The Negative Effects Of Homework

By not giving out homework, students will work harder in class and have better grades. Teachers have to understand that if students are tired from late nights, they wouldn't be able to work efficiently during the day. In addition, students would be much more excited to come to school because they know they wouldn't have to worry about getting any homework. In 2010, a survey was taken and it showed that about 70% of teen ages 11 to 17 get less than 8 hours of sleep per day due to the amount of homework they have to do (Logos). According to Alfie Kohen, students feel forced to do their homework, therefore they aren't learning as much as they should (Ethos). Students lose interest in the topic and do not benefit from what they’re learning. In China, a cry for change by a mother who lost her thirteen year old daughter who committed suicide due to her inability to achieve in math, the mother considers homework is a huge negative factor toward her deceased daughter's tragic ending along with the pressure of society (Pathos). Such a story should leave us wondering, how many more children need to suffer the silent epidemic of school stress. Statistics prove the leading cause for the majority of physical and emotional complaints leading up to diagnosis of depression in middle and high school due to the amount of

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,

Not only does homework help student but also it creates interaction between teens and parents. However, statics has shown that even though homework is a way to refresh what students have learned, it also create stress for students. Homework has shown its benefits for student but most of the time when student is given a homework it’s likely he/she will not do it. They believe it’s stressful,and when they can’t get the right answer, they gave up instantly instead of keep practicing. According to researchers, they believe that when student do more homework they get better grades and do well on the test/quizzes that were given. Even though homework has many advantage toward students, it also has disadvantage. Which include having too much homework and these things could lead to mental health issue toward students.

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.

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 quality of students’ homework is much more important than the quantity of students homework and data collected during recent studies has proven that homework is not making the grade. “. . . American students are entangled in the middle of international academic rankings: 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and 31st in math according to the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)” (Murphy-Paul). Students should not be given an excessive amount of homework because the pressure of having to complete excessive amounts of homework every night is quite daunting for most students. Knowing how much homework is the right amount correlates with age and grade. An 8th grade student should not be given a myriad of homework that would keep her awake past midnight completing assignments. In any case, there should be a limit on the amount of homework all teachers give to students because an excessive amount of homework would eventually cause students to become uninterested in school and learning, which could result in poor test scores and low ranks in international academic rankings. In order for students to carry out daily activities throughout the day restfully, teachers must be able to provide homework that does not exceed the appropriate amount of time needed to complete it, which is based on grade level. If teachers are too clueless of a students health due to excessive amounts of homework, many students will develop cases of sleep

The next reason too much homework is harmful to students is that studies show more homework to cause lower test scores. One to two hours of homework a week does not cause a major change in test scores (Wolchover). There is no evidence of homework having any academic benefit in elementary or middle school, and the academic benefit found in high school is very weak (Kohn). Homework is not shown to help students academically until grades ten through twelve (Wolchover). There is also no proof that homework increases good study habits in students (Kohn).

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 is very stressful on students, due to the fact that students may have other activities to do and may have less time to spend on homework. “Homework is frequently the source of frustration, exhaustion, family conflicts, a lack of time for kids to pursue other interests and, perhaps most disturbingly, less excitement about learning” (Akman). With too much of homework for students each night they can get worn out from it and develop a dislike from learning. Homework can be the cause of many things and with much conflict from homework students can build up more stress which can harm their health. “Empirical studies have linked excessive homework to sleep disruption, indicating a negative relationship between the amount of homework, perceived stress and physical health” (LeTendre). Too much homework for students each night can raise their anxiety levels and cause more stress for the student. Homework now is more difficult for students to comprehend and can take hours to complete leading students to more and more stress each school

When kids have homework every night it steals time away from relaxation. Students are tired after a long day at school. For example, students are now staying at home doing homework instead of being with friends and family. Homework takes time away from

Imagine yourself stressed so much that you can't pay attention or focus on your teacher, so when you get your assignment you have no idea what to do. Reasoning is because you're still worrying about the five other classes you have homework in as well. A standard researcher found 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. More than an hour of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study. The researchers asked students whether they experienced physical symptoms of stress, such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems. More than 80 percent of students reported having at least one stress-related symptom in the past month, and 44 percent said they had experienced three or more symptoms. The researchers also found that spending too much time on homework meant that students were not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills. Students were more likely to forgo activities, stop seeing friends or family, and not participate in hobbies.Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

The health of students is impacted because of excessive amounts of homework. According to the American Psychological Association, researchers have said, “The average high school student can only withstand 10 minutes multiplied by their grade of homework.” This means that a 12th grader should only be given 120 minutes of homework a night, or 2 hours of homework. Many seniors in high school stay up until one in the morning trying to complete all of their work from each of their AP classes, and are trying to maintain a good GPA as they get ready to apply to college. Staying up to complete these ongoing homework assignments leads to sleep deprivation, which will result in poor focus in class the next morning. According to research, sleep deprivation can eventually lead to depression and chronic illnesses. Students have to balance the workload for each class in order to complete all the assignments for that night. This leads to excessive amounts of stress which has also been proven to lead to depression, suicide, and too much or too little eating. This could unfortunately lead to obesity or anorexia. There are students who have actually committed suicide because they were not able to complete all of their assignments for the next day. Five students from New York, along with others from Virginia, California and Massachusetts took their own lives because of the amount of stress that was put on them from the schools assigning too much homework that was difficult to get done on time.

Homework can put extreme stress on physical health as well as mental and emotional feelings. Some teachers assign long menacing assignments often. Its as if they think they are the only teacher their students will see and do homework for. When all teachers assign homework at once, it can quickly add up to hours worth of homework. Many students are having to stay up to unreasonable hours for school work. There are multiple student accounts of having to stay up past midnight to complete all assignments. A middle school student said she has worked on homework until 3 AM a few times (Gonchar). Sleep is a very important thing for growing teenagers because professionals say it is a time for the body to rest, a time for cells to grow, and a time for other biochemical

The struggle students, parents, and teachers face with homework has remained problematic for many generations. Some educators and parents will argue that it is necessary and helpful to the students when it comes to their academic achievement, but most students will argue that it is not as effective as it seems. In fact, homework has been a key element in the education of students since their first year of school. As students get into higher grades the amount of work they are assigned becomes increasingly difficult and can become too much for them to handle, which is the case for many high school students. The excessive amount of homework high school students receive has led many of them to have stress, thus resulting in the development of multiple health issues. Is the stress of homework really worth putting the health of high school students at risk?

Physical and mental health are both wrongly affected by too much homework. A buildup of stress can lead to sleep deprivation and even depression. Often, the more stressed people are the more unhealthy eating habits occur. Those unhealthy eating habits can range from eating too much to eating nothing at all. From personal experiences in high school many of my friends and even myself have suffered from general anxiety over homework; it is not a good experience at all. As student’s homework amount increases their grades seem to plummet, causing mental breakdowns or actions relating to mental breakdowns. Now that students are having mental breakdowns it’s even harder to complete any of their homework at all. Homework overloads are an absolute threat to students’ lives; something has to change.