Homework has always been associated with school, but not until recently has its usefulness been doubted. Students spend eight hours a day at school, not counting those in extracurricular activities, leaving little time to do anything besides their daily homework when they do get home. This brings up the age old argument of whether homework is harmful and should be abolished, or if homework is beneficial and should stay. Although some people believe homework is beneficial towards students, homework should be abolished because it does not guarantee that the student understands the subject, it increases stress levels, and it does not significantly affect test score.
There are those who believe that homework should not be abolished because it benefits
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Usually, parents are the first people to notice that their child is becoming too stressed out. Almost 40 percent of parents say their high-schooler is experiencing a lot of stress from school, according to a new NPR poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. In most cases, that stress is from academics, not social issues or bullying, the poll found. (NPR). This information shows just how needless homework is. Work that is assigned by teachers should be finished during the class period instead of at home so that the stress factor is diminished. Students do not need the added pressure of trying to finish all of their homework for every one of their classes before the assignment is due the next day. Too much stress from homework can also make students physically sick from worrying about finishing it and staying up late through the night to finish it. “We found a clear connection between the students’ stress and physical impacts -- migraines, ulcers and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss,” says Denise Pope, co-author of the study. (Daily Mail). Students should not be getting physically sick because of school. School is meant to promote learning and success, not sickness and …show more content…
Most of the homework given to students by teachers is remedial busywork that barely covers the topic or challenges the student to learn something new. According to Richard Walker, an educational psychologist at Sydney University, data shows that in countries where more time is spent on homework, students score lower on a standardized test called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. (Huffington Post). Students who do the remedial homework score significantly lower than students who did not do the homework at all. For example, the country of Finland has little to no homework in their education system and has a high school graduation rate of 93%, compared to the United States’ rate of 75%. Standardized tests do not play a big part in Finland’s education. Students in New York take up to 10 standardized tests before high school, whereas students in Finland only take one standardized test before they turn 16 years old. This is because Finland’s teacher to student ratio is 1 to 12, giving the teachers more time to interact with the students on a personal level and creating a better learning environment. Teachers are also required to obtain a master’s degree before they are allowed to teach. (Neonam). Finland is a perfect example of why homework is not needed for students to thrive and learn in
Many students who feel the pressure to succeed at the high school level have an unhealthy amount of stress. Students who feel this have been cheating, pulling all nighters, becoming depressed, and seeking relief in drug use, and self mutilation. On average in a recent study at Illinois high school students spend 3.07 hours of homework each night on just homework not including extra curricular activities(Jerushapope,2). Also in this high school students reported getting 6.8 hours of sleep each night, but 34.6% reported getting 6 or fewer hours of sleep(Jerushapope,2). Most high school students spend 2 hours of extra curricular activity each night thats not including homework so after those activities you have to come home and do homework and then you will not have a lot of time to sleep. Also most kids do not get a lot of time to spend with their parents during the weeknights. Some kids cannot even make it to the dinner table because they have so much homework and that is not healthy for the parents and their childs relationship. In ...
Proponents of homework claim that homework reinforces learning, and that in order to become a leader in education among all other countries, we have to assign homework, so students will better understand and grasp the concepts taught to them in school. However, as U.S. students get assigned more and more homework, the ranking of those students globally falls...
According to research done by the University of Michigan, elementary school students in 1981 spent forty-four minutes a week on homework. Sixteen years later 9-12 year olds had an increase of almost two more hours a week (Ratnesar 313). A 1983 government report, A Nation at Risk, caught the attention of the American Education System. The article explained the failings of the American school. It explained how education is declining, and teachers need to get tough on their students again. This prompted...
