I would rarely do any homework, because I was way more interested in using my Amiga, but I paid close attention in class. For many classes, the way the grading worked out would be that I would get an A for participation, an A for all of the quizzes and tests because I was paying attention knew the material, and an F or D homework, which would work out to a D (65%) in the class. It doesn’t really make any sense considering that the tests proved that I learned the material.
Seconded about Amiga. Who knows which factory I would be earning wages to survive payday to payday today if I didn't have that Amiga at that key point in time.
I did well in school regardless, because school is about surviving without becoming dumb. The more the effort put into a program that's designed for the stupidest kid, the dumber you become. It was about efficiency, better results than most with minimum effort.
Refer to Taylor Gatto's The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher[0].
School is not about learning, it is about ranking. Usually it's about ranking people by some weighted sum of intelligence, conscientiousness and conformity. Obviously your school placed a high weight on conscientiousness and conformity.
I agree with you in general, but on the other hand, my sister got the short end on tests and quizzes.
Unlike me, she'd do the homework. On time, even! The teachers could verbally ask her anything on the test and she'd reply with the answer. Yet once the test came, she'd do poorly nearly every time. A few teachers were able to work with her, but otherwise she'd simply do poorly in a class if it was weighted for the test instead of other things.
I was more like you and nearly failed due to homework not being done. I got better when I got older, but I also weirdly had less homework the last 2 years of high school than I did in middle school.
Of course, both situations really are illustrative that education is mostly punitive and it doesn't really matter if you can prove you know things.
