How would you feel if homework didn’t exist? Homework should be minimized because, first, homework causes problems in a student’s school-life balance, and second, it is ineffective and a waste of time for the student and the teacher grading it. According to The Human Restoration Project, “A study in Contemporary Educational Psychology of 28,051 high school seniors concluded that quality of instruction, motivation, and ability are all correlated to a student’s academic success. However, homework’s effectiveness was marginal or perhaps even counterproductive: leading to more academic problems than it hoped to solve.” School leaders should enact the solution since they have control over the classwork and homework.
When you think about homework, you probably think about how it helps students learn even when they are not in class. In reality, though, homework harms some more than others, for example, someone without access to resources like a computer and internet, or a parent or guardian available to support them. In addition, homework simply is not that effective, especially in the lower grades. Homework also causes problems with students’ family, friends, and even their school-life balance. According to the Human Restoration Project, students will not develop social skills as well if homework prevents them from socializing with kids their own age.
I’m an example of how homework can negatively affect someone’s home life. I like to think I am a good student with good grades. I have a little brother (he’s four years old). I also have a little sister (she’s 9 months old). I have to take care of them. They’re both obnoxious, and taking care of them takes time, so when I have homework assigned, I either have to get my parents to watch them even though I’m supposed to watch them for a little while, or I have to do my homework late at night, which leads to my being tired and less productive in class. It’s also challenging when I’m trying to do meaningful activities like soccer or One World, which is from 5-7 two nights a week.
Minimizing homework as much as possible and allowing students to talk to teachers one-on-one if they need it would definitely work as a solution to this problem. I also think people should become informed about and raise awareness of the mental health problems related to homework. According to The Southerner, most students already have stuff to do outside of school; therefore, if we give them homework or too much homework on top of all that, the students would get overworked, which can severely affect a student’s mental health. I went to a school that did not give me any homework. While I was there, I felt less stressed, and I felt like I slept a lot better since I did not have to stay up late to finish homework.
Homework isn’t productive because homework causes problems in a student’s social life and school/life balance, and it is relatively ineffective. A reasonable solution would be to decrease or completely get rid of homework; you could also allow students to talk one-on-one with teachers. The people responsible for enacting the solution would be the school leaders themselves since they have control over the classwork and homework. I think you all know my opinion on homework, but what is your opinion on it?
