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The October 2010 Scientific American, p.102, quoting the October 1860 issue:
A child who has been boxed up six hours in school might spend the next four hours in study, but it is impossible to develop the child’s intellect in this way. The laws of nature are inexorable. By dint of great and painful labor, the child may succeed in repeating a lot of words, like a parrot, but, with the power of its brain all exhausted, it is out of the question for it to really master and comprehend its lessons. The effect of the system is to enfeeble the intellect even more than the body. We never see a little girl staggering home under a load of books, or knitting her brow over them at eight o’clock in the evening, without wondering that our citizens do not arm themselves at once with carving knives, pokers, clubs, paving stones or any weapons at hand, and chase out the managers of our common schools, as they would wild beasts that were devouring their children.
1860 View Of School
As someone who excelled at school, but found "real life" needed a different set of skills, I have to side with the "against homework" crowd. A point of the quotation is that we are right back where we were 140 years ago, so what we have "achieved" as far as methods of teaching, is really nothing. Having a talent for test-taking, I learned how meaningless, except in school, scoring on standardized tests (where all the comparisons noted come from) is. Country-by-country comparisons are questionable, because the test instruments vary by country as well.Wish I knew whose quotation that was--sounds like Bronson Alcott, or his daughter.
If you react so strongly to 4-6 hours a day, you would be aghast at what goes on in Asia. Children are loaded up for most every waking hour, and for some it works. Having been in Taiwan for almost eight years, I would say that education is wasted on those that can't cut it, for those many various reasons, but for others, it is like anything you practice and do well at. As for Canada, check out the PISA results. Canadians tested are ranked #2 behind only Norway. A 15-year-old's reading comprehension dictates success/failure acdemically.