Unconventional Teaching: The Surprising Impact of Cumulative Homework

In my early academic years, I had a grade one teacher with a rather unique approach to homework – an approach that initially left my classmates and me grumbling. She introduced an accumulative method, where each day we were tasked with writing newly learned words ten times. The twist? On the following day, we had to repeat the process for the new words and revisit the ones from the previous day. This cycle continued throughout the semester, creating a seemingly endless cascade of assignments that left us buried in a mountain of work.

At the time, resentment towards our teacher was palpable. Even parents, who typically held educators in high regard, joined the chorus of complaints. It was as if our teacher had never heard the famous fable of a wise man requesting the king to fill a chessboard with rice, doubling the quantity with each square. However, as time passed, I came to realize that this unconventional teaching method had a surprising impact on my learning.

Years later, as an adult perusing dictionaries in a bookstore, I made a remarkable discovery. The sheer number of words I was familiar with surpassed that of my friends who had dedicated four years of university study to literature and linguistics. It was that challenging semester of repetitive practice that unknowingly laid the groundwork for my vocabulary.

While I'm hesitant to endorse such a teaching approach, considering the complaints and resentment it stirred, I cannot deny its effectiveness in my own case. More importantly, this experience instilled in me a valuable lesson – the importance of revisiting basics when facing challenges in my current learning endeavors.