essay on homework should be given or not

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: December 7, 2023

Published: January 23, 2020

Homework is a word that most students dread hearing. After hours upon hours of sitting in class , the last thing we want is more schoolwork over our precious weekends. While it’s known to be a staple of traditional schooling, homework has also become a rather divise topic. Some feel as though homework is a necessary part of school, while others believe that the time could be better invested. Should students have homework? Have a closer look into the arguments on both sides to decide for yourself.

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Why should students have homework, 1. homework encourages practice.

Many people believe that one of the positive effects of homework is that it encourages the discipline of practice. While it may be time consuming and boring compared to other activities, repetition is needed to get better at skills. Homework helps make concepts more clear, and gives students more opportunities when starting their career .

2. Homework Gets Parents Involved

Homework can be something that gets parents involved in their children’s lives if the environment is a healthy one. A parent helping their child with homework makes them take part in their academic success, and allows for the parent to keep up with what the child is doing in school. It can also be a chance to connect together.

3. Homework Teaches Time Management

Homework is much more than just completing the assigned tasks. Homework can develop time management skills , forcing students to plan their time and make sure that all of their homework assignments are done on time. By learning to manage their time, students also practice their problem-solving skills and independent thinking. One of the positive effects of homework is that it forces decision making and compromises to be made.

4. Homework Opens A Bridge Of Communication

Homework creates a connection between the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents. It allows everyone to get to know each other better, and parents can see where their children are struggling. In the same sense, parents can also see where their children are excelling. Homework in turn can allow for a better, more targeted educational plan for the student.

5. Homework Allows For More Learning Time

Homework allows for more time to complete the learning process. School hours are not always enough time for students to really understand core concepts, and homework can counter the effects of time shortages, benefiting students in the long run, even if they can’t see it in the moment.

6. Homework Reduces Screen Time

Many students in North America spend far too many hours watching TV. If they weren’t in school, these numbers would likely increase even more. Although homework is usually undesired, it encourages better study habits and discourages spending time in front of the TV. Homework can be seen as another extracurricular activity, and many families already invest a lot of time and money in different clubs and lessons to fill up their children’s extra time. Just like extracurricular activities, homework can be fit into one’s schedule.

The Other Side: Why Homework Is Bad

1. homework encourages a sedentary lifestyle.

Should students have homework? Well, that depends on where you stand. There are arguments both for the advantages and the disadvantages of homework.

While classroom time is important, playground time is just as important. If children are given too much homework, they won’t have enough playtime, which can impact their social development and learning. Studies have found that those who get more play get better grades in school , as it can help them pay closer attention in the classroom.

Children are already sitting long hours in the classroom, and homework assignments only add to these hours. Sedentary lifestyles can be dangerous and can cause health problems such as obesity. Homework takes away from time that could be spent investing in physical activity.

2. Homework Isn’t Healthy In Every Home

While many people that think homes are a beneficial environment for children to learn, not all homes provide a healthy environment, and there may be very little investment from parents. Some parents do not provide any kind of support or homework help, and even if they would like to, due to personal barriers, they sometimes cannot. Homework can create friction between children and their parents, which is one of the reasons why homework is bad .

3. Homework Adds To An Already Full-Time Job

School is already a full-time job for students, as they generally spend over 6 hours each day in class. Students also often have extracurricular activities such as sports, music, or art that are just as important as their traditional courses. Adding on extra hours to all of these demands is a lot for children to manage, and prevents students from having extra time to themselves for a variety of creative endeavors. Homework prevents self discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system. This is one of the main disadvantages of homework.

4. Homework Has Not Been Proven To Provide Results

Endless surveys have found that homework creates a negative attitude towards school, and homework has not been found to be linked to a higher level of academic success.

The positive effects of homework have not been backed up enough. While homework may help some students improve in specific subjects, if they have outside help there is no real proof that homework makes for improvements.

It can be a challenge to really enforce the completion of homework, and students can still get decent grades without doing their homework. Extra school time does not necessarily mean better grades — quality must always come before quantity.

Accurate practice when it comes to homework simply isn’t reliable. Homework could even cause opposite effects if misunderstood, especially since the reliance is placed on the student and their parents — one of the major reasons as to why homework is bad. Many students would rather cheat in class to avoid doing their homework at home, and children often just copy off of each other or from what they read on the internet.

5. Homework Assignments Are Overdone

The general agreement is that students should not be given more than 10 minutes a day per grade level. What this means is that a first grader should be given a maximum of 10 minutes of homework, while a second grader receives 20 minutes, etc. Many students are given a lot more homework than the recommended amount, however.

On average, college students spend as much as 3 hours per night on homework . By giving too much homework, it can increase stress levels and lead to burn out. This in turn provides an opposite effect when it comes to academic success.

The pros and cons of homework are both valid, and it seems as though the question of ‘‘should students have homework?’ is not a simple, straightforward one. Parents and teachers often are found to be clashing heads, while the student is left in the middle without much say.

It’s important to understand all the advantages and disadvantages of homework, taking both perspectives into conversation to find a common ground. At the end of the day, everyone’s goal is the success of the student.

Related Articles

Why Homework Is So Important Essay

Education plays an important role in ensuring children are taught career, survival and intellectual skills that will enable them to live comfortably in the future. Learning institutions have been established to ensure everyone goes to school and gets the required knowledge essential for human survival.

These learning institutions have come up with various programs aimed at ensuring that students make good use of their time while attending schools and also when out of classes. Homework and holiday assignments are the most common tasks that students are given when they are not in school to enhance their learning.

However, the debate continues to rage on regarding the importance of homework to students. The discussion below outlines the significance of homework to the development of the learning process of a student. Every human being has a unique ability to grasp various ideas and information depending on their age, exposure to different environments and levels of interests.

This makes it very impossible for every student to grasp all concepts being taught in class by their teachers. Therefore, when students are given homework, they can take time and study the concepts they did not understand during normal class time, and this makes them be at the same level with other students (Bader 12). Homework plays an important role in ensuring that students can learn at the same pace.

The fact that students have different abilities to memorize what they were taught means that their levels of learning differences and when they are given the same homework slow learners can catch up with fast learners, and this ensures they all stand equal chances of competing effectively.

Also, ninety percent of students are in their active stages of life, and therefore they like playing very much. These plays make students forget what they were taught during the day as their minds are occupied with games and other entertainment activities. When these students are given homework, they have limited time to attend to other activities like games and sports.

It is well known that all children and young adults like playing very much and when left idle they can spend the whole day playing at the expense of their education. Homework plays an important role in ensuring they are kept very busy and indulge in games only after they have finished their work.

Furthermore, homework enables students to make their studies and identify areas they did not understand very well. Sometimes students tend to cheat in their examinations and other class assignments by coping from others, and this earns them false grades.

However, when they are given homework they are not able to copy from their friends and in fact, they make all efforts to ensure they put their brains at work to answer all questions assigned (Bader 134). Therefore, teachers can identify areas that their students did not understand well and go over them again by organizing remedial classes.

Students are also able to identify topics that were not understood and seek the necessary assistance from their teachers. Moreover, homework enables students to be busy during their free time and avoid indulging in bad behavior. The fact that an idle mind gives way to irrational thinking should sound an alarm bell to all parents and students who shy away from homework.

When students are kept busy with homework, they will be in a position to avoid indulgence in bad behavior like drug abuse and premarital sex. When students are given homework, they get prepared for future career obligations that involve assignments and duties out of office.

This offers them an opportunity to develop the flexibility to time schedules and roles assigned in the future when they are employed. Also, they will be in a position to schedule their work programs effectively to meet all the demands of their jobs.

Lastly, homework enables students to read widely regarding other topics to be covered by their teachers. Assignments that are designed to give students an insight into their forthcoming topics makes them mentally prepared for other “hard topics,” and this makes them understand the concepts of such topics with ease (Bader 134).

Some homework is meant to break down complicated topics into subtopics that are easily covered and understood by students within the shortest time possible. Therefore, homework enables teachers and students to take the shortest time possible to handle complicated topics.

However, despite the above benefits associated with homework, there are other factors that make them ineffective in performing their intended roles in students’ developments. The first reason that disqualifies the suitability of homework to access student’s intelligence is the fact that in most cases homework assigned to students is not done by them.

Students ask their elder siblings to do their assignments for them as they sit and chat while watching television. When the teachers mark the assignments, they are pleased to note the outstanding performance by their students. However, the same students register low grades when examinations and assignments are done within the school compound.

Therefore, homework does not help teachers in assessing students’ understanding of various concepts. Also, it does not offer reliable criteria to test the students’ ability to remember and present the ideas learned from teachers. Secondly, students are usually very tired after spending the whole day in class and require time to relax and think of other things that may distract their attention from books for a while.

Over concentration on books and academic materials exposes the students to risks like developing obesity due to their inactiveness. It is known the world over that too much work without play or exercise makes an individual very dull and thus ineffective. Most students are usually between the ages of five years and twenty-seven, and they are still growing and developing (Bader 134).

