1、For students the only good homework is no homework. This has been a truism for as long as schools have existed. However, the practice of newly acquired knowledge and the preparation for new lessons are essential parts of the learning process. Teachers understand this and give assignments accordingly. Nevertheless, there is such thing as too much homework. Whether daily homework is useful or not depends on the age of the students and the subjects in which the work is assigned, and teachers also have to take into account the possible negative effects of overwork.
The age of a student or, better yet, the stage of the personal development of a student has to be considered when deciding on the amount of homework assigned. Elementary school students respond differently to daily homework than senior school students. They are more limited in their ability to concentrate on a subject and take in knowledge. These are skills that are developed over time. In addition, they will need time to learn other important lessons, for example how to interact socially and behave in a group of their peers. Thus, instead of daily homework, these students need time to play with their friends.
The need for daily homework also differs from subject to subject. For example, in the areas of mathematics and languages continuous engagement with the subject matter is necessary, because it allows a student to internalize important concepts and mechanisms. In the field of history, on the other hand, it is more important that students grasp greater concepts. Memorizing dates and places is important, surely, but, if forgotten, these can always be looked up in the textbook. In these subjects daily homework is not only unnecessary but it might discourage students from taking an interest in the topic.
After all, learning is largely a voluntary activity, and teachers have to consider the possibility that too much homework will frustrate the students. As a result, students might become less interested in the subject or less willing to learn. Consequently, the good intentions of the teacher could very well have the opposite effect and a student will learn less.
2、Students graduating from colleges today are not fully prepared to deal with the "real world." It is my belief that college students need to be taught more skills and information about personal finance management to enable them to meet the challenges that face everyone in daily life, which includes playing the credit game, planning their personal financial strategy, and consumer awareness.
Learning how to obtain and use credit is probably the most valuable knowledge a young person can have. Credit is a dangerous tool that can be of tremendous help if it is handled with caution. Having credit can enable people to obtain material necessities before they have the money to purchase them outright. But unfortunately, many, many young people get carried away with their handy plastic credit cards and awake one day to find they are in serious financial debt. Learning how to use credit properly can be a very difficult and painful lesson indeed.
Of equal importance is learning how to plan a personal budget. People have to know how to control money; otherwise, it can control them. Students should leave college knowing how to allocate their money for living expenses, insurance, savings, and so forth in order to avoid the "Oh, no! I'm flat broke and I don't get paid again for two weeks!" anxiety syndrome.
Along with learning about credit and personal financial planning, graduating college students should be trained as consumers. The consumer market today is flooded with a variety of products and services of varying quality and prices. A young person entering the "real world" is suddenly faced with difficult decisions about which product to buy or whose services to engage. He/She is usually unaware of such things as return policies, guarantees, or repair procedures, information of this sort is vital knowledge to everyday living.
For a newly graduated college student, the "real world" can be a scary place to be when he or she is faced with such issues as handling credit, planning a budget, or knowing what to look for, when to make a purchase and whom to purchase it from. Entering this "real world" could be made less painful if people were educated in dealing with these areas of daily life. What better place to accomplish this than college?