Cartoonist Keith Knight and his homework. Click on image to enlarge.
In his cartoon my friend cartoonist Keith Knight uses the threat of homework to his advantage. Of course it works. The one thing that I have done consistently every day of school from Grades 1 right on through to, well, today, is to whine, "Why do we always have to have homework to do?" So what's the answer? I think I finally got it figured out. It was to learn the fact that it's NOT the homework that's unbearable, it's putting it off, or worse not doing it at all, that's unbearable.
I had it all backwards, I blamed homework from keeping me from having fun. But having homework wasn't the reason why I wasn't having fun. I wasn't having fun because I would put it off, or not do it at all. I believed that if I didn't have homework I wouldn't have to feel bad about not doing it or having to make up excuses (lies) about why it wasn't done. Even worse to justify not doing it I'd mock those who did their homework as brown-nosers.
In reality, I'm never struggling with the fact that I have homework to do, I'm struggling with not doing it. I hate anticipating work that needs to be done, but ironically, once I get started the struggling ends. Every time I get started on an assignment, rather than put it off, I begin to feel good about myself and this propels me forward to enjoy a sense of accomplishment when I'm through.
Still surprised at how relieved I feel every time I begin something that I've been dreading to do I think to myself in amazement, "Wow, This isn't so bad. I can't believe I was putting this off."
It never takes as long as I thought and is usually much easier to do than I had imagined. There is also the bonus of being prepared and feeling good about turning in a completed assignment when it's due.
Finally I get the point of homework: nothing is as difficult to do as putting something off. Feel free to quote me on that one.
I had it all backwards, I blamed homework from keeping me from having fun. But having homework wasn't the reason why I wasn't having fun. I wasn't having fun because I would put it off, or not do it at all. I believed that if I didn't have homework I wouldn't have to feel bad about not doing it or having to make up excuses (lies) about why it wasn't done. Even worse to justify not doing it I'd mock those who did their homework as brown-nosers.
In reality, I'm never struggling with the fact that I have homework to do, I'm struggling with not doing it. I hate anticipating work that needs to be done, but ironically, once I get started the struggling ends. Every time I get started on an assignment, rather than put it off, I begin to feel good about myself and this propels me forward to enjoy a sense of accomplishment when I'm through.
Still surprised at how relieved I feel every time I begin something that I've been dreading to do I think to myself in amazement, "Wow, This isn't so bad. I can't believe I was putting this off."
It never takes as long as I thought and is usually much easier to do than I had imagined. There is also the bonus of being prepared and feeling good about turning in a completed assignment when it's due.
Finally I get the point of homework: nothing is as difficult to do as putting something off. Feel free to quote me on that one.
Although I dread having to do my homework every week, I enjoy the benefits of doing it when the Culver City News is delivered every Thursday.
Yes! That's my cartoon.
With Keith Knight and my copy of his book 'The Knight Life.' Get it! It'll inspire you to do your homework. For more on Keith click on the photo!
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