Should You Save Your Old Schoolwork for Sentimental Reasons?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the question of whether to keep old schoolwork for sentimental reasons. Participants share their experiences and thoughts on the value of retaining various school materials, including notebooks, graded homework, and essays, spanning different educational levels from primary school to graduate studies.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express a desire to keep their school materials for sentimental value, reflecting on personal growth and nostalgia.
  • Others question the practicality of retaining graded homework, suggesting it may not hold significant value after the semester ends.
  • A few participants mention scanning their materials to preserve them digitally, citing the convenience of searchable PDFs.
  • Some individuals share specific memories associated with their old schoolwork, such as amusing early writing assignments or achievements they had forgotten about.
  • There are varying practices regarding what to keep, with some participants retaining everything from college while others only keep select items from high school.
  • One participant humorously notes their extensive collection of high school binders, despite not intending to revisit them.
  • Several participants discuss the idea of condensing notes into study guides and discarding the rest, indicating a practical approach to managing old materials.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on whether to keep old schoolwork, with multiple competing views on the sentimental value versus practicality of retention. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the best approach to managing school materials.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention the physical burden of keeping large amounts of paper, while others highlight the emotional connections tied to their schoolwork. The discussion reflects a range of personal experiences and attitudes towards nostalgia and memory.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in the sentimental value of educational materials, those considering digital archiving of documents, and anyone reflecting on their educational journey may find this discussion relevant.

waht
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I've got a box full of notebooks, graded homework, essays, and notes dating back to high school, and I don't know what to do with it. So wondering if you guys kept your school materials for any sentimental value. Or if you haven't, would you like to look at the stuff years later?
 
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I do, but I don't know why. The notebooks I can sort of see, but I have no clue why I hang on to graded homework after the semester is over. Doesn't seem like much of a point.
 
I haven't kept everything. I think I've kept more than most people do, though. I enjoy looking back at what I've done and how far I've come. Some of the most interesting things I've found have been my 1st and 2nd grade writing assignments. To see the way I viewed the world back then is highly amusing. I have a few author's conference awards in which I had completely forgotten I had participated, and finding them reminded of how little I cared about such achievements at that age. I can view them now and gain some satifaction and sense of accomplishment.

I am someone who enjoys observing progress. Also, nostalgia (in "healthy doses") can promote psycological health. If you've got the room, keep 'em! :smile:
 
I have all of my graduate class notes 3 feet away. I never know when an example of a CD nozzle, or temperature distribution of a cylinder might be useful.
 
I didn't keep almost anything from high school. However I kept everything in college. I'm now done with the second year.

If your box grow too much, maybe you could scan all your courses and keep the images in your computer. Then trash some/all courses.
 
I have been scanning all mine with a Fujitsu ScanSnap. I've really started to love this thing. Cut up hundreds of my books and scanned them into my computer (hundreds of pounds and I was worried they might fall through the floor!). Searchable pdfs are so... *puts on shades* ...nice to have.
 
Newai said:
I have been scanning all mine with a Fujitsu ScanSnap. I've really started to love this thing. Cut up hundreds of my books and scanned them into my computer (hundreds of pounds and I was worried they might fall through the floor!). Searchable pdfs are so... *puts on shades* ...nice to have.

What is this "Fujtsu ScanSnap"?
 
For personal use, a very small 2-sided color scanner.
 
I think I have most of my workbooks from grades 1-11. I particularly like my grade 3 books: grade 3 was when I started writing in English after coming to Canada, and it's interesting to laugh at how bad my writing was back then. I was surprised that looking at the workbooks actually brought back thoughts that I had in grade 3: "hm...what's the difference between 'side' and 'said'?".

Newai: hundreds of pounds of books? :bugeye:Was this a lifetime project or just a decade-long project?
 
  • #10
It's an interesting scanner. Just insert documents like a dollar in a vending machine.
 
  • #11
Newai said:
I have been scanning all mine with a Fujitsu ScanSnap. I've really started to love this thing. Cut up hundreds of my books and scanned them into my computer (hundreds of pounds and I was worried they might fall through the floor!). Searchable pdfs are so... *puts on shades* ...nice to have.
Searchable PDF's? Wow, that's incredibly nice. What program(s) are you using?


ideasrule said:
I think I have most of my workbooks from grades 1-11. I particularly like my grade 3 books: grade 3 was when I started writing in English after coming to Canada, and it's interesting to laugh at how bad my writing was back then. I was surprised that looking at the workbooks actually brought back thoughts that I had in grade 3: "hm...what's the difference between 'side' and 'said'?".

