kinds of homework. After a few minutes, replies started coming in from parents along the lines of “Thank God, we thought we were the only ones,” “Our son has been up until 2am crying,” and so forth. Half the class’s parents responded that they thought too much homework was an issue. The teacher was unmoved, saying that she felt the homework load was reasonable. If Esmee was struggling with the work, then perhaps she should be moved to a remedial class. I suggested that parents’ meeting to discuss their children’s education was generally a positive thing; we merely chose to have our meeting in cyberspace instead of the school cafeteria. My daughter has the misfortune of living through a period of peak homework. This algebra unit, on polynomials, seems to be a matter of remembering a few tricks. Though I struggle with converting from standard notationâ€"for example, converting 0. My older daughter’s homework load this evening is just seven algebra equations, studying for a Humanities test on industrialization, and more Earth Science. I sneak in and grab her copy ofAngela’s Ashesand catch up on my reading, getting all the way to page 120. The hardship of too much homework pales in comparison with the McCourt family’s travails. Still, because we are sharing our copy ofAngela’s Ashes, I end up going to bed an hour after Esmee. When I ask Esmee what this actually means, she gives me her homework credo. It would be to be more confident about doing homework. I know the flow of homework never ends and if you don’t get it all under control, it becomes overwhelming very quickly. It often makes me feel like I’m getting so much work done at once. In reality, it’s definitely the worst strategy for doing homework! The textbook Esmee’s class is using is simply calledEarth Scienceand was written by Edward J. Tarbuck and Frederick K. Lutgens. “The termsynergisticapplies to the combined efforts of Tarbuck and Lutgens,” says the biographical note at the beginning. These questions are very easy, but they help me learn which homework I should prioritize in my schedule. I don’t write down everything during lectures and don’t use highlighters to make important parts of my notes. However, I’ve found out that I can only try multitasking and not actually do it, as the studies show. I learned that doing research is also a skill much too late. When I couldn’t find relevant sources, I got so frustrated that often bought academic articles online, getting way out of my budget. Organizing all the books, articles, and papers in folders by course and class helps keep track of all the information and never lose anything you might need later.