COLUMN: Finally a way to learn if you have enough homework
When I wake up in the morning there are three things I automatically check. I check the terror alert status. I check the Cache Valley air quality advisory. I check my Chia Pet.
In case you didn’t notice, there is a pattern with those three things I check. They are all based on warning systems. Well, except for the Chia Pet.
But exceptions aside, I think these examples can help us see the usefulness of warning systems in our lives.
Take, for instance, the Cache Valley air advisory system. Even though the system itself is very simple (just three colors), it communicates a lot. One look at which color it is, and you know exactly what it means. I think my only qualm is that all advisory systems seem to pick on the color red. Red is always bad, whereas green or blue are always good. I think it is dangerous to stereotype colors like this, especially when there are so many other colors in the spectrum to choose from. Color profiling aside, however, clearly the advisory system is a very effective way of communicating. Because of the success of the air quality advisory, I see no reason why we, as students, couldn’t make our own advisory system. While there are probably several different items that would be worthy of such an advisory system, I am thinking of one thing in particular: homework.
The reason I mention this specific subject is because I feel that the biggest miscommunication between professor and student is how much homework the student can take. I think that often the professor will think to him or herself, “Hmmm. The students look bored. Maybe I should give them more homework.” When really we have so much homework we’ve become despondent. Of course the professors can’t tell the difference between a homework-induced zombie student and a bored student, and rarely will a student communicate this to the professor. That’s where the homework advisory system comes into play.
The advisory levels of new system would depend on the quantity of homework a student has on a particular day. In order to not complicate things (and once again, at the expense of the color red) this system could follow the clear-cut model of the air quality advisory. Green would mean: No homework. Lay it on me. Yellow would mean: Some homework. Reduce workload. Red would mean: Homework overload. Cancel all assignments and preferably class as well.
Since individual students will have different homework workloads each day, each student will be held responsible for his or her own advisory update. I would recommend carrying around a poster board with the color corresponding to your current homework situation for that day. I would also highly recommend carrying all three colors with you in case your workload changes during the day. A professor may see the green homework advisory level in your first class and subsequently throw a 30-page report into your lap. You would obviously be on a red alert for the rest of the day.
There are those that might suggest that some students will take advantage of this system and claim a red homework day when they, in fact, have no homework at all. To appease any critics, however, I will instigate my very own student honesty advisory, which will show the level of student honesty. In order to simplify an already simplified process, my student honesty advisory will have only one color. As of now we are sitting at a comfortable beige level.
Marty Reeder is a senior majoring in history education. Comments or fellow Chia Pet enthusiasts can contact him at martr@cc.usu.edu.