The Harmful Effects of Homework
High school students feel more stress than working adults, and children are beginning to feel aversion towards learning. Both adolescents and children are at risk of health issues due to anxiety and less time is spent with family, playing, and sleeping. The cause for all of this is too much homework that is suffocating students. Homework causes students to sleep less, have more stress, and even forces students to give up extracurricular activities. These negative results can be improved by reducing the homework load.
Students continue to work late into the night to meet the pressing homework deadlines, sacrificing much needed sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep in order to do well in school, but they only get an average of 7 hours of sleep because of school work (Teens and Sleep). A cruel cycle exists between school work and sleep. Students are assigned a lot of homework and stay up late working on it. In class they use up time going over the homework, and cannot fit the lesson in the class period. To make matters worse they are given another large amount of homework in order to keep up with lessons and repeat the process. When students do not get the needed amount of sleep to be able to work in school they cannot pay attention in class and get behind in school. Dangers are very real when it comes to a lack of sleep such as student drivers getting to school in the morning. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving causes more than 100,000 crashes every year, and a leading factor to drowsy driving is not getting enough sleep (NHTSA). In high school, students can drive themselves to school, and if they are no...
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...g, and asking, “What is the lowest grade I can get to pass?” In fact, Finland, one of the leading countries in education, hardly ever assigns homework, unlike other countries, such as Thailand, who assign more homework and are behind(Suskind). Even if the teachers, in Finland, did assign homework it would only take thirty minutes to finish. Teachers can also benefit from less homework because it would reduce the amount of time grading.
Reduce the amount of homework students receive so that they can get the sleep they need to fully grow and develop. Changing the large mass of homework will help students not have an excessive amount of stress, and have more time to participate in extracurricular activities, which would provide other important benefits. A smaller burden will help students to be healthier, more productive, and be a more fully developed person.
The first major step in healing America’s exhausted teenagers is to reduce the amount of homework they receive. Kids from the ages of fourteen to twenty-two alike are expected to play sports, join clubs, and hang out with friends – all on top of an average of three and a half hours of h...
When you think about school one of the first things that pops into people’s mind is homework. Basically if you have asked your parents or your grandparents they would say that they remember the homework load. Now we all know that homework can be beneficial but also can be very unhealthy with all of the stress that it causes. Over the years the homework load has increased because of the fact that schools think that they need to try to keep up with other countries in academics. And will doing all of this homework now be all for nothing later? The homework load has increased these past couple of years and it is causing a lot of stress on kids and overall is not helping their academics in the long run.
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...
Has homework ever weighed you down? If not now then when you were a kid? That’s how many children feel every day of the week. Many students at Round Valley school have been getting an outrageous amount of homework everyday. For example 46.2% of students that were surveyed believe that homework does not help them at all and that it is just busy work that keeps them from playing outside and having fun. I believe that Round valley students should not get homework because they don’t have time to sleep, they have trouble focusing and they have lots of anxiety.
“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.
Homework can prevent students from discovering what they really enjoy doing. There is no time for them to read about interesting topics, or think about their own ideas, because they are too busy trying to keep up with their homework. By the time they are finished, they are too tired to do anything else.
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
In conclusion, I have to say that homework should truly be banned from all schools around the world. When this happens, teachers will start to feel respected during class time, parents will be able to bond and get together with their precious family for once, and students? They will be living the true meaning of a school life. Sure, homework can teach children good study habits, organization, and responsibility. But face it. You and I know it’s just more than that. Homework is just downright misery.
Everytime a kid does his homework, correctly, they are possibly advancing their knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand. Although, Alfie Kohn, author of the book “The Homework Myth” states, “Such policies sacrifice thoughtful instruction in order to achieve predictability, and they manage to do a disservice not only to students but, when imposed from above, to teachers as well” (Suhay). Not all homework will be beneficial. It can harm
The amount of homework assigned has dramatically increased over the past few years. With new state standards and standardized testings, teachers are beginning to put more pressure on children. They are being sent home with six page packets and vocabulary words that are due the next day. Most children do not have the time or help to complete this much homework. Alfie Kohn’s The Truth About Homework states “Homework continues to be assigned - in ever greater quantities - despite the absence of evidence that it is necessary or even helpful in most cases.” Not only is all of this homework unnecessary, but it can have negative effects on the children as well.
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
Since about fifth grade students have complained about homework and not having the time or energy to do extra activities as they would like. Even the lower grades have problems with homework but the higher grades receive more and a lot of responsibility is put on them and expectations are much higher. Knowing that that’s how it should be, the amount can be cut down as some of the work given is unnecessary and a waste of time. “Indeed, homework tends to be an extension of school work — good schools give useful homework; bad ones, not so much”, sometimes teachers give homework just to put another grade in the system, yet the students have to waste their time and finish it and get nothing out of it. The only good thing about homework is that it can help and give the students a better understanding of the subject, but the excessive amount can leave students to be less motivated and sleep less which causes them to lose focus easily. It is necessary to be able to come to an agreement with assigning homework in which students only are given worksheets that are helpful and don’t take as much
In today’s world, education is more important than ever, and with education comes homework. However, many teachers give too much homework, which makes students extremely stressed. In addition, some are into sports or after school activities, and some have part time jobs they have to work at, which adds additional stress to the already overworked students. Mounds of homework can cause students to be under so much stress that it affects them mentally, physically, and emotionally. Stress can make students sick with colds, stomach aches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, and/or anxiety disorders (Menninger and Dugan).
We all know the downfall of homework: the frustration and exhaustion, family conflict, time loss, and decreasing interest in learning. No study has ever demonstrated any academic achievement linked to assigning homework. There is also no support to the fact that homework provides nonacademic benefits at any age. Here are a few examples: building character, promoting self-discipline, or teaching good work habits. All teachers who assign homework want to believe that the gain outweighs the pain. Although, there is no evidence of that and they must rely on faith (“Homework: No Proven Benefits”, pg. 1). Michellea, a mother of a middle school student, says that some work can reinforce certain skills, but hours of homework are unhealthy and unproductive. Mominseattle agrees. She contemplates that such a heavy load can result in potential drawbacks to the students. Hours of homework a night plus a full day of school can be just as much work as an adult at a full-time job. She believes students should enjoy their childhood, as short as it already is. MagnetMom complains about how her daughter’s homework takes away her beneficial sleep. With busy families, like hers, they have many after school activities, so when they get home, they do not have time for too much homework. She says ...