kisap07

strage

I love basketball not because I am particularly good at it; I am short, and even worse, I lack court vision. It is just my three point skills that allowed me to play at a varsity level.

I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down


The dark descent, and up to reascend, [ 20 ]

Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou

Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;


So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs, [ 25 ]

Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more

Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt

Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,

Smit with the love of sacred Song; but chief


Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath [ 30 ]

That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,

Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget

Those other two equal'd with me in Fate,

So were I equal'd with them in renown,


Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides, [ 35 ]

And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.

Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move

Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird

Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid


Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year [ 40 ]

Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,

Or flocks, or heards, or human face divine;


But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark [ 45 ]

Surrounds me, from the chearful wayes of men

Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair

Presented with a Universal blanc

Of Nature's works to mee expung'd and ras'd,


And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out. [ 50 ]

So much the rather thou Celestial light

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell


Of things invisible to mortal sight. [ 55 ]

Now had the Almighty Father from above,

From the pure Empyrean where he sits

High Thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye,

His own works and their works at once to view:


About him all the Sanctities of Heaven [ 60 ]

Stood thick as Starrs, and from his sight receiv'd

Beatitude past utterance; on his right

The radiant image of his Glory sat,

His onely Son; On Earth he first beheld


Our two first Parents, yet the onely two [ 65 ]

Of mankind, in the happie Garden plac't,

Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,

Uninterrupted joy, unrivald love

In blissful solitude; he then survey'd


Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there [ 70 ]

Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this side Night

In the dun Air sublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet

On the bare outside of this World, that seem'd


Firm land imbosom'd without Firmament, [ 75 ]

Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.

Him God beholding from his prospect high,

Wherein past, present, future he beholds,

Thus to his onely Son foreseeing spake.

My sentence is for open Warr:

But perhaps [ 70 ]


The way seems difficult and steep to scale

With upright wing against a higher foe.

Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench

Of that forgetful Lake benumm not still,

That in our proper motion we ascend [ 75 ]


Up to our native seat: descent and fall

To us is adverse.

What fear we then? what doubt we to incense


His utmost ire? which to the highth enrag'd, [ 95 ]

Will either quite consume us, and reduce

To nothing this essential, happier farr

Then miserable to have eternal being:

Or if our substance be indeed Divine,


And cannot cease to be, we are at worst [ 100 ]

On this side nothing; and by proof we feel

Our power sufficient to disturb his Heav'n,

And with perpetual inrodes to Allarme,

Though inaccessible, his fatal Throne:


Which if not Victory is yet Revenge. [ 105 ]

On th' other side up rose

Belial, in act more graceful and humane;


A fairer person lost not Heav'n; he seemd [ 110 ]

For dignity compos'd and high exploit:

But all was false and hollow; though his Tongue

Dropt Manna, and could make the worse appear

The better reason, to perplex and dash


Maturest Counsels: for his thoughts were low; [ 115 ]

To vice industrious, but to Nobler deeds

Timorous and slothful: yet he pleas'd the ear,

And with perswasive accent thus began.

This is now

Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear,


Our Supream Foe in time may much remit [ 210 ]

His anger, and perhaps thus farr remov'd

Not mind us not offending, satisfi'd

With what is punish't; whence these raging fires

Will slack'n, if his breath stir not thir flames.


Our purer essence then will overcome [ 215 ]

Thir noxious vapour, or enur'd not feel,

Or chang'd at length, and to the place conformd

In temper and in nature, will receive

Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain;


This horror will grow milde, this darkness light, [ 220 ]

Besides what hope the never-ending flight

Of future dayes may bring, what chance, what change

Worth waiting, since our present lot appeers

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst,


If we procure not to our selves more woe. [ 225 ]

Thus Belial with words cloath'd in reasons garb

Counsell'd ignoble ease, and peaceful sloath,

Not peace:

hus Mammon spake.

