Homework Persuasive Essay

Homework has always been a controversial issue, not only in the United States but in the world. The trend of homework given keeps on changing based on the foreseen need of a society. According to a research conducted by Marzano and Pickering, in 1940 growing concern that homework interfered with other home activities sparked a reaction against it. “This trend was reversed in the late 1950s when the Soviets' launched the Sputnik (The Russians first satellite to be place in the orbit) which led to concern that U.S. education lacked rigor to produce minds that could compete with other nations in the technological department; schools viewed more rigorous homework as a partial solution to the problem. By 1980, the trend had reversed again, with

As Boekaerts and Corno pointed out in 2005, although teachers set goals and expectations for homework, students must independently complete homework by practicing self-regulatory and responsibility. Behaviors such as planning, inhibiting distractions, persisting at difficult assignments, organizing the environment, overcoming unwanted emotions, and reflecting on what they have learned are developed in the process of complete an assigned homework. “Children who complete homework outside of school often develop an aptitude for academic work through extra practice and are responsible for regulating their own behavior, making homework a classic form of self-regulated learning” (197). Other researchers such as Zimmerman, Bonner, and Kovach acknowledge that these skills (responsibility and discipline) promote positive behaviors that, in addition to being important for academic pursuits, generalize to other life domains. “Because homework generally requires students to complete tasks with less supervision and under less severe time constraints than is the case in school, home study is said to promote greater self-direction and self-discipline attributes apply to the nonacademic spheres of life as well as the academic” (1). Furthermore, not only does homework instill positive attitudes that would last a life time, it also brings families closer together and strengthens team work amongst them. In Hoover Dempsey’s article titled The Motivational Benefits of Homework, “teachers can use homework to increase parents' appreciation of and involvement in schooling”