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The Homework Dilemma: Who Invented Homework?

The inventor of homework may be unknown, but its evolution reflects contributions from educators, philosophers, and students. Homework reinforces learning, fosters discipline, and prepares students for the future, spanning from ancient civilizations to modern education. Ongoing debates probe its balance, efficacy, equity, and accessibility, prompting innovative alternatives like project-based and personalized learning. As education evolves, the enigma of homework endures.

Table of Contents

Who Invented Homework?

While historical records don’t provide a definitive answer regarding the inventor of homework in the modern sense, two prominent figures, Roberto Nevelis of Venice and Horace Mann, are often linked to the concept’s early development.

Roberto Nevelis of Venice: A Mythical Innovator?

Roberto Nevelis, a Venetian educator from the 16th century, is frequently credited with the invention of homework. The story goes that Nevelis assigned tasks to his students outside regular classroom hours to reinforce their learning—a practice that aligns with the essence of homework. However, the historical evidence supporting Nevelis as the inventor of homework is rather elusive, leaving room for skepticism.

While Nevelis’s role remains somewhat mythical, his association with homework highlights the early recognition of the concept’s educational value.

Horace Mann: Shaping the American Educational Landscape

Horace Mann, often regarded as the “Father of American Education,” made significant contributions to the American public school system in the 19th century. Though he may not have single-handedly invented homework, his educational reforms played a crucial role in its widespread adoption.

Mann’s vision for education emphasized discipline and rigor, which included assigning tasks to be completed outside of the classroom. While he did not create homework in the traditional sense, his influence on the American education system paved the way for its integration.

The invention of homework was driven by several educational objectives. It aimed to reinforce classroom learning, ensuring knowledge retention and skill development. Homework also served as a means to promote self-discipline and responsibility among students, fostering valuable study habits and time management skills.

Why Was Homework Invented?

The invention of homework was not a random educational practice but rather a deliberate strategy with several essential objectives in mind.

Reinforcing Classroom Learning

Foremost among these objectives was the need to reinforce classroom learning. When students leave the classroom, the goal is for them to retain and apply the knowledge they have acquired during their lessons. Homework emerged as a powerful tool for achieving this goal. It provided students with a structured platform to revisit the day’s lessons, practice what they had learned, and solidify their understanding.

Homework assignments often mirrored classroom activities, allowing students to extend their learning beyond the confines of school hours. Through the repetition of exercises and tasks related to the curriculum, students could deepen their comprehension and mastery of various subjects.

Fostering Self-Discipline and Responsibility

Another significant objective behind the creation of homework was the promotion of self-discipline and responsibility among students. Education has always been about more than just the acquisition of knowledge; it also involves the development of life skills and habits that prepare individuals for future challenges.

By assigning tasks to be completed independently at home, educators aimed to instill valuable study habits and time management skills. Students were expected to take ownership of their learning, manage their time effectively, and meet deadlines—a set of skills that have enduring relevance in contemporary education and beyond.

Homework encouraged students to become proactive in their educational journey. It taught them the importance of accountability and the satisfaction of completing tasks on their own. These life skills would prove invaluable in their future endeavors, both academically and in the broader context of their lives.

When Was Homework Invented?

The roots of homework stretch deep into the annals of history, tracing its origins to ancient civilizations and early educational practices. While it has undergone significant evolution over the centuries, the concept of extending learning beyond the classroom has always been an integral part of education.

Earliest Origins of Homework and Early Educational Practices

The idea of homework, in its most rudimentary form, can be traced back to the earliest human civilizations. In ancient Egypt , for instance, students were tasked with hieroglyphic writing exercises. These exercises served as a precursor to modern homework, as they required students to practice and reinforce their understanding of written language—an essential skill for communication and record-keeping in that era.

In ancient Greece , luminaries like Plato and Aristotle advocated for the use of written exercises as a tool for intellectual development. They recognized the value of practice in enhancing one’s knowledge and skills, laying the foundation for a more systematic approach to homework.

The ancient Romans also played a pivotal role in the early development of homework. Young Roman students were expected to complete assignments at home, with a particular focus on subjects like mathematics and literature. These assignments were designed to consolidate their classroom learning, emphasizing the importance of practice in mastering various disciplines.

READ MORE: Who Invented Math? The History of Mathematics

The practice of assigning work to be done outside of regular school hours continued to evolve through various historical periods. As societies advanced, so did the complexity and diversity of homework tasks, reflecting the changing needs and priorities of education.

The Influence of Educational Philosophers

While the roots of homework extend to ancient times, the ideas of renowned educational philosophers in later centuries further contributed to its development. John Locke, an influential thinker of the Enlightenment era, believed in a gradual and cumulative approach to learning. He emphasized the importance of students revisiting topics through repetition and practice, a concept that aligns with the principles of homework.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another prominent philosopher, stressed the significance of self-directed learning. Rousseau’s ideas encouraged the development of independent study habits and a personalized approach to education—a philosophy that resonates with modern concepts of homework.

Homework in the American Public School System

The American public school system has played a pivotal role in the widespread adoption and popularization of homework. To understand the significance of homework in modern education, it’s essential to delve into its history and evolution within the United States.

History and Evolution of Homework in the United States

The late 19th century marked a significant turning point for homework in the United States. During this period, influenced by educational reforms and the growing need for standardized curricula, homework assignments began to gain prominence in American schools.

Educational reformers and policymakers recognized the value of homework as a tool for reinforcing classroom learning. They believed that assigning tasks for students to complete outside of regular school hours would help ensure that knowledge was retained and skills were honed. This approach aligned with the broader trends in education at the time, which aimed to provide a more structured and systematic approach to learning.

As the American public school system continued to evolve, homework assignments became a common practice in classrooms across the nation. The standardization of curricula and the formalization of education contributed to the integration of homework into the learning process. This marked a significant departure from earlier educational practices, reflecting a shift toward more structured and comprehensive learning experiences.

The incorporation of homework into the American education system not only reinforced classroom learning but also fostered self-discipline and responsibility among students. It encouraged them to take ownership of their educational journey and develop valuable study habits and time management skills—a legacy that continues to influence modern pedagogy.

Controversies Around Homework

Despite its longstanding presence in education, homework has not been immune to controversy and debate. While many view it as a valuable educational tool, others question its effectiveness and impact on students’ well-being.

The Homework Debate

One of the central controversies revolves around the amount of homework assigned to students. Critics argue that excessive homework loads can lead to stress, sleep deprivation, and a lack of free time for students. The debate often centers on striking the right balance between homework and other aspects of a student’s life, including extracurricular activities, family time, and rest.

Homework’s Efficacy

Another contentious issue pertains to the efficacy of homework in enhancing learning outcomes. Some studies suggest that moderate amounts of homework can reinforce classroom learning and improve academic performance. However, others question whether all homework assignments contribute equally to learning or whether some may be more beneficial than others. The effectiveness of homework can vary depending on factors such as the student’s grade level, the subject matter, and the quality of the assignment.

Equity and Accessibility

Homework can also raise concerns related to equity and accessibility. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds may have limited access to resources and support at home, potentially putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to completing homework assignments. This disparity has prompted discussions about the role of homework in perpetuating educational inequalities and how schools can address these disparities.

Alternative Approaches to Learning

In response to the controversies surrounding homework, educators and researchers have explored alternative approaches to learning. These approaches aim to strike a balance between reinforcing classroom learning and promoting holistic student well-being. Some alternatives include:

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning emphasizes hands-on, collaborative projects that allow students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems. This approach shifts the focus from traditional homework assignments to engaging, practical learning experiences.

Flipped Classrooms

Flipped classrooms reverse the traditional teaching model. Students learn new material at home through video lectures or readings and then use class time for interactive discussions and activities. This approach reduces the need for traditional homework while promoting active learning.

Personalized Learning

Personalized learning tailors instruction to individual students’ needs, allowing them to progress at their own pace. This approach minimizes the need for one-size-fits-all homework assignments and instead focuses on targeted learning experiences.

The Ongoing Conversation

The controversies surrounding homework highlight the need for an ongoing conversation about its role in education. Striking the right balance between reinforcing learning and addressing students’ well-being remains a complex challenge. As educators, parents, and researchers continue to explore innovative approaches to learning, the role of homework in the modern educational landscape continues to evolve. Ultimately, the goal is to provide students with the most effective and equitable learning experiences possible.

Unpacking the Homework Enigma

Homework, without a single inventor, has evolved through educators, philosophers, and students. It reinforces learning, fosters discipline and prepares students. From ancient times to modern education, it upholds timeless values. Yet, controversies arise—debates on balance, efficacy, equity, and accessibility persist. Innovative alternatives like project-based and personalized learning emerge. Homework’s role evolves with education.

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Who Invented Homework? A Big Question Answered with Facts

Crystal Bourque

Delving into the intriguing history of education, one of the most pondered questions arises: Who invented homework?

Love it or hate it, homework is part of student life.

But what’s the purpose of completing these tasks and assignments? And who would create an education system that makes students complete work outside the classroom?

This post contains everything you’ve ever wanted to know about homework. So keep reading! You’ll discover the answer to the big question: who invented homework?

Who Invented Homework?

The myth of roberto nevilis: who is he, the origins of homework, a history of homework in the united states, 5 facts about homework, types of homework.

• What’s the Purpose of Homework? 
• Homework Pros
• Homework Cons

When, How, and Why was Homework Invented?

Daniel Jedzura/Shutterstock.com

To ensure we cover the basics (and more), let’s explore when, how, and why was homework invented.

As a bonus, we’ll also cover who invented homework. So get ready because the answer might surprise you!

It’s challenging to pinpoint the exact person responsible for the invention of homework.

For example, Medieval Monks would work on memorization and practice singing. Ancient philosophers would read and develop their teachings outside the classroom. While this might not sound like homework in the traditional form we know today, one could argue that these methods helped to form the basic structure and format.

So let’s turn to recorded history to try and identify who invented homework and when homework was invented.

Pliny the Younger

Credit: laphamsquarterly.org

Mention of homework appears in the writings of Pliny the Younger, meaning we can trace the term ‘homework’ back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger (61—112 CE) was an oratory teacher, and often told his students to practice their public speaking outside class.

Pliny believed that the repetition and practice of speech would help students gain confidence in their speaking abilities.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Credit: inlibris.com

Before the idea of homework came to the United States, Germany’s newly formed nation-state had been giving students homework for years.

The roots of homework extend to ancient times, but it wasn’t until German Philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762—1814) helped to develop the Volksschulen (People’s Schools) that homework became mandatory.

Fichte believed that the state needed to hold power over individuals to create a unified Germany. A way to assert control over people meant that students attending the Volksshulen were required to complete assignments at home on their own time.

As a result, some people credit Fichte for being the inventor of homework.

Horace Mann

Credit: commons.wikimedia.org

The idea of homework spread across Europe throughout the 19th century.

So who created homework in the United States?

The history of education and homework now moves to Horace Mann (1796—1859), an American educational reformer, spent some time in Prussia. There, he learned more about Germany’s Volksshulen, forms of education , and homework practices.

Mann liked what he saw and brought this system back to America. As a result, homework rapidly became a common factor in students’ lives across the country.

Credit: medium.com

If you’ve ever felt curious about who invented homework, a quick online search might direct you to a man named Roberto Nevilis, a teacher in Venice, Italy.

As the story goes, Nevilis invented homework in 1905 (or 1095) to punish students who didn’t demonstrate a good understanding of the lessons taught during class.

This teaching technique supposedly spread to the rest of Europe before reaching North America.

Unfortunately, there’s little truth to this story. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that these online sources lack credible sources to back up this myth as fact.

In 1905, the Roman Empire turned its attention to the First Crusade. No one had time to spare on formalizing education, and classrooms didn’t even exist. So how could Nevilis spread the idea of homework when education remained so informal?

And when you jump to 1901, you’ll discover that the government of California passed a law banning homework for children under fifteen. Nevilis couldn’t have invented homework in 1905 if this law had already reached the United States in 1901.

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When it comes to the origins of homework, looking at the past shows us that there isn’t one person who created homework. Instead, examining the facts shows us that several people helped to bring the idea of homework into Europe and then the United States.

