The Costs Of Too Much Homework

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.

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.

What is homework? Most students might say that homework is a time waster and is unrelated to learning. Both are logical statements in the eyes of the average student, but what are the facts and why is homework part of our school curriculum? Homework has been a standing tradition in America since the 1950’s due to the education war with the Soviets. Ever since the ending of the Cold War in the early 1990’s, the American consensus openly welcomed homework as a part of school curriculum. Homework is in our modern American roots, and it is so effective it has stayed in our foundation. Homework is beneficial to young scholars in our school system to this date: it is helpful and beneficial in the way to reinforce knowledge learned in schools, it provides clarity and room for the short class schedule, and it also forces the need to use responsibility and time management.

Homework has been around a long time. In fact, the first school made in the world was believed to be built sometime between 140 BC and 143 BC. While studies have proven that homework can have benefits, too much of it can be bad for students. Homework can take away their time for family/activities and can cause negative health effects. The amount of homework assigned to students should be decreased.

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.

In many American households, homework is the main cause of stress. Some people think that America is not so well and adding more homework will fix that problem. A study by Indiana University found that students who do more homework tend to get higher scores on standardized tests” (“Do Kids Need Homework?”). “Plus, part of growing up is learning to balance outside activities and the demands of schoolwork” (“Should Parents Help Kids With Homework?). Teachers have their reasons as well. “Teachers say homework is important in the learning process and can help kids develop study and organizational skills. They say kids need to practice what they've learned in school so that the material sticks in their brain” (Strauss). “Having too much homework

Students in high school get anywhere from 1 hour a night to 4+ hours a night of homework adding even an extra 30 minutes for that one class can stop students from wanting to learn. After a long day at school and a meeting for a club you go home and immediately get started on all of that day’s work, and after a while you get the feeling of being “burnt out.” This can stop a child or teenager from wanting to learn in the end, may even make the student hate the subject itself, and if students are given too much homework it can make them have anxiety and horrible stress.

Homework. Just by the sound of that word, the aggravating feeling arises. Students of all ages ask the question, “Why do we have homework?” Whether we like it or not, homework will be assigned to students no matter what. The real question happens to be, is homework helpful or harmful? Many people state that homework takes up too much time and has effects on health, while others argue that homework benefits the student because it allows them to have extra time to study and practice their skills. Furthermore, research indicates that homework is harmful due to the fact that it causes stress and takes time from a persons’ daily life.

Homework, a single word that carries differing opinions amongst varied individuals. With the debate of homework at the forefront of many schools and classroom teachers, there are two positions to consider. Before taking a side and conducting research, we began by simply looking at what the word homework means. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines homework as, “an assignment given to a student to be completed outside the regular class period” (2017). The concept of homework is one that has been recently highly debated. With every school’s ‘hot topic’ there are pros and cons to be discovered. Looking at the topic of homework, the list seems to grow exponentially as our world rapidly changes.

Homework was designed so students would go home and practice what it is they learned in class and the concept would then be reinforced. However, many would agree that homework, no longer serves this purpose. For example, “we pay almost no attention to how to improve its design and content...Homework remains an orphan child of the educational excellence movement.” (Source B) Despite this article, arguing against a homework decrease, the author agrees that homework doesn’t have the same educational purpose as it was designed to. Teachers and parents don’t pay any attention as to how to improve homework in order to make it beneficial to the student and not just busy work. Also, students may chose to take tougher classes that require more homework, but it does not mean that homework is boosting their achievement. (Source C) Higher achieving

Homework, homework, everyone hates homework. People are up all night doing something that they think is such a waste of time! Well is it a waste of time? Most people think so! Infact most people think it has no effect at all! homework has had a huge impact on sleeping, time and grades. Grades k-12 have seen a dramatic change in homework. Changes that happened recently. The evidence shows that homework may not be harmful, but it sure is not helping.

Homework has been a part of education for various centuries for the major part of the world. Initially, homework in America served to engage students with education and provide additional practice for material covered during class in order to encourage leaders during post-war years (“Homework: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Paid Labor at Home”). However, the effectiveness of homework upon academic performance has been gradually questioned over recent years. With many downsides to homework, many have begun to question whether homework is worth it at all.

“Too much homework can cause stress in a student and lead to health issues in the body and mind” (TeenInk Magazine). About 97% of high school students would agree on the previous quote that teachers give out too much homework and they are stressed out. There should be less homework because it takes away from time with family and causes stress and most students are time limited.

Students all across the country are suffering from the same dilemma, homework! It may not be seen as a dilemma or even a problem but rather as something helpful to the learning process. From a student’s point of view, however, homework is one of the top causes of stress throughout high school. With the expectation to take about 6 to 7 classes a day, the amount of homework each teacher assigns starts to pile up and the workload gets overwhelming. No one wants to sit at a table wrecking their brain trying to figure out how to complete something they have no interest in. Is a student’s willingness and ability to learn not important? They can both be effected by the amount of stress that a huge workload of homework can cause. This is why teachers should decrease the amount of homework they assign and modify it to make it more balanced and challenging yet interesting and not time consuming. The amount of stress students face would diminish and students would still be learning.

To begin, a surplus of homework can lead to emotional and physical health issues for a student and causes too much stress. In fact, a study completed by 4,317 high-school students, conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Education discovered that giving more than two-hours of homework each night will negatively affect the lives of students. This research revealed that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. Countless students struggle to complete their homework because it is over-complicated for them. Teachers contribute to this predicament by giving pupils an excess of homework making it challenging for students to submit it promptly. Thus, students become anxious as homework would take hours for pupils to finish, and gradually develop unhealthy living habits resulting in loss of sleep, fatigue, lower grades, and unhealthy eating habits. When a student arrives home after a tiresome school day, they need to release their stress and exhaustion by relaxing. However, students cannot due to the amount of stress they have related to complicated homework. To finish homework, students often stay up late at night, avoid eating dinner, and have a nervous-breakdown as they fear that they will not be able to complete and submit the assignments or worksheets on time. If no homework is given, students would not have to live a gloomy