Newai: hundreds of pounds of books? :bugeye:Was this a lifetime project or just a decade-long project?

Out of curiosity, where are you from originally?
 
  • #14
lisab said:
Do you prepare to respond to a post by donning shades :-p?
Watch MIB to see why. :-p
 
  • #15
That scanner sounds fast pretty fast compared to mine. I wouldn't be willing to pull books apart though.
 
  • #16
I save my stuff, I got them around there somewhere. There is some stuff back at my parent's house and some back at my place. I think I'll put it all together in a big box or something. It's mostly college and now graduate school. My high school, I've kept some notebooks but not everything.
 
  • #17
I think I have some stuff lying around from high school, but this is largely because I just forgot to throw it away. I've only started "officially" keeping my old homeworks starting in grad school. I figure that the average physicist's knowledge of physics only goes down after taking the PhD qualifier, so I should probably keep this stuff around so I can have some record of what I used to know, physics-wise.
 
  • #18
lisab said:
Do you prepare to respond to a post by donning shades :-p?
Not... *presses reply button* ...necessarily.

:cool:
 
  • #19
My 'pack-rattedness' is almost unsurpassed. A significant occupation of the C-can that I have parked in my yard consists of my high-school binders. (I don't know how it works elsewhere, but our textbooks remained the property of the school.) I'll probably never look at them again, but I keep them around as a reminder that I was a hell of a lot funnier 35 years ago than I have been since.
 
  • #20
Yes i do ,i still hold my primary school notes and papers.and I've gratuated from college now.i think that notes and papers includ childhood memeries.http://www.power4game.com/" hehehe...
 
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  • #21
fluidistic said:
Out of curiosity, where are you from originally?

Mainland China. I moved here after my parents decided to come back and get me (they were studying in the US before that).
 
  • #22
ideasrule said:
Mainland China. I moved here after my parents decided to come back and get me (they were studying in the US before that).

Shanghai ,glad to see u here !:blushing:
 
  • #23
This sounds like an almost vebatim repeat of a question on a similar forum...

Or perhaps my deja vu is repeating repeating itself again again.

But, to answer your question: For the math/science/physics stuff, I tended to pair down the quarter's content into final exam "study guides," just condensed notes and mnemonics to aid in studying. I chucked the rest after class, but kept my crib notes, as well as about half of my college texts.
 
  • #24
fluidistic said:
...you could scan all your courses and keep the images in your computer. Then trash some/all courses.
I agree. Just scan them into images/pdfs, and throw out the hard copies.
 
  • #25
My fathers heats home in winter with a boiler, in which he burns wood. I had too much paper anyways :cry:
 
  • #26
I've kept all my math work from grade 12 calculus and advanced functions courses... I also kept my work from my psychology class, philosophy class and I kept my kinesiology textbook (i was supposed to return it but forgot.)

I kept the math work (calculus and advanced functions) incase I ever wanted to take the course again to potentially improve my mark. I never did so I gave the notes to my girlfriends sister who was taking the course this year :smile: (not the example work just the notes on various lectures and all the tests marked with answers).

I kept the psychology work because I thought it was interesting... ditto for philosophy and I was quite impressed with the papers I wrote (so was the teacher) so I kept them too about 5 of them (for 2 philosophy courses they were on love, war, reality, time, government, and science).

The kinesiology textbook I kept by mistake I was supposed to return it but that thing is so packed full of useful information that when I found it I just decided it wasn't worth the time to go return it.

EDIT: Oh yeah I also kept some law case reviews a model UN resolution that I wrote (even though during the course of the meet every country was against me... I was the USA... my resolution was passed with 100% votes) and a random law essay on the death penalty and extradition
 
  • #27
I keep them for a year or two after the class (if the class was interesting enough to me that I think the material will be useful in my graduate studies). Then go through it and skim it down later. I just threw out just about everything I've kept.

Uhh, der, I have the intranets, I do'need no homeworks.
 

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