“Why do we have homework guidelines in math?”

1. *Firstly, because we can.  If English teachers can do it, so can math teachers!
   

1. *The real reason is that we want you to follow the skills of professionals. (Watch the original Karate Kid and pay attention to the “wax on - wax off” scene:
   

2.          http://www.awaionline.com/2008/12/what-the-karate-kid-can-teach-you-about-mastery }
   

3. 
   

4. *The thrid reason is selfish - we like to stack incoming homework easily without there being an overly large sheet, or a smaller sheet, or a sheet that has frills on the side getting in the way!
   

1. *We use white paper for the same reason Artists prefer blank canvases with out lines - no constraints as to where to place your next stroke.  We want your thought to be what should I write next, not where will I write it so it fits in a line, or a column.
   

1. *Top-down writing assists in our organization:  math is logic and we need to follow it easily once written  down.
   

1. *Some students are confused as to what to staple together.  It tells you in the guidelines.  But to summarize “Pretend you are the grader of the HW and need to sort student’s papers by assignment as listed in the HW Syllabus in order to grade them and assign a score to just that assignment.”