By now everyone knows what homework is. It’s the thing that many students are doing right now. Arguably it is one of the worst parts of school. The thing that students dread and what keeps them up at night. Teachers say that homework is used to practice and apply newly learned skills out of the classroom. They also say that it’s for us students to independently study information to make sure we understand the material we are learning. From a student’s perspective, all homework does is affect our mental health and personal relationships. Because of this people are saying that minimizing the amount of homework in schools can be extremely beneficial for us students in and out of school.
One side to the argument of should homework be allowed in schools or not is the argument to ban homework. One article says that “higher-achieving students — those who may have more homework — are at particular risk for stress-related health issues including sleep deprivation, weight loss, stomach problems, and headaches”. Homework is making our stress levels higher and our health worse, and I bet most of us can agree on that. Others are saying that “homework is having an effect on students’ relationships with their families, due to lack of time to connect between parents’ work and students’ school and extra homework”. A lot of us students can relate to this. Coming home from a long day at school, maybe having some chores to do around the house, and right when family starts getting home we have to do homework for hours. This is giving us no time to have a life. Jermy Engle and Michael Gonchar wrote an article called “Should We Get Rid of Homework” and they asked students just like us to comment on it with their real opinions on homework. Many students commented that they want time to relax after doing schoolwork all day. I know it’s not just them who feel like this. The students also commented that homework is overwhelming, and it is stressful knowing that if the work can’t be done because of clubs or sports it could make their grades drop. Which is so true and so unfair. So because of this, the banning of homework has been a topic of conversation for a long time, and it’s because of the fact that homework is stressful and has an effect on students.
The other side of the argument is that homework in schools is necessary for students’ to succeed. In the article written by Jermy Engle and Michael Gonchar, “Should We Get Rid of Homework,” a lot of students also commented that they feel homework is important for their learning. They say that without homework, they would not be able to improve their work outside of school, and homework helps them to understand what they are learning. Now this is so true for so many students. Homework isn’t supposed to be super fun and it’s not supposed to always be exciting. Homework is supposed to be something to help us and make us do better in class. Even though a lot of you might not what to hear this homework is proven to have a positive effect on students’ grades and success. “Numerous studies have shown that regular homework has a hand in improving student performance and connecting students to their learning,” which is leading to a higher success rate in schools and in students’ futures. All of you know the type of homework that is considered “busywork” and it is what a lot of our teachers are giving us. It is what makes us as students not see the importance of the homework we are being given; but students who are given homework that has a purpose and is challenging are the students who understand that homework is what helps them do better in school. Homework is essential in the growth of our minds, and homework helps us as students do better in our classes.
A solution to this argument that we can all try and agree on is to give us students minimal homework so we also have time after homework is done to have fun, relax, and hang out with friends and family. Homework should not be useless assignments that take forever to finish; instead, teachers should give short assignments that get us students thinking and that we can actually understand and get done. In the article, “Should Students Have Homework?” The writer Suzanne Capek Tingley says that “by limiting the amount of homework and improving the quality of assignments, you can improve learning outcomes for your students.” In simple terms this means that giving less homework while still being relevant and useful could help with our health, personal lives, and grades. We would also still be learning the information we need to do good in school. Again in the article, “Should We Get Rid of Homework,” a real student said, “I think we should not get rid of homework, but lessen the amount of homework that students get”. This just proves what we needed to hear even more. Actual students like us are saying that lessening the amount of homework being given can be very beneficial.
By doing this in schools it would not be taking away homework altogether, but lessening the amount of it. This would take away a lot of concerns and hatred us students have around homework. People who have said that homework should be banned say, “High school students get an average of 6.8 hours of homework per week”. Which is absolutely crazy. Minimizing the amount of homework means that us students would be spending less time on homework a week while still getting a good education. We would have more time to focus on our own personal physical and mental health while still having time to have a social life.
There are a lot of people who strongly believe that homework is an essential part of school. The solution of minimizing homework will still provide us students with the education we deserve without giving us way too much work. “I encourage educators to focus not on the quantity of homework, but instead on its quality—and on using it effectively in class”. This quote is so real and a lot of people can agree with this. The minimization of homework is to give us more complex assignments and less work to do. This is so we can get better in school while still being able to succeed in other areas of life.
The argument of if homework should be banned in schools or not has been a debate for a long time. As students we can agree that homework in schools can have positive and negative effects on students. However we know that in the end minimizing the amount and upping the quality of homework is more beneficial than receiving heavy homework or none at all.
