Before computers, smartphones, and instant messaging, human communication was slower—but also different. If you wanted to reach someone, you wrote a letter. That letter travelled across towns, across borders, sometimes across oceans. Days, weeks, or even months later, a reply would return. The moment of opening it carried excitement, satisfaction, and closure. The waiting was part of the experience.
Over time, technology transformed our expectations. Letters gave way to faxes, emails, text messages, and now instant chat. Today, most of our communication happens in real time. We message, we post, we get notifications. The response is immediate—almost like talking to someone standing in front of us. Older, slower methods no longer feel gratifying because our minds are now conditioned to expect instant results.
We see this shift reflected in entertainment. Traditional sports and board games had beginnings and endings. They concluded with a winner or a resolution, and then we moved on. Early computer games mimicked this structure: a clear start, a final level, a credits screen. But as technology advanced, games evolved into never-ending experiences. Online worlds, open-ended missions, and achievements that never truly finish. Social media went a step further, offering infinite scrolling—an endless stream of stimulation with no natural conclusion.
The impact of this cultural rewiring is profound. Humans—especially younger generations—are now trained to crave constant, immediate feedback loops. Every “like,” every comment, every achievement unlocked provides a hit of instant gratification.
And this brings us to education.
Homework today feels out of step with the world children live in. For many students, completing homework is like writing that letter to someone overseas—sending it off into the void and waiting indefinitely for a reply. The feedback comes too late to feel meaningful. As a result, many children find homework frustrating, irrelevant, or demotivating. They are wired for instant interaction, but homework still operates on a delayed cycle.
This disconnect raises an important question: how should we rethink homework in a world that no longer waits?
There are not just three paths forward—there are many. But a few immediate ones stand out:
- Slowing Down: We do need to look at ways of slowing the pace of life, even in small moments. Allowing the busy mind to sit still helps children (and adults) finish unfinished thoughts and actions. This can mean incorporating mindful breaks into schooling, or deliberately giving tasks that encourage reflection rather than reaction.
- Adapting Homework Models: Perhaps homework doesn’t need to disappear, but it can evolve. Interactive digital platforms can provide immediate feedback. Group discussions in class can bring closure to tasks. Shorter, more engaging assignments might align better with how students are used to interacting.
- Reimagining Learning: Beyond tweaking homework, we can look at curriculum design. Project-based learning, in-class collaboration, and real-world challenges offer continuous engagement and visible outcomes. These models make learning itself more immediate, while still preserving depth.
- Consciously Teaching Patience: On the other hand, perhaps the solution is not to fully adapt to technology’s pace but to help children re-learn patience and delayed gratification. Life will always contain processes that cannot be rushed—whether it’s growing a garden, learning a skill, or building a career. School may be the best place to reintroduce these values.
- Hybrid Approaches: Some schools and parents may experiment with combinations—keeping small amounts of traditional homework, blending it with instant-response activities, and slowly building tolerance for both fast and slow modes of learning.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Society is changing, and education has to grapple with the fact that the brains of today’s children are being shaped in very different ways from those of the past. Homework might need to change, or it might need to be reframed as a conscious tool for building skills we risk losing.
What is clear is this: the gap between how children are conditioned to respond and how schools expect them to learn is widening. Unless we acknowledge and adapt, homework risks becoming not just unpopular, but ineffective.
The challenge for educators, parents, and policymakers is to decide which path we take. Do we slow down, adapt, reimagine, or blend approaches? Perhaps all of the above. What matters most is recognising that the model of “do the work now, wait for results later” no longer fits seamlessly into the rhythms of a real-time world.
Homework is more than just practice after class—it is a mirror of how we value time, effort, and reward. And maybe it’s time to hold that mirror up and ask ourselves: what do we really want our children to learn?