In addition, the idea of homework extends beyond what historians have discovered. After all, the concept of learning the necessary skills human beings need to survive has existed since the dawn of man.

More than 100 years have come and gone since Horace Mann introduced homework to the school system in the United States.

Therefore, it’s not strange to think that the concept of homework has changed, along with our people and culture.

In short, homework hasn’t always been considered acceptable. Let’s dive into the history or background of homework to learn why.

Homework is Banned! (The 1900s)

Important publications of the time, including the Ladies’ Home Journal and The New York Times, published articles on the negative impacts homework had on American children’s health and well-being.

As a result, California banned homework for children under fifteen in 1901. This law, however, changed again about a decade later (1917).

Children Needed at Home (The 1930s)

Formed in 1923, The American Child Health Association (ACHA) aimed to decrease the infant mortality rate and better support the health and development of the American child.

By the 1930s, ACHA deemed homework a form of child labor. Since the government recently passed laws against child labor , it became difficult to justify homework assignments. College students, however, could still receive homework tasks as part of their formal schooling.

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A Shift in Ideas (The 1940s—1950s)

During the early to mid-1900s, the United States entered the Progressive Era. As a result, the country reformed its public education system to help improve students’ learning.

Homework became a part of everyday life again. However, this time, the reformed curriculum required teachers to make the assignments more personal.

As a result, American students would write essays on summer vacations and winter breaks, participate in ‘show and tell,’ and more.

These types of assignments still exist today!

Homework Today (The 2000s)

The focus of American education shifted again when the US Department of Education was founded in 1979, aiming to uplevel education in the country by, among other things, prohibiting discrimination ensuring equal access, and highlighting important educational issues.

In 2022, the controversial nature of homework in public schools and formal education is once again a hot topic of discussion in many classrooms.

According to one study , more than 60% of college and high school students deal with mental health issues like depression and anxiety due to homework. In addition, the large number of assignments given to students takes away the time students spend on other interests and hobbies. Homework also negatively impacts sleep.

As a result, some schools have implemented a ban or limit on the amount of homework assigned to students.

Test your knowledge and check out these other facts about homework:

• Horace Mann is also known as the ‘father’ of the modern school system and the educational process that we know today (read more about Who Invented School ).
• With a bit of practice, homework can improve oratory and writing skills. Both are important in a student’s life at all stages.
• Homework can replace studying. Completing regular assignments reduces the time needed to prepare for tests.
• Homework is here to stay. It doesn’t look like teachers will stop assigning homework any time soon. However, the type and quantity of homework given seem to be shifting to accommodate the modern student’s needs.
• The optimal length of time students should spend on homework is one to two hours. Students who spent one to two hours on homework per day scored higher test results.
•   So, while completing assignments outside of school hours may be beneficial, spending, for example, a day on homework is not ideal.

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The U.S. Department of Education provides teachers with plenty of information and resources to help students with homework.

In general, teachers give students homework that requires them to employ four strategies. The four types of homework types include:

• Practice: To help students master a specific skill, teachers will assign homework that requires them to repeat the particular skill. For example, students must solve a series of math problems.
• Preparation: This type of homework introduces students to the material they will learn in the future. An example of preparatory homework is assigning students a chapter to read before discussing the contents in class the next day.
• Extension: When a teacher wants to get students to apply what they’ve learned but create a challenge, this type of homework is assigned. It helps to boost problem-solving skills. For example, using a textbook to find the answer to a question gets students to problem-solve differently.
• Integration: To solidify the student learning experience , teachers will create a task that requires the use of many different skills. An example of integration is a book report. Completing integration homework assignments helps students learn how to be organized, plan, strategize, and solve problems on their own. Encouraging effective study habits is a key idea behind homework, too.

Ultimately, the type of homework students receive should have a purpose, be focused and clear, and challenge students to problem solve while integrating lessons learned.

What’s the Purpose of Homework?

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Homework aims to ensure individual students understand the information they learn in class. It also helps teachers to assess a student’s progress and identify strengths and weaknesses.

For example, school teachers use different types of homework like book reports, essays, math problems, and more to help students demonstrate their understanding of the lessons learned.

Does Homework Improve the Quality of Education?

Homework is a controversial topic today. Educators, parents, and even students often question whether homework is beneficial in improving the quality of education.

Let’s explore the pros and cons of homework to try and determine whether homework improves the quality of education in schools.

Homework Pros:

• Time Management Skills : Assigning homework with a due date helps students to develop a schedule to ensure they complete tasks on time. Personal responsibility amongst students is thereby promoted.
• More Time to Learn : Students encounter plenty of distractions at school. It’s also challenging for students to grasp the material in an hour or less. Assigning homework provides the student with the opportunity to understand the material.
• Improves Research Skills : Some homework assignments require students to seek out information. Through homework, students learn where to seek out good, reliable sources.

Homework Cons:

• Reduced Physical Activity : Homework requires students to sit at a desk for long periods. Lack of movement decreases the amount of physical activity, often because teachers assign students so much homework that they don’t have time for anything else. Time for students can get almost totally taken up with out-of-school assignments.
• Stuck on an Assignment: A student often gets stuck on an assignment. Whether they can’t find information or the correct solution, students often don’t have help from parents and require further support from a teacher. For underperforming students, especially, this can have a negative impact on their confidence and overall educational experience.
• Increases Stress : One of the results of getting stuck on an assignment is that it increases stress and anxiety. Too much homework hurts a child’s mental health, preventing them from learning and understanding the material.

Some research shows that homework doesn’t provide educational benefits or improve performance, and can lead to a decline in physical activities. These studies counter that the potential effectiveness of homework is undermined by its negative impact on students.

However, research also shows that homework benefits students—provided teachers don’t give them too much. Here’s a video from Duke Today that highlights a study on the very topic.

Homework Today

The question of “Who Invented Homework?” delves into the historical evolution of academic practices, shedding light on its significance in fostering responsibility among students and contributing to academic progress. While supported by education experts, homework’s role as a pivotal aspect of academic life remains a subject of debate, often criticized as a significant source of stress. Nonetheless, when balanced with extracurricular activities and integrated seamlessly into the learning process, homework continues to shape and refine students’ educational journeys.

Maybe one day, students won’t need to submit assignments or complete tasks at home. But until then, many students understand the benefits of completing homework as it helps them further their education and achieve future career goals.

Before you go, here’s one more question: how do you feel about homework? Do you think teachers assign too little or too much? Get involved and start a discussion in the comments!

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Who invented homework and why?

The creation of homework can be traced back to the Ancient Roman Pliny the Younger, a teacher of oratory—he is generally credited as being the father of homework! Pliny the Younger asked his students to practice outside of class to help them build confidence in their speaking skills.

Who invented homework as a punishment?

There’s a myth that the Italian educator Roberto Nevilis first used homework as a means of punishing his students in the early 20th century—although this has now been widely discredited, and the story of the Italian teacher is regarded as a myth.

Why did homework stop being a punishment?

There are several reasons that homework ceased being a form of punishment. For example, the introduction of child labor laws in the early twentieth century meant that the California education department banned giving homework to children under the age of fifteen for a time. Further, throughout the 1940s and 1950s, there was a growing emphasis on enhancing students’ learning, making homework assignments more personal, and nurturing growth, rather than being used as a form of punishment.

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The Surprising History of Homework Reform

Really, kids, there was a time when lots of grownups thought homework was bad for you.

Homework causes a lot of fights. Between parents and kids, sure. But also, as education scholar Brian Gill and historian Steven Schlossman write, among U.S. educators. For more than a century, they’ve been debating how, and whether, kids should do schoolwork at home .

At the dawn of the twentieth century, homework meant memorizing lists of facts which could then be recited to the teacher the next day. The rising progressive education movement despised that approach. These educators advocated classrooms free from recitation. Instead, they wanted students to learn by doing. To most, homework had no place in this sort of system.

Through the middle of the century, Gill and Schlossman write, this seemed like common sense to most progressives. And they got their way in many schools—at least at the elementary level. Many districts abolished homework for K–6 classes, and almost all of them eliminated it for students below fourth grade.

By the 1950s, many educators roundly condemned drills, like practicing spelling words and arithmetic problems. In 1963, Helen Heffernan, chief of California’s Bureau of Elementary Education, definitively stated that “No teacher aware of recent theories could advocate such meaningless homework assignments as pages of repetitive computation in arithmetic. Such an assignment not only kills time but kills the child’s creative urge to intellectual activity.”

But, the authors note, not all reformers wanted to eliminate homework entirely. Some educators reconfigured the concept, suggesting supplemental reading or having students do projects based in their own interests. One teacher proposed “homework” consisting of after-school “field trips to the woods, factories, museums, libraries, art galleries.” In 1937, Carleton Washburne, an influential educator who was the superintendent of the Winnetka, Illinois, schools, proposed a homework regimen of “cooking and sewing…meal planning…budgeting, home repairs, interior decorating, and family relationships.”

Another reformer explained that “at first homework had as its purpose one thing—to prepare the next day’s lessons. Its purpose now is to prepare the children for fuller living through a new type of creative and recreational homework.”

That idea didn’t necessarily appeal to all educators. But moderation in the use of traditional homework became the norm.

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“Virtually all commentators on homework in the postwar years would have agreed with the sentiment expressed in the NEA Journal in 1952 that ‘it would be absurd to demand homework in the first grade or to denounce it as useless in the eighth grade and in high school,’” Gill and Schlossman write.

That remained more or less true until 1983, when publication of the landmark government report A Nation at Risk helped jump-start a conservative “back to basics” agenda, including an emphasis on drill-style homework. In the decades since, continuing “reforms” like high-stakes testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Common Core standards have kept pressure on schools. Which is why twenty-first-century first graders get spelling words and pages of arithmetic.

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Who invented school homework?

Homework is a term that can stir up a spectrum of emotions among students worldwide. Some view it as an opportunity to reinforce classroom learning, while others perceive it as a chore. Regardless of these differing perspectives, the significance of homework in our education system is undeniable. But where did it originate? Let's delve into the intriguing history of school homework.

.css-26rqae{font-weight:500;} The ancient roots of homework

Our journey begins not in the 20th century, but much earlier, in ancient Rome. Pliny the Elder, a philosopher and naval commander, advocated for self-study among his pupils, fostering an early form of homework. He held a belief that independent exploration allowed students to delve deeper into their interests and broaden their knowledge beyond the confines of the classroom.

Debunking the myth: Roberto Nevilis

There's a common myth that an Italian educator named Roberto Nevilis invented homework in Venice around 1905. However, this claim lacks solid historical evidence and is widely debunked by historians and educators. The concept of homework, as we understand it, evolved gradually over centuries, shaped by educational philosophies and societal needs.

Horace Mann and the American education system

In the United States, Horace Mann, often hailed as the "Father of American Public Education," played a crucial role in shaping the nation's education landscape. While he didn't invent homework, Mann's emphasis on a structured and systematic approach to education likely influenced the incorporation and acceptance of homework in American schools.

The evolution and global perspective of homework

Homework has evolved significantly over the centuries, adapting to societal changes and advancements in technology. It's also interesting to note the variations in homework culture across different countries, reflecting diverse educational philosophies and practices. For example, in Finland, a country renowned for its high-performing education system, students have comparatively less homework and shorter school hours. In contrast, South Korea's rigorous education system is known for its heavy emphasis on homework.

Benefits of homework: A balanced perspective

While the debate over the effectiveness and necessity of homework continues, there are some benefits to consider. Homework can reinforce learning

The ongoing debate: The pros and cons of homework

The effectiveness and impact of homework is a subject of ongoing debate. Here is a breakdown of the pros and cons of homework.

Pros of homework:

Reinforces learning: Homework provides an opportunity to practice and consolidate classroom learning, leading to better retention of knowledge.

Develops time-management skills: Completing assignments within a designated timeframe can instill valuable time-management skills in students.

Encourages independent thinking: Homework allows students to think critically and independently, fostering creativity and problem-solving abilities.

Cons of homework:

Increased stress and burnout: Heavy homework loads can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and burnout among students.

Inequity in access: Homework may create an uneven playing field for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who lack resources or parental support.

Limitations on free time: Excessive homework can limit a student's free time for extracurricular activities, family time, and leisure.

