Monday, August 10, 2020
Help Me To Do My Homework For Me
Help Me To Do My Homework For Me Coming back with only one semester left I find myself in an odd spot. Iâve just returned from Oxford, which is easily one of the most amazing experiences of my life, both academically and personally, and I only have one semester left. I tend not to get along with that type of parent. Parent-teacher conferences at the Lab School are similar to what I imagine speed dating to be like. Each conference is three minutes, and parents can attend an afternoon or evening session. The conferences are strictly first come, first served. The single reason you go to school is to learn and prepare for your future; whether you will someday have a career, manage a home, or both, you will need to take responsibility. Perhaps such omissions are a result of generic, open-ended job advertisements. Perhaps with so many applications to write, the candidates decide they canât invest the time to tailor each to the opportunity at hand. A recent posting for a tenure-track junior faculty position in my department attracted more than 200 applications, a frightening number in and of itself. Indeed, preoccupation with the future and dis-interest in our present educational experience seems to be a theme with many college students. This, however, has gotten me to think about how I want to live my last semester, and how I want to engage with my education. The husband is smoking a joint, and he hands it over. I havenât smoked in a few months, but itâs Friday night and Iâve been doing homework all week. We part ways, and my wife and I go to a Japanese restaurant, where, as soon as I am seated, I regret smoking. Itâs going to be hell trying to do algebra tonight with the head I have on right now. If you have a big assignment due on Thursday and you have a basketball game on Wednesday night, be sure to do the assignment on Tuesday evening. On Sunday, ask your parents if they have anything planned for you for the week. This is the time to learn about dentist appointments, birthday dinners, your brotherâs baseball games, etc. It is always better to know about these things ahead of time, rather than at the last minute. Perhaps more terrifying, however, was that fewer than 5% of these candidates made any effort whatsoever to communicate why they wanted to join our departmentâs faculty in particular. As best as any on the search committee could guess, the identical applications might well have landed, unaltered, upon dozens of recruitment piles across the globe. What these applicants apparently failed to recognize is that we donât just want to recruit a great scientist; we want to be certain that our new hire will thrive at our institution. I tell Esmee that this seems strangeâ"didnât she just have an algebra midterm? She says that in her class, they have more than one midterm every term. Because I happen to be in the middle of my week of homework when this yearâs parent-teacher conferences take place, I am uniquely equipped to discuss the work Esmee is doing. And over the years, I have noticed that the amount of homework does let up, slightly, after the conferencesâ"if enough parents complain. However, there is always a clique of parents who are happy with the amount of homework. Itâs only Friday, and I have until Monday to finish my homework. One of the reasons I believe my daughter hasnât yet tried marijuana is because she simply doesnât have the time. We stand on the sidewalk for a few minutes, chatting. My wife and I decide to go out to dinner, and on our way up Hudson Street, we run into another couple we are close friends with. Instead, sheâs watching episodes ofPortlandiaon her computer. The weekend homework includes another 15 algebra equations, studying for a Spanish test on Monday, and, of course, moreAngelaâs Ashes. I, by no merit of my own, have been given the gift of education. Today, that could simply mean completing my reading assignment and realizing that my âhomework problemâ is a sign of the incredibly privileged life I am allowed to live. So, below I have compiled a list of reasons for doing homework, engaging in classes, and battling off to old foe of Senioritis. Iâve heard this sort of sentiment from some of my fellow Seniors.
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