For them to develop their physical fitness, they need time to indulge in sports and games to ensure their bodies get enough exercise. Moreover, the mind needs some time to reflect on other things and enable the brain and the blood vessels to relax as the student reduces pressure from thinking about school assignments and tests.

It is estimated that homework and other assignments are responsible for a huge percentage of causes of stress and depressions in many youths. This is due to the pressure to finish their homework in time and deliver quality results that drive most students to concentrate on them and ignore meals and stay awake the whole night.

Human beings have varying degrees of learning and memorizing, and thus homework helps students to ensure they do not forget what they were taught. It enables students and teachers to identify the study areas that need more attention. However, it should not compromise the students’ time to indulge in other equally beneficial activities like sleeping and exercising.

Works Cited

Bader, John. Dean’s List: Eleven Habits of Highly Successful College Students. Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Print.

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Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

A conversation with a Wheelock researcher, a BU student, and a fourth-grade teacher

“Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives,” says Wheelock’s Janine Bempechat. “It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.” Photo by iStock/Glenn Cook Photography

Do your homework.

If only it were that simple.

Educators have debated the merits of homework since the late 19th century. In recent years, amid concerns of some parents and teachers that children are being stressed out by too much homework, things have only gotten more fraught.

“Homework is complicated,” says developmental psychologist Janine Bempechat, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development clinical professor. The author of the essay “ The Case for (Quality) Homework—Why It Improves Learning and How Parents Can Help ” in the winter 2019 issue of Education Next , Bempechat has studied how the debate about homework is influencing teacher preparation, parent and student beliefs about learning, and school policies.

She worries especially about socioeconomically disadvantaged students from low-performing schools who, according to research by Bempechat and others, get little or no homework.

BU Today  sat down with Bempechat and Erin Bruce (Wheelock’17,’18), a new fourth-grade teacher at a suburban Boston school, and future teacher freshman Emma Ardizzone (Wheelock) to talk about what quality homework looks like, how it can help children learn, and how schools can equip teachers to design it, evaluate it, and facilitate parents’ role in it.

BU Today: Parents and educators who are against homework in elementary school say there is no research definitively linking it to academic performance for kids in the early grades. You’ve said that they’re missing the point.

Bempechat : I think teachers assign homework in elementary school as a way to help kids develop skills they’ll need when they’re older—to begin to instill a sense of responsibility and to learn planning and organizational skills. That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success. If we greatly reduce or eliminate homework in elementary school, we deprive kids and parents of opportunities to instill these important learning habits and skills.

We do know that beginning in late middle school, and continuing through high school, there is a strong and positive correlation between homework completion and academic success.

That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success.

You talk about the importance of quality homework. What is that?

Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives. It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.

What are your concerns about homework and low-income children?

The argument that some people make—that homework “punishes the poor” because lower-income parents may not be as well-equipped as affluent parents to help their children with homework—is very troubling to me. There are no parents who don’t care about their children’s learning. Parents don’t actually have to help with homework completion in order for kids to do well. They can help in other ways—by helping children organize a study space, providing snacks, being there as a support, helping children work in groups with siblings or friends.

Isn’t the discussion about getting rid of homework happening mostly in affluent communities?

Yes, and the stories we hear of kids being stressed out from too much homework—four or five hours of homework a night—are real. That’s problematic for physical and mental health and overall well-being. But the research shows that higher-income students get a lot more homework than lower-income kids.

Teachers may not have as high expectations for lower-income children. Schools should bear responsibility for providing supports for kids to be able to get their homework done—after-school clubs, community support, peer group support. It does kids a disservice when our expectations are lower for them.

The conversation around homework is to some extent a social class and social justice issue. If we eliminate homework for all children because affluent children have too much, we’re really doing a disservice to low-income children. They need the challenge, and every student can rise to the challenge with enough supports in place.

What did you learn by studying how education schools are preparing future teachers to handle homework?

My colleague, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, at the University of California, Davis, School of Education, and I interviewed faculty members at education schools, as well as supervising teachers, to find out how students are being prepared. And it seemed that they weren’t. There didn’t seem to be any readings on the research, or conversations on what high-quality homework is and how to design it.

Erin, what kind of training did you get in handling homework?

Bruce : I had phenomenal professors at Wheelock, but homework just didn’t come up. I did lots of student teaching. I’ve been in classrooms where the teachers didn’t assign any homework, and I’ve been in rooms where they assigned hours of homework a night. But I never even considered homework as something that was my decision. I just thought it was something I’d pull out of a book and it’d be done.

I started giving homework on the first night of school this year. My first assignment was to go home and draw a picture of the room where you do your homework. I want to know if it’s at a table and if there are chairs around it and if mom’s cooking dinner while you’re doing homework.

The second night I asked them to talk to a grown-up about how are you going to be able to get your homework done during the week. The kids really enjoyed it. There’s a running joke that I’m teaching life skills.

Friday nights, I read all my kids’ responses to me on their homework from the week and it’s wonderful. They pour their hearts out. It’s like we’re having a conversation on my couch Friday night.

It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Bempechat : I can’t imagine that most new teachers would have the intuition Erin had in designing homework the way she did.

Ardizzone : Conversations with kids about homework, feeling you’re being listened to—that’s such a big part of wanting to do homework….I grew up in Westchester County. It was a pretty demanding school district. My junior year English teacher—I loved her—she would give us feedback, have meetings with all of us. She’d say, “If you have any questions, if you have anything you want to talk about, you can talk to me, here are my office hours.” It felt like she actually cared.

Bempechat : It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Ardizzone : But can’t it lead to parents being overbearing and too involved in their children’s lives as students?

Bempechat : There’s good help and there’s bad help. The bad help is what you’re describing—when parents hover inappropriately, when they micromanage, when they see their children confused and struggling and tell them what to do.

Good help is when parents recognize there’s a struggle going on and instead ask informative questions: “Where do you think you went wrong?” They give hints, or pointers, rather than saying, “You missed this,” or “You didn’t read that.”

Bruce : I hope something comes of this. I hope BU or Wheelock can think of some way to make this a more pressing issue. As a first-year teacher, it was not something I even thought about on the first day of school—until a kid raised his hand and said, “Do we have homework?” It would have been wonderful if I’d had a plan from day one.

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Senior Contributing Editor

Sara Rimer A journalist for more than three decades, Sara Rimer worked at the Miami Herald , Washington Post and, for 26 years, the New York Times , where she was the New England bureau chief, and a national reporter covering education, aging, immigration, and other social justice issues. Her stories on the death penalty’s inequities were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and cited in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision outlawing the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. Her journalism honors include Columbia University’s Meyer Berger award for in-depth human interest reporting. She holds a BA degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan. Profile

She can be reached at [email protected] .

Comments & Discussion

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There are 81 comments on Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

Insightful! The values about homework in elementary schools are well aligned with my intuition as a parent.

when i finish my work i do my homework and i sometimes forget what to do because i did not get enough sleep

same omg it does not help me it is stressful and if I have it in more than one class I hate it.

Same I think my parent wants to help me but, she doesn’t care if I get bad grades so I just try my best and my grades are great.

I think that last question about Good help from parents is not know to all parents, we do as our parents did or how we best think it can be done, so maybe coaching parents or giving them resources on how to help with homework would be very beneficial for the parent on how to help and for the teacher to have consistency and improve homework results, and of course for the child. I do see how homework helps reaffirm the knowledge obtained in the classroom, I also have the ability to see progress and it is a time I share with my kids

The answer to the headline question is a no-brainer – a more pressing problem is why there is a difference in how students from different cultures succeed. Perfect example is the student population at BU – why is there a majority population of Asian students and only about 3% black students at BU? In fact at some universities there are law suits by Asians to stop discrimination and quotas against admitting Asian students because the real truth is that as a group they are demonstrating better qualifications for admittance, while at the same time there are quotas and reduced requirements for black students to boost their portion of the student population because as a group they do more poorly in meeting admissions standards – and it is not about the Benjamins. The real problem is that in our PC society no one has the gazuntas to explore this issue as it may reveal that all people are not created equal after all. Or is it just environmental cultural differences??????

I get you have a concern about the issue but that is not even what the point of this article is about. If you have an issue please take this to the site we have and only post your opinion about the actual topic

This is not at all what the article is talking about.

This literally has nothing to do with the article brought up. You should really take your opinions somewhere else before you speak about something that doesn’t make sense.

we have the same name

so they have the same name what of it?

lol you tell her

totally agree

What does that have to do with homework, that is not what the article talks about AT ALL.

Yes, I think homework plays an important role in the development of student life. Through homework, students have to face challenges on a daily basis and they try to solve them quickly.I am an intense online tutor at 24x7homeworkhelp and I give homework to my students at that level in which they handle it easily.

More than two-thirds of students said they used alcohol and drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with stress.

You know what’s funny? I got this assignment to write an argument for homework about homework and this article was really helpful and understandable, and I also agree with this article’s point of view.

I also got the same task as you! I was looking for some good resources and I found this! I really found this article useful and easy to understand, just like you! ^^

i think that homework is the best thing that a child can have on the school because it help them with their thinking and memory.

