Finding the middle ground on late work policy
A perfect formula exists, somewhere out there in the universe, for a late work policy. Teachers don’t have an endless pile of homework to grade, students get consistent feedback, and the homework load is predictable. This balance, however, eludes most classrooms, as teachers’ policies are either too rigid and unforgiving or lax and casual.
With 180 days in a school year, it’s inevitable that there comes a day when teachers assign students an incompletable amount of homework. Students simply don’t have the amount of time necessary to perform their best work. Sports and extracurriculars keep kids at Liberty for up to twelve hours per day. Studies recommend that students sleep over nine hours per night, so students are given three hours in that day to do homework. This is not always enough. When teachers are assigning homework, students’ otherwise busy schedules need to be kept in mind.
When assigning homework, teachers should prepare an amount feasible for the busiest students, and sometimes that should entail pushing back deadlines instead of decreasing the quantity of homework. Most of students’ homework is practice instead of learning, and not having completed the homework does not impede the student’s ability to participate in class and learn at a comparable rate to their peers.
An informal homework policy system allows students to exploit teachers and pile all of their assignments until the week grades are due, causing headaches for both teachers and students. There are no positives to delaying assignments this late, and students don’t learn any of the content from merely cranking out numerous assignments in one night, so a middle ground has to be found. Some assignments, however, cannot be postponed.
Every student has that day when they physically cannot fit in the time necessary to complete an assignment. This should be acceptable, and their ability to prioritize the important work over a small assignment should be rewarded with the opportunity for them to complete it within a reasonable time frame for full credit instead of smiting their college aspirations and GPAs.