Is Homework Helpful or Harmful to Students Essay

The debate on homework has come up once again because much research has shown that it’s not very effective. But first what is Homework? “At the beginning of the twentieth century the term homework… referred to labor done to pay in one’s home, and in particular to sewing and other manual work which filled the afternoons and evenings of many young children in large cities” (Homework Destroys Family Life). Homework was considered to be work the children did at home such as chores or actual job outside the home. Over time the term evolved when education became more important and child labor laws were passed to enforce children to focus on education instead of working. This debate is not anything new because this has come up in many centuries before.

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

Jones believes that homework taking away social life and family times however homework does not take many times and it leaves the parents to focus on other aspects of their life. One of Jones’s claims states that homework, “away from free time that could be used for entertainment, work, or family time” when in reality the average students in elementary school students simply spending thirty minutes and high school student only spending fifty minutes doing homework per day (Ryan). This shows that students have much more time to do other activities and homework does not take away from their social life. Also, Jones argues that parents would supplement if teachers did not come home with homework but the average parent does not leave work till 7:00 PM-8:00 PM not arriving home till 7:30-8:30 PM not having much time to then add one to two hours of extra education for their children (Yau). Because, in reality, teachers do not give an enormous amount of homework and parents do not have the time to add to their child’s education, students benefit greatly from homework.

Have you ever wanted to just shred up your homework or throw it out the window and have no consequences? Kids are assigned daily homework from the time they start kindergarten at the ripe young age of five. Is it really necessary? Does it even help better learning or even higher test scores? The amount of homework we do wastes time, money, paper, and trees because it’s practically the exact same thing we did in class that day. Homework causes kid’s and teen’s frustration, tiredness, little time for other activities and possibly even a loss of interest in their education. It also keeps everyone up; it has kids and teens staying up until they finish it, the parents trying to help them and the teachers grading it. So, I think that homework is

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?

The debate that is currently happening throughout America is whether children should or should not be forced to have homework, a standard part of education that has been in existence since at least early 1900’s. Homework began generations ago, and “has generally been viewed as a positive practice and accepted without question as part of the student routine;” however, “over the years, homework in U.S. schools has evolved from the once simple tasks of memorizing math facts or writing spelling words to complex projects” (Vatterott). Not only recently but even at the end of the 19th century was homework getting in the way of family life. Children normally always have house roles that they are expected to complete and around the 19th century “many families could not afford to have their children continue schooling, given the requisite two to three hours of homework each night” (Vatterott). Not just in current situations, but also the 19th and 20th centuries, the children play as helpers and workers in the

Homework has been present in schools for decades; it’s been ingrained into our culture and lifestyle. In recent years, however, many have begun to take notice of the negative effects and unnecessary stress it’s putting on America’s students. The effectiveness and benefits of after-school work have not been questioned until now, when studies and polls have begun to show just how damaging it is. Will American schools ever make a change in homework culture, or will grades continue to

Even a professor by the name of Harris Cooper at the Duke University found connections between students and spending time on homework. Firstly, he found that elementary school students improve study habits with only a small amount of homework. Secondly, middle school students are willing to do homework within ninety minutes each night, and thirdly, high school students are willing to do homework within ninety minutes and two and a half hours. Anything after those times, they start to think of it as busy work and lose the interest in learning (DeNisco).

Source A makes a point that children should use homework time to be with their families. Home life is an important factor when it comes to a child doing well in school, but children spend just as much time with their families as they do in school, not including weekends. Some people may not have as much time to do homework, but there should be at least an hour they can spare to do homework and improve their education. It should be no different than parents having to bring home paperwork from the office. That time could be spent on family too, but it’s seen as more important because it’s adult work. Children will learn that there are going to be times when sacrifices have to be made and they have to be responsible. If children stop getting homework and putting time and effort into it, then the real world will seem like a greater challenge to them because they won’t be prepared for actual work. Source B makes more neutral arguments by saying that homework is needed, but that it needs adjustments and changes in terms of what it entails, and how the student will benefit from the time they

Everyone at one point in time has complained they have had too much homework. Especially in High School. I was always told homework will help me because it is a way to practice and fully master the material I needed to learn. In high school students spend a few hours a night doing what they see as busy work, meaning they do not think it is helping them at all. Some students do not mind work load. They feel doing the problems,writing the short responses, filling out packets, helps them because they practice and remember the material. A question that has come up is whether assigning packets of homework, mostly finding a word and it’s definition, will help students master material better than assigning less or none at all. I believe that

In Finland, the Finnish believe that less is more. Less homework outside the classroom leads to better teachers inside the classroom. The United States also needs to understand that children need more time to be children. In Finland, children do not attend school until they are 7 years of age and socially and emotionally ready to learn complex tasks. In the United States, a child must be enrolled in school by the age of 6 or the parent/s and/or guardians could face criminal negligence charges.

The first reason teachers should give students less homework is that it takes away their childhood. When a student goes to school for seven hours a day, and then goes home to three hours of homework, they do not get to be a kid. It is suggested that student adopt an eight-eight-eight schedule. This schedule being eight

“Homework puts pressure on both kids and parents.” The things students learn on a regular bases parents did not learn back when they were in school and if they did it had a new method of doing it. The stress level of kids always studying and doing homework on a daily basis is making them overwhelming. “Homework takes away our personal time no student wants to come home and do more work on what they were already doing for the past 6 hours anyway.”

When a student takes homework home they will spend less time bonding with her family and more time fretting over the busy work they are receiving. When students are overwhelmed with homework social development drops dramatically, this causes poor social skills in the future for the affected student. Roughly three hours of homework each night is the average (Parker). With this much homework students are going to have less time with their family. The typical school day ends at 3:00pm, when you take into account the average of homework received by students it becomes very clear, most of a student's day is being consumed with school and homework. This leaves very minimal time to be spent with their family, leading to a weakened bond between children and their parents. “Giving students more homework is detrimental, there is almost no benefit to homework until senior high” (Wolchover). This means that homework is not helping it actually harming students. A major problem arising from the increase in homework is the decrease in family time. It has already been proven that it today’s world families spend less time together, add the time students spend on homework and we begin to see that families are being ripped apart by busy

Students, parents, teachers, administrators and other interested parties all seem to have strong and different feelings towards homework. Students complain that they have too much homework to complete outside of the hours they already attended classes. Students feel that they have personal lives to live and blow off homework while some parents and teachers believe that homework is the key to passing classes and preparation for college. This leads to teachers feeling pressured to push their students to succeed and this can easily get carried away. Parents and school systems still often discuss the topic of homework today. Should homework in school systems be stopped?