I am a child myself and i think homework is a terrific pass time because i can’t play video games during the week. It also helps me set goals.

Homework is not harmful ,but it will if there is too much

I feel like, from a minors point of view that we shouldn’t get homework. Not only is the homework stressful, but it takes us away from relaxing and being social. For example, me and my friends was supposed to hang at the mall last week but we had to postpone it since we all had some sort of work to do. Our minds shouldn’t be focused on finishing an assignment that in realty, doesn’t matter. I completely understand that we should have homework. I have to write a paper on the unimportance of homework so thanks.

homework isn’t that bad

Are you a student? if not then i don’t really think you know how much and how severe todays homework really is

i am a student and i do not enjoy homework because i practice my sport 4 out of the five days we have school for 4 hours and that’s not even counting the commute time or the fact i still have to shower and eat dinner when i get home. its draining!

i totally agree with you. these people are such boomers

why just why

they do make a really good point, i think that there should be a limit though. hours and hours of homework can be really stressful, and the extra work isn’t making a difference to our learning, but i do believe homework should be optional and extra credit. that would make it for students to not have the leaning stress of a assignment and if you have a low grade you you can catch up.

Studies show that homework improves student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicates that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” On both standardized tests and grades, students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school.

So how are your measuring student achievement? That’s the real question. The argument that doing homework is simply a tool for teaching responsibility isn’t enough for me. We can teach responsibility in a number of ways. Also the poor argument that parents don’t need to help with homework, and that students can do it on their own, is wishful thinking at best. It completely ignores neurodiverse students. Students in poverty aren’t magically going to find a space to do homework, a friend’s or siblings to help them do it, and snacks to eat. I feel like the author of this piece has never set foot in a classroom of students.

THIS. This article is pathetic coming from a university. So intellectually dishonest, refusing to address the havoc of capitalism and poverty plays on academic success in life. How can they in one sentence use poor kids in an argument and never once address that poor children have access to damn near 0 of the resources affluent kids have? Draw me a picture and let’s talk about feelings lmao what a joke is that gonna put food in their belly so they can have the calories to burn in order to use their brain to study? What about quiet their 7 other siblings that they share a single bedroom with for hours? Is it gonna force the single mom to magically be at home and at work at the same time to cook food while you study and be there to throw an encouraging word?

Also the “parents don’t need to be a parent and be able to guide their kid at all academically they just need to exist in the next room” is wild. Its one thing if a parent straight up is not equipped but to say kids can just figured it out is…. wow coming from an educator What’s next the teacher doesn’t need to teach cause the kid can just follow the packet and figure it out?

Well then get a tutor right? Oh wait you are poor only affluent kids can afford a tutor for their hours of homework a day were they on average have none of the worries a poor child does. Does this address that poor children are more likely to also suffer abuse and mental illness? Like mentioned what about kids that can’t learn or comprehend the forced standardized way? Just let em fail? These children regularly are not in “special education”(some of those are a joke in their own and full of neglect and abuse) programs cause most aren’t even acknowledged as having disabilities or disorders.

But yes all and all those pesky poor kids just aren’t being worked hard enough lol pretty sure poor children’s existence just in childhood is more work, stress, and responsibility alone than an affluent child’s entire life cycle. Love they never once talked about the quality of education in the classroom being so bad between the poor and affluent it can qualify as segregation, just basically blamed poor people for being lazy, good job capitalism for failing us once again!

why the hell?

you should feel bad for saying this, this article can be helpful for people who has to write a essay about it

This is more of a political rant than it is about homework

I know a teacher who has told his students their homework is to find something they are interested in, pursue it and then come share what they learn. The student responses are quite compelling. One girl taught herself German so she could talk to her grandfather. One boy did a research project on Nelson Mandela because the teacher had mentioned him in class. Another boy, a both on the autism spectrum, fixed his family’s computer. The list goes on. This is fourth grade. I think students are highly motivated to learn, when we step aside and encourage them.

The whole point of homework is to give the students a chance to use the material that they have been presented with in class. If they never have the opportunity to use that information, and discover that it is actually useful, it will be in one ear and out the other. As a science teacher, it is critical that the students are challenged to use the material they have been presented with, which gives them the opportunity to actually think about it rather than regurgitate “facts”. Well designed homework forces the student to think conceptually, as opposed to regurgitation, which is never a pretty sight

Wonderful discussion. and yes, homework helps in learning and building skills in students.

not true it just causes kids to stress

Homework can be both beneficial and unuseful, if you will. There are students who are gifted in all subjects in school and ones with disabilities. Why should the students who are gifted get the lucky break, whereas the people who have disabilities suffer? The people who were born with this “gift” go through school with ease whereas people with disabilities struggle with the work given to them. I speak from experience because I am one of those students: the ones with disabilities. Homework doesn’t benefit “us”, it only tears us down and put us in an abyss of confusion and stress and hopelessness because we can’t learn as fast as others. Or we can’t handle the amount of work given whereas the gifted students go through it with ease. It just brings us down and makes us feel lost; because no mater what, it feels like we are destined to fail. It feels like we weren’t “cut out” for success.

homework does help

here is the thing though, if a child is shoved in the face with a whole ton of homework that isn’t really even considered homework it is assignments, it’s not helpful. the teacher should make homework more of a fun learning experience rather than something that is dreaded

This article was wonderful, I am going to ask my teachers about extra, or at all giving homework.

I agree. Especially when you have homework before an exam. Which is distasteful as you’ll need that time to study. It doesn’t make any sense, nor does us doing homework really matters as It’s just facts thrown at us.

Homework is too severe and is just too much for students, schools need to decrease the amount of homework. When teachers assign homework they forget that the students have other classes that give them the same amount of homework each day. Students need to work on social skills and life skills.

I disagree.

Beyond achievement, proponents of homework argue that it can have many other beneficial effects. They claim it can help students develop good study habits so they are ready to grow as their cognitive capacities mature. It can help students recognize that learning can occur at home as well as at school. Homework can foster independent learning and responsible character traits. And it can give parents an opportunity to see what’s going on at school and let them express positive attitudes toward achievement.

Homework is helpful because homework helps us by teaching us how to learn a specific topic.

As a student myself, I can say that I have almost never gotten the full 9 hours of recommended sleep time, because of homework. (Now I’m writing an essay on it in the middle of the night D=)

I am a 10 year old kid doing a report about “Is homework good or bad” for homework before i was going to do homework is bad but the sources from this site changed my mind!

Homeowkr is god for stusenrs

I agree with hunter because homework can be so stressful especially with this whole covid thing no one has time for homework and every one just wants to get back to there normal lives it is especially stressful when you go on a 2 week vaca 3 weeks into the new school year and and then less then a week after you come back from the vaca you are out for over a month because of covid and you have no way to get the assignment done and turned in

As great as homework is said to be in the is article, I feel like the viewpoint of the students was left out. Every where I go on the internet researching about this topic it almost always has interviews from teachers, professors, and the like. However isn’t that a little biased? Of course teachers are going to be for homework, they’re not the ones that have to stay up past midnight completing the homework from not just one class, but all of them. I just feel like this site is one-sided and you should include what the students of today think of spending four hours every night completing 6-8 classes worth of work.

Are we talking about homework or practice? Those are two very different things and can result in different outcomes.

Homework is a graded assignment. I do not know of research showing the benefits of graded assignments going home.

Practice; however, can be extremely beneficial, especially if there is some sort of feedback (not a grade but feedback). That feedback can come from the teacher, another student or even an automated grading program.

As a former band director, I assigned daily practice. I never once thought it would be appropriate for me to require the students to turn in a recording of their practice for me to grade. Instead, I had in-class assignments/assessments that were graded and directly related to the practice assigned.

I would really like to read articles on “homework” that truly distinguish between the two.

oof i feel bad good luck!

thank you guys for the artical because I have to finish an assingment. yes i did cite it but just thanks

thx for the article guys.

Homework is good

I think homework is helpful AND harmful. Sometimes u can’t get sleep bc of homework but it helps u practice for school too so idk.

I agree with this Article. And does anyone know when this was published. I would like to know.

It was published FEb 19, 2019.

Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college.

i think homework can help kids but at the same time not help kids

This article is so out of touch with majority of homes it would be laughable if it wasn’t so incredibly sad.

There is no value to homework all it does is add stress to already stressed homes. Parents or adults magically having the time or energy to shepherd kids through homework is dome sort of 1950’s fantasy.

What lala land do these teachers live in?

Homework gives noting to the kid

Homework is Bad

homework is bad.

why do kids even have homework?

Comments are closed.

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Are You Down With or Done With Homework?

• Posted January 17, 2012
• By Lory Hough

The debate over how much schoolwork students should be doing at home has flared again, with one side saying it's too much, the other side saying in our competitive world, it's just not enough.

It was a move that doesn't happen very often in American public schools: The principal got rid of homework.

This past September, Stephanie Brant, principal of Gaithersburg Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Md., decided that instead of teachers sending kids home with math worksheets and spelling flash cards, students would instead go home and read. Every day for 30 minutes, more if they had time or the inclination, with parents or on their own.

