Kevin,
Your last paragraph spurred a little tete a tete between me and my wife. Should one do something one thinks is meaningless even if it was assigned by a "superior". This applies to students and teachers as well as workers and their bosses. I agree with your view. One should not do work if it has no meaning. My wife made the point that sometimes you need to do such things in an effort to not "rock the boat" as you work toward larger goals.
We put forth the hypothetical - what would we do if we thought our son was assigned meaningless homework. We both agreed with an approach. First, we'd ask our son what he thought was the meaning of the homework. If he was not sure, we would ask him to ask his teacher. We would tell him that it is very important to find meaning in one's work, and that it's important to ask questions if need be to find such meaning. We'd also ask him to finish the assignment out of respect for his teacher. If the teacher continued to assign meaningless homework, I would tell our son that I too am wondering about the meaning of the work - and schedule a meeting with his teacher.
tricky indeed
Kevin,
Your last paragraph spurred a little tete a tete between me and my wife. Should one do something one thinks is meaningless even if it was assigned by a "superior". This applies to students and teachers as well as workers and their bosses. I agree with your view. One should not do work if it has no meaning. My wife made the point that sometimes you need to do such things in an effort to not "rock the boat" as you work toward larger goals.
We put forth the hypothetical - what would we do if we thought our son was assigned meaningless homework. We both agreed with an approach. First, we'd ask our son what he thought was the meaning of the homework. If he was not sure, we would ask him to ask his teacher. We would tell him that it is very important to find meaning in one's work, and that it's important to ask questions if need be to find such meaning. We'd also ask him to finish the assignment out of respect for his teacher. If the teacher continued to assign meaningless homework, I would tell our son that I too am wondering about the meaning of the work - and schedule a meeting with his teacher.