What, Why, How Of Homework

The assignment of homework is seldom mandated by our institutions or departments, but is accepted as the status quo. A familiar anecdote involves a housewife who always cut a small section from the end of a ham before cooking. When asked why, she replied “because my mother always did it!” Follow up with her mother resulted in the same response. Further follow up revealed that grandma had cut the end off because her largest pan was too small to hold the whole ham! As was noted by England and Flately [5], homework has become one of those school traditions shrouded in antiquity – “we have always done it this way!”