Suppose he should relent

And publish Grace to all, on promise made

Of new Subjection; with what eyes could we


Stand in his presence humble, and receive [ 240 ]

Strict Laws impos'd, to celebrate his Throne

With warbl'd Hymns, and to his Godhead sing

Forc't Halleluiah's; while he Lordly sits

Our envied Sovran, and his Altar breathes


Ambrosial Odours and Ambrosial Flowers, [ 245 ]

Our servile offerings. This must be our task

In Heav'n, this our delight; how wearisom

Eternity so spent in worship paid

To whom we hate. Let us not then pursue


By force impossible, by leave obtain'd [ 250 ]

Unacceptable, though in Heav'n, our state

Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek

Our own good from our selves, and from our own

Live to our selves, though in this vast recess,


Free, and to none accountable, preferring [ 255 ]

Hard liberty before the easie yoke

Of servile Pomp.

As he our darkness, cannot we his Light


Imitate when we please? This Desart soile [ 270 ]

Wants not her hidden lustre, Gemms and Gold;

Nor want we skill or Art, from whence to raise

Magnificence; and what can Heav'n shew more?

Our torments also may in length of time


Become our Elements, these piercing Fires [ 275 ]

As soft as now severe, our temper chang'd

Into their temper; which must needs remove

The sensible of pain. All things invite

To peaceful Counsels, and the settl'd State


Of order, how in safety best we may [ 280 ]

Compose our present evils, with regard

Of what we are and were, dismissing quite

All thoughts of warr: ye have what I advise.

As when farr off at Sea a Fleet descri'd

Hangs in the Clouds, by Æquinoctial Winds

Close sailing from Bengala, or the Iles

Of Ternate and T

I should be much for open Warr, O Peers,


As not behind in hate; if what was urg'd [ 120 ]

or open Warr: Of Wi

say first what cause


Mov'd our Grand Parents in that
happy State,


Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]


From thir Creator, and transgress
his Will


For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?


Who first seduc'd them to that
foul revolt?

Him the Almighty Power


Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie [ 45 ]

here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and
thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
As from the Center thrice to th' utmost Pole.
O how unlike the
place from whence they fell! [ 75 ]

Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose
guile


Stird up with Envy and Revenge,
deceiv'd [ 35 ]


The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride


Had cast him out from Heav'n, with
all his Host


Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring


To set himself in Glory above his Peers,


He trusted to have equal'd the
most High, [ 40 ]


If he oppos'd;

But his doom


Reserv'd him to more wrath; for
now the thought


Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [ 55
]


Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes


That witness'd huge affliction
and dismay


Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:

Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began.

yet not for those,
Nor what the Potent
Victor in his rage [ 95 ]
Can else
inflict, do I repent or change,
Though chang'd in outward lustre;

that fixt mind
And high disdain, from sence of injur'd merit,
That with the
mightiest rais'd me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along [
100 ]
Innumerable force of Spirits arm'd
That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,
His utmost
power with adverse power oppos'd
In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav'n,
And shook his throne. What though the field
be lost? [ 105 ]
All is not lost;
the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And
courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might [
110 ]
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant
knee, and deifie his power,
Who
from the terrour of this Arm so
late
Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,
That were an ignominy
and shame beneath [ 115 ]
This downfall; since by Fate the strength of Gods
And this Empyreal substance
cannot fail,
Since through experience of this great event
In Arms not
worse, in foresight much advanc't,
We may with more successful hope
resolve [ 120 ]
To wage by force or guile eternal Warr
Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy
Sole reigning holds
the Tyranny of Heav'n.

And him thus
answer'd soon his bold Compeer.

what if he our Conquerour,
(whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, since no less
Then such could hav orepow'rd such force as ours) [ 145 ]
Have left us this our spirit and strength
intire
Strongly to suffer and
support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him
mightier service as his thralls
By right of Warr, what e're
his business be [ 150 ]
Here in the
heart of Hell to work in Fire,
Or do his Errands in the gloomy Deep;
What can it then avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminisht, or eternal being
To undergo
eternal punishment? [ 155 ]

ought

Fall'n Cherube, to be
weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do
ought
>
good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight, [ 160
]
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If
then his Providence
Out of
our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that
end,
And out of good still
to find means of evil; [ 165 ]
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him,
if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from thir destind
aim.

Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave,
and Eyes
That sparkling blaz'd, his other Parts besides
Prone on the Flood,
extended long and large [ 195 ]
Lay
floating many a rood, in bulk as
huge
As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that
warr'd on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the Den
By ancient
Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast [ 200 ]
Leviathan, which God of all his
works
Created hugest that swim th' Ocean stream:
Him haply slumbring on the Norway
foam
The Pilot of some small night-founder'd Skiff,
Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell, [ 205 ]
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Moors by his side under
the Lee, while Night
Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes:

till on dry Land
He lights, if it
were Land that ever burn'd
With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire;

appear'd in hue, as when the force [ 230 ]
Of subterranean wind transports a Hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side
Of thundring Ætna, whose combustible
And fewel'd entrals thence conceiving Fire,
Sublim'd with Mineral fury, aid the Winds, [ 235 ]
And leave a singed bottom all
involv'd
With stench and
smoak

Such resting found the
sole
Of unblest
feet.

glorying to have scap't the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by thir own recover'd strength, [
240 ]
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.

Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n,
this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he [ 245 ]
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be
right: fardest from him is
best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells:
Hail horrours, hail [ 250 ]
Infernal world, and thou
profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not
to be chang'd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place,
and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. [ 255 ]
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but
less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We
shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will
not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we
may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.

the great consult began.

the superiour Fiend
Was moving toward
the shoar; his ponderous shield

Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, [
285 ]
Behind him cast; the broad
circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon,
whose Orb
Through Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist views
At Ev'ning from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno,
to descry new Lands, [ 290 ]
Rivers
or Mountains in her spotty Globe.
His Spear, to equal which the tallest
Pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast
Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand,
He
walkt with to support uneasie steps [ 295 ]
Over the burning Marle, not like those steps
On Heavens Azure, and the
torrid Clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;
Nathless he so endur'd, till on the Beach
Of that
inflamed Sea, he stood and call'd [ 300 ]
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans't
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the
Brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
High overarch't imbowr;

scatterd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm'd [
305 ]
Hath vext the
Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew
Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they
pursu'd
The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore thir floating Carkases [ 310 ]
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick
bestrown
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,
Under
amazement of thir hideous change.

Princes, Potentates, [ 315 ]
Warriers, the Flowr of Heav'n, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as
this can sieze
Eternal spirits; or have ye chos'n this place
After the toyl of Battel
to repose
Your wearied vertue,
for the ease you find [ 320 ]
To
slumber here, as in the Vales of Heav'n?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conquerour? who
now beholds

Cherube
> and Seraph rowling in the Flood
With scatter'd Arms and Ensigns, till
anon [ 325 ]
His swift pursuers from
Heav'n Gates discern
Th' advantage, and descending tread us
down
Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts
Transfix us to the
bottom of this Gulfe.
Awake,
arise, or be for ever fall'n. [ 330 ]

As when the potent Rod
Of Amrams Son in Egypts evill day
Wav'd round the Coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud [
340 ]
Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern
Wind,
That ore the Realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like Night, and darken'd all
the Land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad
Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell [ 345
]
'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;
Till, as a
signal giv'n, th' uplifted Spear
Of thir great Sultan
waving to direct
Thir course,
in even ballance down they
light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain; [ 350 ]

Nor had they yet among the Sons of Eve
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth, [ 365
]
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to
forsake
God thir Creator, and
th' invisible
Glory of him that
made them, to transform [ 370 ]
Oft to the Image of a Brute,
adorn'd
With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various Names,
And various Idols through
the Heathen World. [ 375 ]

First
Moloch,
horrid King besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and
parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
Thir childrens cries
unheard, that past through
fire [ 395 ]
To his grim Idol. Him
the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry Plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest
heart [ 400 ]
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against
the Temple of God
On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna
call'd, the Type of Hell. [ 405 ]

Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moabs Sons,
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of Southmost Abarim; in
Hesebon
And Horonaim, Seons Realm, beyond
The flowry Dale of Sibma clad with Vines, [ 410 ]
And Eleale to th' Asphaltick Pool.
Peor his other Name, when he entic'd
Israel in Sittim on thir
march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost
them woe.
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg'd [ 415
]
Even to that Hill of
scandal, by the Grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust
hard by hate;
Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.

Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Astarte, Queen of
Heav'n, with crescent Horns;
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon [
440 ]
Sidonian Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,
In Sion also not unsung,
where stood
Her Temple on th' offensive
Mountain,

Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd
The Syrian Damsels
to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth
Adonis
from his native Rock [ 450 ]
Ran
purple to the Sea, suppos'd with
blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected Sions daughters with like
heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led [ 455 ]
His eye survay'd the dark Idolatries
Of alienated Judah.

Dagon his
Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish:

Belial came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd [ 490 ]
Fell not from Heaven, or more
gross to love
Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood
Or Altar smoak'd; yet who more oft then hee
In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest
Turns Atheist, as did Ely's Sons, who fill'd [ 495 ]
With lust and violence the house of God.
In Courts and Palaces he also
Reigns
And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse
Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,
And injury and outrage: And when Night [ 500 ]
Darkens the Streets, then wander
forth the Sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Witness the Streets of Sodom, and that night
In
Gibeah, when the hospitable door
Expos'd a Matron to avoid worse rape. [ 505 ]

He through the armed
Files

He now prepar'd [ 615
]
To speak; whereat thir
doubl'd Ranks they bend
From
wing to wing, and half enclose him round
With all his Peers: attention held
them mute.
Thrice he assayd,
and thrice in spight of scorn,
Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last [ 620 ]
Words interwove with sighs found
out thir way.

our better part remains [ 645 ]
To work in close design, by fraud or guile
What force effected not: that he no less
At length from us may find, who
overcomes
By force, hath overcome
but half his foe.

he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice
regard
Should favour equal to
the Sons of Heaven:

Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps

Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:

this Infernal Pit shall
never hold
Cælestial
Spirits in Bondage, nor th' Abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird, [ 660
]
For who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr
Open or understood must be resolv'd.

Mammon led them on,
Mammon,
the least erected Spirit that fell
From heav'n, for ev'n in heav'n
his looks and thoughts [ 680 ]
Were
always downward bent, admiring
more
The riches of Heav'ns pavement, trod'n Gold,
Then aught divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion
taught, [ 685 ]
Ransack'd the Center, and with impious hands
Rifl'd the bowels of thir mother Earth
For Treasures better hid. Soon had
his crew
Op'nd into the Hill a
spacious wound
And dig'd out
ribs of Gold. Let none admire [ 690 ]
That riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best
Deserve the precious bane.

Mean while the winged Haralds by
command
Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony
And Trumpets sound
throughout the Host proclaim
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held [ 755 ]
At Pandæmonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons call'd
From every Band and squared Regiment
By
place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hunderds and with thousands trooping came [ 760 ]
Attended: all access was throng'd, the Gates
And Porches
wide, but chief the spacious Hall

him Beelzebub
Thus answer'd.

Another 13 percent reported that they had been the recipient of a threatening or aggressive e-mail, IM, or text message, and girls are more likely than boys to receive them (15 percent versus 10 percent). Older teens, those 15-17, were also more likely to receive threats than younger teens, with only 9 percent of younger teens receiving threats compared to 16 percent of the older crowd. The older group of girls received the most threats, at 19 percent.

a large majority of survey respondents still said that more bullying occurred offline. Unsurprisingly, though, those who had not experienced cyberbullying were more likely to say that bullying was more common offline than online (71 percent) than those who had experienced some form of cyberbullying (57 percent).

"Bullying has entered the digital age," writes Pew senior research analyst Amanda Lenhart. "The impulses behind it are the same, but the effect is magnified. In the past, the materials of bullying would have been whispered, shouted, or passed around. Now, with a few clicks, a photo, video, or a conversation can be shared with hundreds via e-mail or millions through a web site, online profile, or blog posting."

