Rodney Jones Argument Against Homework

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

Most of the homework adolescents tend to receive from their teachers is busy work, and children and family agree this is not fair to them. This issue is affecting adolescents, parents, and families. When students are overloaded with responsibilities from schoolwork, their participation in extracurricular and social activities decreases. An argument over homework might seem trivial, but there are many negative effects on children who are attending school and go through this pressure.

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.

“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.”

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

It has been said that “with all the homework students start to think less creatively and they might lose the learning to try and avoid challenging tasks” (Kohn). The fact that homework is able to make the students lose what they are learning is perhaps the most important reason that is is not beneficial. Homework has been seen as a way to increase learning and practice what students are learning, but with too much homework it can defeat the purpose. Students are getting much more work that is harder, because the schools are receiving stricter standards from the government that they must follow. But “the main effect ‘of the drive for so-called higher standards in schools is that the children are too busy to think,’as said by John Holt in 1959” (Kohn). Students are not being able to think creatively, because they are tied to standards and homework. “For students to become lifelong learners and good people, we need to work with them rather than using techniques like rewards and punishments, which merely do things to them” as said by Alfie Kohn, author of the book The Schools our Children Deserve (Kohn). Students see large amounts of homework as a punishment, and as said by Alfie Kohn that “merely does things to them” (Kohn). Homework should not be given in amounts where it starts to be counterproductive, and is no longer helping the students learn or think

Putting a little stress on students will force them to get homework done on time. This also teaches them that not everything is going to come easy and you are going to have to work for different things like grades. "Everyone needs to experience stress. This is how we learn to solve challenges, build knowledge and acquire new skills," says psychologist Oddgeir Friborg (Øvreberg).

Every single student receives homework when he or she enrolls in school. Whether it is a single page, or three chapters a night, homework is always a factor in education. This said, Brian Haley captures the essence of these assignments, saying, “like mowing a lawn or taking out the garbage, homework seems to be a fact of life” (Source E). It has been long debated what amount of homework is adequate for students. Some view homework as a hindrance, whereas others view homework as positive reinforcement of skills learned in the classroom setting. Decreasing homework is necessary, as it is a detriment that takes up time and does not add value to a student’s education.

A study conducted by Stanford University found that students in middle to high income school districts receive on average three hours of homework every night. After an extensive day brimming with classes who would yearn to go home and immediately undertake this additional burden of homework? Unfortunately for most students this is precisely what they have to do; this is particularly challenging for those who partake in extracurricular activities. These students stay up later to study, otherwise the abundance of homework handed out by teachers would never get completed. The overload of homework students receive on a daily basis is detrimental to their well being, for it results in a debilitating surge of stress levels, an inadequate development of life skills, and deprivation of necessary sleep.

The skills developed while doing homework prepares the student for higher grade levels, and the workplace as they will be essential in their lives. It does this by making the work become more difficult gradually, and often gives a bigger workload as the student grows. Homework is designed to help you understand, further your knowledge and to prepare you for what it will be like in the future. The¬ Teacher Magazine writes that homework in primary school, doesn’t have as much impact as secondary school, and is used to prepare the student for higher grade levels, i.e. high school, university and the workplace. The South-Western Education Laboratory writes that homework has more benefits in secondary school, than in primary school and that primary school prepares the student for higher grade levels. As stated in the first point, one of the biggest benefits of homework is the sense of responsibility that you develop from doing it, which is a fantastic trait to have and is vital in life. This shows that homework is important and should be done by

Homework over two hours has started negatively impacting teens. Without homework, students would not be able to review at home and would not be able to show responsibility. Despite these benefits, homework can cause students stress and at times can cause family conflicts. This essay will outline the damages for students with homework over two hours.

To many kids in elementary schools, homework is a menace. It takes away quality time from a student’s daily life and activities. In Romesh Ratnesar’s article “The Homework Ate my Family”, Ratnesar mentions about a student named Molly and her daily routine. Her daily routine consists of “spending two hours doing homework, practicing the piano, doing more than 100 math problems, labeling the countries and bodies of water and reviewing a semester’s worth of science” (Ratnesar). Molly barely has time for dinner. Ratnesar also mentions about a girl named Christina who “does not want to go to middle school, high school or college because of homework” (Ratnesar). Jonathan Keys, a parent of two boys

“Some experts think that the homework problem is deeply woven into the very fabric of our system of educating children” (Ponte), a system that does not foster a love of learning, but turns learning into a competition between students. In modern education, this is a result of a massive push towards better test grades and higher standardized test scores. In an effort to relieve some of the pressures this creates at school, educators extend the school day by assigning homework. It is a common belief among educators that homework helps create a student with a disciplined mind that can learn easier (Marzano and Pickering). However, according to Alfie Kohn, “In an attempt to create more learning by doing homework, students may actually be learning less than they are capable of” (qtd. in Ponte). The assignment of homework in education is not beneficial since it does not increase scores, not all kids have adequate support, and students need time to learn outside of academics.

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.

"I didn’t feel [stressed] until I was in my 30’s. It hurts my feelings that my daughter feels that way at eleven" (Ratnesar 313). This statement describes the intense issue facing the American Education System today. More and more students are spending a lot of out of school time on enormous amounts of homework. The overabundance of homework is putting pressure on the students, along with their parents. Our nation has steadily focused on after school studying to the point of possible exhaustion. In this paper, I will attempt to explain how educators are relying on homework as the major form of education, and how the amounts are too demanding on the students.