Originally Posted by Bostonian
Overall, American students are NOT working hard in high school, in part because it is so easy to get into a college. The highly selective colleges are exceptions. A survey from 2005 found that only about 10% of college-bound students spend 15 or more hours per week preparing for class.

The idea that lots of students aren't doing enough homework, doesn't detract from the fact that some are doing way too much. Do we ignore the minority because of a characteristic of the majority?


Originally Posted by Bostonian
I'm on Chua's side. If a child is overwhelmed by taking too many A.P. classes, she should take fewer of them.

You're assuming that the only choices are AP classes with tons of homework and no AP classes. Where is it written that there can be no middle ground?

You're also assuming that turning a child into a homework drone is a good thing. If the goal is to turn him into fodder for industry or an academic who churns out paper after paper, and if the child is suited to that life, fine. Many of these people are very good at perfecting old models and their work is important.

But these people represent only one part of the picture of innovation. They're very good at honing ideas, but they aren't typically original innovators. That job goes to quirky types who don't do well in a hyper-competitive, work-work-work environment. Work-work-work is anathema to creativity. When everyone has to become a homework drone just to get into college, we lose the quirky creative types who come up with new ideas.

Creative people respond poorly to a hyper-competitive, hyper-worked situation for the same reasons that gifted kids respond poorly to moving at the same pace as non-gifted age-peers. Re-read that sentence.

If you aren't a super-creative kind of person, try to see this idea in terms of gifted kids who wither when they're forced to "learn" material that they mastered long ago. Very creative people wither when not allowed time or mental space to let their imaginations roam. Three hours of homework after seven hours of school and required extra-curriculars leaves no time for imaginative thought.

If you're having trouble understanding how this could be so, you're in the exact same position as teachers who think that gifted kids are fine in the regular classroom, doing the same thing as everyone else, provide they get tossed an extra worksheet now and then or get a half-hour pullout on Wednesdays.