The Problems of Summer Homework

Summer break is supposed to be a time of rest and rejuvenation for students. After nine months of hard work and challenging classes, one would think such a long break could do nothing but good for students; however, this is not the best way for young minds to learn. A three month break is far too long for children to go without proper education and supervision. Instead of a long three month break at the end of each school year, why not give students the same number of days off but spread them out more frequently throughout the year? Year-round education is a more efficient, globally competitive, and fair alternative to the traditional nine month school year.

In the beginning of the twentieth century homework was viewed as an exceptional practice that helped students learn through practice and repetition. In recent years parents and educators were concerned that homework is taking away from “social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities” These experiences are necessary to a good childhood. So, let’s think about it, is homework necessary for success in school?

The average school period is one hundred and eighty days with small breaks in between and a three-month break during summer to ease students’ minds and let them relax. The Board of Education should make all schools in the United States year-round to increase educational time and decrease the loss of knowledge over the breaks. It gives students the same time to relax and plan family vacations periodically throughout the year, but never creates the stress of changing sleep schedules that summer break changes. Not only is it a good way to enhance education, but it also is better for planning family events, positive effects on budget, academic achievement, and could decrease the absence rate of students.

Year-round schooling is characterized by its 45-90 day periods of instruction (varying with different multitrack systems) separated by 15-30 day breaks (varying with different multitrack systems) (California Department of Education). There is no current scientific evidence to show that year-round education lessens the amount of material forgotten during the summer (McMillen 68); in fact, this memory loss is maximized as it occurs more frequently as it accompanies the shorter, habitual breaks. Constant breaks can also multiply some of summer’s negative effects. One common issue associated with summer is students’ loss of focus as summer approaches and trouble becoming accustomed to the beginning of the following school year (Worsnop 439). This would be a, though minimized, a recurring difficulty with constant breaks. Furthermore, teachers

It was also noted that while one teacher was expecting to have to reread several chapters of the class book, she was pleasantly surprised to only have to go back a few paragraphs. The most popular opposition to this theory is to assign summer homework, which some schools have already implemented into their curriculum, for the students to complete on their own time over break. However, even with school assigning summer work as a way to combat the summer slide, there is no way to enforce when, or how much effort, students put into their summer work, and nothing assigned over break can compare to what students learn in a school supervised environment with no distractions. Harris Cooper, director of the education program at Duke, confirms that when tested in the spring and fall, “kids generally slide in math and reading during the traditional summer break” (O’Sullivan), proving that two of the most real-world applicable subjects need to be continuously practiced upon to reach

Along with the comeback of school we need to “Pity our poor teachers who spend every September reprogramming children to do their homework, spending hours on remedial lessons and waiting until overtired children readjust to regular bedtimes” says McFeatters. She made me realize that schooling lacks over the summer and forgets to stick for the arrival of school. As stated, teenage workers’ jobs have become taken by those whom are unsuccessful adults trying to make a living. Being a teenager, I plan on trying to get a job, but my education is also in my hands of retaining throughout a summer of jobs and even summer school to keep up with my schooling to get into more colleges with an overloaded class agenda. Year-round school would keep up with my education, and there would be more breaks to find jobs here and there to keep up with extra curricular, or even my car.

As of 2014, over 3000 schools in the United States are year-round. Instead of having one longer summer break, these schools take several shorter breaks throughout the year (Scholastic 15). With so many advantages and very few disadvantages of year-round schooling, it is not surprising that these schools chose to exchange their excessively long summer breaks for shorter, more frequent breaks. Not only can year-round schooling improve the academic performance of students, but it can also economically benefit all aspects of society. Schools should adopt a year-round calendar, causing one to question the perils of year-round schooling.

Most teachers have most likely heard “I don’t want to be at school” or “I can’t wait for summer.” Toward the end of the school year, teachers become agitated and students put in less effort on their work. To fix this problem, schools should resort to year-round schooling. “Flexible twelve-month patterns can be tailored to fit the personal needs and preferences of each family unit by permitting vacation and other non-school activities to be planned throughout the year” (Glines). During their time of break, students will be able to use the time to collect themselves and become more relaxed. Also, this gives students time to plan activities or

Students spend much of their time in scheduled or required activities such as school, before and after school programs, hours spent doing homework, etc. that their calendars may already allow little time for other interests or just unwinding (Worsnop 443). The long, traditional summer breaks away from daily schedules and demanding workloads may be these students’ only time to really pursue other interests and opportunities (Worsnop 438), especially activities that may take more time and dedication. A common and often efficient way to explore these interests is through the wide variety of summer camps offered during the traditional break (“Leave Those Kids” 5). These activities could help students learn new skills that are more specific to their field of interest or can be applied to any aspect of life (Worsnop 443). Offering educational and interesting opportunities such as these camps can help students realize that “not all learning happens in the classroom” and inspire them to seek out other ways to explore their interests (“Leave Those Kids” 5). However, these enrichment and educational possibilities are not always available to everyone, potentially putting certain students at a disadvantage. To counter act the financial disparity possibly causing this obstacle, actions should be taken to aid these students specifically oppose to changing an entire school’s schedule (“Leave Those Kids” 5). Moreover, for the number of schools unable to offer additional courses during breaks, students would not be able to take required classes outside of the school day in order to replace them with enrichment courses which can provide a source of self-expression and relieve stress (Mazzochi 121) as well as a way to expose or fill students with passion for something new. Many advocates of year-round systems highlight the fact that both systems, traditional and year-round, provide the same

“A long summer vacation in which students forget much of what they have learned is far from ideal for learning” (Shields et al.). Many educators are beginning to realize the benefits of year-round schooling. Even though year-round education is not traditional, year-round schooling should be implemented because year-round education increases academic achievement, frequent breaks allow students and teachers to recharge, and track plans relieve overcrowding. Year-round students still retain school holidays, but these holidays are distributed throughout the year. These breaks created are called intersessions. Year-round education comes in many

This is true however giving reasonable amounts of homework will allow both time for family and time for learning. Alfie Kohn, the author of The Homework Myth Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, says that homework promotes “such virtues as self-discipline and responsibility” (3). This shows that homework not only benefits the student academically but teaches the student valuable time management skills that are needed later in

Students often wonder how fun it would be if they had a three-week break every nine weeks, as opposed to one long summer break. Changing summer break into much shorter, but more frequent breaks would be beneficial for many reasons. Just think, most students lose up to one month of knowledge over the summer. Although most students could go to a learning camp over the summer, lower income students cannot afford this as summer break is financially taxing on them. Finally, while lower income and higher income students may have their differences, all students stay up late over summer break. Staying up late causes these students to get out of their school routine. It is a wonder why the US education system hasn’t already turned summer break into

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

Parents, students, and teachers all sometimes wonder how useful is homework? Though studies examining the relationship between homework and school achievement have been inclusive(ERIC). Still many teachers and researchers still agree that homework helps students achieve higher grades in school. Schools that assigned homework frequently showed higher student achievement than schools that assigned little homework(ERIC). This means that homework is working. Studies have generally found that if teachers carefully plan homework, homework can be quite helpful(KidSource). Homework has proven its effectiveness and is a very powerful factor in student performance.

The majority of students have, at one point or another, wished for less homework. For some student’s homework is not a big issue but for other students it can take hours and even days to do all their homework. That wasted time could be used for enjoyment or learning life skills instead of homework. Nine in ten high school students reported feeling stressed about homework (Galloway 4). So, should students get less homework? Yes, students should receive less homework because it improves their well-being by reducing stress and its impacts on health, increasing leisure time, and showing that homework does not affect grades significantly.