While I’m regaling one and all (well, you, yeah, YOU! Over there! I see you!) with tales of the school “system”, there is the tale of Allen, Number One Son, and his transition into North Schools and their second grade.
So, in his first grade year, we had lived in another small town, several counties away. I had heard of an opening for an ICU nurse at this hospital, and had applied for, and been accepted for that position. We moved, and the children moved schools, unsurprisingly.
In the previous school, Allen had been in first grade in a Catholic school. He had brought home homework, and his mother and I had worked with him thereon. Therefore, foolishly, once we had moved and he had started second grade, I assumed that there would be homework, again.
Nope.
He came home each day, and I asked him about his homework. “No homework, Dad.”
Was he certain? “Yep, no homework, Dad.”
Did the teacher send anything home with him? “Nope.”
Had there been anything written on the board, such as, oh, I don’t know, HOMEWORK?
“No, Dad!”
This little bonding moment repeated itself day after day, until, a couple of weeks into the school year, there was parent-teacher conferences. Aha! Now was my opportunity to resolve the no-homework dilemma!
So, I arrived at the appointed hour, and introduced myself to the teacher. “I’m Allen’s father. He tells me that he is not getting any homework assigned.”
Cute, young, blond, she smiled, and nodded. “Um-hmm!”
I paused, and, no additional verbal reply forthcoming, I plowed on. “Now, Allen did get homework in first grade, at his previous school.”
Another smile, another “Um-hmm!”
I paused, again. No verbal riposte was forthcoming, and again I plowed forward. “And, I had been of the understanding that homework was important to the teaching process. It seems to me that it provides feedback to the teacher regarding how well the students in general, and each student in particular, is grasping the material.”
Another head nod, another smile, another “Um-hmm!”
I continued. “In addition, I had thought that homework also had the benefit of helping the student generalize the material away from the classroom, promoting retention as well as helping the student incorporate the material into his or her daily life.”
Another nod, another smile, another “Um-hmmm!” I was beginning to suspect that this college graduate teacher was suffering from a poverty of conversational themes. (Sigh!). I wound up my presentation, and went for my closer.
“Therefore, I’m puzzled. Allen is telling me that he is not getting homework assignments, and you appear to be confirming that. I have to confess that I’m puzzled. Can you explain the pedagogical principles that led to this particular plan of instruction, omitting homework?”
Her blonde grin widened, and she tossed her head as if she was still in the sorority house back at Wherever State Teacher’s College. “(giggle) That’s just the way we do it here!”
Outstanding.
I imagined myself, back in Nursing school, answering my clinical instructor, Dr. Smith’s, inquiry, “So, Mr. Stretcher Ape, why did you administer lasix to this patient?”, with the following:
“(giggle!) The Doctor ordered it! (giggle)”
Yeah, about that. Had THAT been my answer, and not revelations about optimizing fluid balance, and the salutary effects of diuresis upon the patient with heart failure, well, I’d still be repeating my FAVORITE! greeting in The Whole World!, which is “(knock, knock, knock!) Fire Department!”
All night long.
Musings of A Stretcher Ape 
Are you regretting moving now? You and me both would be out the door iffn’ we answered that way. Teachers are coming out of school dumber then they went in.
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So it appears! We moved, again, and all the kids, how adults, can demonstrate critical thinking.
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It gets worse, not better. Our kids went to Lutheran schools through HS. They got lots of homework. Both did well in college.
My wife volunteers in the math class at the local middle school. They almost never have homework. Last year the school took another giant step towards illiteracy. Now all work is done in GROUPS! Billy, Susie, Taekwondo, Rafael, Aleessa and Ishmael all work together as a team. The GROUP’s grade is their individual grade. Thus, if one kid is conscientious and wants good grades, he/she does all the group work to make sure the slackers do not pull his/her grade down. I guess it is good preparation for working at Diversity Inc., where one or two people do actual work and the rest loaf.
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It was present in college (nursing) too, in the 80s.
Instructor (in Advanced Med-Surg class): this is what we do for X
Me (just a dumb Paramedic): ummm, ma’am. This is where everything is located??
Instructor: yes
Me: and this is how everything works?
Instructor: yes
Me: how did you come to that conclusion?
Instructor: it’s just the way we do things.
Repeat ad nauseaum through the class. At the end of the semester, she said, rather loudly, that she hoped she never had another paramedic in her class. Yeah, me too…..
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I was a Graveyard Hospital Orderly directly under the Night Nursing Supervisor and when attending early 80’s nursing school would have those types of interactions with instructors. “It’s the way hospitals do it and how we do it”… Ma’am, I work in a hospital, we don’t do it that way or anyway you describe, it either would take too long or the patient would really suffer… I wasn’t popular in most of my classes because one, I was male and I learned at work, kept my mouth shut and I asked pertinent questions and the licensed staff saw I had the potential and the smarts.
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