have to respectfully disagree with your response. I find that the ones who do not do the tedious tasks, are more efficient. I have worked with too many people that do not work efficiently because they are doing all the busy work. For example, years ago, I had a manager quit, who was working 12 hours a day. I had to pick up all his work. I completed it in 8 hours a day. Which is working smarter: Working Longer hours to complete a task because working more hours "looks good?" OR Being efficient? I believe in spending your time doing productive work. Our society rewards "working too hard, 12 hours a day, never taking vacation" rather than having balance...and I disagree with that.
I won't make my daughter do something if it isn't productive. There is no point in doing work if it does not provide some sort of advancement (i.e. learning something new, completing a project, etc.)
I absolutely agree with you. I have listened to my husband complain about having to fire people who are good at looking busy but don't really get anything done. These people are good at making up their own busy work and I wonder if they are so comfortable doing busy work because they had to do so much of this in school. After the busy workers were fired, it took my husband about a third as much time as it would have taken the previous employees to finish the work they left uncompleted. He was able to do this while also doing his own job.
I think if people, kids included, are allowed to do a job in the way they find most efficient for them, whether it is learning something new or working at a paid job, as long as the really necessary work gets done and it is done in a way that meets or exceeds standards, things just work out for the best.
If people are allowed to learn or do their work more efficiently, then there will be time for doing the things they really want to do. I think being allowed time to do what you really want to do and finding balance is important for mental and physical health.
My son has heard stories from his dad, me, and other family members about working at government jobs where there was a lot of inefficiency and time wasting. He heard his dad complain recently that his fired busy workers with nice physical attributes got jobs with the federal government when he knew of more qualified veterans who could not get jobs there. When I worked for the federal government years ago, it was common to see people who couldn't really do the job getting promoted for their physical attributes and I remember thinking that it might be a better investment to get breast implants than more college but I refused to do it. But someone has to actually get the work done and they will always need smart people who can do the work, do it efficiently, and have the intelligence to make suggestions for improving efficiency. This is one reason my husband, at an age when a lot of people have trouble finding another job after retirement was able to find an even better job than he had before. He is the experienced problem solver and the designated trainer of new employees because of his ability to teach efficiently. He used to think it was important for kids to do the busy work but he and I have changed our minds about a lot of things since we had our son.
By the way, I did make my older daughter do every bit of her homework, and well, I just can't see that it did her much good. My stepson wouldn't do the busy work or if he did, he wouldn't turn it in. He got his GED instead of finishing high school. He learned much more outside of school than he ever learned in school.
