The Meaning of Life

Dearest Darling Readers,
Although I may be ten times as brilliant as the average human being (depends on who's the average human being...CL!), I do not in fact know the meaning of life (42!). Well, not unless you count what I learned from "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which I usually don't. No, my friends, the title was simply to capture your attention. Now that I have it:
I HAVE NO HOMEWORK TODAY.
This extremely rare oddity in my daily schedule has made me think.

Homework should be optional. No, not simply because I hate homework like most of you.
I think that teachers should give homework out but make it up to the student to complete it. Students who honestly want and need the practice will probably do it. However, some students don't really need to do work outside of school. Personally, I don't think that I learn any more from my homework than what I absorb in class. It teaches students to be responsible for their own studies. Also, it gives more schedule flexibility. If I couldn't get an assignment done the night it was assigned, I could always do it some other time if I thought I needed the practice. I have tennis practice every day, plus many other after school activities, so sometimes I just don't have the time to get everything done. Then, I end up working on homework late into the night and do not have enough energy to learn in class the next day, and then the cycle repeats itself.

Now I'm not saying that we should abolish all homework, but those little nightly worksheets and things like that are kind of pointless. If we didn't have to waste time on those, we would have more time to work on big papers, study for tests, or do reading assignments. I mean, do I really need to write down "true" or "false" for statements like "Shakespeare is boring" (false)? No, I think not. I would rather be using that time to practice for my oral presentation on Guatemala.

Food for thought. What do you think the policy on homework should be?

~Tree