Many researchers take the view that homework is more damaging than helpful. Children spend 7 to 8 hours, 5 days a week at school. Should they be required to come home and spend additional hours on homework? According to Alfie Kohn, “The positive effects of homework are largely mythical” (Kohn, 2007. p1). Homework is leaving them little time to do any other activities and little time with their family. Not only do the students find homework frustrating, but that frustration carries over to the parents. Homework time can become the dreaded part of the day and their evening gets taken over by the assignments (Corno, 1996). Look at the picture to the left. The child has likely spent many hours at school and her table is now covered with even more work to do. She looks frustrated and overwhelmed.

Lathan considers how homework is not equally fair. Students come from all different home life’s. Many children may not have the resources or the parent involvement at home to complete the assignments. For example, we may have one 4th grader that comes home to two parents that are able to help with the extra assignments, while another may come home to an empty house while there parents are at work. According to Lathan not only is homework frustrating to do but it can also affect a child’s mental and physical health (Lathan, 2021). I have a daughter that struggles with school work. She has been diagnosed with a reading disability. A homework assignment that would be expected to take 15 minutes independently could take her an hour or more to complete with help. This caused her to feel defeated and lose confidence in herself.

There are still teachers and researchers out there that believe homework is a necessary part of school life. Teachers assign homework for different reasons. Many times, teachers feel the students need to review the material covered in the classroom. Maybe a student is having a upcoming test and needs to prepare. Others may assign it to teach additional material. Some students may benefit from the extra work at home. According to Corno and Xu, homework is compared to a student’s job and can teach them valuable lessons and prepare them for entering the workforce later in life (Corno and Xu, 2004). These lessons can include independence, preparation, and time management. Another positive effect Cooper believes is homework can get parents involved in their child’s learning. This can help students to develop a positive attitude toward education (Cooper, 2021).

Teachers are also faced with very demanding schedules and trying to fit everything in the school day may not always be possible. While working in the schools I have noticed how all the children work at a different pace. Teachers either have to wait on everyone to finish and get behind or move on before everyone has completely understood the material they were working on. Lets look at the imagines to the left showing typical days in the classroom. Every minute of the day is accounted for. If they need more time for math what should they do? Do they take away time from science, or recess, or should they send assignments home to complete. Their is not a right or wrong answer, but just questions we should ask ourselves when we are working in the classroom.