12B: learning to learn

After all of the practice I had last week with coming up with inquiry questions and college level answers I feel so much more comfortable coming up with more!

A question I came up with to answer is: How would a shorter school day, no homework, and no tests change children?

If schools cared more about actually learning rather than wasting so much time preparing for tests and giving out homework children would value school a lot more.  Since I was in elementary school I have always thought that the school day was way too long!  Some of the day just seems to drag on and on.  These long school days just bore children!  A lot of kids don’t have a very long attention span, so after a while they start to daze off and stop listening.  If the school day was made shorter the kids would be able to take in more information because they would be paying attention.  If they didn’t have to sit in one chair for eight hours they would be able to focus and understand things better. 

 Without tests and homework children would learn for the actual sake of learning, instead of learning something just to pass a test.  I know that sometimes I just memorize something until the test comes, and then I forget all of the information after the test is over.  Without tests students would be more interested in learning for themselves instead of just to get good grades.  Without homework students will enjoy school more, and stop looking at it like it’s a chore.  Some people may argue that without tests and quizzes there is no way to see if a child is learning or not, but memorizing something just for a test isn’t learning either.   

With less hours of sitting in a classroom, having no tests, and no homework, students will actually enjoy learning things.  They will stop looking at school as a chore and will actually enjoy going to learn new things to better themselves. A shorter school day would change children for the better!