Should Schools Give Students Homework?

Homework over the years has been a controversial topic, some experts say homework helps students improve academically, meanwhile, others say homework causes students to have burnout and way too much stress. Can there be a way where we can still have homework without stressing out students?

Mental Health 

Mental Health is an important thing we must consider, when the student can't focus on their assignments not only will they not complete the work, but they also have no motivation to complete it in the first place, therefore they will further fall into the routine of not completing anything which just makes them feel even worse, And the cycle continues.

Fatigue and Stress

Fatigue and stress play another grand part in a student's ability to be able to work and get their assignments done. Once a student has too much Fatigue and stress they are unable to focus and they won't be able to catch up with all the homework and assignments that continue to be forced onto them

Physical Health

We should focus not only on mental health but physical as well. Some Physical health problems that were found to be more likely to occur are sleep deprivation, weight loss, stomach problems, and headaches. 


Summary of the problem

Students get too much homework, and all this work is piling up giving the student too much stress and fatigue. They gain the inability to complete any of the assignments and while the pile of unfinished work continues to grow, the student continues to gain even more stress, which in turn ruins their physical and mental health. 

This video is Talking about the two sides of homework, and wether it's actually beneficial or not. 

This video says the learning style of homework is not beneficial for students, and uses the learning style of video games as a comparison

This video is talking about the creator of homework and how he inteded to use it. 

Main Topics 

Counter Argument

Although some experts might say homework is meaningful, purposeful and designed to meet students’ needs and it strengthens the home-schools relationship; however while that may be true that homework can help students, there are other ways to achieve that same effect like tests, or reviews at the end of lessons so students can show they know and remember what they were taught. Besides, not all information taught by schools is what students are going to remember, when they grow up, the information they learned might have nothing to do with their job in the future. Thus making homework a less priority or just getting rid of it, makes it easier not only for the students but for the teachers as well (They don’t have to grade so much and can take a break from all the papers they have to look at) It helps take that burden off of them, and gives them more time to just relax, and not overwork themselves. 

Results of your survey

76% of Curie High School students who were surveyed agreed that Schools shouldn't give students homework. 

Interview Summary

This person is credible because they are a student themselves, and therefore they have experience in this problem that I am writing about. They generally said that they did have trouble with homework, especially when they get it from every class. They mentioned that instead of relaxing after school is over, they have to spend time completing their homework, making them even more exhausted, and having to overwork their brain trying to complete eveything. A memorable quote they shared would be "If you don't complete your homework, your grades will drop, you won't do so well on test, you will forget the material that you are working on."

Your personal opinion

My personal opinion is that schools shouldn't give students homework at all, that they should just get rid of it. There are many negative effects it's having on sutdents, which can be easily solved if we just get rid of homework. Not having to worry about completing your homework from multiple classes, is a huge stress reliever. Students can relax, or focus on other groups/clubs if they are apart of one. Not only does it help students but it also helps teachers take a break from grading students papers, which also gives them time to relax and destress from a day of teaching multiple classes (and having to deal with children). 

Should Schools Give Students Homework?

Homework has always been a controversial topic between researchers. They have found that too much homework can cause burnout, stress, weight loss, sleep deprivation and many more health related problems. Because of these negative effectives, researchers have been conducting tests and running polls to try and figure out whether homework is needed at all. In the past homework served as a way for students to memorize facts from their lessons, which could be recited back to the teacher the following day. Nowadays people don’t appreciate that approach anymore and says it restricts students' creative learning ability, that school is much more than memorizing facts about the world. Considering all the negative effects of homework we can see that homework is a big problem and therefore schools shouldn’t give students homework. 


Firstly, having too much homework, and working with burnout/stress can be very difficult. According to Levy, Sandra “Why Homework is bad: Stress and Consequences”, “More than 80% of students reported to having at least one stress-related problem.” This proves that most students struggle with homework and it’s causing all these health problems, which is hard for children to deal with. Another example from the same article states “Students have been overburdened with homework and spending so much time on it is not only taking a toll on their health (mental and physical), they have a lack of balance in their lives, and are alienated from society.” This further proves that too much homework is bad for students,  further illustrating that schools shouldn’t give students homework.


Secondly, when students have too much homework, they begin to develop a negative feelings towards schools. According to Nair, Madhu “The Pros And Cons Of Homework” “Endless surveys have found that homework creates a negative attitude towards schools, and homework has not been linked to a higher level of academic success.” This shows that once students start feeling the negative effects of homework, they start to resent completing it at all. And they begin to question the point in attending schools when all they have to deal with is completing work on top of their already produced stress. Another example is from Wier, Kirsten “Is homework a necessary evil?”  the author states, “In fact too much homework can do more harm than good, researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material.” When students already have a hard time completing homework, adding more onto that workload can make them even more upset that they’re falling behind, thus resenting school itself.  Again further showing that homework is a big problem and schools shouldn’t give students homework. 


Additionally, If students don’t have enough time to complete all of their homework it adds to that already amount of stress. According to Nair, Madhu “The Pros And Cons Of Homework” “School is an already full-time job for students. Students also often have extracurricular activities, adding on the the extra hours to all these demands is a lot for a child to manage.” Not only do children have to deal with school and their homework, they’re also dealing with other activities and trying to do their best in those as well, just brings on another giant pile of even more stress for those students. Another piece of evidence is from Baron, Alison “Evaluating The Role Of Homework” which states “Inherent in the old paradigm are the assumptions that all students can do the work (not all of them can), and that all students have time to do the work (not all of them do).” This further proves that not all students have the time available to complete the homework that school is forcing them to complete. And just by removing homework from the students' workload it takes away that big amount of stress  from them. Which makes it no longer a problem, thus further proving that schools shouldn’t give students homework. 


Lastly, although some experts might say homework is meaningful, purposeful and designed to meet students’ needs and it strengthens the home-schools relationship; however while that may be true that homework can help students, there are other ways to achieve that same effect like tests, or reviews at the end of lessons so students can show they know and remember what they were taught. Besides, not all information taught by schools is what students are going to remember, when they grow up, the information they learned might have nothing to do with their job in the future. Thus making homework a less priority or just getting rid of it, makes it easier not only for the students but for the teachers as well (They don’t have to grade so much and can take a break from all the papers they have to look at). 


In conclusion,  homework causes a big amount of stress on students. It takes a toll on their mental and physical health, as well as takes away from their personal free time. And when students don’t have much time to complete all their work it just adds even more stress of falling behind. Showing that homework is a big problem and schools should just not give students homework. 

Sources

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Review Activity

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