How much homework to give?
It is a very difficult question and one that has provided no definite answer, until now.
A research team in Taiwan has been able to show that there are no absolutes in the universe, even the speed of light is relative to the medium it is moving in, which is why your glasses work — all mathematical proof and scientific validation is available to those who wish to see it.
Everything behaves in a way that is relative to everything else.
Classical objects behave relative to the rules of gravity. Quantum entities behave relative to the rules of atomic forces, and they both behave relative to the rules of nonlinear dynamics.
This mathematics is new, but it has already been shown to have at its core irrational constants which give it universal behavior. Classical objects in a system do not behave relative to gravity, but all the parts behave relative to the other parts, using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics. Quantum entities, when in a system, do not behave relative to the atomic forces, but behave relative to the other parts using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics.
This gives us the solar system at classical scales, and the cell at quantum scales.
Nonlinear dynamics has something called self-critical organization, the rules of fractals, which are just mathematical representations of the world we see around us.
That means that humans are a system that behaves relative to the rules of human behavior. The universe does not play dice, it always plays to the rules which allow choice within parameters.
So to answer the given question, nobody has any absolutes over anybody else, we play by the natural rules that we must use to produce the same behavioral patterns across the globe.
When I am in your house I respect your rules, when you are in mine I expect the reciprocal arrangement. So the answer is, when at school we respect the classroom rules of the teacher, it is their space. When at home we respect the house rules of the parents, it is their space. Nobody has the right to remove parents’ rules at home.
So homework must not be compulsory. Parents decide what time children go to bed, period. This hands-off approach means the people who are in the best position to assess the situation can do so.
Please do not tell me it does not always work, I am a teacher here in Taiwan and the one thing parents like is that I let them choose their own destiny at home. It produces a healthy natural relationship which is fair.
More and more homework does not produce smarter and smarter kids, but if parents believe it does, they should be allowed to try. There are no prizes for getting things wrong and some of us only learn by mistakes.
However, for those who wish to spend evenings teaching children the way the rules of human behavior work, they should be allowed to do so.
You will be glad to hear there is no mathematics or physics, children learn to be people by mimicking adults’ behavior, so you just have to join them in social activities, switch the TV off and let the natural rules work for you.
Peter Cook
Greater Taichung
Senseless sex industry laws
A recent, massive prostitution ring bust is yet another reminder of Taiwan’s senseless policy of moralizing that continues to force sex workers into unsafe environments controlled by criminal scum.
Taiwanese politicos refuse to face that there will always be a sex trade and rather than make rational decisions about it, they would prefer to send Taiwanese police to bail out the incoming high tide with buckets.
The 2011 law that allows for the creation of red light districts did absolutely nothing to provide safety for sex workers, lower transmission of STDs, stop the trafficking of illegal Chinese prostitutes or anything else.
Spineless politicians managed only to express a modicum of concern by voting for a law that did nothing more than pass the buck.
The government can continue to avoid facing the reality that a well-regulated sex trade would make sense, but for how long and at what cost?
Aaron Andrews
Taichung
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