When I was a kid, I vividly remember warm spring days where the weather was perfect, the trees were budding, flowers were blooming, and there was a nice, cool breeze. I would get off the bus excited and ready to go play outside. There was only one problem: homework. My parents always made me do my homework first and it annoyed me to no end. Meanwhile, my older cousins would get to go outside and do whatever they wanted.
It was incredibly frustrating. However, deep down I “knew” that this was the right thing to do. So I would sit down at the table, the windows open, cool breeze practically taunting me, and do my homework. But I wouldn’t just “do” it and get it over with. I was taught that this was the most important thing, and I became a perfectionist about it. I would spend hours not only trying to get every question right but trying to understand why it was right.
As you would imagine, this was incredibly time consuming. Even though I got off the bus around 3:45, sometimes it would be too dark to do anything by the time I got done. This worked incredibly well in terms of performing in school. However, I didn’t really have a life outside of school. Prioritizing in this way put me behind in several areas more important than school. Here are three more reasons school can’t come first:
Homework never ends. The story I talked about was in middle school. The homework didn’t let up in high school, and it sure hasn’t slowed down in college either. The point is, if you are not on summer vacation, then odds are there is going to be some sort of homework that you could do. But, if you’re reading this right now, then odds are school is not your number one priority. If you treat it like it is, then you will never have time to work towards your goals, or do things that you want to do- things that you care actually about. Therefore, homework must be put off. As I am writing this, I have six items that need to be done; literally one for each class. The homework will always be there but the chance to live life when your young will not be.
Secondly, homework is largely arbitrary. In school, you take many classes that are useless. It comes naturally then that the homework from those classes will be useless as well. Even when the class is actually important, the homework often just seems like busy work. Something that they give you to “boost your grade” or “help you understand.” First off, it’s supposed to be the teacher’s job to help you understand and if you don’t, then you won’t be able to do the homework anyway. The only reason that may be plausible is to practice a certain skill. If it is one of the rare occasions where the skill is necessary, then this makes sense. If it is unnecessary, which is more than likely the case, then you just spent x number of hours learning about a useless skill and then were sent home with an assignment so you could get really good at said useless skill.
Finally, what all of this boils down to; Homework wastes your time. This is a task that we are all forced to do that has little to no return on investment. The most valuable resource we have is time and the education system does not respect yours. Some of your teachers won’t either. Know this, and play the game. Figure out what your top priorities are in life and act accordingly. If school isn’t one of them, then don’t let other people tell you it is. Save your homework for later and allocate your time to a more worthy cause.
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