"I knew this would be a big shift for my community," she says. But she also strongly believed it was a necessary one. Twenty-first-century learners, especially those in elementary school, need to think critically and understand their own learning — not spend night after night doing rote homework drills.

Brant's move may not be common, but she isn't alone in her questioning. The value of doing schoolwork at home has gone in and out of fashion in the United States among educators, policymakers, the media, and, more recently, parents. As far back as the late 1800s, with the rise of the Progressive Era, doctors such as Joseph Mayer Rice began pushing for a limit on what he called "mechanical homework," saying it caused childhood nervous conditions and eyestrain. Around that time, the then-influential Ladies Home Journal began publishing a series of anti-homework articles, stating that five hours of brain work a day was "the most we should ask of our children," and that homework was an intrusion on family life. In response, states like California passed laws abolishing homework for students under a certain age.

But, as is often the case with education, the tide eventually turned. After the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, a space race emerged, and, writes Brian Gill in the journal Theory Into Practice, "The homework problem was reconceived as part of a national crisis; the U.S. was losing the Cold War because Russian children were smarter." Many earlier laws limiting homework were abolished, and the longterm trend toward less homework came to an end.

The debate re-emerged a decade later when parents of the late '60s and '70s argued that children should be free to play and explore — similar anti-homework wellness arguments echoed nearly a century earlier. By the early-1980s, however, the pendulum swung again with the publication of A Nation at Risk , which blamed poor education for a "rising tide of mediocrity." Students needed to work harder, the report said, and one way to do this was more homework.

For the most part, this pro-homework sentiment is still going strong today, in part because of mandatory testing and continued economic concerns about the nation's competitiveness. Many believe that today's students are falling behind their peers in places like Korea and Finland and are paying more attention to Angry Birds than to ancient Babylonia.

But there are also a growing number of Stephanie Brants out there, educators and parents who believe that students are stressed and missing out on valuable family time. Students, they say, particularly younger students who have seen a rise in the amount of take-home work and already put in a six- to nine-hour "work" day, need less, not more homework.

Who is right? Are students not working hard enough or is homework not working for them? Here's where the story gets a little tricky: It depends on whom you ask and what research you're looking at. As Cathy Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework , points out, "Homework has generated enough research so that a study can be found to support almost any position, as long as conflicting studies are ignored." Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth and a strong believer in eliminating all homework, writes that, "The fact that there isn't anything close to unanimity among experts belies the widespread assumption that homework helps." At best, he says, homework shows only an association, not a causal relationship, with academic achievement. In other words, it's hard to tease out how homework is really affecting test scores and grades. Did one teacher give better homework than another? Was one teacher more effective in the classroom? Do certain students test better or just try harder?

"It is difficult to separate where the effect of classroom teaching ends," Vatterott writes, "and the effect of homework begins."

Putting research aside, however, much of the current debate over homework is focused less on how homework affects academic achievement and more on time. Parents in particular have been saying that the amount of time children spend in school, especially with afterschool programs, combined with the amount of homework given — as early as kindergarten — is leaving students with little time to run around, eat dinner with their families, or even get enough sleep.

Certainly, for some parents, homework is a way to stay connected to their children's learning. But for others, homework creates a tug-of-war between parents and children, says Liz Goodenough, M.A.T.'71, creator of a documentary called Where Do the Children Play?

"Ideally homework should be about taking something home, spending a few curious and interesting moments in which children might engage with parents, and then getting that project back to school — an organizational triumph," she says. "A nag-free activity could engage family time: Ask a parent about his or her own childhood. Interview siblings."

Instead, as the authors of The Case Against Homework write, "Homework overload is turning many of us into the types of parents we never wanted to be: nags, bribers, and taskmasters."

Leslie Butchko saw it happen a few years ago when her son started sixth grade in the Santa Monica-Malibu (Calif.) United School District. She remembers him getting two to four hours of homework a night, plus weekend and vacation projects. He was overwhelmed and struggled to finish assignments, especially on nights when he also had an extracurricular activity.

"Ultimately, we felt compelled to have Bobby quit karate — he's a black belt — to allow more time for homework," she says. And then, with all of their attention focused on Bobby's homework, she and her husband started sending their youngest to his room so that Bobby could focus. "One day, my younger son gave us 15-minute coupons as a present for us to use to send him to play in the back room. … It was then that we realized there had to be something wrong with the amount of homework we were facing."

Butchko joined forces with another mother who was having similar struggles and ultimately helped get the homework policy in her district changed, limiting homework on weekends and holidays, setting time guidelines for daily homework, and broadening the definition of homework to include projects and studying for tests. As she told the school board at one meeting when the policy was first being discussed, "In closing, I just want to say that I had more free time at Harvard Law School than my son has in middle school, and that is not in the best interests of our children."

One barrier that Butchko had to overcome initially was convincing many teachers and parents that more homework doesn't necessarily equal rigor.

"Most of the parents that were against the homework policy felt that students need a large quantity of homework to prepare them for the rigorous AP classes in high school and to get them into Harvard," she says.

Stephanie Conklin, Ed.M.'06, sees this at Another Course to College, the Boston pilot school where she teaches math. "When a student is not completing [his or her] homework, parents usually are frustrated by this and agree with me that homework is an important part of their child's learning," she says.

As Timothy Jarman, Ed.M.'10, a ninth-grade English teacher at Eugene Ashley High School in Wilmington, N.C., says, "Parents think it is strange when their children are not assigned a substantial amount of homework."

That's because, writes Vatterott, in her chapter, "The Cult(ure) of Homework," the concept of homework "has become so engrained in U.S. culture that the word homework is part of the common vernacular."

These days, nightly homework is a given in American schools, writes Kohn.

"Homework isn't limited to those occasions when it seems appropriate and important. Most teachers and administrators aren't saying, 'It may be useful to do this particular project at home,'" he writes. "Rather, the point of departure seems to be, 'We've decided ahead of time that children will have to do something every night (or several times a week). … This commitment to the idea of homework in the abstract is accepted by the overwhelming majority of schools — public and private, elementary and secondary."

Brant had to confront this when she cut homework at Gaithersburg Elementary.

"A lot of my parents have this idea that homework is part of life. This is what I had to do when I was young," she says, and so, too, will our kids. "So I had to shift their thinking." She did this slowly, first by asking her teachers last year to really think about what they were sending home. And this year, in addition to forming a parent advisory group around the issue, she also holds events to answer questions.

Still, not everyone is convinced that homework as a given is a bad thing. "Any pursuit of excellence, be it in sports, the arts, or academics, requires hard work. That our culture finds it okay for kids to spend hours a day in a sport but not equal time on academics is part of the problem," wrote one pro-homework parent on the blog for the documentary Race to Nowhere , which looks at the stress American students are under. "Homework has always been an issue for parents and children. It is now and it was 20 years ago. I think when people decide to have children that it is their responsibility to educate them," wrote another.

And part of educating them, some believe, is helping them develop skills they will eventually need in adulthood. "Homework can help students develop study skills that will be of value even after they leave school," reads a publication on the U.S. Department of Education website called Homework Tips for Parents. "It can teach them that learning takes place anywhere, not just in the classroom. … It can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility. Homework can teach children how to manage time."

Annie Brown, Ed.M.'01, feels this is particularly critical at less affluent schools like the ones she has worked at in Boston, Cambridge, Mass., and Los Angeles as a literacy coach.

"It feels important that my students do homework because they will ultimately be competing for college placement and jobs with students who have done homework and have developed a work ethic," she says. "Also it will get them ready for independently taking responsibility for their learning, which will need to happen for them to go to college."

The problem with this thinking, writes Vatterott, is that homework becomes a way to practice being a worker.

"Which begs the question," she writes. "Is our job as educators to produce learners or workers?"

Slate magazine editor Emily Bazelon, in a piece about homework, says this makes no sense for younger kids.

"Why should we think that practicing homework in first grade will make you better at doing it in middle school?" she writes. "Doesn't the opposite seem equally plausible: that it's counterproductive to ask children to sit down and work at night before they're developmentally ready because you'll just make them tired and cross?"

Kohn writes in the American School Board Journal that this "premature exposure" to practices like homework (and sit-and-listen lessons and tests) "are clearly a bad match for younger children and of questionable value at any age." He calls it BGUTI: Better Get Used to It. "The logic here is that we have to prepare you for the bad things that are going to be done to you later … by doing them to you now."

According to a recent University of Michigan study, daily homework for six- to eight-year-olds increased on average from about 8 minutes in 1981 to 22 minutes in 2003. A review of research by Duke University Professor Harris Cooper found that for elementary school students, "the average correlation between time spent on homework and achievement … hovered around zero."

So should homework be eliminated? Of course not, say many Ed School graduates who are teaching. Not only would students not have time for essays and long projects, but also teachers would not be able to get all students to grade level or to cover critical material, says Brett Pangburn, Ed.M.'06, a sixth-grade English teacher at Excel Academy Charter School in Boston. Still, he says, homework has to be relevant.

