Chookie writes:

Of course there is. If I'm measuring medication or my child, I will put
in some effort to get the amount right. But I don't measure the amount
of pepper I put in a stew. You make things as good as they need to be.
If homework is worth 5% of the final mark, you don't spend much time on
it -- if it's 80%, you do.

Fine, *if* the only purpose of doing the work is to get the marks. But with
school homework, IMO, it shouldn't be! The purpose should be to assist
learning, which is a good in itself. That means the student should put as
much effort into the work as is needed to accomplish the learning goals.
When I was at school, no homework counted in any way towards outside
assessment (it was before coursework components in public examinations). It
was still worth doing! At the university where I teach, students sometimes
complain that the time they spend doing coursework is out of proportion to
the credit - they spend less time on exam revision, but the exam is worth
more. That's fine. The purpose of the coursework is mostly to help them
absorb and master the material, and that mastery is then tested in the exam
(and in whatever they use the subject for in future).

I do agree with the general point that not everything has to be done well.
Is "if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing badly" a Flyladyism? Certainly
applies to housework if you ask me, and to many other things besides.

The crucial thing which I think everyone should learn as early as possible
is the habit of asking oneself, seriously, "why am I doing this?" If it's
just "to get marks" fine, but work out how to get enough as easily as
possbile. If it's "to help me understand X", know what X is and how it's
supposed to be helping, and ask yourself whether it is. If it's "so I don't
feel ashamed when visitors come" ask yourself whether the visitors will
look under the sofa :-)

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003