From the early advocacy of self-study by Pliny the Elder to the structured educational approach of Horace Mann, the journey of homework has been long and complex. Its evolution and global perspective continue to shape the education systems worldwide. While opinions on homework may differ, its undeniable impact on students' academic performance and development cannot be ignored.

So boo for homework, but yay for its potential benefits! It all depends on the individual learner.

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Who Invented Homework and Why

Who Invented Homework

Italian pedagog, Roberto Nevilis, was believed to have invented homework back in 1905 to help his students foster productive studying habits outside of school. However, we'll sound find out that the concept of homework has been around for much longer.                                                                                                                                                              

Homework, which most likely didn't have a specific term back then, already existed even in ancient civilizations. Think Greece, Rome, and even ancient Egypt. Over time, homework became standardized in our educational systems. This happened naturally over time, as the development of the formal education system continued.                                                        

In this article, we're going to attempt to find out who invented homework, and when was homework invented, and we're going to uncover if the creator of homework is a single person or a group of them. Read this article through to the end to find out.

Who Created Homework and When?

The concept of homework predates modern educational systems, with roots in ancient Rome. However, Roberto Nevilis is often, yet inaccurately, credited with inventing homework in 1905.Depending on various sources, this invention is dated either in the year 1095 or 1905.

The invention of homework is commonly attributed to Roberto Nevilis, an Italian pedagog who is said to have introduced it as a form of punishment for his students in 1905. However, the concept of homework predates Nevilis and has roots that go back much further in history.

The practice of assigning students work to be done outside of class time can be traced back to ancient civilizations, such as Rome, where Pliny the Younger (AD 61–113) encouraged his students to practice public speaking at home to improve their oratory skills.

It's important to note that the idea of formalized homework has evolved significantly over centuries, influenced by educational theories and pedagogical developments. The purpose and nature of homework have been subjects of debate among educators, with opinions varying on its effectiveness and impact on student learning and well-being.

It might be impossible to answer when was homework invented. A simpler question to ask is ‘what exactly is homework?’.

If you define it as work assigned to do outside of a formal educational setup, then homework might be as old as humanity itself. When most of what people studied were crafts and skills, practicing them outside of dedicated learning times may as well have been considered homework.

Let’s look at a few people who have been credited with formalizing homework over the past few thousand years. 

Roberto Nevilis

Stories and speculations on the internet claim Roberto Nevilis is the one who invented school homework, or at least was the first person to assign homework back in 1905.

Who was he? He was an Italian educator who lived in Venice. He wanted to discipline and motivate his class of lackluster students. Unfortunately, claims online lack factual basis and strong proof that Roberto did invent homework.                                                                                                        

Homework, as a concept, predates Roberto, and can't truly be assigned to a sole inventor. Moreover, it's hard to quantify where an idea truly emerges, because many ideas emerge from different parts of the world simultaneously or at similar times, therefore it's hard to truly pinpoint who invented this idea.

Pliny the Younger

Another culprit according to the internet lived a thousand years before Roberto Nevilis. Pliny the Younger was an oratory teacher in the first century AD in the Roman Empire.

He apparently asked his students to practice their oratory skills at home, which some people consider one of the first official versions of homework.

It is difficult to say with any certainty if this is the first time homework was assigned though because the idea of asking students to practice something outside classes probably existed in every human civilization for millennia. 

Horace Mann

To answer the question of who invented homework and why, at least in the modern sense, we have to talk about Horace Mann. Horace Mann was an American educator and politician in the 19th century who was heavily influenced by movements in the newly-formed German state.

He is credited for bringing massive educational reform to America, and can definitely be considered the father of modern homework in the United States. However, his ideas were heavily influenced by the founding father of German nationalism Johann Gottlieb Fichte. 

After the defeat of Napoleon and the liberation of Prussia in 1814, citizens went back to their own lives, there was no sense of national pride or German identity. Johann Gottlieb Fichte came up with the idea of Volkschule, a mandatory 9-year educational system provided by the government to combat this.

Homework already existed in Germany at this point in time but it became a requirement in Volkschule. Fichte wasn't motivated purely by educational reform, he wanted to demonstrate the positive impact and power of a centralized government, and assigning homework was a way of showing the state's power to influence personal and public life.

This effort to make citizens more patriotic worked and the system of education and homework slowly spread through Europe.

Horace Mann saw the system at work during a trip to Prussia in the 1840s and brought many of the concepts to America, including homework.   

Who Invented Homework and Why?

Homework's history and objectives have evolved significantly over time, reflecting changing educational goals. Now, that we've gone through its history a bit, let's try to understand the "why". The people or people who made homework understood the advantages of it. Let's consider the following:                                                  

• Repetition, a key factor in long-term memory retention, is a primary goal of homework. It helps students solidify class-learned information. This is especially true in complex subjects like physics, where physics homework help can prove invaluable to learning effectively.
• Homework bridges classroom learning with real-world applications, enhancing memory and understanding.
• It identifies individual student weaknesses, allowing focused efforts to address them.
• Working independently at their own pace, students can overcome the distractions and constraints of a classroom setting through homework.
• By creating a continuous learning flow, homework shifts the perspective from viewing each school day as isolated to seeing education as an ongoing process.
• Homework is crucial for subjects like mathematics and sciences, where repetition is necessary to internalize complex processes.
• It's a tool for teachers to maximize classroom time, focusing on expanding understanding rather than just drilling fundamentals.
• Responsibility is a key lesson from homework. Students learn to manage time and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines.
• Research skills get honed through homework as students gather information from various sources.
• Students' creative potential is unleashed in homework, free from classroom constraints.

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Who Invented Homework: Development in the 1900s

Thanks to Horace Mann, homework had become widespread in the American schooling system by 1900, but it wasn't universally popular amongst either students or parents. 

The early 1900s homework bans

In 1901, California became the first state to ban homework. Since homework had made its way into the American educational system there had always been people who were against it for some surprising reasons.

Back then, children were expected to help on farms and family businesses, so homework was unpopular amongst parents who expected their children to help out at home. Many students also dropped out of school early because they found homework tedious and difficult.

Publications like Ladies' Home Journal and The New York Times printed statements and articles about the detrimental effects of homework on children's health. 

The 1930 child labor laws

Homework became more common in the U.S. around the early 1900s. As to who made homework mandatory, the question remains open, but its emergence in the mainstream sure proved beneficial. Why is this?

Well, in 1930, child labor laws were created. It aimed to protect children from being exploited for labor and it made sure to enable children to have access to education and schooling. The timing was just right.

Speaking of homework, if you’re reading this article and have homework you need to attend to, send a “ do my homework ” request on Studyfy and instantly get the help of a professional right now.

Progressive reforms of the 1940s and 50s

With more research into education, psychology and memory, the importance of education became clear. Homework was understood as an important part of education and it evolved to become more useful and interesting to students. 

Homework during the Cold War

Competition with the Soviet Union fueled many aspects of American life and politics. In a post-nuclear world, the importance of Science and Technology was evident.

The government believed that students had to be well-educated to compete with Soviet education systems. This is the time when homework became formalized, accepted, and a fundamental part of the American educational system. 

1980s Nation at Risk

In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education published Nation at Risk:

The Imperative for Educational Reform, a report about the poor condition of education in America.  Still in the Cold War, this motivated the government in 1986 to talk about the benefits of homework in a pamphlet called “What Works” which highlighted the importance of homework. 

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Who Invented Homework: The Modern Homework Debate

Like it or not, homework has stuck through the times, remaining a central aspect in education since the end of the Cold War in 1991. So, who invented homework 😡 and when was homework invented?

We’ve tried to pinpoint different sources, and we’ve understood that many historical figures have contributed to its conception.

Horace Mann, in particular, was the man who apparently introduced homework in the U.S. But let’s reframe our perspective a bit. Instead of focusing on who invented homework, let’s ask ourselves why homework is beneficial in the first place. Let’s consider the pros and cons:

• Homework potentially enhances memory.
• Homework helps cultivate time management, self-learning, discipline, and cognitive skills.
• An excessive amount of work can cause mental health issues and burnout.
• Rigid homework tasks can take away time for productive and leisurely activities like arts and sports.

Meaningful homework tasks can challenge us and enrich our knowledge on certain topics, but too much homework can actually be detrimental. This is where Studyfy can be invaluable. Studyfy offers homework help.

All you need to do is click the “ do my assignment ” button and send us a request. Need instant professional help? You know where to go now.

Frequently asked questions

Who made homework.

As stated throughout the article, there was no sole "inventor of homework." We've established that homework has already existed in ancient civilizations, where people were assigned educational tasks to be done at home. 

Let's look at ancient Greece; for example, students at the Academy of Athens were expected to recite and remember epic poems outside of their institutions. Similar practices were going on in ancient Egypt, China and Rome. 

This is why we can't ascertain the sole inventor of homework. While history can give us hints that homework was practiced in different civilizations, it's not far-fetched to believe that there have been many undocumented events all across the globe that happened simultaneously where homework emerged. 

Why was homework invented? 

We've answered the question of "who invented homework 😡" and we've recognized that we cannot pinpoint it to one sole inventor. So, let's get back to the question of why homework was invented. 

Homework arose from educational institutions, remained, and probably was invented because teachers and educators wanted to help students reinforce what they learned during class. They also believed that homework could improve memory and cognitive skills over time, as well as instill a sense of discipline. 

In other words, homework's origins can be linked to academic performance and regular students practice. Academic life has replaced the anti-homework sentiment as homework bans proved to cause partial learning and a struggle to achieve conceptual clarity.

Speaking of, don't forget that Studyfy can help you with your homework, whether it's Python homework help or another topic. Don't wait too long to take advantage of expert help when you can do it now. 

Is homework important for my learning journey?

Now that we've answered questions on who created homework and why it was invented, we can ask ourselves if homework is crucial in our learning journey. 

At the end of the day, homework can be a crucial step to becoming more knowledgeable and disciplined over time. 

Exercising our memory skills, learning independently without a teacher obliging us, and processing new information are all beneficial to our growth and evolution. However, whether a homework task is enriching or simply a filler depends on the quality of education you're getting. 

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Homework is a part of life for children, parents, and educators. But who came up with the concept of homework? What happened to make it a standard in education? Here’s a quick rundown of homework’s history in the United States .

Homework’s Origins: Myth vs. History

Who was the first person to invent homework? We may never know for sure. Its history has been shaped by a variety of persons and events. Let’s start with two of its key influencers.

The Dubious Roberto Nevelis of Venice

Homework is typically credited to Roberto Nevelis of Venice, Italy, who invented it in 1095—or 1905, depending on your sources. However, upon closer examination, he appears to be more of an internet legend than a genuine figure.

Horace Mann

Horace Mann, a 19th-century politician and educational reformer, was a pivotal figure in the development of homework. Mann, like his contemporaries Henry Barnard and Calvin Ellis Stowe, was passionate about the newly unified nation-state of Germany’s obligatory public education system.

Mandatory tasks were assigned to Volksschulen (“People’s Schools”) students to complete at home on their own time. When liberals like Johann Gottlieb Fichte were striving to organize support for a unified German state, this demand highlighted the state’s authority over the individual. While homework had been established before Fichte’s participation with the Volksschulen, his political goals can be considered a catalyst for its adoption as an educational requirement.

Horace Mann was a driving force behind creating government-run, tax-funded public education in America. During a journey to Germany in 1843, he witnessed the Volkschule system at work and brought back several of its ideals, including homework.

The American Public School System’s Homework

Homework has not always been generally embraced, despite being a near-universal element of the American educational experience. Parents and educators continue to dispute its benefits and drawbacks, as they have for more than a century.

The 1900s: Anti-homework sentiment and homework bans

A homework prohibition was enacted in the Pacific state of California in 1901, barely a few decades after the idea of homework crossed the Atlantic. The restriction, which applied to all students under the age of 15, lasted until 1917.

Around the same period, renowned magazines such as the Ladies’ Home Journal and The New York Times published remarks from parents and medical professionals portraying homework as harmful to children’s health.1930: Homework as Child Labor

A group called the American Child Health Association deemed homework a form of child labor in 1930. This statement represented a less-than-favorable view of homework as an appropriate educational method, given that laws barring child labor had recently been implemented.

