What is homework spelled backwards (and what’s up with that)?

Fun fact (that you might already know if you’re a linguistics or med student): there’s no letter W in the Latin alphabet, so the homework-spelled-backwards legend had zero chances of being believable in the first place.

But if there’s no krowemoh in Latin, how do you say “child abuse” in Latin? Well, let’s be real, it’s not like Ancient Romans were particularly concerned with children’s emotional well-being and delicate psyches. They had other, more pressing things to worry about.

But if you need to be able to express something similar to “child abuse” in Latin – for whatever reason – you have a couple of options:

• Abusus puerorum. This is the closest and most formal equivalent to “child abuse” in Latin. It’s hard to say how common the term was back in the day, but it did exist. There are Latin texts that include this term.
• Puerorum iniuria. You might think that “iniuria” has something to do with injury (and perhaps it does), but in Latin, puerorum iniuria can be used to describe both physical and emotional mistreatment of children. So, it does seem a fitting alternative to the non-existent krowemoh.

Or maybe just stick to the languages that aren’t dead yet?

Now that you know that homework spelt backwards most definitely doesn’t mean child abuse, let’s try to decide if it even deserves to be referred to that way. If you ask an overwhelmed student an hour before a big deadline… they’ll probably ignore you because they have an assignment to finish.

If you ask a teacher, though, they’ll list all the reasons why homework is actually a great thing, even if checking it is almost as fascinating as writing it – not at all, that is.

So, let’s try to establish who is right. Presuming you don’t have access to such modern wonders as a physics AI solver, does homework deserve the bad rep?

• Homework is stressful, especially if your teacher or professor assumes you have no life outside of school. Nervous breakdowns as a result of an overwhelming amount of schoolwork are real.
• Unless your teacher makes an effort to assign something interesting, homework can be excruciatingly boring.
• Homework takes up the time you could spend on much more enjoyable and productive things.
• Sometimes, as a result-oriented student, you just want to focus on actually studying – and gen ed assignments get in the way. For example, why would you need to write a 5-page essay on gender when you’re studying to become a nurse?
• For college students, homework can interfere with career prospects. Balancing school, work, social life, and homework is extremely difficult.

• Homework helps you develop critical thinking skills, which are essential in this day and age. Want to be able to tell if what you’re seeing on TikTok is AI-generated or fake news? Then you might want to write that critical analysis paper you’ve been procrastinating on.
• If it’s for a class that’s relevant to your major, homework can help you become a great professional one day. Sure, you can learn to write patient notes while doing the job, once you graduate. But it will make things easier for you down the road if you practice writing them while still at school.
• Homework is so fun to complain about! If you ignore it completely, you miss out on an entire cultural layer and have one less thing to connect with your peers over.

As we’ve already established, even if you spell homework backwards, it won’t mean child abuse. It will be a nonsense word that originated as a piece of funny folklore but somehow stuck.

If you want to say “homework” in Latin, you can use either abusus puerorum or puerorum iniuria. Write that on the margins of your next essay if you think your teacher might appreciate the humor.

Now, back to the more controversial question. Is it warranted to call homework child abuse? Honestly, this depends on the homework and, most importantly, on the amount.

Is it child abuse to make students read? No. With the alarmingly declining critical thinking skills, it’s the opposite. Everyone wants to go outside or doomscroll (mostly doomscroll) in their free time. This doesn’t make a bit of homework child abuse.

But is it okay to drown students in endless assignments that leave them with no time to live their lives? Again, no. Being a student would be much more pleasant if all teachers kept homework to the necessary minimum.