I'm a teacher of high school math, and I'm just waiting for the day when I find one of my own problems posted for help. It drives me nuts when people just give these answers out and don't explain anything. One of the reasons I give homework is so my students can practice what they have been learning. If they never practice themselves they are going to do poorly on the tests, because they can't ask yahoo answers for the answers to the math test they are taking. It's frustrating to say the least.
2006-09-20 09:14:48
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answer #1
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answered by SmileyGirl 4
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No, I don't think you're a boring old fart. I also have a problem with giving them every answer. As inconceivable as it may seem, I have a life, too and cannot spend it doing someone else's schoolwork. About 10 years ago, I was doing my own! Once in a while, though, I'll answer a homework question if I already know the answer and the student asks the question in the right way. (I can usually tell if a student truly needs help or is being lazy by the way the quesiton is worded. I also check their previous questions.) I always include a source and/or an explanation. I will absolutely not write their essays, do all the problems in their textbooks, nor research their termpapers.
Some students may need a little more help than others, as some have a hard time understanding some of the information on the sources provided. Not everyone understands big words. One student, who needed help with definitions, wouldn't have been able to look them up anyway because he/she didn't even spell them correctly!
True, they do need the practice, but I feel that many teachers (not all, but many) give excessive homework. My cousins (both 13 years old) spend 4 hours a night on homework. Think about it: they get up at 5:30am, get to school at 7:30. School gets out at 2:30pm. They finally get home at 5pm. Bedtime is 10pm. They only get 7 1/2 hours of sleep before having to do it all over again--5pm to 10pm (five hours!) is the only free time they have. Four hours of it are spent doing homework. That leaves one hour for eating dinner, bathing, chores, etc. What kind of a life is that? Even the most beleaugered adult I know doesn't have that much to do!
2006-09-20 09:53:40
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answer #2
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answered by Avie 7
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Good question. Let me explain.
Shelter from the elements is the most important thing in the world. Without it, people die in a matter of days from exposure (in most parts of the world.) A long time ago, knowing how to cut down trees, hew lumber into boards, fashion joints, construct walls, floors, gather rocks for a hearth & chimney were vital skills. This eventually changed into bartering something you possessed, or that you were talented at, with a carpenter. As society progressed, people earned money to buy or rent shelter. Today, unless you are a real estate developer, you aren't even allowed to build a house.
Think about that. The most basic, important piece of knowledge in the world has never been learned by the majority of people in our society.
As a society advances, the body of knowledge within that society grows to the point where the depth of understanding required to do particular tasks must give way to speed and efficiency, or the society will stagnate. We don't all have the time to learn every single thing. Think of knowledge like an upside down pyramid. Learning everything back down to the point of the pyramid may be desirable, but at some point it becomes depreciative. There's just too much new important information coming at us each day to try and understand all the concepts that came before.
This would be a tremendous problem were it not for technology. Our modern ability to quickly store and retrieve complex information via computers has grown to the point where information is so redundant and readily accessible, it's finally become impractical to bother learning the concepts that got us here. If I need the square root of a number, I know there are going to be far more calculators and computers in a square mile than there are books on mathematics. So, is it more important for me to know how to operate a calculator/computer, or read a book?
This sort of thinking does not sit well with classical educators who feel that understanding HOW an answer is arrived at is at least, if not more important, than the answer itself. To that I say, a difference which makes no difference, is no difference. There are entire bodies of knowledge that have been forgotten because they no longer have any practical application in our world. If civilization imploded tomorrow and we all had to return to living off the land, the majority of us wouldn't know how to start a fire or make a trap, although we could tell you exactly how to send email.
Education needs a MAJOR overhaul in our society. What children need to learn are critical thinking skills, communication skills, social skills, leadership skills, organizational skills, the concepts of prioritizing tasks, focusing, self analysis, self expression, motivation and perserverence. The vast majority of "facts" that children are forced to memorize in school are both pointless and forgotten by adulthood. They do absolutely nothing to prepare them for life in the real world. Education should focus on identifying what children ENJOY DOING, where their NATURAL TALENTS lie, and DEVELOPING those talents to their maximum. That is how you build self-esteem. There is no reason why a person who likes to paint and draw should be forced to learn the Pythagorean theorem or the Kreb's cycle when they could be studying the work of Van Gogh or Stan Lee. If a child likes to create websites, why should he or she study French civilization or take a course in Roman mythology when they could be learning HTML?
In a sense, all learning is cheating because knowledge builds on prior knowledge. If I read a book on the history of architecture I'm cheating because I'm acquiring the knowledge from someone else who did the harder task of researching to put the book together. Cheating is cheating until everyone does it, at which point it becomes the accepted way of learning. The only exception to this is new knowledge that is derived through inspiration and insight, and lets face it, children are not being taught to invent, they're being taught to regurgitate.
2006-09-20 19:38:15
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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I quite agree, especially as the answer can usually be found on the net in half the time it takes to post a question and get answers.
Perhaps I'm also a boring old fart.
2006-09-20 09:24:16
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answer #4
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answered by fidget 6
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If thet cannot get the easy answer on this site, they will simply try elsewhere.
In today's world, homework is an irrelevance that should be dispensed with. Schoolchildren should attend from 09.00 to 17.00, with private study (in lieu of homework) fpor the last two hours of the day. They should not have access to computers/calculators during this time, and be made to access information in the best way - through books.
2006-09-20 09:23:17
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answer #5
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answered by ? 6
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excuse me my dad is a teacher in high school and im pursuing a carrer in teaching ithink u are just a boring old fart. these days you are lucky if you send a child homme with thier book and it comes back again let alone if they have the corret answer to the question that was set for them. i feel people theses days need to lighten up a bit and really see the children for what they ARE doing and realise that little Jhonny has actually spent at least 10 minutes of his time to look for the answer! is it the end of the world if a child doesnt have to sit with a calculator any more to get the correct answer THE TIMES HAVE CHANGED SO GET WITH THEM AND LIGHTN UP OR IS IT UR JUST JELOUSeBECAUSE THEY DIDNT HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY WHEN YOU WERE AT SCHOOL FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT! LOL
2006-09-20 11:36:06
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answer #6
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answered by nat l 2
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You're right, it would be better to teach the person HOW to solve the problem. However, I doubt that's what they're looking for when they take the time to ask about the answer on here. I choose to just ignore those questions entirely. Pay attention in class!
2006-09-20 13:48:03
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answer #7
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answered by elizabeth_ashley44 7
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fair point but surely the marks go for the working out and if its an essay question then a few pointers on themes to consider cant hurt its not like the parents writing the answer for the kids
2006-09-20 09:22:05
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answer #8
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answered by Fram464 3
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No you bring a good point. They want help not the answer. I think sometimes it is easier to post it and get the answer than to do the homework for yourself. Good luck .
2006-09-20 10:26:00
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answer #9
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answered by tasha 5
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I think you are totally right. Half the point of the exercise is the research; the actual work is just to prove that you did the research, and how thoroughly. Not to mention that it's great fun :-)
2006-09-20 09:22:01
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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