> > The question I pose in these wee hours it this: is homework good or bad?

> At this point in your life, you have probably the *most* free time you'll ever have until you're retired. Trust me, it only gets WORSE from here. In my Freshman orientation at college, we were told that we would be expected to work for 2 hours outside of class for every hour we spent in class. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I didn't actually hold to that ethic, but a lot of people, especially in the science and engineering majors, *do*. They *have* to. And when you get out of school, you'll go to work at a company that'll expect you to sometimes do more than just sit in your cube for 8 hours and collect your paycheck, as Mousie so eloquently points out somewhere else in this thread.
>
> That being said, there *is* something to be said for personal time. I've been in two jobs now where personal time for employees was pretty much a foreign concept. I don't agree with that. I understand the needs of the business, I know when I'm required to get up in the middle of the night and fix a problem. However, I don't appreciate having to get up in the middle of the night and fix something that could have waited until morning, which I've been asked to do time and time again. I also think vacations should be sacred--I'm not wearing a pager or carrying a cell phone on vacation. If I'm the only person who is qualified or able to do something, then that's a single point of failure and is a very poor business practice.
>
> But, getting back to the point, hell, in High School, you get three friggin months off in the summer to do whatever the hell you want to. Do you know what I'd do for 3 months paid vacation EVERY SINGLE YEAR, with no possibility of being called in to work (when have they ever decided they had to have an emergency week of school in July?) I'd probably willingly and happily work 80 hour weeks every week for that kind of vacation policy. I guess I should be a High School teacher. And I would, if teachers were alowed to beat students still. That's the only thing I can think of that might make being a High School teacher bearable.
>
> -- Dave

I've been to two different universities, and at both schools I've been told that I should spend three hours on homework for every hour that I am in class. (I've also heard this at several junior colleges.) I am currently in class for 18 hours a week, so that means that I should spend 54 hours a week doing homework. I also work 18 hours a week and travel a total of about 5 hours a week (just to and from school and work). I allow myself an hour to get ready in the morning, so there goes another 7 hours a week. I also have to prepare and eat two or three meals a day, and clean up after myself, so that takes about 7 hours a week. There are a total of 168 hours in a week. Once I subtract everything, that leaves me 59 hours, or 8.4 hours per day.

However, my life does not consist only of school and work. I talk to my roommate, I talk on the phone and I have a boyfriend. This weekend I went to the State Fair for about 8 hours, I watched several re-runs of Friends, I watched a movie and I surfed the Internet. This adds up to another 18 hours or so. This leaves me with 5.9 hours per day. Oh, and I forgot to figure in some sleep and other things that pop up in daily life.

So where is this all leading? My point is that I do not--and will not--spend 54 hours a week doing homework. If I spent 7.7 hours a day on homework, I would go insane. During the work week, I could not spend that much time on homework, so I would probably have to spend all 24 hours of Saturday slaving away at homework just to catch up.

Yes, homework and school work do go hand in hand. However, there is a limit. I am probably going to write over 30,000 words this semester. That in itself is a marathon of thinking and typing. I think I deserve straight As!

Ell"That word count does not include my RinkWorks-related typing"myruh