Another beauty from California, a state with an appalling record in education;
California is close to passing a law that could cut homework and alleviate stress for pupils and parents. The Healthy Homework Act, which has passed both chambers of the state legislature but must still be signed off by the governor, asks teachers to consider whether any homework assigned requires parental support and access to technology. Pilar Schiavo, an assemblywoman, wrote the bill after a conversation with her nine-year-old daughter, who asked whether she could “ban homework”.
The Times
For the record, I oppose the Healthy Homework act. It passed almost unanimously, though, with broad support from Republicans and Democrats alike, so it is almost certain to be enacted.
I don't know the details of the act, but I strongly oppose the entire concept of homework. If you want children to do more hours of schoolwork than there are hours in the school day, you need to extend the school day.
School time is for schoolwork; Home time is not. Parents are not schoolteachers, and it is unreasonable to treat them as unpaid and unqualified teaching assistants, particularly given their very variable quality in the role.
Time to rest, and to play, are important. Stealing that time to make up for the inadequacies of the school system is not acceptable.
For the record, I never did homework. I wasn't aware that what I was doing was a protest; I didn't seek any kind of publicity, or make any fuss. I just didn't do it. Got lots of punishments. Still didn't do it.
Out of curiosity, what line of work are you in, bilby?
Right now, I am a bus driver working for Brisbane City Council. Best job ever for job satisfaction, and while it pays less than my earlier roles, it also carries less responsibility for personnel management (which I am good at but hate), and pays by the minute at 150-300% for overtime, which brings my total income very close to my former salary, for fewer actual hours worked.
Before I got my heavy vehicle licence (just before COVID), I was a Staff Software Engineer for IBM for about fifteen years, providing L2 support for Cognos FPM systems, having joined Cognos a few months before they were acquired by IBM.
Prior to that, I was Demand Planning Manager at Australia's largest manufacturer of solid dose prescription pharmaceuticals, a position I rose to having started with that company as a goods inwards labourer, unloading trucks, and working up through operations/purchasing, factory scheduling, and export coordination roles.
I finished school with A levels in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics; I was consistently at the top of my classes in the sciences, to the fury of my biology teacher in particular, who once said "You haven't handed in a single homework assignment this year; Why should I let you continue in my class next year?" to which I responded "Because I have learned more biology here than any other student". He said that if I didn't get the highest mark in the school on the end of year exam, I was out; I did, and I wasn't.
Could I have done more with my potential? Certainly. Would I have been happier? Probably not. Would I have been wealthier? Almost certainly not. A PhD (or even an MA or BSc) is a great way to earn the respect of a small circle of academic peers, but it ain't the path to wealth, and is no guarantee of happiness.
My dad was a dedicated academic and researcher all of his working life (and still does some research at 86, having secured lifetime access to the University libraries as a condition of his retirement). He seems pretty happy, but he was never wealthy - under the "You aren't a success until you drive a more expensive car than your father" test, I was a success at 19, while working hauling armoured HV electrical cable into muddy ditches on building sites.
I, like Arnold J Rimmer, proudly boast both a BSc and an SSc*
*Silver Swimming certificate
