Busy work

Busy work

Busy work is a term for schoolwork, coursework, or homework that keeps students occupied without teaching anything constructive or interesting. Examples might include hastily put together 'projects', which are given to the student to keep them busy if the teacher is absent and a substitute teacher is present, word searches featuring lists of specialized vocabulary words, end-of-the-year portfolio project, or lab assignments with many questions that only serve to take up time.

Criticism of school busy work

Some critics have charged that busy work can cause problems for teachers: "When busy work becomes 'institutionalized,' among other teachers or the entire school, it creates such an overload of work for the slower students, that they have to 'buy out' of the system. They will always have more work than they can do because the work is assigned for control and not learning". Busy work has some positive effects as well as negative effects. One positive effect of busy work could be that, students previously absent have a chance to catch up on work that is 'covered' in the dull, unproductive, busy work. [http://www.teacher2b.com/discipline/busywork.htm]

People often have a negative attitude toward busy work, and some high school and middle school teachers have gone so far as to pledge to avoid the practice: "Homework is given to practice, review, preview, or simply provide more exposure to the topics covered in class—you will not be given homework for homework’s sake or as busy work".Fact|date=October 2007

Workplace busy work

The term has also been used by employees who feel their assigned duties are useless or unproductive, and intended only to occupy their time. Busy work of one form or another often features in workplace humor, such as the comic strip "Dilbert", or the movie "Office Space" (see TPS Report).

Busy work can also mean mandatory work assignments given to inmates of prisons, done not always as a punishment for infractions but merely to keep the inmates occupied and prevent restlessness and dissent. A typical scene from a prison movie would have inmates being forced to dig a ditch in the prison, only to be told afterwards to fill it in again.

Army busy work

A popular Soviet-era pun on the army's way of keeping conscripts disciplined and out of trouble was "Private, dig a trench from that fence to dinner time".

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • busy work — {n.} Work that is done not to do or finish anything important, but just to keep busy. * /When the teacher finished all she had to say it was still a half hour before school was over. So she gave the class a test for busy work./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • busy work — {n.} Work that is done not to do or finish anything important, but just to keep busy. * /When the teacher finished all she had to say it was still a half hour before school was over. So she gave the class a test for busy work./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • busy\ work — noun Work that is done not to do or finish anything important, but just to keep busy. When the teacher finished all she had to say it was still a half hour before school was over. So she gave the class a test for busy work …   Словарь американских идиом

  • busy work — noun Work or activity performed with the intention or result of occupying time, and not necessarily to accomplish something productive; routine work of low priority undertaken for the sake of avoiding idleness. Until we have a system clearly… …   Wiktionary

  • busy-work — noun Alternative spelling for busy work …   Wiktionary

  • busy·work — /ˈbıziˌwɚk/ noun [noncount] US : work that is given to you only to keep you busy Students were given busywork for the last few minutes of class …   Useful english dictionary

  • busy — O.E. bisig careful, anxious, busy, occupied, cognate with O.Du. bezich, Low Ger. besig; no known connection with any other Germanic or Indo European language. Still pronounced as in M.E., but for some unclear reason the spelling shifted to u in… …   Etymology dictionary

  • busy — 1. adjective /ˈbɪzi/ a) Doing a great deal; having a lot of things to do in the space of time given It has been a busy day. b) Engaged in another activity or by someone else. The director cannot see you now, hes busy. See Also: busy as a beaver,… …   Wiktionary

  • work — See: ALL IN A DAY S WORK, ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY, AT WORK, BUSY WORK, IN THE WORKS, MAKE SHORT WORK OF, MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK, SHOOT THE WORKS, THE WORKS, IN THE WORKS …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • work — See: ALL IN A DAY S WORK, ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY, AT WORK, BUSY WORK, IN THE WORKS, MAKE SHORT WORK OF, MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK, SHOOT THE WORKS, THE WORKS, IN THE WORKS …   Dictionary of American idioms

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