Alongside an overemphasis on time is the widely held
belief that homework “reinforces” the skills that students have learned – or,
rather, have been taught -- in class.  But what exactly does this
mean?  It wouldn’t make sense to say “Keep practicing until you
understand” because practicing doesn’t create understanding – just as giving
kids a deadline doesn’t teach time-management skills.  What might make
sense is to say “Keep practicing until what you’re doing becomes automatic.” 
But what kinds of proficiencies lend themselves to this sort of improvement?

The answer is behavioral responses.  Expertise in
tennis requires lots of practice; it’s hard to improve your swing without
spending a lot of time on the court.  But to cite an example like that
to justify homework is an example of what philosophers call begging the
question.  It assumes precisely what has to be proved, which is that
intellectual pursuits are like tennis.

The assumption that they are analogous derives from
behaviorism, which is the source of the verb “reinforce” as well as the basis
of an attenuated view of learning.  In the 1920s and ‘30s, when John B.
Watson was formulating his theory that would come to dominate education, a
much less famous researcher named William Brownell was challenging the
drill-and-practice approach to mathematics that had already taken root. 
“If one is to be successful in quantitative thinking, one needs a fund of
meanings, not a myriad of ‘automatic responses,’” he wrote.  “Drill does
not develop meanings.  Repetition does not lead to
understandings.”  In fact, if “arithmetic becomes meaningful, it becomes
so in spite of drill.”

Brownell’s insights have been enriched by a long line of
research demonstrating that the behaviorist model is, if you’ll excuse the
expression, deeply superficial.  People spend their lives actively
constructing theories about how the world works, and then reconstructing them
in light of new evidence.  Lots of practice can help some students get
better at remembering an answer, but not to get better at – or even
accustomed to -- thinking.  And even when they do acquire an academic
skill through practice, the way they acquire it should give us
pause.  As psychologist Ellen Langer has shown, “When we drill ourselves
in a certain skill so that it becomes second nature,” we may come to perform
that skill “mindlessly,”  locking us into patterns and procedures that
are less than ideal. 

But even if practice is sometimes useful, we’re not
entitled to conclude that homework of this type works for most
students.  It isn’t of any use for those who don’t understand what
they’re doing.  Such homework makes them feel stupid; gets them
accustomed to doing things the wrong way (because what’s really “reinforced”
are mistaken assumptions); and teaches them to conceal what they don’t
know.  At the same time, other students in the same class already have
the skill down cold, so further practice for them is a waste of time. 
You’ve got some kids, then, who don’t need the practice and others who can’t
use it.

Furthermore, even if practice was helpful for most
students, that doesn’t mean they need to do it at home.  In my research
I found a number of superb teachers (at different grade levels and with
diverse instructional styles) who rarely, if ever, found it necessary to
assign homework.  Some not only didn’t feel a need to make
students read, write, or do math at home; they preferred to have
students do these things during class where it was possible to observe,
guide, and discuss.

Supporters of homework rarely look at things from the
student’s point of view, though; instead, kids are regarded as inert objects
to be acted on:  Make them practice and they’ll get better.  My
argument isn’t just that this viewpoint is disrespectful, or that it’s a
residue of an outdated stimulus-response psychology.  I’m also
suggesting it’s counterproductive.  Children cannot be made to acquire
skills.  They aren’t vending machines such that we put in more homework
and get out more learning.

But just such misconceptions are pervasive in all sorts
of neighborhoods, and they’re held by parents, teachers, and researchers
alike.  It’s these beliefs that make it so hard even to question the
policy of assigning regular homework.  We can be shown the paucity of
supporting evidence and it won’t have any impact if we’re wedded to folk
wisdom (“practice makes perfect”; more time equals better results). 

On the other hand, the more we learn about learning, the more willing we
may be to challenge the idea that homework has to be part of schooling. <!-- #EndEditable -->

<!-- #BeginEditable "pg_copyright" -->