This Is My Life

One of the banes of my existence since the day I discovered it, or rather, the day it was forced upon me, is homework.

In elementary school straight through to high school, it was a waste of my time, a task meant to keep me quiet at home and not out playing with my friends, or reading the newest book from Madeleine L'Engle. My teachers and parents told me that it was meant to reinforce the knowledge I had learned that day in school, but since I was a bright kid who almost intuitively grasped the subjects at hand, it was busywork. A waste of my time.

Some folks will tell you that homework is a way of teaching children that they have responsibilities. I say that's what chores are for. Some others say that it's how to instill obedience in children, that they have to do what's expected of them. I say that's just plain bullshit.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about today.

The fact of the matter is that I did as little homework as I could get away with throughout my school career. Even on into the first two classes of my college life I did very little homework, not wanting to waste my non-class time by writing out things that I already knew, already grasped. Why would I want to waste my time?

Something turned around in me.

Every day I would go to class, dreading being asked to turn in the homework. I didn't want to go because when it came time, at the end of class, to turn in the homework I didn't want to hear "Jeremiah, did you do your homework" as I ran out the door. I wasn't quite shamed by it, but embarrassed.

So then I did the Winter session of Linguistics. I thought to myself "self, what happens if we do every homework assignment? I mean, it's only an hour a night, and isn't an hour worth not feeling like a total tool?"

Come to find out, it is.

So here I am now, taking Intermediate Arabic. The homework is more difficult than Linguistics, and the teacher more demanding. It takes more of my time. Is it worth spending two hours every day doing homework, just so I don't feel like a complete screw-up at the end of class? Is it worth the time for a better feeling, and a slightly better grade?

I just finished my homework due in three and a half hours, and I can say that it is. It really is.

I still think busywork is crap. I just feel better about it.

We have to get to Dubai somehow.

Winter semester started Monday, and I'm again enrolled in a class. In hopes of complementing my Arabic classes I settled on Linguistics 101, a look at the science of languages.

It's absolutely fascinating. I've never been engrossed in a science before, but this is one I can really sink my teeth into. Part hard science and part philosophical, it's different from any other class I've ever taken.

(He said knowingly, on his third day of class.)

My wife and I have been talking about our three year plan. One of the biggest things is that we're not sure we want to be here. Here, in this case, being the United States.

I don't have anything against the US; I just like change.

Combine this move with my recent Arabic instruction, and you might begin to see what we're thinking.

Are we nuts? I don't know. Maybe. Is this kind of move impossible? Not at all. Can we do it?

Time will tell.

What do you think? Crazy? Awesome? Weird? A strange orgy of all three? I'd love to hear it.

I'm off to class, and I'm feeling better. The lessons in the book last night were simple, easy-to-follow, and straight-forward. Having the DVDs to show native speakers pronouncing and writing the language was very helpful.

The homework wasn't difficult, but it was time-intensive. The first week or so we were told to expect to put in extra time in order to learn a whole new alphabet, so hopefully my homework won't take two hours each night after this week.

And yes, for the first time in over a decade I'm actually doing my homework. I think my parents would be shocked. Still, for this class I actually feel that homework is a necessity, where as in High School I almost always automatically grasped what they were trying to tell me, and so I felt homework was just busy work. With this class, I can't participate unless I learn the new stuff I'm doing the night before.

Time to get going to class. I'm getting there two hours early in hopes of getting a good parking spot, because if I don't find a good one it's a long walk. Well, kind of long. Long to me.