Early-to-Mid 20th Century: Homework and the Progressive Era

Teachers began looking for ways to make homework more personal and meaningful to individual students throughout the second half of the 19th and 20th-century modern educational changes. Could this be the origin of the enduring essay topic, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation?”

The Cold War: Homework Heats Up

Following WWII, the Cold War heightened tensions between the United States and Russia in the 1950s. The flight of Sputnik 1 in 1957 increased Russian-American enmity, particularly among their youngsters.

The best way to ensure that American students did not fall behind their Russian counterparts, especially in the extremely competitive fields of science and mathematics, was for education officials in the United States to assign demanding homework.

The 1980s: A Nation at Risk’s Homework

What Works, a 1986 publication from the US Department of Education, listed homework as one of the most effective instructional tactics. This followed three years after the groundbreaking study 

Early 21st Century: Homework Bans Return

Many educators and other concerned individuals are questioning the value of homework once again. On the subject, several publications have been published.

These include:

• The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It  by Sarah Bennett and Nancy Kalish (2006)
• The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents  (Third Edition) by Duke University psychologist Dr. Harris Cooper (2007)
• The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning  by education professor Dr. Etta Kralovec and journalist John Buell (2000)

Homework is still a contentious topic nowadays. Some schools are enacting homework bans similar to those enacted at the start of the century. Teachers have varying opinions on the bans, while parents attempt to cope with the disruption to their daily routine that such bans cause.

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The History of Homework: Why Was it Invented and Who Was Behind It?

• By Emily Summers
• February 14, 2020

Homework is long-standing education staple, one that many students hate with a fiery passion. We can’t really blame them, especially if it’s a primary source of stress that can result in headaches, exhaustion, and lack of sleep.

It’s not uncommon for students, parents, and even some teachers to complain about bringing assignments home. Yet, for millions of children around the world, homework is still a huge part of their daily lives as students — even if it continues to be one of their biggest causes of stress and unrest.

It makes one wonder, who in their right mind would invent such a thing as homework?

Who Invented Homework?

Pliny the younger: when in ancient rome, horace mann: the father of modern homework, the history of homework in america, 1900s: anti-homework sentiment & homework bans, 1930: homework as child labor, early-to-mid 20th century: homework and the progressive era, the cold war: homework starts heating up, 1980s: homework in a nation at risk, early 21 st century, state of homework today: why is it being questioned, should students get homework pros of cons of bringing school work home.

Online, there are many articles that point to Roberto Nevilis as the first educator to give his students homework. He created it as a way to punish his lazy students and ensure that they fully learned their lessons. However, these pieces of information mostly come from obscure educational blogs or forum websites with questionable claims. No credible news source or website has ever mentioned the name Roberto Nevilis as the person who invented homework . In fact, it’s possible that Nevilis never even existed.

As we’re not entirely sure who to credit for creating the bane of students’ existence and the reasons why homework was invented, we can use a few historical trivia to help narrow down our search.

Mentions of the term “homework” date back to as early as ancient Rome. In I century AD, Pliny the Younger , an oratory teacher, supposedly invented homework by asking his followers to practice public speaking at home. It was to help them become more confident and fluent in their speeches. But some would argue that the assignment wasn’t exactly the type of written work that students have to do at home nowadays. Only introverted individuals with a fear of public speaking would find it difficult and stressful.

It’s also safe to argue that since homework is an integral part of education, it’s probable that it has existed since the dawn of learning, like a beacon of light to all those helpless and lost (or to cast darkness on those who despise it). This means that Romans, Enlightenment philosophers, and Middle Age monks all read, memorized, and sang pieces well before homework was given any definition. It’s harder to play the blame game this way unless you want to point your finger at Horace Mann.

In the 19 th century, Horace Mann , a politician and educational reformer had a strong interest in the compulsory public education system of Germany as a newly unified nation-state. Pupils attending the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given mandatory assignments that they needed to complete at home during their own time. This requirement emphasized the state’s power over individuals at a time when nationalists such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte were rallying support for a unified German state. Basically, the state used homework as an element of power play.

Despite its political origins, the system of bringing school assignments home spread across Europe and eventually found their way to Horace Mann, who was in Prussia at that time. He brought the system home with him to America where homework became a daily activity in the lives of students.

Despite homework being a near-universal part of the American educational experience today, it hasn’t always been universally accepted. Take a look at its turbulent history in America.

In 1901, just a few decades after Horace Mann introduced the concept to Americans, homework was banned in the Pacific state of California . The ban affected students younger than 15 years old and stayed in effect until 1917.

Around the same time, prominent publications such as The New York Times and Ladies’ Home Journal published statements from medical professionals and parents who stated that homework was detrimental to children’s health.

In 1930, the American Child Health Association declared homework as a type of child labor . Since laws against child labor had been passed recently during that time, the proclamation painted homework as unacceptable educational practice, making everyone wonder why homework was invented in the first place.

However, it’s keen to note that one of the reasons why homework was so frowned upon was because children were needed to help out with household chores (a.k.a. a less intensive and more socially acceptable form of child labor).

During the progressive education reforms of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, educators started looking for ways to make homework assignments more personal and relevant to the interests of individual students. Maybe this was how immortal essay topics such as “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up” and “What I Did During My Summer Vacation” were born.

After World War II, the Cold War heated up rivalries between the U.S. and Russia. Sputnik 1’s launch in 1957 intensified the competition between Americans and Russians – including their youth.

Education authorities in the U.S. decided that implementing rigorous homework to American students of all ages was the best way to ensure that they were always one step ahead of their Russian counterparts, especially in the competitive fields of Math and Science.

In 1986, the U.S. Department of Education’s pamphlet, “What Works,” included homework as one of the effective strategies to boost the quality of education. This came three years after the National Commission on Excellence in Education published “ Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform .” The landmark report lambasted the state of America’s schools, calling for reforms to right the alarming direction that public education was headed.

Today, many educators, students, parents, and other concerned citizens have once again started questioning why homework was invented and if it’s still valuable.

Homework now is facing major backlash around the world. With more than 60% of high school and college students seeking counselling for conditions such as clinical depression and anxiety, all of which are brought about by school, it’s safe to say that American students are more stressed out than they should be.

After sitting through hours at school, they leave only to start on a mountain pile of homework. Not only does it take up a large chunk of time that they can otherwise spend on their hobbies and interests, it also stops them from getting enough sleep. This can lead to students experiencing physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives, and alienation from their peers and society in general.

Is homework important and necessary ? Or is it doing more harm than good? Here some key advantages and disadvantages to consider.

• It encourages the discipline of practice

Using the same formula or memorizing the same information over and over can be difficult and boring, but it reinforces the practice of discipline. To master a skill, repetition is often needed. By completing homework every night, specifically with difficult subjects, the concepts become easier to understand, helping students polish their skills and achieve their life goals.

• It teaches students to manage their time

Homework goes beyond just completing tasks. It encourages children to develop their skills in time management as schedules need to be organized to ensure that all tasks can be completed within the day.

• It provides more time for students to complete their learning process

The time allotted for each subject in school is often limited to 1 hour or less per day. That’s not enough time for students to grasp the material and core concepts of each subject. By creating specific homework assignments, it becomes possible for students to make up for the deficiencies in time.

• It discourages creative endeavors

If a student spends 3-5 hours a day on homework, those are 3-5 hours that they can’t use to pursue creative passions. Students might like to read leisurely or take up new hobbies but homework takes away their time from painting, learning an instrument, or developing new skills.

• Homework is typically geared toward benchmarks

Teachers often assign homework to improve students’ test scores. Although this can result in positive outcomes such as better study habits, the fact is that when students feel tired, they won’t likely absorb as much information. Their stress levels will go up and they’ll feel the curriculum burnout.

• No evidence that homework creates improvements

Research shows that homework doesn’t improve academic performance ; it can even make it worse. Homework creates a negative attitude towards schooling and education, making students dread going to their classes. If they don’t like attending their lessons, they will be unmotivated to listen to the discussions.

With all of the struggles that students face each day due to homework, it’s puzzling to understand why it was even invented. However, whether you think it’s helpful or not, just because the concept has survived for centuries doesn’t mean that it has to stay within the educational system.

Not all students care about the history of homework, but they all do care about the future of their educational pursuits. Maybe one day, homework will be fully removed from the curriculum of schools all over the world but until that day comes, students will have to burn the midnight oil to pass their requirements on time and hopefully achieve their own versions of success.

About the Author

Emily summers.

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Wonder of the Day #510

Who Invented Weekends?

SOCIAL STUDIES — History

Have You Ever Wondered...

• Who invented weekends?
• When did weekends begin?
• What fun things do you like to do on the weekend?
• Henry Ford ,
• industrial revolution ,
• labor movement ,
• Religious ,
• Tradition ,
• Christian ,
• Government ,
• Industrial Revolution ,
• Labor Movement ,

Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Kaydee. Kaydee Wonders , “ Why do we have weekends? ” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Kaydee!

Woo hoo! It's the weekend in Wonderopolis! That means no school for two whole days. For many adults, it also means two days off from work.

What will you do? Spend time with family and friends? Play sports? Read a book? If there's one thing there's no shortage of on the weekend , it's possibilities !

But have you ever stopped to wonder who invented weekends? Who came up with the idea of working five days and then taking two days off? Why didn't they make the workweek two days and the weekend five days?

If you think about it, a two-day workweek wouldn't give us much time to accomplish all the things we need to get done. How much could you learn if you only went to school two days each week? How many cars would be built if factories were only open two days per week?

As much as we love weekends, would you believe that they've only been around for less than 100 years? It's true! For most of history, the workweek has been six or seven days long.

For much of history, taking one day of rest each week has been very common. This stems from various religious traditions. For example, Muslims traditionally took a day of rest on Friday, while Jewish  people observed a day of rest on Saturday and Christians did so on Sunday.

It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s that the concept of a two-day “ weekend " began to take shape. At this time, large factories that produced consumer goods were beginning to transform the traditional farming economy into an industrial one.

As farmers began to take jobs in factories, they often disliked working certain hours, since they were used to setting their own schedule on the farm. They also did not like the fact that many factory owners forced them to work seven days per week. They began to complain and ask for time off with their families. This complaining eventually grew into organized labor strikes across the U.S., in which laborers refused to work in order to send a strong message to their employers. During these strikes, tensions between law enforcement and demonstrators were often high, and sadly, some people were injured or even lost their lives.

Getting time off to worship on Sundays was fairly easy, since observing Sunday as a day of rest was a longstanding Christian tradition . Due to a large number of Jewish immigrants in the late 1800s, factory owners also had many workers who wanted Saturday — the traditional Jewish day of rest — off instead.

Over time, factory owners realized that it would be most efficient to let workers off on both Saturday and Sunday. But Jewish and Christian factory workers weren't entirely responsible for the invention of the weekend .

A prominent factory owner — Henry Ford — also played a big role. Even though the federal government didn't begin to limit companies to a 40-hour workweek until 1938, Ford began to give his factory workers a two-day weekend in the early 1900s.

Why did he do this? He wanted to sell the cars his workers were making. He realized that his own workers were some of his best customers. If he wanted to sell more cars, he decided that his workers needed time off to be able to drive and enjoy them.

So the next time the weekend rolls around and you want to thank someone, thank the labor movement, including labor unions, that existed in the late 1800s. And thank Henry Ford, who recognized that the economy gets a boost if workers have a couple of days off each week to purchase goods and enjoy using them!

Of course, when you go out on the weekend , you see people working everywhere you go. Not everyone works a traditional Monday through Friday workweek with Saturday and Sunday off. So that businesses can be open on the weekends, many people work flexible schedules that give them time off on other days of the week.

Wonder What's Next?

Tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day features some of the coolest mountains you’re likely to encounter!