Although the living conditions of children are getting lot better than when we were kids, the children study more time than we did. The pupils have to get up at earlier than 7 o 'clock to make sure they won’t be late for school. Not only have that, these pupils still had to participate in various after school program, and a lot of variety of training during the weekends. The most pressure is homework. As a summer school teacher, I always can hear kids say that the teacher gave them too much work, had to spend two hours a day to compete the homework, and have no time to play. Is it too much pressure for the kids? That is the question for most of the parents. What should the parents as should do to let these children relax and do not have that much pressure? The author of Help Children Form Good Study Habit, Erika A.Patall points out those parents should not help children do their homework because they need their own practice. Not only that, the author of The
Eggs came first. Millions of years before mammals, eggs existed, their hard shells unlike her mammalian sister who waddles around, heavily crippled with the burden of her womb. Eggs conferred evolutionary advantage.
Imagine being involved in so much pain and misery, pharmaceutical tests, vaccine tests, Military experiments and training and brain experiments. 125,000 primates are imprisoned in US laboratories every year. In order to take the Primates at a young age from their natural habits, trappers will shoot the mothers from the tree, shock the animals with dart guns and capture the babies who are still clinging onto their dying mother. Do animals not deserve to be cared for the same way people care for other people? In laboratories, primates go through series of experiments that lead up to their death. 90 percent of primates in laboratories develop psychological issues. After being taken from family, Primates are locked in a small steel cage and left to be alone. At most the primates are given cheap plastic toys, scratched mirrors and occasional fresh fruit such as an apple or banana. Primates will eventually begin to
“Did you know that homework is one of the greatest causes of student dropouts and failing” (Kralovek 39)? Since the beginning of the twentieth century, homework has been a major debate in America. “At first, the brain was seen as a muscle that could be trained by learning from homework and people enjoyed learning at home. This enthusiastic spirit did not last long since during the 1940’s, Professor Otto explained that, ‘Compulsory homework does not result in sufficiently improved academic accomplishment.’ When Sputnik was launched in the 1950’s, the United States feared that Russia would dominate the world in technology if homework continued to be unnecessary. This incident has partially shaped our country to compete more with other nations. Yet again, during the 1960’s, researchers and educators feared that needless pressure on students was a symptom of overdoing homework. Educator P. R. Wildman wrote in the late sixties that homework does not meet its expectations when it blocks out social experiences, creative activities, outdoor recreation, and deprives students of their recommended daily sleep” (Cooper 34, 38). Today, homework continues to grow in need for students entering high schools and higher education; nonetheless, concern has grown over its benefits for all, especially elementary children. There are many necessary life skills that homework can provide for everyone, which must be used appropriately and in moderation. According to researchers, such as Harris Cooper, homework should be limited, even though research approves of its increased effectiveness as students grow older. Overall, America has witnessed major problems with homework overdoses because many of America’s families have become disrupted, the urge to improve test scores does not always come from doing homework, different ages deal better with specific types of homework, and problems with student behavior and attention in and out of school may arise.
