Homeworks or assignments are traditionally a traditional part of the teaching – learning process.  We have long  held on to these seemingly integral values as they have been an integral fifth and final part in lesson plans. They are meant to reinforce and to instill better understanding of the lesson.  Lately, the Department of Education abrogated the practice of giving weekend assignments to elementary pupils through DepedMemo  392 S. 2010. In a gist, said DepEdMemo states that  weekends should be spent in quality time with the family, and to let their childhood be enjoyed by them.  So this memorandum applies only to elementary pupils. How about in the Secondary level? How have assignments radicalized our MPS ratings in the secondary level setting? Have we achieved  greatly in the use of this criterion in reinforcing our lessons? How are we so sure that assignments ever really matter?

                First, assignments without a good  teaching& relevant  backdrop won’t ever be taken seriously.  Without a sound  essential motivation on the part of our teachers, students won’t even  give a hoot or a cry in doing  assignments.   So, how do we make sure that assignments  will be done diligently by  our students?  They need to be taught diligently and with a heart that caters to every learner that yearns for real learning. They need to know that the lessons being taught are out there in real life! Larger than life, if the need to teach the topic echoes to be.  Students cannot simply grasp a terribly complex web of lectures and assignments  if deep inside their hearts,  they know that these won’t ever matter in their lives. Not an iota of perseverance would drop a hope in the whole span of teaching and the whole process would eventually just become  an exercise in futility. Are we even talking about giving assignments?

                And in this ever  spirally progressing social milieu of internet, games and entertainment, where Google eventually gives away much information without the actual need for old fashioned style of learning, these methods of reinforcing preceding lessons are demonized to be simply a way of stealing joys of their everyday existence.  So, let’s agree to have them enjoy their lives on weekends and just give reasonable  tasks to fulfill on weekends and  that’s only after a wholesome amount of real life situationing of lectures and discussions on our part.  Let us remember that these students, who are  as our  own children are not simply working on our subject alone, but  in ONE of their MANY subjects so that we would realize and understand their need to  have a break sometimes.  (This is also true in their summative and other tests which become  so coincidental in just one day!  So, this is a parallel discussion but separate with this one.) So that come Mondays, we would see positively recharged students ready to face the learning world again for a week, and  let’s hope and pray, that with our good hearts,  the cycle goes on and on and on.

By: Ronaldo V. Tiangco | MT I | MNHS Poblacion