Are you ready for the weekend? Find a few friends and family members to help you explore the following activities:

• Do you have big plans this weekend? How do you like to spend your weekends? Sleeping in later than usual? Playing sports? Watching television? Playing video games? Having fun with family and friends? How about trying something new this weekend? Take advantage of your two days of freedom and try something you've never done before. It can be anything — surfing, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, checking out a farmers' market, reading a book, seeing a movie, visiting a relative in the nursing home — and the options are endless. Just try something NEW!
• If you're looking for some fun ideas for things to do on a weekend, try out some of these inspired ideas: + Go to the zoo ! Find a local zoo and spend the day with your family amongst the animals. + Visit a museum ! From art and history to science and children's activities, there are many different types of museums to choose from. + Head to the woods! Explore a local park or state or national forest . Go hiking. Learn about local wildlife.
• Don't have time to go somewhere this weekend? No worries! You don't need to go far to have fun on the weekend. Go camping in your backyard! Pitch a tent in the backyard, cook out on your patio, and enjoy your neighborhood in ways that you don't take advantage of during the week.

Wonder Sources

• http://ask.yahoo.com/20050617.html
• http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/11/24/a_weekend_history_lesson/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekend
• http://life.familyeducation.com/slideshow/activities/57572.html

Did you get it?

Wonder contributors.

We’d like to thank:

Travis , Reece , Lukas and Mason for contributing questions about today’s Wonder topic!

Keep WONDERing with us!

Wonder Words

• possibilities
• longstanding

Hi amanda, our Wonder Team does a lot of research to get our information. We have our Wonder Sources listed right above this comment section!

That's a great question, Kennedi! Sounds like it's time for you to take a Wonder Journey to learn more. Search the Internet or visit your local library--and let us know what you find out! 

Channing Brown

We're not sure, Ella! Sounds like it's time for you to take a Wonder Journey! Let us know what you find out! 

how did Henry Ford do it

Hi, lando! The two-day weekend was invented a while ago, during the Industrial Revolution.  You are correct that Henry Ford played a big role in the creation of the two-day weekend - great job!! Who else mentioned in this Wonder contributed?

Hi, lando! Factory workers during the Industrial Revolution, as well as Henry Ford, helped created the two-day weekend! Try re-reading this Wonder one more time for more information!

YES! We are thankful for two-day weekends, too! The two day weekend stems from the Industrial Revolution:

"Over time,  factory  owners realized that it would be most  efficient  to let workers off on both Saturday and Sunday. But Jewish and Christian  factory  workers weren't entirely responsible for the invention of the  weekend .

A prominent  factory  owner— Henry Ford —also played a big role. Even though the federal government didn't begin to limit companies to a 40-hour  workweek  until 1938, Ford began to give his  factory  workers a two-day  weekend  in the early 1900s."

That's WONDERful to hear, Mariah! Thanks for being our Wonder Friend!

Hi, Mariah!  Henry Ford did play  big role in creating the weekend. Even though the federal government didn't begin to limit companies to a 40-hour  workweek  until 1938, Ford began to give his  factory  workers a two-day  weekend  in the early 1900s.

not even infermachon!

Good information!  But actually, if you want to get technical, you could trace "weekends" all the way back to Ancient Rome and the "nundinae" (and further than that if you're talking about the concept of a "week").  While it's true Britain has the first mention of the word "weekend," it started on Saturday at 2 pm and lasted until Monday morning.  Our modern concept of a full Saturday and Sunday weekend didn't materialize until the early 1900's to allow Jews and Christians the freedom to observe their religion (as mentioned in the article).  Mr. Ford popularized the decision years later by closing his plants on Saturday and Sunday.  Thanks for letting us clarify that point and for adding some extra info to this Wonder, Alex!

Very interesting

Thanks, Mariah! What did you learn about the history of weekends?

The Posh Lady

Nice!  What kind of stuff do you get to do at the day center?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Ronnie! We're sure many of our Wonder Friends feel the same way! :)

Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis, alel! We hope you'll stick around! :)

Ms. Monica grade 5

Yeah why CAN'T we have it in reverse?? School is my worst nightmire!!!!!!!!!!!

We're sorry you don't enjoy school, alel. We hope it gets better for you -- learning can be so much fun! :)

We're THRILLED you liked this Wonder, Monica! Thanks for your comment! Check out Wonder #1434: Can Adults Do Whatever They Want? Have fun WONDERing! :)

what are those

Thanks for joining the discussion, Lisa! We're glad you're having fun WONDERing! :)

You're right, there is a picture with shoes! We're glad you're WONDERing! :)

Thanks for joining the discussion, Wonder Friend! We appreciate you WONDERing with us! :)

Hi, Deanna! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! We appreciate you WONDERing with us and reading the Wonder closely! :)

That's right, Mariana! Thanks for sharing what you learned! We appreciate you reading the Wonder with a close eye! :)

Well then I invented fall break! I LOVE the weekends!

Fall break is a fun time to look forward to, alel! Do you have any plans for fall break this year? :)

Hi, Jim! We hope you liked this Wonder. It's interesting to learn how the seasons got their names. We encourage you to keep researching this topic to learn more. Have fun WONDERing! :)

Hi, Rose! That's a WONDERful question! We don't have Wonders specifically about that, but we have a few related Wonders that might help! Wonder #1266: How Fast Is an Email Sent? , Wonder #63: How Does the Internet Work? , and Wonder #292: What Is the Smallest Computer? . You can also submit your Wonder question to our Wonder Bank ! Always keep WONDERing! :)

Hi, Cedric! We thought you would like this Wonder! It's definitely nice having time to rest and relax! Thanks for WONDERing with us! :)

Great question, Pey Pey! Summer break ends at different times depending on your school. You're right, it doesn't go along with the formal schedule of the seasons. We WONDER why that is? What do you think? :)

Hi, Maleia! That would be nice! We hope you enjoyed your 3-day weekend for Labor Day! Thanks for taking time to visit Wonderopolis! :)

Comari Smith

I would like to thank whoever created weekends! We would be in school everyday if it wasn't for whoever it was! Whew!

Thanks for joining the discussion, Justin! We're thankful for weekends, too, but we LOVE school! It's a GREAT place for learning and being with friends! Check out Wonder #1268: Why Was School Created? . Happy WONDERing! :)

Hi, Comari! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this Wonder. Sometimes it would be nice to have a longer break, but we would miss school and our friends. You ask an interesting question about weekend names. Check out this related Wonder - Wonder #89: How Did the Months of the Year Get Their Names? . How do you think the days of the week/weekend days got their names? Always keep WONDERing! :)

I know Aye Abi K you are right i still want 3 weekend Thank you Racheal

Hi, Racheal! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Abi's comment. It would be nice to have more 3 day weekends, but then we would miss out on time at school! We love when we're learning and having FUN! :)

Wonderopolis

The 3-day weekends we sometimes get throughout the year sure are nice, Abi! What would you do if you had an extra weekend day every week? :)

Hey there, Phil, thanks for sharing your comment! We're glad you liked our Wonder about the weekends, especially since they're lots of fun! We are glad to know that you had guessed Henry Ford had something to do with the weekends we know and love! We hope you have a WONDERful day, and thank you for your suggestion about sources! :)

We have a weekend coming up, and boy are we excited! Do you have any fun weekend plans, Bigbrat? :) It sounds like you've got a really cool writing assignment-- we think it's awesome that you've been WONDERing on your own! What a great Wonder, too... "When do babies learn to crawl?" We can't wait to hear more about it! :)

WOW, your Wednesday homework sounds like a really cool assignment, Wonder Friend Brooke! Please say hello to your class, and Mr. White, of course! It's been so great to Wonder with you... perhaps we'll see you next Wednesday! :)

Alright, we're so happy that you shared your comment with us! It's great to know that you learned something new about weekends, Caroline R, especially since you were WONDERing that yourself! Keep up the SUPER work! We hope to see you soon! :)

Team McNeil #4

You're right, Team McNeil #4...people DO need a break sometimes! Thank goodness for weekends! We appreciate you sharing the cool vocabulary words and facts you learned by exploring this Wonder of the Day®! We are proud of you! :-)

Team McNeil #19

Well, we know WE had a great weekend because we got to hear from AWESOME Wonder Friends like YOU, Team McNeil #19! We think weekends ROCK! We're not sure if there are countries in the world that don't have weekends. That would be something cool to learn about! :-)

Team Unger 21

Sure we get weekends here in Wonderopolis, Team Unger 21, but we NEVER take a break from WONDERing about the world around us! Sometimes we even WONDER more on the weekends! :-)

Team McNeil 3

Great thinking, Team McNeil 3! We bet there are LOTS of Wonder Friends who would be happy with a three-day weekend, but we would probably have a little harder time finding some who would vote for only a one-day weekend! :-)

Hi, BOB! We like narwhals, too! Have you visited past Wonder #489 - What Is a Narwhal? Here is a link that will take you right to it: https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-a-narwhal/. :-)

Team Unger1

You did some GREAT WONDERing after you explored this Wonder about weekends, Team Unger 1...we're proud of you! We're not sure about the history of days off for other religions around the world, but now we are WONDERing about them, too! Thanks for helping us want to learn something new! :-)

We like that idea, Mak! You are a SUPER Wonder Friend and we really appreciate your support of Wonderopolis! :-)

Hi, Starburst! We think all of those things sound absolutely WONDERful! We get the feeling you are a super creative Wonder Friend who likes to learn new things and share your talents with the world! That ROCKS! :-)

Thanks for making us smile today, Landon! We sure appreciate weekends, and we're glad you do, too! We also WONDER what animals think about humans! Here are some AWESOME Wonders about ANIMALS: https://www.wonderopolis.org/category/animals/. Happy WONDERing! :-)

Wonder Friend

We're glad this Wonder made you think a little more about why we have weekends, Wonder Friend! Thanks for sharing your comment with us today! :-)

We're sure there are LOTS of other Wonder Friends who feel exactly the same way you do about weekends, Simone! Thanks for hanging out in Wonderopolis with us today! :-)

That sounds like GREAT weekend fun, Clayton! We bet you would build an AWESOME fort! :-)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about weekends, TACOS! We appreciate your comment and are super happy you stopped by Wonderopolis today! :-)

WOW, Devan! You are one creative, talented Wonder Friend! We really enjoy hearing from our friends at Woodmont Middle School (go, Wildcats!) and think it's cool that your computer tech teacher showed your class about Wonderopolis! We are proud of you for wanting to be a teacher, too! If you like Greek mythology, we think there just may be a Wonder of the Day® coming up in the near future you will REALLY enjoy! :-)

You can invent a new color, too, Wonder Friend! We believe in you! Thanks for sharing who you think invented weekends, too! :-)

We agree, Karl! Thanks so much for sharing your comment with everyone in Wonderopolis today! :-)

Hey, Devan! Guess what? Someone CAN invent a new color...YOU can invent a new color! Just combine parts of some of the other colors on the color wheel until you get the color you want! Then comes the really fun part...naming your new color! We hope you have fun inventing a new color! :-)

Thanks for letting us know what you thought about this Wonder of the Day®, Siddy! We appreciate your comment! :-)

We're glad you learned some awesome things to do on the weekend by exploring today's Wonder, too, Paige! That ROCKS! We hope you have a WONDERful weekend! :-)

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Related Wonders for You to Explore

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Question 1 of 3

Which prominent factory owner played a big role in the development of the two-day weekend?

• a Thomas Edison Not Quite!
• b Benjamin Franklin Not Quite!
• c Henry Ford Correct!
• d John Adams Not Quite!

Question 2 of 3

Which day of the week is the traditional Jewish day of rest?

• a Friday Not Quite!
• b Saturday Correct!
• c Sunday Not Quite!
• d Wednesday Not Quite!

Question 3 of 3

The United States government didn’t begin to limit companies to a 40-hour workweek until what year?

• a 1938 Correct!
• b 1776 Not Quite!
• c 1861 Not Quite!
• d 2004 Not Quite!

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Who Invented Homework, and Why Was Homework Invented? Let’s Explore!

If you are or have ever been a student, you have probably asked this question multiple times, and it hardly was to thank the person who invented homework personally. We all know that feeling all too well—the deadline is looming, you’re staring at a blank page, and there isn’t a single viable idea in your head.

Sounds familiar? Then you’re likely curious to investigate the history of homework and the cruel, cruel people who stand behind this centuries-old tradition. It’s quite fascinating, actually, and you will most certainly be surprised at how long and turbulent the history of giving learners homework is.

When, How, Why, and Who Invented Homework

To answer the question of who the title of the inventor of homework belongs to, we will have to go all the way back to the first century, then jump to eighteenth-century Europe, and finally move domestically to explore the trials and errors of the homework tradition in the U.S.

