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The Prospector (Helena, Mont.), 28 April 2004, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/TheProspector/2004-04-28/ed-1/seq-15/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
ETHICS ON THE HILL 15 ETHICS OF HOMEWORK For our final Ethics on the Hill this year, we look at an issue closer to home for students across campus. The issue is whether or not home work is ethical. It seems like an odd question, but for seniors looking back on their college years, it offers an interesting reflection on their own experiences. Homework takes up so much free time, but was doing (or assigning) all that homework a moral action? Homework is a vehicle for common dialogue Pat Womac Senior, Philosophy Major Some people think that our brain is a container to be filled, but this is not the case. Teachers don’t just pour their knowledge into us; rather, it takes effort by both teacher and student to create real progress. College education is extremely costly, and for it to be worth the dough, a common dialogue between teacher and student needs to be present. The vehicle for this dia logue is homework. If someone is even remotely serious about learning something in class, then they are going to need fre quent feedback from the one doing the teaching. Without homework, you could go through an entire semester only to find out that you’ve been on the wrong track the whole time. One could argue that all we need is a single test at the end of each course to evaluate what has been learned. This claim, though, doesn’t take into account the fact that home work promotes learning. This is not to say, howev er, that we need to have required homework. We aren’t in high school any more. This is an institution for higher learning, and we should be far beyond the realms of busy work. Regarding homework, there should be distinctions made between areas of study, as well. Math, for instance, is so abstract that it would be virtually impossible for a common student to learn it without practice. It is a math teacher’s responsibility to provide students with constant means of practice. I don’t see any reason why it all needs to be required, though. Even the softer sci ences like literature and philosophy need homework in one form or another. In philosophy, for exam ple, hardly anything would be learned without solid class discussion. In order for that discus sion to be even remotely constructive, the assigned reading needs to be done. Without homework, a teacher will have no idea how well the students are learning particular con cepts, and therefore become less of a teacher. Without homework, learning would become completely autonomous. If you believe that learning should be done autonomously, then why would you go to school? Homework: It’s a matter of mental hygiene Lindy Benningfield Senior, Ethics/Value Studies major Is homework ethical? I think the majori ty of the homework assigned is given under ethical pretenses, but there is some that I would consider unethical. Assignments that help students under stand and remember the lecture materials are good assignments. Those that force you to also think about the material and apply it are even better. Once you begin to think in that way, remembering the infor mation is so much easier. The best assign ments are those that integrate different types of learning, such as individual and group projects, interactive CDs and case studies. People learn in so many different ways that lecturing, reading, and testing should not be the only way a student is given to learn. However, I believe it is unethical to assign homework for over a school break. Students run nonstop for most of the semester and need the break, no matter its length, to slow down, relax, and to have the chance to do something that they nor mally would not have the time to do. This can range from traveling to see family or friends, going on vacation with a group of other students, or just sitting down for two hours to watch a movie. Students need this time to get away from the school rou tine and to mentally recuperate, so that by the time classes start up again they feel refreshed and ready to conquer the next mountain of tasks that lie before them. Sleep is another thing that most college students do not get enough of. Your immune system repairs itself during REM sleep, and if you do not get enough of it, you are more susceptible to infections and diseases. When you do get sick, your body forces you to slow down, which does not allow for any late nights or early mornings that are sometimes needed to finish everything. Even during the day you feel worn down and are unable to be as productive as you should. Therefore, your homework suffers, which usually correlates with lower grades and maybe even lower test scores. Without vacation time away from class es and homework, students will bum out and nothing will get accomplished, which completely defeats the purpose of even being in college. No learning without homework Luke Berger Senior, Philosophy Major My immediate response to the question whether homework is ethical would be: hell no! But then my years of philosophy kick in and I realize that I must reason and debate this question before I can accurately answer. After doing so, which I admit takes very little time; I conclude that homework is ethical in certain cases. One case being that homework is for the greater good of the whole, since the good of the whole class is to learn, and you cannot learn if you do not know what is going on. If learning were not part of classes then homework would not be ethical. But sadly since Carroll feels we must leam above anything else ethical is the verdict. Another reason homework is ethical is personal/indi- vidual development. By coming to Carroll most stu dents want to become educated; if not they would have attended somewhere more exciting like the U of M. Education (learning) is sadly associated with grades. And the only way to get the best grades is to complete all of your work. Other ways have been tried over the years (not necessarily by me!), but ultimately they do not yield the results desired. In short if you want to get a good job (leam) you need good grades (home work). Now since there is no way I can uphold my presti gious reputation without arguing against the ethics of homework I will set forth a simple objection. How can homework be ethical, when it seems that our great institution of Carroll has trouble doing its own? Take this as you will, but I think that Campus Ministry and the increasing debt make my point. Granted my lack of expertise on the hidden details may cause my theory to collapse, but I feel suggesting these examples are acceptable. In conclusion it took me four years to realize that homework could be ethical and stop fighting it. Isn’t that what college is about: learning? - -WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28,-2004 VOLUME 87, NO. 7
