What is the capital city of Sweden, and, what popular singing group came from there?
A perfectly good answer is “Stockholm, ABBA.” Here is how to ruin it. Make the children handwrite something like: The capital city of Sweden is Stockholm and the popular singing group that came from there is ABBA. That is 18 words—when just two words and a comma will do just fine. That’s a word excess of 800% ! Is the assignment intended to nurture writing skills? Fine. Then it is incumbent on the homework assigner to limit the number of questions. The same goes if the purpose of the assignment is to provide practice in penmanship (penpersonship?). On the other hand, if the assignment is to strengthen finger muscles and improve the cardio-vascular system and aerobic endurance, then fine, bring it on. In that case, insist that the children use a dull pencil, too; it’ll be a far better workout! This is an appeal to all homework assigners. If you love your subject—if you are truly passionate about your area of expertise—and want the younger generation to learn to love it too, then don’t k
