The Effects Of Homework On Students ' Lives Outside Of School

In a study General Society conducted, 16% of teens viewed themselves as workaholics, 39% said they felt under constant pressure to do more than they can handle and 64% cut back on sleep to do the things they need to do. As these tasks are quite time consuming, students state that homework is the most out of all the unpaid activities they do throughout the day, as 60% complete 2 hours and 20 minutes on average each day (CBC news, 2007). The amount of homework students receive on average daily has greatly increased in the past 15 years, which concerns parents. Homework interferes with students’ lives outside of school, a student’s overall health, and consumes countless hours, which is why it should be limited to a reasonable amount.

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

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 is the idea of extending the school day, by assigning students work to be done at home. There are many different opinions of homework and its effectiveness, overall homework has been proven to have a positive effect on student achievement. John Hattie explores a study done by Cooper in 1989. “Cooper’s results suggest that more task-oriented homework had higher effects than did deep learning and problem solving homework… Homework involving high level conceptual thinking and project based was the least effective (Hattie 235)”. Assigning students’ homework that requires teacher support can have a negative effect on student achievement. Cooper “found that a lot of homework and a lack of monitoring seem to indicate an

The survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers found that on average, they assign 3.5 hours of homework each week. For high school students who typically have seven classes with different teachers, that’s approximately 24.5 hours each week. Students spend approximately 35 hours a week at school and around 25 hours on homework. This lengthens each school day from around 7 hours to 10 hours. Now add the time students spend on extracurricular activities and sleep. They are faced with such packed schedules, and yet we wonder why they are struggling. Homework consumes an excessive amount of their time, and if we banned it, their schedules would be far more tolerable. The questionability of homework causes it to be one of the most

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

Excessive amounts of homework puts stress on students, and can lead to health issues. When homework is loaded onto a student every night in each class, they can become quite overwhelmed. When students have anxiety and stress, their schoolwork is affected negatively. “Stress causes lack of sleep, slipping grades, fatigue, unhealthy eating habits, and many more factors” (“Should Students Get Less Homework”). Approximately 80% of students don’t get the recommended amount of sleep each night. According to a 2006 poll, “At least 28% of students fall asleep in class, and around 22% fall asleep while doing homework” (“Should Students Get Less Homework”). Some students talked about being so overwhelmed with all of the work they got at school, that they became depressed. In some cases, depression can lead to suicide. Students can have nervous breakdowns and can make homework difficult to complete. Also, students

Too much homework can cause stress and other health issues. Also, students are working more than the recommended amount of time on homework, and this takes away from family time and free time, as well as time for sleep. When it comes to doing homework, students also want time to relax and enjoy other activities. Shouldn’t students get less homework so that they can be happy and have more time with family and friends? Administrators, teachers, students, and parents need to address this issue and inform people about the effects of homework on students in America. If teachers and parents tried to reduce the amount of homework there would be a decrease in stress and anxiety and an increase in happiness! “Homework makes it so I can’t spend time with my kids and family and I resent

School is very taxing on students and their families. A study from The American Journal of Family Therapy showed students have nearly three times too much homework (Wallace 1). Supported by the National Education Association, the standard amount of homework is ten minutes per grade; 1st grade has ten minutes of homework, 5th grade has fifty minutes. Kindergartners are not supposed to be getting 30 minutes of homework, the amount of homework meant for a third grader. Too much homework is unreasonable and unfair. Students are already in school for seven hours, there is no need for extra hours of work at home. Stress affects not only the student, but the parents as well (Pressman 1). Parents feel unable to help their children with an increase in homework. As demands and difficulty increase, parents feel overwhelming stress because of their inability to assist their children. Another study showed 56% of students stated homework was their main stressor; Homework was directly connected to conditions such as ulcers, migraines, weight loss, and sleep deprivation (Enayati 1). Over half of 4,300 students who participated stated they feel there

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.

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

Many educators believe that homework is the perfect way to prepare their students for academic success. As a result of this belief, students receive several hours of homework each and every school night. On top of being given various assignments after the school day is finished, we are also expected as young adolescents to participate in extracurricular activities and attend school functions. Which leads to an important question that me and my fellow seniors have for school teachers and administrators: How on earth do you expect us to manage seven hours of sitting in a classroom five days a week, complete hours worth of homework, work part time, and take part in school activities? We are only human and sadly, there are only 24 hours in a day. Somewhere in those 24 hours we want to spend time with our families, friends, and actually get more than just a couple hours of sleep.

Many teens have goals for what they want to do later in life. Whether it may be getting the job they want, getting accepted to the college of their choice, earning scholarships, or even being able to provide for a family later in life, all of these things stem from what they are doing right now in high school. Recently in American public schools specifically, there has been a lot of push-back on homework, saying that homework is not needed. Data produced in a study by The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), shows that at age 17, twenty-seven percent of children were assigned less than an hour of homework in 2008, which decreased to twenty-six percent in 2012. In 2008, twelve percent of children were assigned homework to complete, but did not do it, which decreased to eleven percent of students in 2012. The amount of homework being assigned is decreasing, but the amount of children doing this homework is decreasing with it. This trend, however, should not be occurring if those same children want to not only reach their goals, but exceed them. Homework is a necessary part of school and should be utilized by teachers and worked on by kids.