"Kids need to practice the skills being taught in class, especially where, like the kids I teach at Excel, they are behind and need to catch up," he says. "Our results at Excel have demonstrated that kids can catch up and view themselves as in control of their academic futures, but this requires hard work, and homework is a part of it."

Ed School Professor Howard Gardner basically agrees.

"America and Americans lurch between too little homework in many of our schools to an excess of homework in our most competitive environments — Li'l Abner vs. Tiger Mother," he says. "Neither approach makes sense. Homework should build on what happens in class, consolidating skills and helping students to answer new questions."

So how can schools come to a happy medium, a way that allows teachers to cover everything they need while not overwhelming students? Conklin says she often gives online math assignments that act as labs and students have two or three days to complete them, including some in-class time. Students at Pangburn's school have a 50-minute silent period during regular school hours where homework can be started, and where teachers pull individual or small groups of students aside for tutoring, often on that night's homework. Afterschool homework clubs can help.

Some schools and districts have adapted time limits rather than nix homework completely, with the 10-minute per grade rule being the standard — 10 minutes a night for first-graders, 30 minutes for third-graders, and so on. (This remedy, however, is often met with mixed results since not all students work at the same pace.) Other schools offer an extended day that allows teachers to cover more material in school, in turn requiring fewer take-home assignments. And for others, like Stephanie Brant's elementary school in Maryland, more reading with a few targeted project assignments has been the answer.

"The routine of reading is so much more important than the routine of homework," she says. "Let's have kids reflect. You can still have the routine and you can still have your workspace, but now it's for reading. I often say to parents, if we can put a man on the moon, we can put a man or woman on Mars and that person is now a second-grader. We don't know what skills that person will need. At the end of the day, we have to feel confident that we're giving them something they can use on Mars."

Read a January 2014 update.

Homework Policy Still Going Strong

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Persuasive Essay Sample: Homework Should Not Be Required

Seven hours is a long time right? Now imagine you spend seven hours in school, then you have to go home and finish all your homework for the next class. Learning is great and sometimes even fun but homework after school can cause stress, anxiety, homework can prevent sleep, homework can be difficult to complete at home and teenagers need a balance between school and home. These reasons lead me to believe that homework does more harm than good and should not be required to get done.

Homework should not be required because it causes stress and anxiety. In the article  Heavy Homework Load May Be Detrimental to Health it says “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep.” (Moniuszko.) This shows that homework has a negative effect on a teenagers mental health. Some teenagers already struggle with mental health issues and adding the workload of homework could just make it worse for them. Is homework really more important than a person's mental health?

One important reason homework should not be required is because it can cut into teenagers' sleep schedule. “Sleep benefits the brain and promotes attention, memory and analytical thought. It makes thinking sharper, recognizing the most important information to consolidate learning. Sleep also facilitates expansive thinking 2 that can spur creativity3. Whether it’s studying for a test, learning an instrument, or acquiring job skills, sleep is essential for teens4..(Suni.) Sleep is crucial for the human mind to function especially for teenagers as their minds are developing. Homework can cut into a teenagers sleep schedule which can cause them to be tired in class not learning to the best of their ability, some could say that homework helps learn and memorize what you did in class that day but how are you supposed to remember what you did in class that day if you were tired. If homework was not required students wouldn't have to stay up late on an assignment and have a lack of sleep in the morning.

Personally, homework can become very overwhelming and I’m sure other students would agree with me on that. Not all homework is bad but it can cause anxiety. Not only can that be a problem for the student but it can also be hard for their parents.  “Homework anxiety is a condition in which students stress about and fear homework, often causing them to put homework off until later. It is a self-exacerbating condition because the longer the student puts off the homework, the more anxiety they feel about it, and the more pressure they experience to finish the work with less time. Homework anxiety can cripple some kids who are perfectly capable of doing the work, causing unfinished assignments and grades that slip.”(Tips for Minimizing the Homework Battle.) This can be a problem for the students because they may be very good at a subject but if they don't complete the homework it could reflect poorly on their grades. There might be a missing assignment in their grade book but teenagers not wanting to do the assignment isn't always the case, it can also be because of anxiety not requiring homework would just make life easier. 

Homework is a controversial topic should homework be required or should it not? Although homework can be helpful sometimes, there needs to be a balance between school work and home. In the article Pilling Homework on Kids Is a Mistake That Undermines Work/Life balance it says “Even before I realized years ago that my students were not deriving much, if anything, of educational value from homework, I could never grade homework assignments equitably, because each student's homework was being attempted in home environments that could be vastly different.” (Geoff.) For example Teenagers who have activities after school have less time to get their homework done compared to teens who have nothing to do after school. You also have to keep in consideration that Teens also need to sleep, eat and spend time with family and friends. This is why homework shouldnt be required because there should be a healthy balance for it all. 

I would also like to add that after school activities are not the only reason homework can be hard to get done for students.The environment where a student is doing homework has a part ot play “Some parents simply did not have space available at home to set up quiet spaces where students could focus on their work uninterrupted by the distractions common to every household.”(Geoff.) It could be hard for parents to help their kids with homework if they're working or taking care of their younger children. It could also be hard for them to help with homework if they don't know how to do it. Also phones and other electronics can be distracting at home because there's not that expectation to be working the whole time which can cause homework not to get done. There are many more reasons a student's environment could prevent them from finishing homework. Everyone's environment is different and there's a difference between a school environment and  a homes environment. It can be difficult to have that type of learning environment at home which makes homework hard for students. This is why it shouldn't be required. 

After school students should have free time to wind down and give their brains a break “Emer O'Connor says homework for her children will "typically take an hour". "Although teachers say the homework should only take a short amount of time, this is not my experience. The children are tired and distracted.”(Hogan.) The truth of the matter is that homework can take a long time to complete. The homework we have to do may not be too hard but it can be distracting when completing it which could cause the homework to last longer and students could end up putting little effort into. In this case I feel like boundaries should be put in place because homework taking an hour or more is ridiculous when we might not be checking it over in class anyways so we won't get the chance to correct our mistakes.

In conclusion, homework should not be required because homework can affect your mental health badly, everyone has a different home environment and might not be able to complete it at home, homework can take time away from a good night's sleep, and there needs to be a boundary between school and home. These reasons prove that homework does more harm than good and shouldnt be required.

Works Cited

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Publication, Day Month Year. Database Title, URL. Accessed day month year. 

Sleep for Teenagers | Sleep Foundation

https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/homework-anxiety-explained

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2521204097?accountid=9496

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2564234859?accountid=9496

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2578243016?accountid=9496

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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Should we get rid of homework? Why, or why not?

Is homework an outdated, ineffective or counterproductive tool for learning? Do you agree with the authors of the paper that homework is harmful and worsens inequalities that exist between students’ home circumstances?

Or do you agree with Mr. Kang that homework still has real educational value?

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Do you think the amount is appropriate, too much or too little? Is homework, including the projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or, in your opinion, is it not a good use of time? Explain.

In these letters to the editor , one reader makes a distinction between elementary school and high school:

Homework’s value is unclear for younger students. But by high school and college, homework is absolutely essential for any student who wishes to excel. There simply isn’t time to digest Dostoyevsky if you only ever read him in class.

What do you think? How much does grade level matter when discussing the value of homework?

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

If you were a teacher, would you assign homework? What kind of assignments would you give and why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

English Compositions

Short Essay on Importance of Homework [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

Our today’s session is targeted to discuss writing essays on the topic of the ‘Importance of Homework.’ Here, you will have a holistic idea after going through three different sets of essays on this topic covering different word limits.

Table of Contents

Short essay on importance of homework in 100 words, short essay on importance of homework in 200 words, short essay on importance of homework in 400 words.

Homework is the work that students get assigned to do at home. It can often include going through the chapters that have already been taught at school, answering questions related to those chapters as well as writing assignments to increase one’s knowledge. Doing homework is very important because it helps students understand chapters better.

It makes them memorise important details and realise if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. It can also improve their reading and writing skills. If students don’t practice at home, they may forget whatever they have been taught in class. However, it is important to not give students too much homework. Excessive homework can burden young kids, making them lose their interest in learning. When given in the right amount, homework helps a student learn and perform better. 

Students often get a lot of classwork as well as homework to do. Classwork is the work students do in class while homework is the work that students are asked to do at home. Usually, homework includes going through whatever has been taught in class and answering questions related to the same. It can also include making students read a chapter that is meant to be taught in class next.

This helps students understand the chapter better and see if they are able to understand new concepts by themselves. Practising at home also improves their reading and writing skills. It makes them memorise important details and realise if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. 

Sometimes, students complain about getting too much homework. Excessive homework can burden young kids and make them lose interest in learning. Even if they finish all the work, they may do it just for the sake of finishing it instead of trying to learn in the process. It is important to give students the right amount of homework that may help them learn better without burdening them or stressing them out.

Students also must understand that doing homework is important and benefits them. It makes them memorise important details and realise if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. Homework makes students learn and perform better. This in turn helps them secure good grades. 

When students go to schools or colleges to study, they are often given a lot of classwork and homework. Classwork is the work students do in class while homework is the work that students are assigned to do at home. Teachers usually explain new chapters to students in class and show them how to solve problems. But a class is at most an hour long and one cannot practice a lot in an hour.

