Homework Is Too Much Homework

After spending most of their time in school, students are expected to complete even more work, seems almost ridiculous. Homework is taking time away from students other activities. In the book, “The Case Against Homework,” by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, they state how homework, “robs children of their sleep, play and exercise time need for proper physical, emotional, and neurological development.” Homework is no different than a towel placed in water. It soaks up the time from other activities A study done by the Brown Center found an

“Homework is arguably the worst punishment inflicted upon the student body.” One would think this extreme statement would come from the 10-year boys and girls who complain to their parents about the homework they have to complete. However, Rodney Jones starts of his argument against homework using this statement. He argues that homework does not help children taking up all their time. Continuing, he explains how parents should extend child’s knowledge out of school instead of homework and in the end these assignments do not help students grade. However, in contrast of Jones’ beliefs homework indeed benefits children’s learning through the small amounts of extra practice it gives to help the students excel.

The debate regarding exactly how much homework is too much homework has been an ongoing debate for years. As of right now, there seems to be no end in sight for this debate. Various adults believe that if children do not obtain homework, then they are not learning properly. However, numerous children are obtaining a substantial amount of homework per night, as well as per each class. Once a child exceeds a certain amount of homework, then it is no longer beneficial for the child’s education. An excessive amount of homework can essentially become harmful to the child’s education. As a result, teachers are struggling with finding the right amount of homework to assign to students. The National Education Association as well as the National Parent-Teacher Association endorse the “10-minute rule” for teachers to follow when assigning homework to students. If a child is assigned an excessive amount of homework, then the child might experience more harm than good when attempting to complete the assigned homework.

Homework has been an area of discussion for teachers, students, and even psychologists. It’s been a practice which has been used throughout the United States to help students learn material, reinforce their day’s lesson, or just as busy work to improve a student’s work ethic. Several people view homework as useless, or just plainly unhelpful; this view has been demonstrated ever since the early twentieth century, where many authors and politicians were vehemently against homework, going as far as to write whole books and draft legislation (legislation which had passed the Californian government and had been law) against homework. This opposition has ever since faded, but is now seeing a new movement around America, and there are reasons as to why that is. In an article from CNN, they quote a study from another article published by The American Journal of Family Therapy which states that: “students in the early elementary school years are getting significantly more homework than is recommended by education leaders, in some cases nearly three times as much homework as is recommended”, and, as such, students are raised within a state of stress from the first grade. Several other studies also find that homework is very hurtful; the Journal of Experimental Education published an article which had made a study that found that the average amount of time students spend on homework each night had been 3.1 hours from a sample of high-performing schools in California, when the recommended time on homework is, at most, one hour each night. Homework has been mandated work for students all around the country, and several others, and the workload seems to only be increasing, and so, how might this workload affect a student’s ability to live a healthy life, a teacher’s work plan, and a psychologist’s view of an enormous workload on a student?

Many teachers in today's schools give homework out on a daily basis, and teachers assume that it is helping students learn the information taught in the classroom. However it is doing quite the opposite causing many problems for students. There are three major impacts that homework has on students, it causes more stress, it affects the student's family, lastly it affects grades and test scores as a whole. Homework has many more negative affects on students, families, grades, and goals. However, even with the facts teachers still continue to assign busy work which is potentially dragging students down rather than helping them.

On average, American high school teachers assign approximately 3.5 hours of homework each week, meaning that teens with multiple classes spend around 17.5 hours a week working on these assignments. In only 13 years, the percentage of teens that claim they spend an hour on homework each day has increased to 45%, from the 39% in 1994 (Bidwell). Parents and students across the country are beginning to spot the flaws in these homework methods, however, claiming that academics are merely being memorized instead of thoroughly taught. Is homework truly helping America’s students? To the majority of high schoolers, the answer is clear: homework is unnecessary for academic development.

