[dvd3500]

So we got an e-mail from the parents' organization for the high school my daughter goes to.
Parents had requested that the teachers actually grade homework and send feedback instead of simply dumping pages of homework on them without giving the students any idea if they had grasped the material or not.

The principal response (and this is more or a less a verbatim quote): We did a test run. A teacher took a chemistry essay for 30 students. He had to download, print out, correct then scan and upload all 30 and it took him 7 hours."

First of all: Isn't it a teacher's JOB to make sure kids learn?!

Second: My response was: Dagnabbit... my horse and buggy just can't seem to keep up on the Autobahn!

I can#t believe that the teacher did not have the work sent in electronically, use the standard revision techniques and send them back.
If someone complains that they could cheat and not write it themselves: a quick google /wikipedia search will unearth collusion and you can ask them to sign a statement that it was all their work.

Really? Are we stuck in 1990?

[Savage GT]

Yep.
Ours do the work set, I even have to go and help at times, thankfully (as of yet) I haven't had a 10 year olds maths solution that I can't explain how to work out, but I am sure that time will come !
But as you say, they are not monitored or graded, so I am guessing half the pupils don't even bother.

[munter]

Are we talking homework or work set by the school to be done during the stay at home/lockdown?

Homework has been debunked as a waste of time....studying for exams may not be however.

Work set by the school for the stay at home time is equally a waste of time according a well known psychologist here in NZ because the main aim is for the children to get through this time happily and as unstressed as possible.

Many schools in many parts of the world are failing one way or another.....it is hard to fix the world.
I tried continuously for 38 years but have now hung up my chalk and duster er.... whiteboard marker and eraser.

[dvd3500]

It's hard to say to be honest.
When talking about anything with school Germans have a vast vocabulary with specific words for every single type of work done.

For example I asked my son nearly daily if they had "homework" (Hausaufgaben, literally house chores) and he'd say "no".
What I didn't know is they had a learning plan (Lernplan) that had to be done by the end of the week and while they were given time to do it at school the expectation was it got done no matter where or how.

Sooo.... I had to learn to ask "Did you finish your learning plan?"

As an ex-teacher i think I am allowed an opinion on how it is no wonder to me that kids finish secondary school and have no clue what they want to do. One class I am told never has more than 50% of the kids participating in the online portions of school. They are so drilled in the routine and studying just for the exams that without that structure they can't function.

It's nearly like training a dog to jump over a log and when it comes to a small creek that is not wider than any log they have jumped over they simply can't fathom jumping over because it isn't a log...

Hard to change something that has been in place for nearly 200 years...

[munter]

As an ex-teacher i think I am allowed an opinion on how it is no wonder to me that kids finish secondary school and have no clue what they want to do. One class I am told never has more than 50% of the kids participating in the online portions of school. They are so drilled in the routine and studying just for the exams that without that structure they can't function.

Snap...I am an ex teacher too...I started in 1974 and worked continuously until 2013 when I moved to part time substitute work and now with Covid lockdown I have said enough is enough.

I like your opinion and agree. The system here is trying to cater for the dreamers and thinkers but is more geared to the repeaters and rememberers.