For this reason, students are given assignments to do at home. Homework can include going through the chapters that have already been taught at school, answering questions related to those chapters as well as writing assignments to increase one’s knowledge. Sometimes, teachers also ask students to read a chapter at home before it is taught in class. This helps students understand the chapter better and see if they are able to understand new concepts by themselves. 

Practising at home improves the reading and writing skills of students. It also helps them memorise important details and understand if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. At times, students complain about getting a lot of homework and do not want to do it. Too much homework can often burden children and make them lose interest in learning new things.

Even if they finish all the work, they may do it just for the sake of doing it instead of trying to learn something from it. This would then make homework meaningless. Students should have the time to play and engage in other fun activities apart from studying, or else they may feel dull and sad. It is important to give students the right amount of homework so that it doesn’t burden them. 

Students must also understand that doing homework is important for them and benefits them. If they want to understand and learn a chapter better, they must do their homework diligently. If they want to perform well in tests and examinations, homework prepares them for that as well. Since there is no teacher to discipline the student when he does the homework given to him, it also develops a sense of personality responsibility and discipline in the student.

He must control his urges to go play outdoors or get busy on his computer and focus on doing the homework. It also helps him develop time management skills as he needs to finish the work assigned to him in a limited amount of time. All of these things help students develop good habits and skills that help them throughout their lives. 

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IELTS essay: Should children be given homework?

by Manjusha Nambiar · Published November 22, 2015 · Updated April 23, 2024

Essay topic

Why do you think teachers give homework to students? How important is it for students to have homework? Perhaps homework should be abolished. Give your opinion about this. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge and experience.

Sample essay

Teachers give homework to ensure that students revise their lessons at home. This aids the process of learning. However, if too much homework is given, it will put students under tremendous pressure and affect their performance in school. This, however, does not mean that homework should be abolished. Instead, teachers should be advised to give less homework so that students will have enough time to engage in activities that keep them relaxed and entertained.

A lot of parents support homework but that is not surprising. Students who complete their homework seem to have better grades. This clearly shows that homework helps children assimilate the knowledge they acquired from school. Homework also encourages students to complete their work neatly and correctly within the timeframe allotted. This will definitely help them to grow into disciplined adults who can meet deadlines.

On the flip side, the practice of giving homework has its disadvantages. Now many teachers burden students with excessive homework. They forget that students need time to play with their friends, watch television or go out with their parents. Children spend several hours in the classroom. They need a break from books at least when they reach home. Many students now stay up late to complete their homework. When they reach school the next day they find it difficult to concentrate on their studies. This affects their academic performance.

There is yet another argument against excessive homework. Academic performance cannot be the only yardstick of excellence. Children need to develop well-rounded personalities. This wouldn’t be possible if they do not get time to focus on extra-curricular activities.

To conclude, I don’t think that abolishing homework will help students or teachers. Homework helps children master several skills they need for success in life. However, teachers need to ensure that they are not burdening students with excessive work.

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Argumentative Essay on Should Homework Be Banned From School?

According to nces.ed.gov, an average school day in the United States is 6.64 hours, meaning an average school week is 33.2 hours. Although, as stated in usnews.com, this does not include the average of 17.5 hours highschoolers spend every week on homework assignments. Over the course of curriculum changes around the world, whether homework should be given to children or not has been a big question. The unnecessary stress, disrupted sleep schedules, less interest in school, etc. versus the time management skills, more focus on school, responsibility, etc. The articles “Down With Homework” by Alfie Kohn, “Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework” by Vicki Abeles, “Education Inequity: Homework and its Negative Impacts on Kids” by Joseph Lathan, and “The Benefits of Having Homework” by Knogi.com, substantiate the argument that homework should be banned from schools.

In particular, homework stresses students out, more than it helps them. Eventually, this will cause them to lose their interest in learning. The article “Education Inequity: Homework and its Negative Impacts on Kids'' by Joseph Lathans states, “‘The findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives,’ according to the CNN story. ”With the constant pressure to do well in school and get good grades, homework weighs a lot into that. High stress levels not only disinterest the students with learning, but may also cause mental/physical health issues later on. The case study notes that 56%, more than half of the students, complained that homework stresses them out more than anything else going on in their lives. The Scholastic article by Alfie Kohn read, “But in general, as one parent put it, homework simultaneously ‘overwhelms struggling kids and removes joy for high achievers.’ Even reading for pleasure loses its appeal when children are told how much, or for how long, they must do it.” By making children focus their entire lives on school through homework, they will eventually have no will to learn. Homework is a type of independent work that is done without any help from teachers, which may trouble many students. Without help, they will have difficulty understanding the concept, and may be graded on work they don’t understand. Rather, they should work hard during the school day and relax after, to motivate and encourage them to work better tomorrow. The unnecessary stress derived from homework assignments will eventually burn out students. Many students love to learn and are excited to go to school every day. However, putting so much stress and pressure through extra work, won’t interest them. Educators work to help children find passion in certain subjects, but when the work continues into the house too, their efforts are hopeless. By banning homework from schools, students will be able to find certain subjects that interest them and learn efficiently without getting exhausted or acquiring unnecessary tension.

In addition, homework also takes away valuable time kids can use for extracurricular activities. The TIME article by Vicki Abeles states, “For most children, mandatory homework assignments push their workweek far beyond the school day and deep into what any other laborers would consider overtime. Even without sports or music or other school-sponsored extracurriculars, the daily homework slog keeps many students on the clock as long as lawyers, teachers, medical residents, truck drivers and other overworked adults.” Homework begins after school and ends up extending until late hours of the day. Most adults are not even required to stay in office, or at their job for this long. Students spend more than half of their day on school and homework, without time for any other activities. Homeworks begins very early on in most school districts, and children begin overworking themselves from then on. Alfie Kohn wrote, “Decades ago, the American Educational Research Association released this statement: ‘Whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time that should be devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents.’” Children and teenagers need to have a balance of social interactions, extracurriculars, and school. Since most of their week consists of school, it is unfair for homework to take up even more time. Students need sleep, a basic human need, and homework sends kids into overdrive ruling this out. Most adults are able to stop their work when they come home, yet this is not possible for students. The term “students” includes children about 4 years old to 18 years old. Overworking a child from an early age will not let them experience activities such as music, sports, art, etc. They will eventually continue this into their careers, and may become workaholics. Kids may develop social anxiety, or other mental health issues without having a balance of both school and other social activities. Extracurriculars help children dive into different worlds, and venture out into different concepts. It is unhealthy to deprive these students of sleep and social events, by giving them tons of homework, in addition to an average 6.64 hour school day (nces.ed.gov). 

Though homework holds many detrimental effects on students, there is a widely accepted assumption that it benefits a student’s academic performance. The article “The Benefits of Having Homework” reads,“Setting homework and assignments extends the student’s study beyond what they learn in school and allows for a wider and deeper understanding of the topic. With homework, school hours are also put to good use in which teachers can spend their time teaching well instead of giving the students class work to do, and students can avoid distractions from others when they attempt their work at home.” Knoji.com explains how homework allows students to dive deeper into academic topics and practice more. Most of the work will then be done at home, while teachers can use class time to teach the overall topic and answer questions. Rather than facing distractions from classmates, this website describes how doing the work at home will prevent this, and allow children to focus more on their studies. Yet, spending hours on homework and building up so much stress for proposed academic benefits may not be worth it. Particularly, “In a study of high schoolers conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), researchers concluded that ‘after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a negligible impact on performance.’” Though homework may leave an impact on a student’s grades, it does not make up for the valuable time they have lost. Students are meant to prioritize their studies, but that does not mean they should not have fun. Having them spend most of their days on schoolwork, just to receive a miniscule improvement in grades is beyond unfair. Knoji.com tries to prove that the extra practice will help improve grades and understanding of the topics, but this will only work if a student has interest in the subject. As reasoned before, too much homework will eventually burn out the child’s interest for school. 

Finally, using evidence from the articles “Down With Homework” by Alfie Kohn, “Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework” by Vicki Abeles, “Education Inequity: Homework and its Negative Impacts on Kids” by Joseph Lathan, and “The Benefits of Having Homework” by Knogi.com, it may be concluded that the stress and negative impact on mental health that students face from homework will never be worth it, and that it should be banned. Schools should understand how students are feeling, and how they need regular breaks from the non-stop workload. They cannot pile up mandatory, extra work for children and teenagers, and rather should ban homework world-wide. Imagine spending a whole day of school doing work, to come back home and face hours more of it. It is unfair, and unjust to make children work around-the-clock, similar to lawyers and doctors, from such an early age. This won’t teach them time-management, responsibility, or even self-discipline. It will rather make them lose their interest in learning, and not enjoy their limited time as children.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Homework — Why Students Should Not Have Homework

Why Students Should not Have Homework

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Published: Sep 5, 2023

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Time for balance and well-being, enhanced learning experiences, development of independent learning, social and emotional growth.

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Should schools stop assigning homework

The idea and purpose by schools to give homework to students is debated and also the rationale behind is being discussed for a long time. the two sides that oppose and support the notion are yet to come to a solid wrapping up..

Children spend around 8 to 9 hours at school during which they take lessons in the classrooms, do their assignments, have their tests, attend workshop, go to the laboratories for practicals, once a week get sports period to play, and usually it goes on for six days a week, with only Sunday being the off day.

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The purpose of all these and other added regimen is to instil in them as much knowledge as possible so that they not only learn their syllabus but something extra that will add up to their overall development.

Homework is one very important part of this process and has been a part of students’ lives for a very long time. With the burden of studies increasing there have been many demands to stop the practise of assigning homework while there are many who believe that homework helps students stay in touch with their studies and sharpen their skills further.

Television; a boon or bane for students?

Let’s discuss both the sides.

No, homework should not be given: Homework is just like being in school even after we get home. We are given assignments that rob us of our time that we should be using to relax, play, watch TV, spend time with family, pursue our hobbies, and chill out with our friends.

By the time school gets over and we reach home we are tired and with homework, on our hands, we can’t relax as we have to complete the assignments or else we will be punished. Teachers already teach our lessons during school hours so it does not make sense to give us, even more, to study at home. What we do at school is enough and after reaching home we want our own free time and space because we already spend more than 8 hours at school. Let us chill out, enjoy with our family and friends, or just sleep or take rest.

Reports say that there are countries that don’t follow the practise of giving homework to kids.

In fact, homework is more like a forced irritant and most of us have to do it against our will hence it hardly serves any purpose and is a waste of time as it is usually done in a hurry.

Then sometimes we have to stay up late to finish our homework and as a result, we wake up tired for the school the next day. A tired child only wants to do something different than studies.

It slowly affects our health. Moreover, we get homework for different subjects leaving us confused. Homework adds up to the stress which is really harmful. Even our parents get tired after they finish their work at their jobs and come home exhausted. Just imagine if we ask them for any help with our homework in that situation.

Let us go out, get some fresh air, talk to people, play with friends, have occasional parties etc. Let us have the privilege of leading a balanced life. Just like adults want to keep their professional lives separate from their personal lives, we kids too want it that way.

Yes, homework should be given: We spent just about 8 or 9 hours at school and that includes the recess time. We need a few minutes to settle down for every session and that takes away precious time so it is not possible to cover the syllabus by studying at school only. That is why we need to get homework so that we do not lag behind.

There is a very strong reason that for so long homework has been assigned and it is for our benefit only. The time we get to interact with our teachers at school is not enough to understand the topic fully. We get only a few hours daily to cover a wide range of subjects which is not sufficient to grasp all.

Homework provides us with the much needed time we need to understand all the different subjects and topics at the comfort of our homes. It is difficult for teachers to supervise every single student but if students do their homework then teachers can check their work easily during their free time. This way they can monitor the progress of every single student and give the feedback and also help the concerned student accordingly.

When we study at home there is very little or no distraction and we can study with more concentration and focus.

When we study at school we only get the surface knowledge whereas homework lets us delve into the topics and comprehend in a better way. As the lesson is fresh revising it at home will consolidate it further. Students will also gain more confidence as they will work on their own and even if they make mistakes they will rectify them on their own. This self-dependence will prepare them for future.

Teachers give the work which is relevant and appropriate to the syllabus and they plan it that way only and it keeps the students interested. Education is not limited to schools and that is why homework is given for home so that the student does not lose touch with the curriculum and stays connected. Homework will help us learn as well as practise.

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Pros and Cons of making homework optional

Pro Catherine Gagulashvili  calendar manager Not doing anything is so much easier than doing something. By nature, students would rather avoid doing strenuous amounts of homework, simply because it’s less taxing. When given the option to not do homework on a daily basis, the average student may leap at the opportunity to slack off. They would do that without taking into account the fact that being assigned optional homework is one of the most academically potent opportunities a high school student can be offered. Homework should be made optional because it teaches students to be held accountable for their actions. The daily, mandatory assignment of homework is something that should be enforced and practiced throughout elementary and middle school, but should slowly be phased out once a student graduates to high school. Once a student enters high school, he or she should be prepared to let go of the culture that comforted and guided them through elementary and middle school; it’s time to grow up. Simply put, making homework optional further prepares students on the path of expectations in college and in life. Optional homework should be viewed as an opportunity to pace oneself and to practice what needs to be practiced. If a student excels in a subject without needing extra practice, why force him or her to do that extra homework for the sake of simply going through the motions? If a student has clearly mastered an academic skill or an ability, it is pointless and counterproductive to force him or her to overpractice. By making homework a mandatory assignment, teachers force their students to waste their time on something that might be redundant. Assigning optional homework allows the student to better his or her time management skills. Considering that the average high school student receives 3.5 hours of homework per day , the opportunity to receive optional homework allows students to properly prioritize their work and maximize their time. It allows for flexibility in a student’s life. For students who balance six to seven academic classes and have a sport, having optional homework allows them to spread out their assignments over a longer period of time. If taken advantage of properly , optional homework forces the student to budget his or her time, allocating the right amount of study time for each assignment. In addition, it allows the student to work at his or her own pace. The assignment of optional homework has been used on Beverly’s campus. Geometry and IAT teacher Dustin Mathias assigns optional homework, or as he calls them, “suggested problems” in his classroom. He has found that suggested problems give students more options, teach them how to be responsible and force them to “be honest with themselves and what they need to do.” By no means is one to assume that every student will do his or her homework if it isn’t mandatory. The goal is to have students realize that they have to do the work even if no one is watching. College professors don’t check to see if each student did the reading: they give a final.  High school has a more hands-on approach to learning, but as students transition to being upperclassmen, they need to realize that they are required to dedicate a certain amount of time and energy to a class, regardless if it’s in the form of doing their homework, studying, taking notes or paying attention in class. The average student may view optional homework as an opportunity to slack off, completely disregarding the fact that by doing so, they are setting themselves up for failure. After graduating high school, the student will likely fail to realize that tasks need to be completed not because they need someone else’s approval, but because otherwise failure will await them at every turn. Not doing any homework and failing a test is the equivalent of not doing work at the job and getting fired. No one should have to consistently tell one to do his or her job; one should know one’s responsibility to accomplish goals independently in a satisfactory and timely manner. While both mandatory and optional homework assignments have their pros and cons, some find that mandatory homework does more harm than good. C hild education, parenting and human behavior expert Alfie Kohn finds that “There [is] simply no compelling data to justify the practice of making kids work what amounts to a second shift when they get home from a full day of school.” While Kohn takes it to the extreme opinion by stating “no homework should be the norm,” he brings up the valid point that the assignment of  mandatory homework forces a student to spend his or her entire day focused on academics. Some students will not thrive in an atmosphere that forces them to be held accountable for their actions. But hopefully, if they are forced to deal with the real world consequences for long enough, they will come to realize what their voluntary obligations are. If every class continues to assign homework that is checked on a daily basis, students will not be prepared for college and for life. Assigning optional homework is the stepping-stone through which students learn to be held accountable for their decisions, work and actions. Con Sam Bernstein staff writer Homework needs to be mandatory. It is a fact that students do better after completing homework at home. It’s a fact that students do better when homework is mandatory. There is no reason at all to make homework optional. Not giving credit to those that complete homework nightly is also unfair. With admission into college getting more and more competitive, students need every point they can get. Completing assignments and not getting points for them is absurd and only hurts students chances of getting into the college. Homework points can be the difference between a B and an A for some students, and it hurts students  It’s simply wasting students’ time that they could be spending completing assignments that count for points in other classes. If a kid is willing to put in the work to get an A, teachers should reward them. “The school needs to think about everybody, and if homework was not mandatory, some students who are doing below average would do worse if they had an option to do even less,” sophomore Colin Newberry said. This is school. In real life you’ll lose credibility for not completing tasks. School should be a model of what real life is and what real life will be, as it is a developmental place. Teens need to know responsibility, and having a responsibility to complete homework teaches young minds how to have jobs in the future. Homework is the most basic form of this responsibility. Homework is graded for a reason. Students work hard to complete daily assignments and deserve credit for doing so. Not getting credit for homework is like waiting a table and not getting a tip. If a student is willing to put work into your class, they deserve credit. It’s also a way to give credit for efforts in a class. Students that don’t happen to be good test takers should have another way to make up points lost. “I wouldn’t do the homework without an incentive such as a grade,” freshman Eva Levin said. Other students could attest to that. “If there’s no mandatory studying or homework to be done, then most won’t care about it because is doesn’t affect their grade whether or not they do it,” freshman Nathan Naghi said. Cutting corners is human nature. “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it,” Bill Gates said.  If optional homework has to be cut for students to spend an extra hour on other studying, they’ll do it. By not doing homework, there’s no way to assess how your knowledge of the subject is growing. Sitting in a class for 53 minutes cannot possibly give you enough understanding of a subject to take anything away from it. Homework fundamentally exists to remind students what they learned in class by providing practice problems similar to those on future assessments. By not helping students out in this regard, teachers are setting students up for failure. By encouraging students with points, both students and teachers can spend less time on review and on more time exploring new concepts. “Homework is designed specifically to complement the lessons taught by teachers during class. Sometimes the lessons lack in class, forcing students to essentially teach themselves at home, further reiterating the cruciality of homework,” junior Ethan Manaster said. Not every student has the diligence to sit at a desk and study at their own will. Students do, however, have the diligence to complete homework for points. And by encouraging students through rewards, they’ll learn from the homework they’re forced to do. By teaching students the rewards of being dedicated at getting better  with challenges in life, they’re better prepared to go off into the job force and make a true impact. Students could absolutely be hard working and do their own studying at their own pace. Nobody is getting anywhere by blindly distrusting students. But by giving students guidance in their studying, you’re doing them a solid. Teachers have been to college and are professionally trained to work with young minds. They know what to assign you and how to assign it. They know what’s on their tests and they know how much practice needs to happen outside of class to reach your highest potential on those said tests. Teachers aren’t just there to provide Kahoot codes and to yell at you for sliding into Sarahahs in class. Their purpose is to guide you. By not enabling teachers to guide students, you’re taking away from the purpose of a teacher’s’ job; to teach. By restricting the work teachers can get their students to do, you’re diminishing from the amount of content teachers can teach in a semester. Teachers can go faster when nearly everyone in the class is completing homework. By making homework optional, teachers can not reach their maximum potential with classes. Students, teachers and everyone in between cannot function at their highest potential without assigning mandatory homework.

• beverly hills high school
• Catherine Gagulashvili
• mandatory homework
• optional homework
• sam bernstein

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Emma • Feb 26, 2023 at 12:02 pm

Five days a week for almost nine months, students spend almost their entire day at school learning concepts and doing tedious work. Even after school, they go home and do even more work. According to College Homework Help, in the year 1905, homework was invented as a punishment for kids. Yet for some reason, it is now assigned almost every night. Homework can be boring, unnecessary, and sometimes just busy work for most students. Therefore, optional homework should be implemented in order to provide the extra practice for those who want it, without penalizing those who do not.

Essay on Is Homework Necessary

We all are well aware of the word Homework. Every day we spend three to four hours at home after school hours completing our homework. It is like a great tension in our minds until it gets completed. Parents are also involved fully or partially with children in getting their homework completed. Some students love doing homework and many others hate getting homework. If we talk about the opinion of students and parents on this topic we find a great variation in their opinions. I think it is an important and interesting topic to be discussed.

Short and Long Essay on Is Homework Necessary in English

I will be enlightening you with the details of the topic in form of a short and long essay and hope it might be helpful for students in getting an idea of writing an essay on this topic.

10 Lines Essay on Is Homework Necessary (100 – 120 Words)

1) Students hate homework but they are an integral part of our education.

2) Homework is important to make students study at home.

3) It helps students to revise what they have learned in school.

4) It is good for increasing the thinking and learning ability of students.

5) Homework is given for practice and practice is necessary for learning.

6) Through homework, a teacher can evaluate the performance of students.

7) Homework helps you to memorize things for a longer time.

8) It generates time management skills among the students.

9) Students can suffer mental stress and pressurized due to over workload.

10) Overburdening students with homework can restrict their participation in other activities.

Homework is the Way to Practice and more Learning – Short Essay (300 Words)

Introduction

Homework is essential work for the students in school life. Every day students get some work like learning the question answers, filling the worksheets; complete the exercises, etc. as the homework of the day. Homework is appreciated by some students while many of them do not love doing homework.

Excessive Homework is not Beneficial for Students

Homework is necessary for the students as it aids in learning. It enhances the problem-solving and thinking skills of the students. Moreover, it helps the students in doing the regular revision of the things taught in the classroom. The most important thing is that the homework given to the students should not be too much. An excessive amount of homework given to the students causes frustration and stress in the students.

Smart Homework – The Way of making Homework Interesting for Students

Mostly the students do not like doing homework as it appears as a burden to them. This basically depends upon the type of homework given to the students. The homework becomes really boring if they are lengthy. The interest and efficiency of doing homework in students are increased if the homework is converted into smart homework. The act of adding creativity to the homework makes the homework to be interesting for the students. They will love to do the work instead of escaping from doing the homework.

Homework in Covid-19 Pandemic

The mode of education has shifted from offline to online mode during the Covid-19 pandemic. Everything is to be done from home only. Earlier the students used to go to schools for attending classes and completed their homework at home. At present, it is very dull and boring to attend online classes and then do homework after finishing classes.

Yes, homework is necessary for students because it gives us the opportunity for more practice, thus more learning. The introduction of technology and creativity has helped in making homework interesting as well as easy for the students.

Is Homework Necessary for Students – Long Essay (1000 Words)

Student life is a life full of struggles. We have no option other than to work hard to get a good score. Homework is also an essential activity in every student’s life. It is given to the students by their teachers after every school day is over. We know that every one of us is not interested in doing homework. We need to discuss and know that what is the need for homework and are they really important for students?

What is Homework?

Homework is the task given to the students that have to be done after school hours. It basically requires time depending upon the quantity of work given and the number of subjects. It can be in form of written exercises, projects, assignments, etc. The completion of this task of students also involves the time and help of their parents. It is a good way of learning and should not be taken as a burden.

Need of Homework

It has been rightly said that ‘Practice makes a man perfect’. In the same way, homework also leads us towards success. Nothing is possible without firm determination and incessant effort. The things we learn in school remains in our mind for a short period of time. Whatever we learn in class if it is not practiced daily will easily be washed off from our minds. In order to remember all the facts and get good scores in exams, we need to revise the things that are taught during school hours. Homework is the best method of getting through the topic taught in the class, understand and remind it well. Homework can be said as a practice that a student has to do daily after school hours and surely it will lead to success if done in the right way.

Pros and Cons of Homework

Students are assigned a pile of tasks to be completed at home and bring it the very next day. It requires the involvement of time and effort of the students to complete their homework. Let’s see some points about positive and negative aspects of homework given to students.

• Revision of whatever Studied – It is the best way of revising whatever is taught in the class. It may happen that we do not understand the chapter well during the class hours but while doing our homework we understand the topic. Revision of the taught points helps in memorizing them well.
• Good Practice for Examination – It is wiser to study easily every day rather than learning it as a whole in one day. When we complete our homework we get an opportunity to go through the taught topics daily once again. This makes us understand well and remind most of our chapters timely. It relieves us of the burden during exams. We get rid of the fear of studying all during the examination. It also helps us in getting good scores in exams.
• Enhances our Understanding Power – Getting homework daily and completing it makes us go through the taught topics more than one time. Homework involves both reading and writing skills in completing the tasks assigned. In this way, we can understand the topic in a much better way thus it helps in getting the clear concept of the chapters.
• Help Teachers in Evaluating Students – The teacher can evaluate student’s performances by giving them assignments, projects, raising questions, quizzes, etc. These all are different forms of homework. In this way, they get to know about the students, their capabilities, and how much they know about whatever is taught and what they have learned. They also get to know about the families of the students by giving them assignments related to the family.
• Learns Time Management – Homework helps in the progress of the students. It makes a student analyze their time and manage it in a better way. They have to manage their time to complete the homework, play games, spend time with family and get a sound sleep. In this way, they learn how to manage their time in an effective way.
• Enhance Cognitive Skills – Homework helps in improving the thinking, memorizing, and problem-solving skills of the students and also makes them responsible.
• Excessive Homework Pressure – Excessive homework are equivalent to a burden on students as it hinders the overall growth of the students. A student might have a lot of stress because of lengthy homework and thus the health will be adversely affected.
• Hinders the Time for Other Activities – Too much homework will not provide sufficient time to students for other activities. The students should be provided a little homework that can be completed in less time and easy to be done.

A Smart Way of giving Homework

• Good and Easy Homework – The students must be given creative and easy homework as they would enjoy completing it. Homework given to the students must not be too difficult and also not much easy. It should be filled with curiosity and involve the use of multiple intelligences and learning methods.
• Homework on Alternate Days – It is not necessary that everyday homework must be given to the students. Teachers can give homework on alternate days. This will reduce the work pressure and students will be taking more interest in completing the given task.

Is Homework Necessary for Students?

Homework is the best way to initiate the habit of self-study in us. Whatever we learn in our classes is not sufficient for us but requires few hours of self-study for understanding that matter. Initially, we hate homework but realize its value as we grow up and reach higher classes. It fosters our communication with our parents and teachers as they are helping us in completing and correcting our homework. I must say that in my opinion homework is essential for every student. The basic issue lies in excessive homework that becomes a burden for students and thus must be optimized.

There are many advantages of homework for students in comparison to the disadvantages. The homework should be less that can be completed fast. Excessive homework requires a lot of time. It is not healthy to work and study all time.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Ans . An American educational reformer and politician Horace Mann invented the concept of homework.

Ans . Homework makes the students responsible and capable of working independently.

Ans . Finland is the nation where students do not get homework.

Ans . Regular studies without any physical activities give a lot of stress that leads to depression in students.

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