As an example, in the article, “High School Homework: Are American Students Overworked?”, Lauren Miller declares, “However, in countries like the Czech Republic, Japan, and Denmark, which have higher-scoring students, teachers give little homework...more homework clearly does not mean a higher test score”. This manifests that students should be given less homework, allowing more time to study and even enjoy life as oppose to sitting at a desk for 2 to 4 hours. Moreover, Miller also points out “Too much homework is sapping students’ strength, curiosity, and most importantly, their love of learning”. This portrays today’s mindset that many students have and learning is viewed as a hardship one must overcome; the enjoyment of learning is absent in today’s curriculum. Thus, the amount of homework given should be limited or even nonexistent due to being proven ineffective in the learning
They also say that homework allows parents to see what their children are learning and that homework helps them get better grades. It is true that homework is a self-evaluation for students to make sure they understand what they are learning. However, that is not the case. According to Discovery News, “Studies show that 99% of teens said that homework causes stress.” How is something stressful beneficial? How can homework have a positive impact when it is only making student’s lives worse? Equally important, Discovery News also stated: “56% of students said that homework was their primary stresser more than tests or getting good grades.” As you could see from this, the majority of students feel homework is more stressful than things like big tests. Along with homework being stressful, Discovery News states “Students reported sleep deprivation because of homework.” Meaning that students lacked the requirement of the basic necessity of sleep, meaning at least eight hours. Just because of the extent of homework, students entre next day is halted because students are exhausted and incapable of functioning. But, if the amount of homework was reduced, I believe students would not be as stressed and it would be more practical and
As Kelly Wallace mentions in her article “Kids Have Three Times Too Much Homework, Study Finds; What’s the Cost?" that homework is a reason for damaging students; homework causes a lot of stress, effect of physical health such as ulcers, migraines, lack of sleep, and weight loss. The writer thinks too much homework is actually harmful for students. Additionally, a majority of high school students thinks excessive homework is not beneficial to their academic achievement or GPA, and there is some of evidence that it’s harmful to other aspects such as school attitude, grade, self-confidence, social skills, and quality of life. Besides, some of students are not focused and miss the main point of assignments which are given by teachers. Sometimes the assignment instructions are unclear, so students have a hard time understanding the task and therefore it takes longer to finish the work. Particularly for some foreign students whose first language is not English, this situation happens quite often. Thus, all of students would hate to do homework and it is easy to lose the joy in
I strongly believe that students should not be assigned homework or just the bare minimum, teachers do not sometimes comprehend that students are enrolled in six different classes that are each give it at least an hour of homework. Studies have shown that 80 percent say they frequently or sometimes experience daily stress, 34 percent have felt depressed at some point in the past three months, 13 percent have been diagnosed with a mental health condition such as an anxiety disorder or depression, 9 percent have seriously considered suicide in the past year.So if a teenager is at school for roughly 8 hours, and they are doing homework for six or more hours, and they need at least about nine hours of sleep for their developing brains, and they may have 0 to 1 for other activities like eating, bathing, excersing, socializing (Which is actually incredibly for emotional, mental, and psychical health, as well as the development of skills vital to their future career and having healthy romantic relationships among other things), religious, activities, hobbies, extra curriculars,medical care of any kind, chores (also a skill/ habit development
Teachers believe that assigning more homework will improve standardized test scores. However, in countries like the Czech Republic, Japan, and Denmark, which have higher-scoring students, teachers give little homework. The United States is among the most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh and eighth grade, so more homework clearly does not mean a higher test score.
Homework is for suckers. Homework causes stress for students as well as for parents. Homework is extremely demanding and many students are spending far too many hours after school to complete their homework assignments. Although, some students may be able to whiz right through their homework, other students crawl along struggling at a snail’s pace. Consequently, family time is put on the back burner due to the time constraints of homework. Additionally, any extracurricular activities are also put on hold. Homework is nothing more than a scapegoat for teachers so that they can pawn off their due responsibilities on parents and students. Homework should be banned for students Kindergarten through 8th grade because the negative effects do not out weight the benefits that come from homework.
Dr. Michael Nagel, an associate professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast, says homework has no scientific benefit and that it could even be bad for a student’s brain. “The adult brain does not fully mature until the third decade of life (a person’s thirty’s) and too much stimulation could cause unnecessary stress on a student.” An analysis conducted by Pearson showed that the number of hours spent on homework was between ten and sixty-five hours a week, with females scoring higher on the hours of homework, stres...
Over the past few decades to date, views on homework assignments are still evolving as to the effect on classroom achievement. Parents of the late 60s and 70s desired for their children to be free to play and explore. Bennett and Kalish (2006) provided evidence that too much homework harms students’ health and family time. With the publication of A Nation at Risk in the 80s, parents wanted children to work harder even after school hours. “Homework can help students develop study skills that will be of value even after they leave school,” reads a publication on the U.S. Department of Education website called Homework Tips for Parents. “It can teach them that learning takes place anywhere, not just in the classroom. … It can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility. Homework can teach children how to manage time.”