Hacker News Reader

Do you think your teacher saw potential in you and was trying to get more from you? My biggest frustration with the public school near me is that they don’t care whether a student thrives, only that they don’t fail. Attempting to instill a work ethic as a teacher is admirable, but clearly didn’t work in your case. I could see how facing resistant students could grind the optimism and energy out of a teacher.

View on HN

I share a similar experience and response to talldyo. The problem is "we" (talldyo and I) understood how to solve the problems (as proved by passing the tests) but were uninterested in wasting our time doing busy work. The teacher could have changed their grading to be something like 50% of the grade comes from homework and 50% from tests. Then I likely would have done the homework, while still being pissed because it's just "busy work". I prefer just taking quizzes and tests to determine grades and if I understand the material. How I learn and how much practice I need to get to understanding and being able to solve the problem should be no ones business but my own. If the teacher was prudent they would have just left talldyo alone. The teacher needlessly caused additional problems and pain and suffering.

Did you achieve mastery of the subject matter without doing the homework? If so, kudos to you. If not, then perhaps doing the homework might have been of some value. Practicing leads to solving problems faster and with less mistakes. Of course the length of the assignment matters, too. Hours of additional work would be a burden. So, I guess it depends on the situation. You would hope that the adults involved (parents and teachers) have the student’s best interest in mind and would work something out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com