When I was in elementary school, I always had a problem with homework. I never understood why it was necessary and because of that it was a mental block for me. For years I would struggle with homework due to my parents’ expectations and my own. From my perspective I do 3 times the work of the other students in my class but get a similar grade to them but from my parents perspective they saw that as showing that you truly cared about the class and would dedicate that much to passing. When my parents stopped looming over me and my studies I, naturally, slacked off on my homework. Fundamentally I hate homework; I go to school do a bunch of work and then am asked to do the same at home again. It never made sense and that’s why I always struggled to do it. I ended lacking the resilience needed to get good grades and because of this I suffered. Eventually I would have to gain some resilience and “suck it up” to be able to pass.
In the middle of high school, I came up with some strategies to help me with my homework. I thought to myself “If my main problem is that I don’t like having to do the same thing I did in school at home why don’t I just do it all in school.” After that I went and tried to do all my homework in school. If there was ever a moment where I had nothing to do or finished a test or problem early, I would start to do my homework from my pervious classes. This didn’t work to well because trying to cram in my current classwork and homework from a different class all in 45 minutes was to hard. Next I tried to do homework at home but with breaks. I don’t have good concentration so I couldn’t keep myself involved in homework for more than an hour without having to break to give my self a rest. Even within that hour I would space out thinking about something random. So, I decided to give myself breaks to reset my mind. This would end up being somewhat successful because I would take break and feel refreshed, but sometimes I wouldn’t go back to working and I would end up procrastinating. No matter what strategy I tried there seemed to be downside. But in order to pass I had to do something, hence I came up with the strategy I use to this day. I decided to go against what my mother had ingrained into my brain since I was a kid which was work then play. Now that I think about it this is probably the worst thing you could tell a kid. If they work then play then they wouldn’t be able to properly focus on the assignment. So, I decided to play then work. Although it still has its downsides of procrastination it seems to be the most effective method of working for me. If I have fun and then work I can focus on my assignments without thinking “man cant wait to hop on video games with my friends after this” because I would have already done it. To this day I still hate homework and the concept of it but at least now I have a strategy to combat it and I’m glad the I was able to be resilient and come up with this strategy.
You do a good job of presenting strategies you use.
Your strategy of flipping your mom’s advice is so cool! And it works for you. You have come to know yourself and what works for you! I wonder though, how do you have enough discipline to stop playing video games after a certain time and get to the homework? Do you set an alarm and really listent to that alarm?
And doing your homework at school is a great strategy. I too try to get my teaching prep work done before I leave campus. My mind is more in the mood to do work when I am on campus. When I get home I just let go.
Now, can this be the seed of a larger story? Is this part of a big struggle you had to overcome? Were you in danger of failing a class or a grade? What is the challenge you were facing at this time?
This writing tasks asks what big challenge were you facing? This must be a BIG challenge that required you to be resilient. This should be like a mountain you had to climb, where you kept slipping down and needing to get back up. REview what resilience means. So again I am asking you to clarify: What is the BIG challenge that you were facing? In this your story here, what is the BIG challenge, the BIG hardship. Remember Douglass had to learn to read when the slavemasters were keeping him down. He had to rise to the occasion. AND similarly, Malcolm X had to learn to read while he faced a life in prison. What were you facing that required you to practice resilience?
I agree with you Johnathan, homework was a huge challenge at one point in my life. The main reason was that I would never really try to focus on homework up until high school when it really mattered. Getting strategies also helps since we need to focus on our education.