It is evident in almost every high school, students don’t seem to appreciate the piles of homework their teachers’ assign. Students don’t seem to have the time nor the willpower to do homework sometimes, due to their busy schedules or motivation for school. Majority of students, I’ve spoken to have said homework not only wastes time but also takes away from the excitement of learning. Clearly, in most schools, homework isn’t the most popular choice for students. Sometimes teachers assign a couple of pages of homework but then tag along a project and a presentation into the mix, leaving us young adults procrastinating to perfect everything before the due date, usually being the next day. Homework is an unnecessary chore which stresses teenagers out by taking time out of their day, which could be used for more effective manners for preparing for tests and developing their minds.

Throughout their school years,children say that they hate homework and that it’s pointless. Others will say, that this is definitely not the case. Students who actually spend time doing homework will better understand and execute class work more efficiently. Source C had mentioned that children who do not achieve much do more homework because they’re struggling. But, that struggling never goes away. Instead, children still struggle, but at this point, they don’t believe that homework is important. Source D had actually shown that high schoolers had higher grades when they spent more time doing work. They take the time to study and learn how to work through problems on their own, which helps them when taking tests. Multiple sources have stated

Having too much homework causes students large amounts of stress and lack of sleep that can cause health problems. On a survey that Stanford researchers tested on 4317 students, fifty-six percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, forty-three percent of the students viewed tests as a primary stressor, thirty-three percent put pressure to get good grades in that category (Parker). Less than one percent of the students said that homework was not a stressor (Parker). That means that about 4273 students considered homeword a stressor, while less than 50 out of 4317 students believed homework to not be a stressor. Out of the students surveyed, the average amount of homework was three hours and six minutes of homework (Greicius). The large amount of homework causes large amounts of stress, but it also causes sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation,

Homework not only takes up time but it pressures and stresses kids out. “Fifty-six per cent of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives, despite the fact that most U.S. students' homework load has remained relatively stable since 1984, according to the Brookings Institute's 2014 Brown Center Report on American Education”(Daily Mail Reporter). “Fifty-six per cent of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their

High school students feel more stress than working adults, and children are beginning to feel aversion towards learning. Both adolescents and children are at risk of health issues due to anxiety and less time is spent with family, playing, and sleeping. The cause for all of this is too much homework that is suffocating students. Homework causes students to sleep less, have more stress, and even forces students to give up extracurricular activities. These negative results can be improved by reducing the homework load.

It is a well known fact that students of various ages and schools are assigned homework, although the motive for giving said homework may vary depending on the teacher. However, the debate about whether homework is helping or hindering education is at a stalemate. Stated simply, homework is work assigned by teachers that students should complete at home or any other non-school setting. Just how effective is homework in the long run? Is it just adding unnecessary stress to students without truly adding enough positivity to make the homework worth it? Although homework can seem burdensome, it undoubtedly solidifies concepts learned in class and aids in the development of timeless skills such as time management and accountability.

One of the most controversial topics in education today is homework. This debate has been going on for decades, as teachers, administrators, and parents disagree on whether homework should be assigned, and if assigned, then what the right amount of homework should be. The time students spend on homework has increased over the years. “High school students get assigned up to 17.5 hours of homework per week, according to a survey of 1,000 teachers” (Bidwell). Recently, more fuel has been added in this debate because younger students in particular are receiving much more homework than before. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, states that “The amount of homework that younger kids – ages 6 to 9 – have

In a study General Society conducted, 16% of teens viewed themselves as workaholics, 39% said they felt under constant pressure to do more than they can handle and 64% cut back on sleep to do the things they need to do. As these tasks are quite time consuming, students state that homework is the most out of all the unpaid activities they do throughout the day, as 60% complete 2 hours and 20 minutes on average each day (CBC news, 2007). The amount of homework students receive on average daily has greatly increased in the past 15 years, which concerns parents. Homework interferes with students’ lives outside of school, a student’s overall health, and consumes countless hours, which is why it should be limited to a reasonable amount.

Many students in school struggle to complete piles of homework assigned to them each night. Some wonder if homework is really critical to learning, and many wish homework wouldn’t exist at all. These people argue that homework is overwhelming and it takes away most of their free time at home and is just “busy work”. While some people may feel this way, I personally believe that homework is a key point of learning because it teaches time management and helps solidify what was learned during the day.