I never minded homework much, and it was necessary to get the A's, so whatever. I did always put off long-term stuff, though. Like reading the book for the book report that's due tomorrow. Busy work I was fine with. Long-term planning, not so much. And so it remains. Sadly.

I used to do my homework in other classes. All the time. I probably had to take a book home/ do homework at home less than 10 times in my entire school life, except for art projects and 1 research paper a year.

I am not sure that this harmed me any, but I know I definitely regarded homework as busy work that was completely unnecessary, and I did graduate in the top 10 students in my class. College was a rude awakening, but because I loved high grades so much, I got it done and was fine.

I am also not sure how much the fact that I could ace multiple choice tests reflected me accurately learning the information, because I have discovered at my job that I can pass multiple choice nursing class tests without a) ever taking the course and b) without ever having taken any medical and/or science courses since high school.

Well I hope everyone will be glad to know that quantity, purpose, and quality of homework is an ongoing and controversial debate among educators. Current research suggests (duh) moving away from busy work and only assigning homework if it truly extends the learning from the class (or involves necessary reading for the class). Many schools are examining their policies and practices, but this type of change takes a lot of time and teacher buy-in.

I'm at the hairdressers. I new hairdresser, getting a new shade of red. She's trying to convince me to get crayon red highlights, but I don't think pissing off my mother the week of my shower is a good idea. So, I'll wait until next time for that.

In some respect, I think my sisters and I got the message that if homework bothered us it was our tough luck. The message was always that school was our job and sometimes you'd be asked to do things by the boss that you wouldn't want to do. Suck it up, it's a life lesson.

Also, my mother was a teacher in the school system so we knew we couldn't get away with anything.

My sister and I were just sort of discussing this because she has a helluva time getting her 16 year old to do his homework and we had to acknowledge our Mother's mad skillz in getting us to do all the things we didn't want to (e.g., paper routes on Christmas morning, before presents).

I am glad Kristin. Also, I do have to say I was wrong and disrespectful to do homework in other classes!

The other thing that made me not want to do homework in school was when I would see a teacher correcting the homework by putting a checkmark on the top of the page without even reading it. Made it seem that much more pointless. Of course, I suck at college because I never learned any study skills because I never needed them before college.

Sometimes, when I was teaching in San Francisco, the homework grade began to seem cruel and unusual. I mean, yes, the students really needed to do the homework, but they just simply absolutely wouldn't, so I started to feel bad taking off points every grading period.

Which is silly, because of course the problem is they weren't mastering the material, so their grades should reflect that. But if I'd been there another year, I might have shifted my focus a little away from trying (and trying and trying) to get them to do homework to trying to give them practice time in class.

Which, of course, I was also unable to do, because of all the other issues. Never mind, forget I mentioned it. I've depressed myself.

Of course, I suck at college because I never learned any study skills because I never needed them before college.

Wordy McWord Word. But then again, I did homework. It's just that if you're not challenged before college, you're simply not properly prepared for it. So that's a whole problem on its own.

Speaking of homework...

One of my profs' father died yesterday. She had warned us that this was probably coming and that if she had to miss class, she would e-mail us the night before. Also, she had some other profs potentially ready to teach if necessary.

So, today she announces that her father died and that she's decided to cancel class on Friday. Instead of class, we have to write a two-page response (answering some specific questions) to the reading due on Friday. PEOPLE BITCHED ABOUT HOW THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS. I was flabbergasted!

Also, hi bitches! Hugs and ~ma all around. Must run off and do more stuff. I am such a busy girl these days!