A marvelous analogy...

[alexpgp]

I was over on Slashdot, checking out an article on how both the Earth and Mars seem to be getting warmer recently, when I checked out an article on how some Bay Area (as in S.F.) schools are reducing homework levels. Among the comments to the article was this "exchange":

Math was especially true in this regard, math homework was nothing more than endless repetition of braindead problems designed to wear down your spirit and break you as a human being.

Sure. And shooting hundreds of free throws is nothing more than endless repetition designed to break your spirit, and not at all about making you a better basketball player.

The response goes on to note, "I've stopped being surprised by the number of university graduates I meet who can't figure out a 15% tip without a calculator."

One of the things I learned late in my college career was how doing the homework helped me pass engineering courses, not necessarily because of any credit given for doing so, but because I found exams were much more "tolerable" after I'd practiced with homework problems. The same goes for language study.

Cheers...

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

OMG!!!!!
You mean they are supposed to go to school to learn how to be good at things they might need to know in life and not just because it's all a conspiracy by their parents to get them out of the house part of the day!!!!11!!!

I can hear, faintly, in the back of my mind, Latin noun declensions and verb conjugations, perhaps because, you know, I was drilled in them so I'd know them by heart, since it makes reading the language so much easier if you don't have to stop and think about that sort of thing.

Grammar--it's so nineteenth century!