Introduction
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?
High School Student Perspective
When surveyed online, a group of 1,950 adults (18+) responded with a number from a scale of 1 through 10, grading their stress levels; 1,018 teenagers from the ages 13 to 17 had responded to the same survey. The American Psychological Association, who had conducted this survey, had found something very telling: the average
Assigning homework to student athletes can harm their performance in school and in their sport. One of my reasons why homework should not be assigned, is that the students don’t have the extra time to complete the homework. Another reason why homework should not be assigned includes, the students need to get enough sleep for school the next day. My final reason, if homework is assigned it should not be too much and it should not take longer than a half an hour to complete. In conclusion, homework should not be assigned to student athletes on game day.
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,
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
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.
In the article “ When Homework Takes Over,” by Merri Rosenberg, she quotes ‘ A new study finds that heavy homework takes negative impacts on the lives of high school students, resulting excess stress, physical problems, and little time for leisure. This shows that excessive homework can lead to high stress levels and physical problems for teens and children. Rosenberg also states ‘Teachers handing out more assignments than ever is making kids stressed, their sleep
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
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
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 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
Having the stress of finishing homework almost every school day can have a toll on students who can't handle this much tension and strain each night. Students and children don't usually get as much sleep as they should when they have homework, for example, “During the school week, she averages three to four hours of homework a night and six and a half hours of sleep” (Greenfield). This explains that students that spend too much time on homework and lose sleep time each night can affect kids later. Losing sleep is not a healthy thing for students who need to wake up early and go to school. Since students spend so much time on homework, it can cause different forms of depression, ¨I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to go in the backyard and just run around,’ a teenage girl laments in the film. ‘I’ve gone through bouts of depression’ from too much homework, another confesses. A bewildered-looking third girl says: ‘I would spend six hours a night on my homework.’”(Hancock). This proves that homework can cause forms of mentally challenging issues or less sleep. Most kids go through depression and having something like homework that you constantly have can not be a good thing. Homework stress can cause many mentally challenging problems for students and other problems like this can be caused by too much
A longitudinal analysis of NAEP data by the Brookings Institution’s Tom Loveless in 2014 found that more 9-year-olds were regularly doing homework than their parents' generation: In 1984, 35% of students reported no homework the previous night. By 2012, that had shrunk to 22%. But the share of 9-year-olds reporting an hour or more of homework was also down by two percentage points in that same period, from 19% to 17%. The percentage reporting less than an hour of homework had risen from 41% to 57%. Loveless also found that 27% of 17-year-olds reported having no homework. And the share of 17-year-olds who spent more than two hours a night on homework remained unchanged at 13%. This shows that a lot of students are having homework. Kirkwood High School was trying an experiment for the sake of student and teacher mental health. Some schools across the country have already tried discarding homework, and many reports success and positive feedback from students and
Being a kid is not easy, trying to juggle sports, school, and a social life is stressful and time consuming. We have lives outside of the classroom and keeping track of our work is very difficult, but there are ways to help keep the two balanced. Here are some helpful ways to keep your school life managed and still have a productive lifestyle.
It is a well known fact that students of various ages and schools are assigned homework, although the motive for giving said homework may vary depending on the teacher. However, the debate about whether homework is helping or hindering education is at a stalemate. Stated simply, homework is work assigned by teachers that students should complete at home or any other non-school setting. Just how effective is homework in the long run? Is it just adding unnecessary stress to students without truly adding enough positivity to make the homework worth it? Although homework can seem burdensome, it undoubtedly solidifies concepts learned in class and aids in the development of timeless skills such as time management and accountability.
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