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Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recent years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on his educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student's academic grade.
家庭作業從來就沒有受到學生甚至家長的真正歡迎，但最近幾年來，家庭作業卻受到人們的鄙視。全國的學校，最近的是洛杉磯學區都在修改這個家庭作業相關的教育慣例做法。不幸的是，洛杉磯學區通過了一項不可變更的政策：除了高等課程，家庭作業在學分中所占比例不可以超過10%。
This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children.
這個規定旨在提出：來自貧窮家庭或混亂家庭的學生有困難，不能完成家庭作業。但該政策是不清晰的，是矛盾的。顯然，沒有哪個家庭作業是在沒有昂貴設備就無法完成的。但如果該學區因為學生家庭復雜而不做家庭作業就給他通過的話，那么這就意味著對于貧窮孩子，標準要降低。
District administrators say that homework will still be a pat of schooling: teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see vey little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across-the-board rule.
區政府官員說，家庭作業仍將是學校教育的一部分：老師允許布置他想布置的作業。但家庭作業算入他們成績的比例不能超過10%的話，學生就能逃避一半家庭作業，成績報告單上看不出差別。有些學生可能不做完家庭作業也能取得好成績。但想想那些做家庭作業并取得考試好成績的學生吧，家庭作業完全有可能幫助了他們。但是，老師沒有得到授權去尋找什么作業最適合學生，該政策給老師強加了一條無聊的一刀切規則。
At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students' academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework does nothing to ensure that the homework students are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.
同時，該政策沒有處理家庭作業真正棘手的問題。如果該學區發現家庭作業對于孩子的學業是不重要的，它就應該減少或者免除家庭作業，而不是減少所占比分。相反，如果家庭作業重要，它就應該在成績中重要比重。同時，該政策沒有確保學生做的家庭作業是否是有意義的，或者是否適合他們年齡和所上學科，或者老師是否不過量布置作業。
The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L.A. Unified to do homework right.
學校董事會是教育政策的制定者，在它調查此事并進行公眾意見聽證會的時候，家庭作業的規則應該暫停實施。洛杉磯學區要處理好家庭作業這件事還是來得及的。
