Roth, Grace
AP Lang Period 6
October 19, 2016
Abstract
Homework has been considered apart of every child’s learning experience in America, but there are many downsides to homework. Homework prevents children from exploring the world they live in, besides just what they learn in the classroom and prevents many other activities. Along with this, homework can be very unhealthy is child’s life due to the amount of stress it causes. There is also evidence that suggests homework has no affect on learning and in many cases is counter productive. Homework causes many conflicts within families and is in many households left to the parents and not the students. The evidence of homework being a good thing is outweighed by the evidence that shows how homework can be a negative thing in many students lives.
Citations
Copping, J. (2014, January 16). One in six parents 'do all the homework ' - Telegraph. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10578136/One-in-six-parents-do-all-the-homework.html
Levy, S. (2016, August 11). Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids ' Health? Retrieved October 7, 2016, from http://www.healthline.com/health-news/children-more-homework-means-more-stress-031114
NEA - Research Spotlight on Homework. (2015). Retrieved October 5, 2016, from http://www.nea.org/tools/16938.htm
Taylor, N. (2015, October 23). Too much homework leading to stressed out families ... Retrieved October 14, 2016, from
Students feel more stressed and turned off to learning, which is, a lifelong pursuit when it comes to homework. Too much homework turns kids off to learning and makes them less rather than more invested in school and learning. Are children having too much homework? There has been a big disagreement about if students should have homework or students should not have homework. Some people say they should not have homework and some say they should have homework. Children should not have homework, because it wastes all of the time out of school.
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
“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.
David Mills’s article published in Healthline, “Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids’ Health?” is a piece focused upon the extensive amount of time consumed by homework by students of all ages as well as the subsequent health effects that typically result from the issue. With the assistance of multiple studies, Mills argues that current students are highly exceeding the national standard of allotted time for homework and instead recommends several alternatives to the problem, such as primarily focusing upon the assignments that they deem as of appropriate and beneficial quality. Although he specifically asserts that refusing to do the work altogether is one of the best methods to easily relieve the increasing pressure felt by students in vigorous schooling systems, it actually has the opposite effect: by delaying the work until later, students fall into an endless cycle of being
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?
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.
Across the world, children and teens do homework after school. Many people expect homework to be a healthy educational learning tool, but is it really? No, I believe homework is something we need to get rid of. Instead of making it easier to learn, it is creating stress and medical issues with students, finally, it doesn’t affect academic success. Why exactly?
Roberto Nevilis, a teacher in Venice, changed history when he created the first use of homework in 1095. Since then, students’ opinions of homework haven’t changed. Roberto Nevilis started homework as a way of punishing his students for not doing their work. Nowadays, homework is assigned to help students receive more practice for what they learned in school that day. Despite the good intentions that homework is supposed to provide, it actually proves more harm than good. In the twenty-first century, the increase of homework negatively affects American teens’ sleep schedules, stress levels, and after school opportunities. Parent involvement in homework can turn into parent interference.
Homework has been at the front of school reform since the early 1900’s. Debates over the benefits of homework include “immediate impact on the retention and understanding of the material it covers” (Cooper, 1989, p.86) and downsides of homework include “satiation, denial of access to leisure time and community activities; parental interference; cheating; and increased differences between high and low achievers” (Cooper, 2006, p.7) have led to a see-saw of support and objection regarding homework. There is support from several studies (Maltese, Tai, Fan, 2012; Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006; Falkenberg & Barbetta, 2013) that cite homework as a source of increasing students’ achievement level. None of the
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).
“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.”
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
The negative consequences it yields come forth in multitudes. It gives teachers an excuse to not improve their teaching skills but rather assign homework to make up for squandered class time. Hours spent on homework leaves students with hardly enough time to spend on extracurricular activities, personal interests, family gatherings, and sleep. The stress it produces often leads to depression, physical health problems, unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drugs and alcohol, self harm, and suicide. An ample amount of research has been done that substantiates homework’s harmful impact towards a child’s educational progress and emotional growth, yet it is repeatedly ignored. For something with such hazardous risks to be viewed as an essential constituent of education is absurd. Our nation is essentially valuing education before life itself. Teachers should not be given the ability to deprive children of necessary developmental experiences by assigning extreme amounts of homework, and parents should not sit around allowing it to happen. In order for children to become truly educated they need to experience the world and what is has to offer, not be cooped up in their bedrooms for hours on end completing futile
In the article,“Homework Could Have An Impact On Kids Health”, acorrding to the author when kids get stressed out on their homework or when kids give up on their homework it leads to arrguing with parents and then leads to a bad night of sleep wich highly leads to bad grades. Thease things might be what happens to you everyday, and if it is what happens to you everyday then it probobly annoys you and makes
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.