3 hours outside of class for every hour inside of class

Alright, people; I think I've gotten to the point in my educational career where I have developed my thoughts enough that I can speak my mind on a very important scholastic point: homework.

If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and assassinate the individual who decided that 3 hours of homework is required to equalize every hour spent in class.  How is that a productive way to learn?  As I read page after page after chapter after book, I think, "why am I reading this?"  I think about the relative value of reading as the phrase, "what am I really getting out of this," crosses my mind.  I'm no academic slouch, but, I wonder how mountains of literature actually help me to become "more educated."  Well read, yes.  More educated, marginally.

This tirade came about because I am currently planning my course syllabus for an introductory Anthropology course.  And I came up with a novel idea.  How about I assign one "quality" hour of homework for each hour in class.  Let's face it, unless your are academically obsessive compulsive (like I attempt to be) or are independently wealthy and therefore have exorbitant amounts of free time (like I do not have), choices have to be made about how much, or how little, reading one can actually get away with.  I want students to feel like they are actually being provoked by the reading and not just smothered by it.  Academics is supposed to be fun...challenging...yet fun.  I want to put the enjoyment back in education; and I think that first step is creating smarter work not harder work.  Hard work is not a virtue; the ability to do work, on the other hand, is.  And, I think challenging students to really work, ponder, attack, develop, and change due to academics is the true aim of all education.

Martin Luther King Jr. summed up my academic purpose in one sentence, "intelligence plus character; that is the aim of true education."  And, reading cascades of books, articles, abstracts, and chapters rarely accomplishes that....