Some of the names we will address here include:

• Pliny the Younger —The Roman lawyer and author credited with the “invention” of homework,
• Johann Gottlieb Fichte —The German philosopher who developed the ideological justification of homework,
• Horace Mann —The first known American educator who made homework the norm in the U.S., and more.

Let’s dive in.

Who Created Homework and Why—How Everything Started

So, who started homework? The simplistic answer would be the Roman lawyer Pliny the Younger, who we’ll discuss in more detail below. However, it’s not that simple. It never is when it comes to homework, a tradition that could have existed long before it was linked to any historical artifacts and, therefore, lost to history.

After all, as much as almost every student despises homework, its number one purpose (or, at least, what we perceive as its number one purpose today) is self-evident. Most teachers genuinely care about their learners’ progress and academic achievements, so it’s no wonder they give home assignments to help students improve their learning.

However, as you will soon find out, this is only one of the many homework goals. Historically, it hasn’t even always been the most important one. Societal events, dominant philosophical schools, and individual educational reformers have always affected the mainstream view of homework and its perceived functions.

We invite you to join us on a journey through centuries (and then back again), where we will try to understand the origins, evolution, and current state of the homework tradition. If nothing else, you might have a chance to impress your friends at a trivia night.

Pliny the Younger

Have you already thought of the Roman Empire this week? If not, now’s your chance. The first name historians come across when looking for the origins of homework is Pliny the Younger, a Roman magistrate, lawyer, and brilliant orator in the first century A.D.

Pliny the Younger had students like many other distinguished authors and public speakers in Rome. He taught rhetoric and public speaking and—you guessed it—tasked his students with practicing their speech composing and public speaking skills even outside his classes. Also, Pliny actively encouraged them to put their newly acquired skills to practice in appropriate settings.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Here comes a huge time jump—to eighteenth-century Germany. Sure, homework probably existed between the Roman times and the eighteenth century. However, nothing groundbreaking happened to it during all those centuries, so there’s no point in retelling every little step.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher in post-Napoleon Europe who advocated for a uniform national education system, similar to other voices of German idealism. He emphasized that teaching the youth was as much about instilling a sense of national identity in them as teaching them traditional disciplines. For Fichte, homework was one of the strategies for achieving that.

Horace Mann

At this point, you might wonder, “What about the U.S.?” Well, the title of the pioneer of homework in the New World belongs to Horace Mann, otherwise known as “the father of the American public school system.” In the nineteenth century, education for children was still not compulsory, and Mann advocated for changing that.

Mann was the first educator to emphasize the role of parents in every child’s learning journey. He believed homework could reinforce the lessons taught in school, teach the youth self-discipline and improve their relationships with parents. He added a new layer to why homework was invented and made mainstream.

Roberto Nevilis: What Was His Role in the Origins of Homework?

The first thing you need to know about Roberto Nevilis is that he didn’t exist. A popular myth suggests that Nevilis invented homework at the beginning of the twentieth century as a form of punishment for students who didn’t work hard enough in class. That’s completely untrue.

Here are a few facts about Roberto Nevilis. According to the legend, Roberto Nevilis was an Italian teacher who lived at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century in Venice, Italy. He was supposedly the first educator to give homework to his students, which allegedly happened in 1905. If you look up his (more or less fictional) “story” online, you will find that he initially only gave home assignments to students who failed to understand the material in class or weren’t diligent enough.

Why did Roberto Nevilis create homework? As you can probably guess by now, the more accurate question would be, “Why would someone bother to invent the person named Roberto Nevilis and credit this semi-fictional character with inventing homework?” Sadly, though, there’s no clear answer. Whoever did this wanted students or the general public to believe that the number one purpose of homework was punishment for poor performance. That’s not the case.

Was the History of Homework in the United States Any Different?

Now, let’s move beyond Horace Mann’s name and explore homework history in the Americas or, more specifically, the U.S. One of the first questions people curious about the topic ask is, “What year was homework invented in the United States?” There’s no straightforward answer to this, either. All we know is that homework started becoming a standard practice somewhere on the cusp of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—largely thanks to Mann’s effort.

The U.S. wasn’t any different from other countries in that the mainstream views on homework evolved with societal norms (which, in turn, shaped educational priorities). For example, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the idea became more or less universal: homework promoted students’ growth beyond learning the material taught in class. Educators believed it was also helpful for building character and applying the knowledge gained in practical contexts.

However, the beginning of the twentieth century was also when the progressive education movement grew increasingly popular. Among other things, its proponents advocated against homework because they believed that it contracted the fundamentals of child-centered learning. The opposing views on giving home assignments coexisted side by side; to an extent, they still do.

The Ban on Homework in the 1900s

The 1900s was the first time in American history since homework origin when it became very popular to reject the need for homework. The progressive movement grew more influential by the day, eventually culminating in the homework ban.

From being the underdogs of sorts, homework’s progressive critics turned into the loudest voice in the education system, and their demands were eventually met, albeit not everywhere.

Their arguments were straightforward and understandable, at least to an extent. They claimed that homework got in the way of students’ socializing after school hours, interfered with the family dynamics, and strained students’ physical and mental health.

The Need for Children’s Domestic Labor in the 1930s

The 1930s wasn’t a good time for the first homework advocates. This was when the Great Depression hit the U.S. severely and put the economic crisis at the forefront of basically everything happening in the country, including education.

More and more parents came forward demanding the end of homework because they needed their children to help at home—be it with domestic labor, farming, or anything else.

Parents’ demands were fruitful. The educational practices of the 1930s stemmed from the idea that outside of school hours, students should be able to focus on their lives at home without the additional burden of homework.

The Post-World War II Shift in the Views on Homework

The situation changed drastically after World War II. If you’re wondering how old is homework the way we know it today, that’s when it started.

First, the nation was thriving economically, which made it possible to focus on the importance of education. Also, as the Cold War started, the value of education became more apparent than ever. The U.S. needed well-educated citizens who could contribute to technological advancements and effectively protect the nation’s security.

For example, when the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, one of the main debates in the American media was about young people’s readiness to remain competitive on a global scale.

How Homework Looks for Americal Children in the 21st Century

Today, we can still see some of the dilemmas surrounding the topic over a century ago. For example, there are two clear camps: educators who believe homework is necessary for academic achievement and their colleagues who don’t think that to become a well-rounded and successful individual, a child must spend hours daily completing home assignments.

Still, the most popular view is quite well-balanced. The main idea behind that is maximizing the educational benefits of homework while minimizing its potential drawbacks. This implies setting reasonable limits on the amount of homework, designing meaningful assignments, and prioritizing students’ holistic development.

What’s the Purpose of Homework?

Even a child knows the number one reason they must do their homework (even if they don’t necessarily agree). Obviously, the main purpose of homework is to help students better digest the material they learn in class.

But that’s not the only one. Other goals of homework include:

• To teach students how to work independently and think critically;
• To motivate students to prepare for upcoming lessons (thus making the teacher’s job a little easier);
• To encourage responsibility and organization;
• To cultivate collaboration skills (via group assignments);
• To strengthen the child-parent bond, and more.

What’s the Impact of Homework on the Quality of Education

So, how does homework improve the quality of education?

• Promotes understanding and reflection.
• Improves study habits and time management.
• Makes it possible for teachers to give anonymous and personalized feedback to each student.
• Prepares students for standardized assessments (such as SATs).
• Supports diverse learning needs.

The Pros of Homework

The complete list of the advantages of homework would be too long to include here, but here are some of the undeniable benefits of giving the students at least some work to do at home:

✅ Reinforces learning

✅ Promotes independent learning

✅ Develops positive study habits

✅ Increases retention

✅ Facilitates parental involvement

✅ Enables customized learning, and so on.

The Cons of Homework

At the same time, even the most adamant proponents of homework recognize that the tradition does have its flaws. The drawbacks of homework include the following:

❌ Causes extra stress and anxiety

❌ Gets in the way of students’ relationships with family members and social lives

❌ Might get in the way of healthy extracurricular activities, such as sports

❌ Creates additional pressure on teachers.

Who made homework a thing?

Why was homework invented have the reasons changed since then, is homework really necessary for effective learning, when was homework first invented did it look the same, how does homework look today who writes the rules.

As you can see, homework history—both in the U.S. and worldwide—has been quite turbulent. Much to today’s students’ envy, there were times when it was illegal, at least in some places.

However, now is not one of those periods. While some non-mainstream educational systems and paradigms deny the need for homework, most educators believe that the benefits of homework outweigh its flaws. The key is to design genuinely stimulating and engaging assignments and avoid overdoing things. Students should be able to relax after school hours without the risk of falling behind.

If you ask an average teacher these days, they will probably tell you that the optimal amount of homework per week is roughly 7-10 hours. That’s enough to practice what was learned in class and engage with the material critically. At the same time, it’s not too much, so the risks of causing students extra stress and harming their social lives are very unlikely.

What matters the most is not how much homework a teacher gives but how creative and stimulating the assignments are. Ideally, students should be excited to complete them.

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• Hankering for History

Hanker: To have a strong, often restless desire, in this case for–you guessed it–history!

The History of the Weekend

• Mythconceptions
• The History of...

There are always inventions and aspects of live that people take for granted. Personally, I take air conditioning for granted every day. It is one of those certainties in life we’ve grown accustomed to, only to notice it once it’s too late. I grew up in a family that had weekends off, it was a given: from Friday night to Monday morning, my family didn’t work. It wasn’t until I became an adult that it really dawned on me that not everyone was privy to the luxury of taking off work for the weekends (and holidays).

The ability to please the masses, and in return make millions of dollars?!

It was done…and so simply.

Most people have the wrong impression, that the history of the weekend was built upon the backs of unionist ; however, this simply isn’t the case. That isn’t to say that unions didn’t help. And don’t get me wrong, unions have their place in history, just not as the inventor of the weekend.

Henry Ford, the man behind the 40-hour work week, is to credit with the two day weekend. But don’t be fooled; this wasn’t given to his employees out of any kind gesture, it was to further his own greedy agenda and to make Ford Motor Company more profitable.

In possibly one of the greatest test cases regarding the high cost of turnover, Ford witness what I describe as “hemorrhaging money.”

As his employees now had the luxury of extended periods of off time and some extra money in their pockets, they started to purchase cars from the Ford Motor Company.

[P]erhaps the least discussed aspect of this policy was that Ford’s own employees were now able to afford the cars they themselves were building.  This plowed money back into the company as Ford’s employees did just this very thing.

It wasn’t long before Ford’s competitors’ employees got wind of the high wages and weekends off at Ford Motor Company. To keep from losing all their workers, the other manufacturers were forced to fall in line, raising wages and giving employees the weekend off. It would not take long before this would become a national practice among employers.

As you prepare for your plans this weekend, it might be nice to take a moment and thank Henry Ford for your time off. 🙂 I know I will be!

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Origin and Death of Homework Inventor: Roberto Nevilis

Roberto Nevilis is known for creating homework to help students learn on their own. He was a teacher who introduced the idea of giving assignments to be done outside of class. Even though there’s some debate about his exact role, Nevilis has left a lasting impact on education, shaping the way students around the world approach their studies.

Homework is a staple of the modern education system, but few people know the story of its origin.

The inventor of homework is widely considered to be Roberto Nevilis, an Italian educator who lived in the early 20th century.

We will briefly explore Nevilis’ life, how he came up with the concept of homework, and the circumstances surrounding his death.

Roberto Nevilis: The Man Behind Homework Roberto Nevilis was born in Venice, Italy, in 1879. He was the son of a wealthy merchant and received a private education.

He later studied at the University of Venice, where he received a degree in education. After graduation, Nevilis worked as a teacher in various schools in Venice.

Table of Contents

How Homework Was Born

The Birth of Homework According to historical records, Nevilis was frustrated with the lack of discipline in his classroom. He found that students were often too focused on playing and not enough on learning.

To solve this problem , he came up with the concept of homework. Nevilis assigned his students homework to reinforce the lessons they learned in class and encourage them to take their education more seriously.

How did homework become popular?

