With our second child in her senior year and our third in high school it’s pretty much official. All of our kids are going to finish high school under staggering homework loads and there is nothing we can do about it. I have talked with administrators. I have talked with teachers. We have insisted our own children take on-level classes in some subjects (with mixed results.) And we have insisted on study halls (fewer classes). But my kids still have too much homework. So what can they learn from all that homework? (Because no, they do not reap enough benefits in college credit.)
I listened to a podcast a few months ago that gave me some insight into what our kids can learn from these massive amounts of homework.
Planet Money Episode 647: Hard Work Is Irrelevant.
The title is a bit depressing, but bear with me.
The title refers to the trend for successful companies paying not by how many hours you do hard work, but by what you accomplish.
Along with this, though, also comes the trend of getting rid of workers when the company no longer has a need for them. This allows a company to be nimble and pivot.
But here’s the important message I got from this story.
If you’re a hard worker, companies will use you up. Then if you get sick or injured because you worked too hard, they will move on without you.
So you need to take care of you. You need to learn your limits. Go for the long haul, not the immediate sprint.
THAT is what students need to learn from too much homework. Is all this work worth it? And where do you draw the line? They need to learn to put limits on what they will do, how much they can realistically do given the amount of time they have in a day. And maybe they will begin to understand why we have insisted on study halls and easier classes, and learn to make some limits for themselves.
You can listen to the whole podcast via Stitcher.