Imagine that you are riding home from cross country practice, which begins immediately after school, just about to go to confirmation at church. You are stressed about not having everything you need for conformation and you still have algebra, history and your independent reading to do for homework. “Three out of four American families with school-aged children have at least one playing an organized sport — a total of about 45 million kids,” (Atkinson). While assigning homework at school daily would allow for teachers to talk more about their lessons in class, homework should not be given to students on a regular basis because it causes students to stress out, takes time away from student engagement with their families, and many parents end up doing their children’s homework for them.
One might argue that teachers should assign homework to every student on a daily basis because homework is a good way for parents to track, and get a grasp on, what their children are learning in school, but when students spend too much time on homework, that the student is having trouble with, and not enough time with their families problems start to occur. Therefore homework is harming students’ future, mental health, and GPA
Homework has been around for at least 923 years it is time to get something new instead of homework. “The history of homework actually goes back to the year 1095 in the city of Venice where Roberto Nevilis is credited with being the first teach to use homework,” (“Who Invented Homework”). Everything changes, most of the time very rapidly. Homework has been the same for hundreds of years. Change in the school system, particularly concerning homework, could do the students a lot of good. “Life is about change, sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s beautiful, but most of the time it’s both.”(Lana Lang).
Homework should not be given on a regular basis because homework is doesn’t have as much of an impact as any extracurricular activity would have on most students. “These after-school activities have much more diffuse goals than single subject test scores,” (Wolchover). Students who achieve their goals that they set in any of their activities will be more likely to feel good about themselves than any goal that they set in a classroom setting. Also students have a tendency to remember a lot more from what they learned from a coach or a club sponsor than what they were taught in English class their sophomore year.
Homework is a lot easier to cheat on if you are outside of class. Students who have access to another friends paper or even access to the internet have it made easily when it comes to cheating. A study shows that “95 percent said they participated in copying homework,” (“Plagiarism: Facts & Stats”). If 95 percent of students cheat on homework anyway then how can it be fair for the 5 percent of students that don’t cheat and get a worse grade. “Cheaters, on average, boast a 3.41 average. Non-cheaters average at 2.85,” (“8 Astonishing Stats on Academic Cheating”). By cutting back on the amount of homework that teachers assign students have a smaller chance of cheating and a bigger chance of actually learning all of the information that the teacher is teaching you.
Homework can be very stressful when it comes to a subject that you are not very good at. “38 percent of students in grades seven through 12 and 28 percent of students in grades three through six report being “very often/often” stressed out by their homework,” (Ryan). Students that get a lot of homework that they can’t figure out often feel like they will not succeed in school unless they complete this perfectly. When students get too stressed out, “the body responds with a series of chemical reactions that affect heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism and other functions. These temporary adjustments help us adapt and survive, but when they happen too frequently or last too long they can produce lifelong chronic disease.”(“Stress Has Lasting Effect on Child’s Development”).
When students don’t know how to do their homework, or feel stressed out about their assignment, students will turn to their parents to do their homework for them. According to a surey “43 percent of parents admitted to doing their child’s homework for them,”(McClure). If a student isn’t in class when they do their homework to ask the teacher for assistance, their parents will end up doing it for them. Statistically. most of the parents can’t correctly help their students do their math homework. This study shows that“the parents themselves don’t know the answers (71 percent)”(“National Survey of High School Math Teachers”). If 71 percent of parents find math hard, useless, and can’t even do basic high school math, then the students can’t rely on their parents to help them get the right answer.
Homework is now considered to be a major factor in your health down the road. Homework can affect both students’ physical and mental health. “According to a study by Stanford University, 56 percent of students considered homework a primary source of stress. Too much homework can result in lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion and weight loss. Excessive homework can also result in poor eating habits, with families choosing fast food as a faster alternative.”(“Infographic: How Does Homework Actually Affect Students,”). Three of the top five of the most important things to living a healthy life are possibly being directly hurt due to homework. They include: “Sleep Like a Baby, Avoid Excess Stress, and Nourish Your Body With Real Foods,”(“5 Simple Rules for Amazing Health”). The other two on the list of top five important things to living a healthy life can be affected because of too much homework.
If you live in a low-income family, you don’t get the same education as everyone else and homework can add to the disadvantages of low-income. Almost half of United States children live in low-income families. “45 percent – 32.4 million – live in low-income families. 22 percent – 16.1 million – live in poor families,”(Addy) Disadvantages of low-income includes that they don’t have access to the same resources that most children do. “In already impoverished areas it is difficult to raise the funding for schools. The price of private schools puts them out of the reach of most low-income families making public schools the only option available for educating children,”(Reader)
Homework causes students to stress out, takes time away from student engagement with their families, and many parents end up doing their children’s homework for them. What teachers see as a essential part of the development for learning, is truly a unnecessary and harmful thing for most students. Homework’s disadvantages outweigh the advantages, and our school system is outdated.
Works Cited
- “5 Simple Rules for Amazing Health.” Healthline, 2005 – 2018, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/5-simple-rules-for-amazing-health#section6.
- “8 Astonishing Stats on Academic Cheating.” OEDB.org, Copyright © 2006-2018 OEDb -Accredited Online, Specialty, and Campus-Based Colleges, 31 Mar. 2016, oedb.org/ilibrarian/8-astonishing-stats-on-academic-cheating/.
- Addy, Sophia. “Also of Interest.” NCCP | Basic Facts About Low-Income Children, 29 Jan. 2013, www.nccp.org/publications/pub_1074.html.
- Atkinson, Jay. How parents are ruining youth sports. Perspective, Perspective, 04 May 2014, https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/05/03/how-parents-are-ruining-youth-sports/vbRln8qYXkrrNFJcsuvNyM/story.html
- “Infographic: How Does Homework Actually Affect Students?” Oxford Learning, 16 June 2017, www.oxfordlearning.com/how-does-homework-affect-students/.
- McClure, Robin. “Do You Do Your Child’s Homework?” Verywell Family, 14 Mar. 2018, www.verywellfamily.com/do-you-do-your-childs-homework-617225.
- “National Survey of High School Math Teachers.” SIAM News, 18 Apr. 2018, sinews.siam.org/Details-Page/national-survey-of-high-school-math-teachers.
- “Plagiarism: Facts & Stats.” Plagiarismorg RSS, www.plagiarism.org/article/plagiarism-facts-and-stats.
- Reader, Casey. “Advantages & Disadvantages of Low-Income Families.” Bizfluent, 26 Sept. 2017, bizfluent.com/info-7758560-advantages-disadvantages-lowincome -families.html.
- Ryan, Julia. “How Much Homework Do American Kids Do?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 Sept. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-much- homework-do-american-kids-do/279805/.
- “Stress Has Lasting Effect on Child’s Development.” Urban Child Institute, 15 Feb. 2012, www.urbanchildinstitute.org/articles/editorials/stress-has-lasting-effect-on-childs-development
- “Who Invented Homework?” Flokka, 17 Oct. 2014, www.flokka.com/strange-facts-invented-homework/.
- Wolchover, Natalie. “Homework Study Reveals Surprising Conclusion About Test Scores.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Mar. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/too-much-homework-test-scores_n_1391134.html.