The Spread of Homework , The idea of homework quickly caught on, and soon other teachers in Italy followed Nevilis’ lead. From Italy, the practice of assigning homework spread to other European countries and, eventually, the rest of the world.

Today, homework is a standard part of the education system in almost every country, and millions of students worldwide spend countless hours each week working on homework assignments.

How did Roberto Nevilis Die?

Death of Roberto Nevilis The exact circumstances surrounding Nevilis’ death are unknown. Some reports suggest that he died in an accident, while others claim he was murdered.

However, the lack of concrete evidence has led to numerous theories and speculation about what happened to the inventor of homework.

Despite the mystery surrounding his death, Nevilis’ legacy lives on through his impact on education.

Facts about Roberto Nevilis

• He is credited with inventing homework to punish his students who misbehaved in class.
• Some accounts suggest he was a strict teacher who believed in disciplining his students with homework.
• There is little concrete evidence to support the claim that Nevilis was the true inventor of homework.
• Some historians believe that the concept of homework has been around for much longer than in the 1900s.
• Despite the lack of evidence, Roberto Nevilis remains a popular figure in the history of education and is often cited as the inventor of homework.

The Legacy of Homework

The legacy of homework is deeply embedded in the educational landscape, reflecting a historical evolution that spans centuries. From its ambiguous origins to the diverse purposes it serves today, homework has played a pivotal role in shaping learning experiences.

While its effectiveness and necessity have been subjects of ongoing debate, homework endures as a tool for reinforcing concepts, fostering independent study habits, and preparing students for future academic and professional challenges.

In the contemporary educational context, the legacy of homework is a complex interplay of tradition, pedagogy, and evolving perspectives on the balance between academic demands and student well-being.

The Complex History of Homework

Throughout history, the evolution of homework can be traced through a series of significant developments. In ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, scholars and philosophers encouraged independent study outside formal learning settings.

The Renaissance era witnessed a surge in written assignments, marking an early precursor to modern homework. The Industrial Revolution further transformed educational practices, as the need for a skilled workforce emphasized the importance of individual learning and practice.

The purposes and perceptions of homework have undergone substantial transformations over time. In the 19th century, homework was often viewed as a means of reinforcing discipline and moral values, with assignments focused on character development.

As educational philosophies evolved, particularly in the 20th century, homework assumed various roles—from a tool for drill and practice to a method for fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Perceptions of homework have fluctuated, with debates arising around issues of workload, equity, and its impact on student well-being. The complex history of homework reveals a dynamic interplay between societal expectations, educational philosophies, and changing perspectives on the purposes of academic assignments.

Conclusion – Who invented homework, and how did he die

Roberto Nevilis was a visionary educator who profoundly impacted the education system. His invention of homework has changed how students learn and has helped countless students worldwide improve their education.

Although the circumstances surrounding his death are unclear, Nevilis’ legacy as the inventor of homework will never be forgotten.

What is Roberto Nevilis’ legacy?

Roberto Nevilis’ legacy is his invention of homework, which has changed how students learn and has helped countless students worldwide improve their education.

Despite the mystery surrounding his death, Nevilis’ legacy as the inventor of homework will never be forgotten.

What was Roberto Nevilis’ background?

Roberto Nevilis was the son of a wealthy merchant and received a private education. He later studied at the University of Venice, where he received a degree in education.

After graduation, Nevilis worked as a teacher in various schools in Venice.

What was Roberto Nevilis’ impact on education?

Roberto Nevilis’ invention of homework has had a profound impact on education. By assigning homework, he helped students reinforce the lessons they learned in class and encouraged them to take their education more seriously.

This concept has spread worldwide and is now a staple of the modern education system.

Is there any evidence to support the theories about Roberto Nevilis’ death?

There is no concrete evidence to support the theories about Roberto Nevilis’ death, and the exact circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

What was Roberto nevilis age?

It is believed that he died of old age. Not much information is available on his exact age at the time of death. Born: 1879 Died: 1954 (aged 75 years)

Where is Roberto Nevilis’s grave

While many have tried to find out about his Grave, little is known about where he is buried. Many people are querying the internet about his Grave. But frankly, I find it weird why people want to know this.

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Who Invented Homework?

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Homework is a part of life for children, parents, and educators. But who came up with the concept of homework? What happened to make it a standard in education? Here’s a quick rundown of homework’s history in the United States .

Homework’s Origins: Myth vs. History

Who was the first person to invent homework? We may never know for sure. Its history has been shaped by a variety of persons and events. Let’s start with two of its key influencers.

The Dubious Roberto Nevelis of Venice

Homework is typically credited to Roberto Nevelis of Venice, Italy, who invented it in 1095—or 1905, depending on your sources. However, upon closer examination, he appears to be more of an internet legend than a genuine figure.

Horace Mann

Horace Mann, a 19th-century politician and educational reformer, was a pivotal figure in the development of homework. Mann, like his contemporaries Henry Barnard and Calvin Ellis Stowe, was passionate about the newly unified nation-state of Germany’s obligatory public education system.

Mandatory tasks were assigned to Volksschulen (“People’s Schools”) students to complete at home on their own time. When liberals like Johann Gottlieb Fichte were striving to organize support for a unified German state, this demand highlighted the state’s authority over the individual. While homework had been established before Fichte’s participation with the Volksschulen, his political goals can be considered a catalyst for its adoption as an educational requirement.

Horace Mann was a driving force behind creating government-run, tax-funded public education in America. During a journey to Germany in 1843, he witnessed the Volkschule system at work and brought back several of its ideals, including homework.

The American Public School System’s Homework

Homework has not always been generally embraced, despite being a near-universal element of the American educational experience. Parents and educators continue to dispute its benefits and drawbacks, as they have for more than a century.

The 1900s: Anti-homework sentiment and homework bans

A homework prohibition was enacted in the Pacific state of California in 1901, barely a few decades after the idea of homework crossed the Atlantic. The restriction, which applied to all students under the age of 15, lasted until 1917.

Around the same period, renowned magazines such as the Ladies’ Home Journal and The New York Times published remarks from parents and medical professionals portraying homework as harmful to children’s health.1930: Homework as Child Labor

A group called the American Child Health Association deemed homework a form of child labor in 1930. This statement represented a less-than-favorable view of homework as an appropriate educational method, given that laws barring child labor had recently been implemented.

Early-to-Mid 20th Century: Homework and the Progressive Era

Teachers began looking for ways to make homework more personal and meaningful to individual students throughout the second half of the 19th and 20th-century modern educational changes. Could this be the origin of the enduring essay topic, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation?”

The Cold War: Homework Heats Up

Following WWII, the Cold War heightened tensions between the United States and Russia in the 1950s. The flight of Sputnik 1 in 1957 increased Russian-American enmity, particularly among their youngsters.

The best way to ensure that American students did not fall behind their Russian counterparts, especially in the extremely competitive fields of science and mathematics, was for education officials in the United States to assign demanding homework.

The 1980s: A Nation at Risk’s Homework

What Works, a 1986 publication from the US Department of Education, listed homework as one of the most effective instructional tactics. This followed three years after the groundbreaking study 

Early 21st Century: Homework Bans Return

Many educators and other concerned individuals are questioning the value of homework once again. On the subject, several publications have been published.

These include:

• The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It  by Sarah Bennett and Nancy Kalish (2006)
• The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents  (Third Edition) by Duke University psychologist Dr. Harris Cooper (2007)
• The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning  by education professor Dr. Etta Kralovec and journalist John Buell (2000)

Homework is still a contentious topic nowadays. Some schools are enacting homework bans similar to those enacted at the start of the century. Teachers have varying opinions on the bans, while parents attempt to cope with the disruption to their daily routine that such bans cause.

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The birth of the weekend: how workers won two days off

Since the 1960s, there has been talk of a four-day-week, and post-pandemic work patterns have strengthened those calls

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Calls for a three-day weekend have grown after studies found that workers were less stressed and just as productive during a four-day working week.

For many Britons, Friday has become a "skive day" as workers continue a habit from the pandemic by "slacking" on the fifth day of the week, said The Times . 

But how likely is an official three-day weekend, and how was the two-day weekend won in the first place?

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How did the weekend begin?

In 19th-century Britain, few were expected to work on Sundays, but many skilled, essentially self-employed workers who had produced their quota of goods would take Monday off "to recover from Saturday night and the previous day's excesses," said Brad Beaven, professor of Social and Cultural History at the University of Portsmouth, writing for The Conversation .

By the middle of the century, taking a "Saint Monday" was a popular practice in Britain, named to mimic the religious saint's day holidays – although it was in fact "an entirely secular practice, instigated by workers to provide an extended break in the working week". But this trend dented productivity, so many factory owners decided to make Saturday a half-day.

Religious leaders also supported the drift towards a weekend. Writing in the Coventry Herald newspaper in 1862, Reverend George Heaviside argued that a weekend would allow for a refreshed workforce and greater attendance at church on Sundays. Religious bodies argued that a break on Saturday would improve working-class "mental and moral culture", said The Conversation.

Trade unions also wanted to secure a formalised break in the working week that did not rely on the unofficial customs such as "Saint Mondays". Their push for the creation of the weekend is "still cited as a proud achievement in trade union history", said Beaven. Campaign groups such as the Early Closing Association lobbied the government to keep Saturday afternoons free for leisure time for workers in return for a full day's work on Monday.

But the full two-day weekend "only arrived in 1933", and "largely by accident", said The Times, when John Boot, grandson of the founder of the Boots chemist chain, opened a new factory which became so productive that it produced a "huge surplus" of stock.

Rather than "lay workers off during the Great Depression", Boot decided to grant them Saturdays off instead, with no deduction in pay. His experiment went well and workers "reported themselves happier and healthier".

On Monday mornings Boot had a workforce which was invigorated, and ready to work, after having more time for leisure and family activities. He kept the arrangement going and the weekend soon spread and became the "industry standard".

Across the Atlantic, by the mid-19th century, it was common for workers to "log 70-hour, six-day workweeks" in "newly mechanised factories", said Morning Brew . American workers "began to protest long work hours and poor working conditions that infringed upon their rights". 

But change was also slow to come in the US. Henry Ford became one of the first employers to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week at his Ford Motor Company plants in 1926. It was only then that the weekend arrived in the US.

Will there be a three-day weekend?

Since the 1960s, "there has been talk of the weekend being extended to make it almost as long as the working week", said the BBC . Three- or four-day weeks "have been a dream for many" who believe advances in technology make it possible for people to complete their work in less time.

The Covid pandemic also increased calls for the weekend to be extended as so many of us worked from home . For many, Friday was a day to relax during the pandemic  and bosses are now "struggling to change that habit", said The Times.

Studies back this pattern up. A management consultancy that records tap-ins and tap-outs at 150 offices across the country found that occupancy is now around 50% on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Mondays at 30% and Fridays at just 20%. "Welcome to TGIF Britain," said the paper. 

Between June and December 2022 Will Stronge, co-founder of the consultancy Autonomy, helped to run a four-day week pilot involving 61 companies and 2,900 workers. It found that 56 of the companies are continuing the experiment, because their employees reported less stress, anxiety and burnout, and were just as productive.  

There was a "small uptick in intensity on their working days", Stronge told The Times, but knowing they had the extra day off meant they did more with less. 

There has also been political support for a shorter working week: during the 2019 general election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour said it would aim to introduce a 32-hour full-time working week, with no loss of pay, within 10 years.

In an essay published in 1930, the influential economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that within 100 years, most people would be working no more than 15 hours a week. With six years of that century left, further significant shifts in working patterns seem inevitable.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books. 

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Who invented Homework? When, Where and Why

Who invented homework in this article we will find out what is homework when, where and why was homework invented .

Yes, everything seems better and more interesting than doing homework! I mean, we have all spent hours staring at the wall instead of doing homework, right? But I won’t lie, my first thought while doing my homework in school days was always “WHO INVENTED HOMEWORK & WHY?” Let’s find out!

What is homework?

According to collinsdictionary, homework, an uncountable noun, is school work that teachers give to pupils to do at home in the evening or at the weekend.  

Although homework is generally associated with school students, college students also get homework. Thus, it can be said that homework is any task or activity that teachers/professors assign to the students to be done outside the school hours, from their home. 

Who invented homework?

