Introduction
Homework is easily the most hated part of school life for anybody, isn’t it? The thought of having to study again at home after all the hours of studying at school is a nightmare and has never been loved by anyone, other than teachers, probably. But have you ever thought of the man or woman behind all of this? Have you ever thought about the person who acted as the reason behind this entire concept of homework? It is a lesser-known fact about the man who actually invented homework. Let us know did Roberto Nevilis invent the homework and who is the man behind the concept of homework in this article.
Who is the man behind the concept of homework?
Did Roberto Nevilis invent the homework? Well, the answer to this question of yours is a man by the name of Roberto Nevilis from Venice, Italy. Yes, this man is the reason why you have to plod through extra hours of studying and lesser time on your phone or outside! Sometimes, when you think about it, you can see no good reason why students would be made to do work after the hours of school and you might arrive with no answer whatsoever. But this man, Nevilis apparently saw a goal in making students do their work after school.
Let us take a look into the history of homework and the person who was behind all your hours of extra studies! Did Roberto Nevilis invent the homework or not? The following will give you the actual inventor of homework.
Who was the actual inventor of homework?
It is quite difficult to single out and point him/her to be the inventor of homework but the concept of homework can be traced across history. There have been some people who have made a change in the homework and the education sector and they have done it for different purposes. None of them might have wished to burden the students but only to make the retention of information easier.
Pliny the Younger
This man was an ancient orator in Rome, who often told his students to practice their speeches and oratory techniques at their houses. This was because he believed that repetition was the easiest way for students to retain information better and school hours were not enough to have enough practice. This also, he believed, would make students much more confident with their speaking skills.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
This man from Germany had made homework mandatory for students when he started being involved in the process of developing the Volksschule or People’s Schools. This was in the 17th century, long before the concept of homework made its way to the United States of America. Johann Gottlieb Fichte believed that homework would ensure that the nation had greater control over the students and this would help them in creating a much more united nation. Students had to complete their work on their own time and this, in a way, was believed to give the national power over the individuals.
Horace Mann
Well, this man was the reason homework came to the United States of America. Before him, homework was widely popular only in Europe, and Mann, who had stayed in Prussia for a while, really liked this. When he came back to America, he decided to implement this idea in his nation too, and behold! American students started having homework! But he was able to implement this only because he was an educational reformer and well, to say the least, he did reform education!
But who really was Roberto Nevilis?
Roberto Nevilis is the man often credited with the invention of homework and history says that this is not the truth. But why is it that this man is accused of having invented homework? If you trace history carefully, you can see that homework was in place well before his era. He is credited with having invented homework in 1905. But during 1905, Rome had not had formal education and there was no way he could have invented homework at a time when no one even bothered to formalize education.
Also, in 1901, the state of California passed a law banning homework for children under the age of fifteen. This means that homework was already in place before 1905. Nobody knows why this man is often credited with the invention of homework.
Several people had been involved in the creation and development of the concept of homework and it is not credible that sites credit it to Roberto Nevilis, a teacher from Venice. The history of homework, in fact, has a long history, and tracing its pages will help you acquit Nevilis in this crime.
It might surprise you to know that the ways of homework and the acceptance of homework by people have changed a lot. There have been multiple laws in place that have banned homework now and then. Another fact here is that homework was considered to be a form of child labor!
So if you are sitting there complaining over your math homework, remember, it faced a lot of criticism and welcome from people of various demographics and struggled through the pages of history to make it to you.
It was only in the 1940s that homework became a part of education in the United States of America again and it was considered to be the Progressive era.
Conclusion
Forwarding to 2022, the hot topic of homework has come up again. Studies have proven that students struggle with homework and it also deeply impacts their mental health. Some students have shown signs of depression and other serious issues that need to be battled with. You can find a lot of studies about this and some schools have also implemented a limit on the amount of homework given to kids. Also, don’t be surprised if you suddenly wake up to find that homework has been banned totally!
FAQs
1.Why is Nevilis credited with the invention of homework?
It isn’t much known about this, but he did use homework to punish students who weren’t really good at academics.
2.Why does homework exist?
The concept of homework exists only to make sure the information is retained and students learn it on their own, which is a better way of learning.
