On the Human Stamina

The incessant bear of scholastic activity that pervades the entire adolescent existence.
A way to advance learning.
How to fit more into school curriculum.
An occupation of a youth's potential free time.
Busy work.
School work.

Homework

Glancing through the above list of descriptions, some positive, some very negative, I question as follows: What is homework to me? By no means is this a moral appeal as another teacher saying "be optimistic! homework is extending your potential for learning!", this is a plea to consider the role of homework in your life.

From personal experience, homework means staying up long past my ideal bedtime, it means allowing Greensboro Day to invade my sleep habits and to use its claws of authority to pick up my life and drop it a few hours past midnight for the next 8 months. Not only does homework involve the drudge of busy work and endless odd numbered calculus problems, but homework includes the tedious assembly of your demonstration of mastery. By this I mean to say papers and projects. Laboring over hundreds of pages of a literary text or covering yourself in paint and glue in the making of a poster. all this is not even mentioning examination. Oh, examination! I defy your existence. After night after night of busy work preparing for the final chapter test, the eve of the examination is not spent in quiet hope for the coming of the next day, but instead a fearful apprehension over what may be the undoing of all your hard work.

Now that Freud's Id has had its say, I must give the rebuttal for my emotionally driven paragraph of quibbles. In contrast with what one may believe of me from the above writings, I enjoy school work for the most part. By no means can I claim to enjoy the pains of the learning process, but it is the most strenuous school work that has taught me the most. Lessons of perseverance, integrity, self-control, and most importantly the development of a work ethic have been the bi-products of the Greensboro Day nuclear reaction of stress and overworking. As my maturation has gradually taken place, my person has not only undergone changes of character, but the values to which I ascribe have been modified. By this nondescript phrase, I mean that through the GDS furnace of homework and stress, the importance of relaxation and meaningful friendships has been refined into a fine gold.

As humans, there is no question that we are made for work. One of the punishments of the human condition of sinfulness is that we must now "work the land"(metaphorically and literally), for the entirety of our existence. It is important, however, to realize that we are meant for so much more. Life is, as Plato taught, centered around discovering the golden mean--finding the balance between obligation and want. Where there is no place for developing inertia in laziness and sloth, there is also no place for working to the death. The human stamina is not meant to be abused. We must respect our bodies and minds and therefore give ourselves over to a healthy balance between work and relaxation.

In the words of esteemed philosopher Stephen Puckett,

"Don't let school wear you out."

I really can't put it more simply than that,

nate. (thanks stephen!)