Even Google missed their homework on the topic “homework” (pun intended), not joking though. 

Yes! Google does not have a cent-percent answer on who actually came up with the concept of homework. The results from Google about the inventor of homework are ambiguous. 

• Roberto Nevelis of Venice

Did Roberto Nevelis create homework?

Mr. Nevelis is probably one of the most hated people amongst the student communities because he is one of the first persons who has been associated with the credits for the infamous process of homework. 

According to the tales on the internet, t he person who invented Homework was an Italian teacher named Roberto Nevilis. He invented Homework in 1905 as a punishment for his students.

If you think you will have to go find out more about this person, don’t worry, we have got you covered:

Upon doing a little more search on Roberto Nevelis of Venice, infamous for his dubious relationship with homework, we found out that not only is Mr Nevelis’ title as the inventor of homework unreliable, his very existence is doubtful too! Yes, that means there might not have been a Roberto Nevelis of Venice at all. He might just be a fictional character created by someone, probably whilst skipping their homework.

• Horace Mann

Did Horace Mann create homework?

Horace Mann, the father of American education might just be the father of homework as well! 

Horace Mann is considered one of the very first American advocates of public education. As state secretary of education, Mann, who believed in free education, supported reforms to make education universal, nonsectarian, and reliant on well-trained, professional teachers. 

Thus, homework could be one of the reforms of refined public education that he supported.

• Pliny the Younger

Upon trying to get some more information, it came to light that the first mention of homework appears in the writings of Pliny the Younger, dating back to 1AD.

In ancient Rome, Pliny the Younger was a teacher of oratory, and is thought to have asked his students to practise their public speaking at home, to help them build confidence.

With time, homework became more and more common as schooling became compulsory for many people across the world, towards the end of the 19th century.

Now, if we go to a student’s best friend - Wikipedia - a completely different picture has been painted. Ofcourse, you don’t have to go read that long entry there as we have summarised the whole thing here, for you:

The American Story of Homework

So, according to Wikipedia, homework has been a part of American education but already few pupils managed to pursue education and the baggage of homework discouraged even those few. In fact, it was frowned upon by the parents and even some schools. Journalist Edward Bok protested against schools giving homework to pupils until they were 15 years old, in 1900. He was supported by 1000s of parents. While soon there were laws for children not getting any homework at all, teenagers could have had homeworks assigned but not anything that required more than two hours of time. Then In 1901, an act passed by the California legislature abolished homework for anyone under the age of 15.

However, with the cold war between the US and Soviet Union, the rise of competition led to the re-emergence of the homework culture. And as mentioned earlier, homework became more and more common towards the end of the 19th century. 

Why do students get homework?

• Homework gives both students and parents an opportunity to re-view class works.  
• Homework teaches students the skill of problem solving and taking responsibility for their part in their education.  

Why should students NOT get homework?

With students spending almost one-fourth of their day in school, having daily homework for all the various subjects being taught leaves the student with little to no time for themselves. This, consequently, promotes the culture of “All work, no play”. 

CONCLUSION: Who invented Homework? When, Where and Why

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Who Invented Homework?

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Answer: The idea of homework was popularized by Italian educator Roberto Nevilis, who is often credited as the “inventor of homework.”

The origin of homework is unclear and it has likely been assigned to students in various forms throughout history. However, the modern concept of homework, as regular, outside-of-class assignments to be completed by students, can be traced back to the late 19th century in the United States.

Objectives of Homework are to:

• Reinforce and deepen understanding of class material
• Promote independent learning and critical thinking
• Prepare students for upcoming lessons and exams
• Develop study habits and time-management skills
• Provide opportunities for students to apply and practice what they have learned.

Features of Homework Include:

• Assigned by teachers to reinforce classroom learning
• Typically completed outside of regular class time
• Can be individual or group work
• Can include a variety of tasks such as writing, reading, problem-solving, or research
• Often graded or evaluated as part of a student’s overall academic performance.

There have been numerous studies and articles on the topic of homework, covering various aspects such as its effectiveness, impact on student well-being, and approaches to assigning and completing homework. Some related resources include:

• The National Education Association’s recommendations for homework, suggest a maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level per night
• The meta-analysis “The Relationship Between Homework and Academic Achievement: A Synthesis of Research, 1987-2003” by Harris Cooper and colleagues, finds a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, particularly for older students
• The article “Too Much Homework Is Bad for Kids” by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, argues that excessive homework can lead to negative effects on students’ health, well-being, and family life
• The book “The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing” by Alfie Kohn, critiques the assumptions and practices surrounding homework and proposes alternatives.

Ways Forward to Improve Exams and Assessment Practices Include:

• Incorporating a variety of assessment methods, such as projects, presentations, and performance tasks, to better evaluate students’ knowledge and skills
• Providing timely and detailed feedback to students to support their learning
• Allowing for open-book or open-note exams encourages students to use their resources and apply their knowledge
• Implementing technology-enhanced assessments, such as online testing and automated grading, to increase efficiency and fairness
• Incorporating formative assessments, such as quizzes and progress checks, to provide ongoing evaluation of student learning. For example, a school might use a mix of traditional exams, class projects, and self-reflection assignments to assess student learning in a history course.

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Decades ago, he invented the midnight movie. It's still long past his bedtime

“I am an earthling — after that I’m galactic and then I’m universal,” Alejandro Jodorowsky tells me in Spanish from his home in Paris during a recent video call.

At 95, the Chilean-born cult director rejects being tied to a physical location or nationality, not even to this planet or to his own body. The concept of a city seems irrelevant to him. And when I ask him what he thinks of Los Angeles ahead of his upcoming visit, he replies with a cheeky query of his own.

“Should I answer in an educated manner or should I answer in my own way?” he teases. After I insist that he cut loose, Jodorowsky continues, “I don’t want to say, ‘Los Angeles is so wonderful.’ I can't tell you if I like it. It depends on the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, sexual, physical state I am in at that moment. I will answer when I get there.”

The iconoclastic Jodorowsky arrives in town this weekend for a retrospective at the American Cinematheque — it’s his first visit in more than six years. The series , running Friday through Sunday, includes sold-out screenings of his seminal psychedelic works “El Topo” (1970), “The Holy Mountain” (1973) and “Santa Sangre” (1989).

“We are thrilled to share his most iconic films at the historic Egyptian Theatre so that audiences can continue to discover and rediscover these surreal, mind-blowing and singular works,” said Cindy Flores, a film programmer for the American Cinematheque, via email.

Talking to Jodorowsky is a metaphysical experience. His brain-expanding remarks about humanity’s status in the cosmos often require some contemplation to digest. For example, take his lyrical musings on why film continues to entice us.

“Cinema is an opening to creation,” he says. “We are tired of being locked in a physical body. We want to open ourselves up because we see free bodies everywhere, in the seagulls flying or in a gram of dust that the wind carries.”

By his side during our chat is his wife of over 20 years, an artist herself, Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, who occasionally jumps into frame to confirm a name or numerical fact that may escape the filmmaker. Despite spending more than 70 years living outside his place of birth, Jodorowsky’s Chilean accent comes across unequivocally when he speaks.

His heady statements match what he’s put onscreen and on the pages of his comics over the last 60 years. As esoteric in meaning as they are mesmeric in their imagery, the films of Jodorowsky are modern-day fables. To enter them is akin to walking in a dream where one must accept a bewildering logic.

In “El Topo,” his hypnotic 1970 western, Jodorowsky himself plays a gunslinger traversing an arid landscape filled with peculiar denizens. In 1973’s “The Holy Mountain,” heavily inspired by tarot cards, he is a wiseman, the Alchemist, who guides others to immortality through ritualistic, sexually explicit trials.

Hallucinogenic cornerstones of the original midnight-movie scene, Jodorowsky’s work has long been an expression of countercultural transgression, the kind that could be called a trip. There’s always a visual dialogue between carnal desire and enlightened thinking.

Why does he think his movies have endured over the decades?

“Because they are true,” Jodorowsky says, with stark conviction. “They were not made by producers. They were made by people who love art. When they watch them, people always say, 'These films are more modern than what’s currently out.'”

Still artistically active, Jodorowsky has a full schedule in Los Angeles. Apart from doing Q&As at his screenings, he will present an exhibit titled “Another World,” featuring paintings co-created with Montandon-Jodorowsky (under the joint moniker pascALEjandro) at Blum Gallery.

And to top it off, he will host a screening of his 2019 documentary “Psychomagic, a Healing Art,” accompanied by a masterclass on the therapeutic practice he devised using creativity as a vehicle to heal both emotional and bodily ailments. Jodorowsky’s book on the subject, “The Way of Imagination,” hits shelves later this year.

“It is a free healing that comes out of my love for humanity,“ Jodorowsky says of psychomagic. “A human being cannot achieve what he wants in this world or in others if he does not do acts of love.”

Nothing makes Jodorowsky more thrilled than knowing he’ll be welcomed by packed houses, especially since he feels that today’s youth has mostly lost interest in cinema. Yet they still want to see his visions.

“Before, everyone had to go to the movies,” he explains. “Now, young people, they don't go. They are looking for real depth, not fairy tales or war stories but other things. Something that allows us to discover the inner mystery that we all have inside.”

Jodorowsky’s most recent fiction film projects, “The Dance of Reality” (2013) and “Endless Poetry” (2016), proved challenging to finance. It was only through crowdfunding and two angel investors who donated around $2 million each that he was able to complete them. Due to such financial constraints, the third part in a planned autobiographical trilogy tackling childhood, adolescence and maturity will become a book instead.

“If cinema is so expensive to make, I am going to make cinema without cinema,” he explains. “I'm going to do what cinema does in a different way, without images."

Never one to mince words, Jodorowsky declares that movies are in a period of decline, especially what’s coming out of Hollywood, a system he calls a "prison” and one he would never subject himself to.

“I’ve made 10 films, which for a film director is few,” he says. “Another may make 100 movies because he makes fairy tales. He can repeat himself. There is no huge mystery to discover in those films. Real art is not about totally entertaining the viewer but about changing their life.”

It brings us to the inevitable subject of Denis Villeneuve’s two-part “Dune,” which has grossed $1.1 billion globally. Jodorowsky is used to press inquiries about the sci-fi epic he famously tried to adapt back in the 1970s, with a pie-in-the-sky cast that would have included Mick Jagger, Gloria Swanson, Orson Welles and his own son, Brontis, as the messianic hero Paul Atreides. (Frank Pavich’s 2013 documentary “Jodorowsky's Dune” chronicles the director’s fascinating, if failed attempt.

Not even the release of Villeneuve's second part convinced the master to see them. His reasoning? Civility laced with hard-earned arrogance. “If I go see the movie, I'm going to have to be polite and praise it a little bit,” he confesses. “But I am sure they will never be able to have Salvador Dalí as the Emperor.”

Jodorowsky is pleased to find his radical ideas still gaining purchase: “The Incal,” a comic book he published throughout the ’80s centered on a triangular artifact that contains the world’s wisdom, is being adapted by “Jojo Rabbit” filmmaker Taika Waititi . Jodorowsky is keeping his expectations managed.

“He will only be able to express an approximation of what he wants, because where there is a producer in charge there is no perfection,” Jodorowsky warned, ever cynical about the money side.

He cares little about materialistic notions of success. “Look at me, I am 95 years old and I’m here talking so much stupidity,” he says with an infectious smile. “I’m having fun. And if I can have fun, I succeeded. I'm not suffering. I'm happy to be creating in every possible way.”

At his age, Jodorowsky’s thoughts often turn to what’s next for him — not professionally but when he transitions from this plane of existence and ascends into something greater.

“I am condemned to spend less time on Earth,” he tells me matter-of-factly. “I have fewer years left than you. Because you have a black beard and I have a white beard. White indicates less time alive. I have to accept that, but I'm not in decline yet.”

Even when his mortal body no longer shares this space with us, he plans to refuse to disappear.

“I will not be an immobile skeleton,” he says. “I'm going to be something else because I believe that there is eternal life. You and I are going to be talking in a different way. We’re going to talk for thousands of years. That's my hope.”

How can I not believe him? As soon as Jodorowsky says goodbye while embracing his wife tightly, I’m already looking forward to our next encounter somewhere in the endless unknown.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .