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Nothing is more powerful for your future than being a gatherer of good ideas and information. That's called doing your homework.

A genius is a talented person who does his homework.

Homework strongly indicates that the teachers are not doing their jobs well enough during the school day. It's not like they'll let you bring your home stuff to school and work on it there. You can't say, 'I didn't finish sleeping at home, so I have to work on finishing my sleep here.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.

Homework is a term that means grown up imposed yet self-afflicting torture.

Persistence is important in every endeavor. Whether it's finishing your homework, completing school, working late to finish a project, or "finishing the drill" in sports, winners persist to the point of sacrifice in order to achieve their goals.

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.

Homework, I have discovered, involves a sharp pencil and thick books and long sighs.

You will never get anywhere if you do not do your homework.

We're doing our homework to make sure we're prepared.

Do your homework or hire wise experts to help you. Never jump into a business you have no idea about.

When was the last time you used the words 'teach me'? Maybe not since you started first grade? Here's an irony about school: The daily grind of tests, homework, and pressures sometimes blunts rather than stimulates a thirst for knowledge.

The more you do your homework, the more you're free to be intuitive. But you've got to put the work in.

College is about three things: homework, fun, and sleep...but you can only choose two.

The best schools tend to have the best teachers, not to mention parents who supervise homework, so there is less need for self-organised learning. But where a child comes from a less supportive home environment, where there are family tensions perhaps, their schoolwork can suffer. They need to be taught to think and study for themselves.

One of life's most painful moments comes when we must admit that we didn't do our homework, that we are not prepared.

To overcome stress you have to find out something. You've got to do some research and homework. You need to find out who you are today.

My life is a black hole of boredom and despair." "So basically you've been doing homework." "Like I said, black hole.

Do your homework, study the craft, believe in yourself, and out-work everyone.

Do as much homework as you can. Learn everybody's job and don't just settle.

If you want to be lucky, do your homework.

I'm learning skills I will use for the rest of my life by doing homework...procrastinating and negotiation.

You have got to pay attention, you have got to study and you have to do your homework. You have to score higher than everybody else. Otherwise, there is always somebody there waiting to take your place.

You don’t get rich off your day job, you get rich off your homework.

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25 Reasons Homework Should Be Banned (Busywork Arguments)

As students across the globe plow through heaps of homework each night, one question lingers in the minds of educators, parents, and students alike: should homework be banned?

This question is not new, yet it continues to spark lively debate as research findings, anecdotal evidence, and personal experiences paint a complex picture of the pros and cons of homework.

On one hand, proponents of homework argue that it reinforces classroom learning, encourages a disciplined work ethic, and provides teachers with valuable insight into student comprehension. They see homework as an extension of classroom instruction that solidifies and enriches learning while fostering important skills like time management and self-discipline. It also offers an opportunity for parents to be involved in their children's education.

However, some people say there are a lot of downsides. They argue that excessive homework can lead to stress and burnout, reduce time for extracurricular activities and family interactions, exacerbate educational inequalities, and even negatively impact students' mental health.

This article presents 25 reasons why we might need to seriously consider this radical shift in our educational approach. But first, lets share some examples of what homework actually is.

Examples of Homework

These examples cover a wide range of subjects and complexity levels, reflecting the variety of homework assignments students might encounter throughout their educational journey.

• Spelling lists to memorize for a test
• Math worksheets for practicing basic arithmetic operations
• Reading assignments from children's books
• Simple science projects like growing a plant
• Basic geography assignments like labeling a map
• Art projects like drawing a family portrait
• Writing book reports or essays
• Advanced math problems
• Research projects on various topics
• Lab reports for science experiments
• Reading and responding to literature
• Preparing presentations on various topics
• Advanced math problems involving calculus or algebra
• Reading classic literature and writing analytical essays
• Research papers on historical events
• Lab reports for advanced science experiments
• Foreign language exercises
• Preparing for standardized tests
• College application essays
• Extensive research papers
• In-depth case studies
• Advanced problem-solving in subjects like physics, engineering, etc.
• Thesis or dissertation writing
• Extensive reading and literature reviews
• Internship or practicum experiences

Lack of proven benefits

Homework has long been a staple of traditional education, dating back centuries. However, the actual efficacy of homework in enhancing learning outcomes remains disputed. A number of studies indicate that there's no conclusive evidence supporting the notion that homework improves academic performance, especially in primary education . In fact, research suggests that for younger students, the correlation between homework and academic achievement is weak or even negative .

Too much homework can often lead to increased stress and decreased enthusiasm for learning. This issue becomes particularly pressing when considering the common 'more is better' approach to homework, where the quantity of work given to students often outweighs the quality and effectiveness of the tasks. For instance, spending countless hours memorizing facts for a history test may not necessarily translate to better understanding or long-term retention of the subject matter.

However, it's worth noting that homework isn't completely devoid of benefits. It can help foster self-discipline, time management skills, and the ability to work independently. But, these positive outcomes are usually more pronounced in older students and when homework assignments are thoughtfully designed and not excessive in volume.

When discussing the merits and drawbacks of homework, it's critical to consider the nature of the assignments. Routine, repetitive tasks often associated with 'drill-and-practice' homework, such as completing rows of arithmetic problems or copying definitions from a textbook, rarely lead to meaningful learning. On the other hand, assignments that encourage students to apply what they've learned in class, solve problems, or engage creatively with the material can be more beneficial.

Increased stress

Homework can often lead to a significant increase in stress levels among students. This is especially true when students are burdened with large volumes of homework, leaving them with little time to relax or pursue other activities. The feeling of constantly racing against the clock to meet deadlines can contribute to anxiety, frustration, and even burnout.

Contrary to popular belief, stress does not necessarily improve performance or productivity. In fact, high levels of stress can negatively impact memory, concentration, and overall cognitive function. This counteracts the very purpose of homework, which is intended to reinforce learning and improve academic outcomes.

However, one might argue that homework can teach students about time management, organization, and how to handle pressure. These are important life skills that could potentially prepare them for future responsibilities. But it's essential to strike a balance. The pressure to complete homework should not come at the cost of a student's mental wellbeing.

Limited family time

Homework often infringes upon the time students can spend with their families. After spending the entire day in school, children come home to yet more academic work, leaving little room for quality family interactions. This limited family time can hinder the development of important interpersonal skills and familial bonds.

Moreover, family time isn't just about fun and relaxation. It also plays a crucial role in the social and emotional development of children. Opportunities for unstructured play, family conversations, and shared activities can contribute to children's well-being and character building.

Nonetheless, advocates of homework might argue that it can be a platform for parental involvement in a child's education. While this may be true, the involvement should not transform into parental control or cause friction due to differing expectations and pressures.

Reduced physical activity

Homework can often lead to reduced physical activity by eating into the time students have for sports, recreation, and simply being outdoors. Physical activity is essential for children's health, well-being, and even their academic performance. Research suggests that physical activity can enhance cognitive abilities, improve concentration, and reduce symptoms of ADHD .

Homework, especially when it's boring and repetitive, can deter students from engaging in physical activities, leading to a sedentary lifestyle. This lack of balance between work and play can contribute to physical health problems such as obesity, poor posture, and related health concerns.

Homework proponents might point out that disciplined time management could allow students to balance both work and play. However, given the demanding nature of many homework assignments, achieving this balance is often easier said than done.

Negative impact on sleep

A significant concern about homework is its impact on students' sleep patterns. Numerous studies have linked excessive homework to sleep deprivation in students. Children often stay up late to complete assignments, reducing the amount of sleep they get. Lack of sleep can result in a host of issues, from poor academic performance and difficulty concentrating to physical health problems like weakened immunity.

Even the quality of sleep can be affected. The stress and anxiety from a heavy workload can lead to difficulty falling asleep or restless nights. And let's not forget that students often need to wake up early for school, compounding the negative effects of late-night homework sessions.

On the other hand, some argue that homework can teach children time management skills, suggesting that effective organization could help prevent late-night work. However, when schools assign excessive amounts of homework, even the best time management might not prevent encroachment on sleep time.

Homework can exacerbate existing educational inequalities. Not all students have access to a conducive learning environment at home, necessary resources, or support from educated family members. For these students, homework can become a source of stress and disadvantage rather than an opportunity to reinforce learning.

Children from lower socio-economic backgrounds might need to contribute to household chores or part-time work, limiting the time they have for homework. This can create a gap in academic performance and grades, reflecting not on the students' abilities but their circumstances.

While homework is meant to level the playing field by providing additional learning time outside school, it often does the opposite. It's worth noting that students from privileged backgrounds can often access additional help like tutoring, further widening the gap.

Reduced creativity and independent thinking

Homework, particularly when it involves rote learning or repetitive tasks, can stifle creativity and independent thinking. Students often focus on getting the "right" answers to please teachers rather than exploring different ideas and solutions. This can hinder their ability to think creatively and solve problems independently, skills that are increasingly in demand in the modern world.

Homework defenders might claim that it can also promote independent learning. True, when thoughtfully designed, homework can encourage this. But, voluminous or repetitive tasks tend to promote compliance over creativity.

Diminished interest in learning

Overburdening students with homework can diminish their interest in learning. After long hours in school followed by more academic tasks at home, learning can begin to feel like a chore. This can lead to a decline in intrinsic motivation and an unhealthy association of learning with stress and exhaustion.

In theory, homework can deepen interest in a subject, especially when it involves projects or research. Yet, an excess of homework, particularly routine tasks, might achieve the opposite, turning learning into a source of stress rather than enjoyment.

Inability to pursue personal interests

Homework can limit students' ability to pursue personal interests. Hobbies, personal projects, and leisure activities are crucial for personal development and well-being. With heavy homework loads, students may struggle to find time for these activities, missing out on opportunities to discover new interests and talents.

Supporters of homework might argue that it teaches students to manage their time effectively. However, even with good time management, an overload of homework can crowd out time for personal interests.

Excessive workload

The issue of excessive workload is a common complaint among students. Spending several hours on homework after a full school day can be mentally and physically draining. This workload can lead to burnout, decreased motivation, and negative attitudes toward school and learning.

While homework can help consolidate classroom learning, too much can be counterproductive. It's important to consider the overall workload of students, including school, extracurricular activities, and personal time, when assigning homework.

Limited time for reflection

Homework can limit the time students have for reflection. Reflection is a critical part of learning, allowing students to digest and integrate new information. With the constant flow of assignments, there's often little time left for this crucial process. Consequently, the learning becomes superficial, and the true understanding of subjects can be compromised.

Although homework is meant to reinforce what's taught in class, the lack of downtime for reflection might hinder deep learning. It's important to remember that learning is not just about doing, but also about thinking.

Increased pressure on young children

Young children are particularly vulnerable to the pressures of homework. At an age where play and exploration are vital for cognitive and emotional development, too much homework can create undue pressure and stress. This pressure can instigate a negative relationship with learning from an early age, potentially impacting their future attitude towards education.

Advocates of homework often argue that it prepares children for the rigors of their future academic journey. However, placing too much academic pressure on young children might overshadow the importance of learning through play and exploration.

Lack of alignment with real-world skills

Traditional homework often lacks alignment with real-world skills. Assignments typically focus on academic abilities at the expense of skills like creativity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. These are crucial for success in the modern workplace and are often under-emphasized in homework tasks.

Homework can be an opportunity to develop these skills when properly structured. However, tasks often focus on memorization and repetition, rather than cultivating skills relevant to the real world.

Loss of motivation

Excessive homework can lead to a loss of motivation. The constant pressure to complete assignments and meet deadlines can diminish a student's intrinsic motivation to learn. This loss of motivation might not only affect their academic performance but also their love of learning, potentially having long-term effects on their educational journey.

Some believe homework instills discipline and responsibility. But, it's important to balance these benefits against the potential for homework to undermine motivation and engagement.

Disruption of work-life balance

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is as important for students as it is for adults. Overloading students with homework can disrupt this balance, leaving little time for relaxation, socializing, and extracurricular activities. All of these are vital for a student's overall development and well-being.

Homework supporters might argue that it prepares students for the workloads they'll face in college and beyond. But it's also crucial to ensure students have time to relax, recharge, and engage in non-academic activities for a well-rounded development.

Impact on mental health

There's a growing body of evidence showing the negative impact of excessive homework on students' mental health. The stress and anxiety from heavy homework loads can contribute to issues like depression, anxiety, and even thoughts of suicide. Student well-being should be a top priority in education, and the impact of homework on mental health cannot be ignored.

While some might argue that homework helps students develop resilience and coping skills, it's important to ensure these potential benefits don't come at the expense of students' mental health.

Limited time for self-care

With excessive homework, students often find little time for essential self-care activities. These can include physical exercise, proper rest, healthy eating, mindfulness, or even simple leisure activities. These activities are critical for maintaining physical health, emotional well-being, and cognitive function.

Some might argue that managing homework alongside self-care responsibilities teaches students valuable life skills. However, it's important that these skills don't come at the cost of students' health and well-being.

Decreased family involvement

Homework can inadvertently lead to decreased family involvement in a child's learning. Parents often feel unqualified or too busy to help with homework, leading to missed opportunities for family learning interactions. This can also create stress and conflict within the family, especially when parents have high expectations or are unable to assist.

Some believe homework can facilitate parental involvement in education. But, when it becomes a source of stress or conflict, it can discourage parents from engaging in their child's learning.

Reinforcement of inequalities

Homework can unintentionally reinforce inequalities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds might lack access to resources like private tutors or a quiet study space, placing them at a disadvantage compared to their more privileged peers. Additionally, these students might have additional responsibilities at home, further limiting their time to complete homework.

While the purpose of homework is often to provide additional learning opportunities, it can inadvertently reinforce existing disparities. Therefore, it's essential to ensure that homework doesn't favor students who have more resources at home.

Reduced time for play and creativity

Homework can take away from time for play and creative activities. These activities are not only enjoyable but also crucial for the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children. Play allows children to explore, imagine, and create, fostering innovative thinking and problem-solving skills.

Some may argue that homework teaches discipline and responsibility. Yet, it's vital to remember that play also has significant learning benefits and should be a part of every child's daily routine.

Increased cheating and academic dishonesty

The pressure to complete homework can sometimes lead to increased cheating and academic dishonesty. When faced with a large volume of homework, students might resort to copying from friends or searching for answers online. This undermines the educational value of homework and fosters unhealthy academic practices.

While homework is intended to consolidate learning, the risk of promoting dishonest behaviors is a concern that needs to be addressed.

Strained teacher-student relationships

Excessive homework can strain teacher-student relationships. If students begin to associate teachers with stress or anxiety from homework, it can hinder the development of a positive learning relationship. Furthermore, if teachers are perceived as being unfair or insensitive with their homework demands, it can impact the overall classroom dynamic.

While homework can provide an opportunity for teachers to monitor student progress, it's important to ensure that it doesn't negatively affect the teacher-student relationship.

Negative impact on family dynamics

Homework can impact family dynamics. Parents might feel compelled to enforce homework completion, leading to potential conflict, stress, and tension within the family. These situations can disrupt the harmony in the household and strain relationships.

Homework is sometimes seen as a tool to engage parents in their child's education. However, it's crucial to ensure that this involvement doesn't turn into a source of conflict or pressure.

Cultural and individual differences

Homework might not take into account cultural and individual differences. Education is not a one-size-fits-all process, and what works for one student might not work for another. Some students might thrive on hands-on learning, while others prefer auditory or visual learning methods. By standardizing homework, we might ignore these individual learning styles and preferences.

Homework can also overlook cultural differences. For students from diverse cultural backgrounds, certain types of homework might seem irrelevant or difficult to relate to, leading to disengagement or confusion.

Encouragement of surface-level learning

Homework often encourages surface-level learning instead of deep understanding. When students are swamped with homework, they're likely to rush through assignments to get them done, rather than taking the time to understand the concepts. This can result in superficial learning where students memorize information to regurgitate it on assignments and tests, instead of truly understanding and internalizing the knowledge.

While homework is meant to reinforce classroom learning, the quality of learning is more important than the quantity. It's important to design homework in a way that encourages deep, meaningful learning instead of mere rote memorization.

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Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates

From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated 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.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. 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. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] 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. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

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21 Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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The homework debate has strong arguments on both sides. Commonly-cited reasons why homework should be banned include the idea that it is often counterproductive, stifles students’ creativity, and limits their freedom outside the classroom.

Students already have up to 7 hours of schoolwork to complete 5 days a week; adding more contributes to increased anxiety, burnout, and overall poor performance.

But arguments for homework include the fact it does increase student grades (Cooper, Robinson & Patall, 2006), it instils discipline, and it helps to reinforce what was learned into long-term memory.

The following are common arguments for banning homework – note that this is an article written to stimulate debate points on the topic, so it only presents one perspective. For the other side of the argument, it’s worth checking out my article on the 27 pros and cons of homework .

Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned

1. it contributes to increased anxiety.

If there’s one word that describes middle-school and high-school students, it’s anxiety. In my homework statistics article , I cite research showing that 74% of students cite homework as a source of stress.

They have so much to juggle, from the novelty of adolescence to the realization that they must soon start preparing for college and their life after (Pressman et al., 2015).

It’s a lot to manage, and adding homework that reduces their free time and makes them even more restricted is downright harmful. The natural outcome of this dogpile of pressure is anxiety, and many students often feel overwhelmed, both by the hours and hours of coursework in a day and the extensive homework they are assigned (Galloway, Conner & Pope, 2013).

Because teachers often don’t communicate with one another over curricula, major assignments can overlap such that students have to tackle numerous large projects at once, which contributes to severe anxiety over good grades.

In response to this, some students check out of school entirely, letting their academic future go to waste. While, of course, it’s not fair to strawman and say that homework is to blame for all these cases, it may indeed by a contributing factor.

2. It Offers Less Social Time

Homework cuts out free time. Children already spend the better part of their day learning in a school environment, and when they come home, they need to socialize.

Whether it’s family or friends, a social balance is important. Depending on the coursework they’re assigned, homework can detrimentally affect students’ social life, which feed back into more of our first gripe about homework: its anxiety-inducing nature.

Furthermore, social time is extremely important for children to grow up well-balanced and confident. If a child is highly intelligent (book smart) but lacks to social skills we might call street smarts , they may struggle in adulthood.

3. It Detracts from Play Time

Play is extremely important for children’s physical, social, and cognitive development . In fact, children naturally learn through play .

So, when children get home from school, they need a few hours to play. They’re actually learning when playing! If playing with friends, they’re learning social skills; but playing alone also stimulates creative and analytical thinking skills.

Play is also a different type of learning than the learning that commonly happens at school. So, allowing children to play at home gives their brain a break from ‘school learning’ and lets them learn through active and even relaxing methods.

4. It Discourages Physical Exercise and Contributes to Obesity

Exercise is an important part of life for everyone, but especially for children. Developing a positive self-image and disciplining oneself is an important skill to learn, one that becomes much more difficult when homework is in the picture.

Homework can demand a lot of attention that kids could be spending exercising or socializing. These two important life pursuits can be left by the wayside, leaving students feeling confused, depressed, and anxious about the future.

Physical exercise should be considered a key feature of a child’s holistic development. It helps keep children healthy, can reduce anxiety, and support healthy immune systems. It also helps with physical development such as supporting fine and gross motor skills .

In fact, some scholars (Ren et al., 2017) have even identified excessive homework as a contributing factor for childhood obesity.

5. It Disrupts Sleep Patterns

Everyone knows the trope of a college student staying up late to finish their homework or cram for a test.

While it would be unfair to credit homework exclusively for an unhealthy sleep schedule, the constant pressure to finish assignments on time often yields one of two results.

Students can either burn the midnight oil to make sure their homework is done, or they can check out of school entirely and ignore their academic interests. Neither is an acceptable way to live.

This point is particularly pertinent to teenagers. They are not lazy; teens need 12-13 hours of sleep every day because their bodies are changing so dramatically.

To pile additional homework on them that interferes with the circadian rhythm is not just unhelpful—it may be downright harmful (Yeo et al., 2020).

6. It Involves Less Guidance

If there’s one thing that’s beneficial about the in-person learning experience, it’s the ability to raise one’s hand and let the teacher know when something is unclear or difficult to understand.

That handheld process isn’t available for homework; in fact, homework matters little in the grand scheme of learning. It’s just busywork that’s supposed to help students consolidate their knowledge.

In reality, homework becomes something that students resent and can fill them with feelings of frustration—something that would be much more readily addressed if the same content was covered in-person with a teacher to guide the student through the assignment.

7. It’s Regularly Rote Learning

In most subjects, homework isn’t reflective of the skills students need to learn to thrive in the workforce. Instead, it often simply involves rote learning (repetition of tasks) that is not seen as the best way to learn.

A main goal of education is to train up vocational professionals with defined skills. But more often than not, homework winds up as a bland set of word problems that have no basis in the real world.

Walking through real-world examples under the guidance of a teacher is much more beneficial to student learning.

8. It Can Detract from a Love of Learning

If you know what it’s like to doze off during a boring class or meeting, then you can relate to the difficulty students have paying attention in class.

That motivation starts to dwindle when students must complete assignments on their own time, often under immense pressure.

It’s not a healthy way to inspire kids to learn about different subjects and develop a love of learning.

Students already need to sit through hours and hours of class on end in-person. This learning time should be used more effectively to eliminate the need for home.

When children finally get out of class at the end of the day, they need to socialize and exercise, not spend even longer staring at a book to complete a bunch of unhelpful practice questions.

9. It Convolutes the Subject

Another important consideration about homework is that it can often be counterproductive.

That’s because teachers don’t always use the full curriculum material for their teaching, and they may choose to develop their own homework rather than to use the resources offered by the curriculum provider.

This homework can often be off-subject, extremely niche, or unhelpful in explaining a subject that students are studying.

Students who don’t understand a subject and don’t have resources to rely on will eventually give up. That risk becomes even more prevalent when you factor in the scope, complexity, and type of assignment.

Students need to be taught in a safe environment where they can feel free to ask questions and learn at their own pace. Of course, there’s no fairytale way to perfect this ideal, but what is clear is that homework is not beneficial to the learning environment for many students.

10. It’s Not What Kids Want

Lastly, homework should be banned because it’s generally not what students want. From elementary to college level, most students harbor some sort of resentment towards homework.

It might be easy to dismiss this to say that the students “aren’t living in the real world.” The truth of the matter is that the real world is a lot more nuanced, creative, and diverse than the repetitive, broad, and often stagnant homework.

It’s easy to understand why most students wish that more time in school had been spent on learning how to live rather than trying to figure out how many apples Johnny had. Subjects like car maintenance, entrepreneurship, computer skills, socialization, networking, tax filing, finances, and survival are touched on at best and ignored at worst.

It’s not enough for students to be able to regurgitate information on a piece of paper; in the end, the education system should teach them how to be self-sufficient, something that might be much easier to do if resources were divested from homework and poured into more beneficial subject material.

Consider these 11 Additional Reasons

• Decreases time with parents – Homework may prevent parents and children from spending quality time together.
• Hidden costs – Families often feel pressure to purchase internet and other resources to help their children to complete their homework.
• Is inequitable – some children have parents to help them while others don’t. Similarly, some children have internet access to help while others don’t (see: Kralovec & Buell, 2001).
• Easy to cheat – Unsupervised homework time makes it easy for children to simply cheat on their work so they can get on with play time!
• Lack of downtime – Children need time where they aren’t doing anything. Time that is unstructured helps them to develop hobbies and interests .
• Detracts from reading – Children could be spending their time reading books and developing their imaginations rather than working on repetitive homework tasks.
• Take up parental time – Parents, who have just spent all day working, are increasingly expected to spend their time doing ‘teaching’ with their children at home.
• Discourages club membership – If children are too busy with homework, they may not be able to join clubs and sporting groups that can help them make friends and develop extracurricular skills.
• Makes it hard for college students to make a living – In college, where homework is extensive, students often can’t juggle homework with their weekend and night-time jobs. As a result, it pushes them further into student poverty.
• Contributes to poor work-life culture – From early ages, we’re sending a message to children that they should take their work home with them. This can spill over into the workplace, where they’ll be expected to continue working for their company even after the workday ends.
• Can reinforce faulty learning – When children learn in isolation during homework time, they may end up practicing their work completely wrong! They need intermittent support to make sure their practice is taking them down the right path.

Students may need to demonstrate their understanding of a topic to progress; that, at least, is a reflection of the real world. What’s not helpful is when students are peppered day and night with information that they need to regurgitate on a piece of paper.

For positive outcomes to come from homework, parents and teachers need to work together. It depends a lot on the type of homework provided as well as the age of the student and the need to balance homework with time to do other things in your life.

Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003.  Review of educational research ,  76 (1), 1-62.

Galloway, M., Conner, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools.  The journal of experimental education ,  81 (4), 490-510. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2012.745469

Kralovec, E., & Buell, J. (2001).  The end of homework: How homework disrupts families, overburdens children, and limits learning . Beacon Press.

Pressman, R. M., Sugarman, D. B., Nemon, M. L., Desjarlais, J., Owens, J. A., & Schettini-Evans, A. (2015). Homework and family stress: With consideration of parents’ self confidence, educational level, and cultural background.  The American Journal of Family Therapy ,  43 (4), 297-313. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2015.1061407

Ren, H., Zhou, Z., Liu, W., Wang, X., & Yin, Z. (2017). Excessive homework, inadequate sleep, physical inactivity and screen viewing time are major contributors to high paediatric obesity.  Acta Paediatrica ,  106 (1), 120-127. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.13640

Yeo, S. C., Tan, J., Lo, J. C., Chee, M. W., & Gooley, J. J. (2020). Associations of time spent on homework or studying with nocturnal sleep behavior and depression symptoms in adolescents from Singapore.  Sleep Health ,  6 (6), 758-766. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2020.04.011

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Number Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Word Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
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7 Research-Based Reasons Why Students Should Not Have Homework: Academic Insights, Opposing Perspectives & Alternatives

The push against homework is not just about the hours spent on completing assignments; it’s about rethinking the role of education in fostering the well-rounded development of young individuals. Critics argue that homework, particularly in excessive amounts, can lead to negative outcomes such as stress, burnout, and a diminished love for learning. Moreover, it often disproportionately affects students from disadvantaged backgrounds, exacerbating educational inequities. The debate also highlights the importance of allowing children to have enough free time for play, exploration, and family interaction, which are crucial for their social and emotional development.

Checking 13yo’s math homework & I have just one question. I can catch mistakes & help her correct. But what do kids do when their parent isn’t an Algebra teacher? Answer: They get frustrated. Quit. Get a bad grade. Think they aren’t good at math. How is homework fair??? — Jay Wamsted (@JayWamsted) March 24, 2022

As we delve into this discussion, we explore various facets of why reducing or even eliminating homework could be beneficial. We consider the research, weigh the pros and cons, and examine alternative approaches to traditional homework that can enhance learning without overburdening students.

Once you’ve finished this article, you’ll know:

Insights from Teachers and Education Industry Experts: Diverse Perspectives on Homework

Here are the insights and opinions from various experts in the educational field on this topic:

“I teach 1st grade. I had parents ask for homework. I explained that I don’t give homework. Home time is family time. Time to play, cook, explore and spend time together. I do send books home, but there is no requirement or checklist for reading them. Read them, enjoy them, and return them when your child is ready for more. I explained that as a parent myself, I know they are busy—and what a waste of energy it is to sit and force their kids to do work at home—when they could use that time to form relationships and build a loving home. Something kids need more than a few math problems a week.” — Colleen S. , 1st grade teacher

“The lasting educational value of homework at that age is not proven. A kid says the times tables [at school] because he studied the times tables last night. But over a long period of time, a kid who is drilled on the times tables at school, rather than as homework, will also memorize their times tables. We are worried about young children and their social emotional learning. And that has to do with physical activity, it has to do with playing with peers, it has to do with family time. All of those are very important and can be removed by too much homework.” — David Bloomfield , education professor at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York graduate center

“Homework in primary school has an effect of around zero. In high school it’s larger. (…) Which is why we need to get it right. Not why we need to get rid of it. It’s one of those lower hanging fruit that we should be looking in our primary schools to say, ‘Is it really making a difference?’” — John Hattie , professor

”Many kids are working as many hours as their overscheduled parents and it is taking a toll – psychologically and in many other ways too. We see kids getting up hours before school starts just to get their homework done from the night before… While homework may give kids one more responsibility, it ignores the fact that kids do not need to grow up and become adults at ages 10 or 12. With schools cutting recess time or eliminating playgrounds, kids absorb every single stress there is, only on an even higher level. Their brains and bodies need time to be curious, have fun, be creative and just be a kid.” — Pat Wayman, teacher and CEO of HowtoLearn.com

7 Reasons Why Students Should Not Have Homework

Let’s delve into the reasons against assigning homework to students. Examining these arguments offers important perspectives on the wider educational and developmental consequences of homework practices.

1. Elevated Stress and Health Consequences

This data paints a concerning picture. Students, already navigating a world filled with various stressors, find themselves further burdened by homework demands. The direct correlation between excessive homework and health issues indicates a need for reevaluation. The goal should be to ensure that homework if assigned, adds value to students’ learning experiences without compromising their health and well-being.

2. Inequitable Impact and Socioeconomic Disparities

Moreover, the approach to homework varies significantly across different types of schools. While some rigorous private and preparatory schools in both marginalized and affluent communities assign extreme levels of homework, many progressive schools focusing on holistic learning and self-actualization opt for no homework, yet achieve similar levels of college and career success. This contrast raises questions about the efficacy and necessity of heavy homework loads in achieving educational outcomes.

3. Negative Impact on Family Dynamics

The issue is not confined to specific demographics but is a widespread concern. Samantha Hulsman, a teacher featured in Education Week Teacher , shared her personal experience with the toll that homework can take on family time. She observed that a seemingly simple 30-minute assignment could escalate into a three-hour ordeal, causing stress and strife between parents and children. Hulsman’s insights challenge the traditional mindset about homework, highlighting a shift towards the need for skills such as collaboration and problem-solving over rote memorization of facts.

4. Consumption of Free Time

Authors Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish , in their book “The Case Against Homework,” offer an insightful window into the lives of families grappling with the demands of excessive homework. They share stories from numerous interviews conducted in the mid-2000s, highlighting the universal struggle faced by families across different demographics. A poignant account from a parent in Menlo Park, California, describes nightly sessions extending until 11 p.m., filled with stress and frustration, leading to a soured attitude towards school in both the child and the parent. This narrative is not isolated, as about one-third of the families interviewed expressed feeling crushed by the overwhelming workload.

5. Challenges for Students with Learning Disabilities

In conclusion, the conventional homework paradigm needs reevaluation, particularly concerning students with learning disabilities. By understanding and addressing their unique challenges, educators can create a more inclusive and supportive educational environment. This approach not only aids in their academic growth but also nurtures their confidence and overall development, ensuring that they receive an equitable and empathetic educational experience.

6. Critique of Underlying Assumptions about Learning

7. issues with homework enforcement, reliability, and temptation to cheat, addressing opposing views on homework practices, 1. improvement of academic performance, 2. reinforcement of learning, 3. development of time management skills, 4. preparation for future academic challenges, 5. parental involvement in education, exploring alternatives to homework and finding a middle ground, alternatives to traditional homework, ideas for minimizing homework, useful resources, leave a comment cancel reply.

Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

H ow long is your child’s workweek? Thirty hours? Forty? Would it surprise you to learn that some elementary school kids have workweeks comparable to adults’ schedules? 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. Is it any wonder that,deprived of the labor protections that we provide adults, our kids are suffering an epidemic of disengagement, anxiety and depression ?

With my youngest child just months away from finishing high school, I’m remembering all the needless misery and missed opportunities all three of my kids suffered because of their endless assignments. When my daughters were in middle school, I would urge them into bed before midnight and then find them clandestinely studying under the covers with a flashlight. We cut back on their activities but still found ourselves stuck in a system on overdrive, returning home from hectic days at 6 p.m. only to face hours more of homework. Now, even as a senior with a moderate course load, my son, Zak, has spent many weekends studying, finding little time for the exercise and fresh air essential to his well-being. Week after week, and without any extracurriculars, Zak logs a lot more than the 40 hours adults traditionally work each week — and with no recognition from his “bosses” that it’s too much. I can’t count the number of shared evenings, weekend outings and dinners that our family has missed and will never get back.

How much after-school time should our schools really own?

In the midst of the madness last fall, Zak said to me, “I feel like I’m working towards my death. The constant demands on my time since 5th grade are just going to continue through graduation, into college, and then into my job. It’s like I’m on an endless treadmill with no time for living.”

My spirit crumbled along with his.

Like Zak, many people are now questioning the point of putting so much demand on children and teens that they become thinly stretched and overworked. Studies have long shown that there is no academic benefit to high school homework that consumes more than a modest number of hours each week. 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.”

In elementary school, where we often assign overtime even to the youngest children, studies have shown there’s no academic benefit to any amount of homework at all.

Our unquestioned acceptance of homework also flies in the face of all we know about human health, brain function and learning. Brain scientists know that rest and exercise are essential to good health and real learning . Even top adult professionals in specialized fields take care to limit their work to concentrated periods of focus. A landmark study of how humans develop expertise found that elite musicians, scientists and athletes do their most productive work only about four hours per day .

Yet we continue to overwork our children, depriving them of the chance to cultivate health and learn deeply, burdening them with an imbalance of sedentary, academic tasks. American high school students , in fact, do more homework each week than their peers in the average country in the OECD, a 2014 report found.

It’s time for an uprising.

Already, small rebellions are starting. High schools in Ridgewood, N.J. , and Fairfax County, Va., among others, have banned homework over school breaks. The entire second grade at Taylor Elementary School in Arlington, Va., abolished homework this academic year. Burton Valley Elementary School in Lafayette, Calif., has eliminated homework in grades K through 4. Henry West Laboratory School , a public K-8 school in Coral Gables, Fla., eliminated mandatory, graded homework for optional assignments. One Lexington, Mass., elementary school is piloting a homework-free year, replacing it with reading for pleasure.

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Across the Atlantic, students in Spain launched a national strike against excessive assignments in November. And a second-grade teacher in Texas, made headlines this fall when she quit sending home extra work , instead urging families to “spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside and get your child to bed early.”

It is time that we call loudly for a clear and simple change: a workweek limit for children, counting time on the clock before and after the final bell. Why should schools extend their authority far beyond the boundaries of campus, dictating activities in our homes in the hours that belong to families? An all-out ban on after-school assignments would be optimal. Short of that, we can at least sensibly agree on a cap limiting kids to a 40-hour workweek — and fewer hours for younger children.

Resistance even to this reasonable limit will be rife. Mike Miller, an English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., found this out firsthand when he spearheaded a homework committee to rethink the usual approach. He had read the education research and found a forgotten policy on the county books limiting homework to two hours a night, total, including all classes. “I thought it would be a slam dunk” to put the two-hour cap firmly in place, Miller said.

But immediately, people started balking. “There was a lot of fear in the community,” Miller said. “It’s like jumping off a high dive with your kids’ future. If we reduce homework to two hours or less, is my kid really going to be okay?” In the end, the committee only agreed to a homework ban over school breaks.

Miller’s response is a great model for us all. He decided to limit assignments in his own class to 20 minutes a night (the most allowed for a student with six classes to hit the two-hour max). His students didn’t suddenly fail. Their test scores remained stable. And they started using their more breathable schedule to do more creative, thoughtful work.

That’s the way we will get to a sane work schedule for kids: by simultaneously pursuing changes big and small. Even as we collaboratively press for policy changes at the district or individual school level, all teachers can act now, as individuals, to ease the strain on overworked kids.

As parents and students, we can also organize to make homework the exception rather than the rule. We can insist that every family, teacher and student be allowed to opt out of assignments without penalty to make room for important activities, and we can seek changes that shift practice exercises and assignments into the actual school day.

We’ll know our work is done only when Zak and every other child can clock out, eat dinner, sleep well and stay healthy — the very things needed to engage and learn deeply. That’s the basic standard the law applies to working adults. Let’s do the same for our kids.

Vicki Abeles is the author of the bestseller Beyond Measure: Rescuing an Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation, and director and producer of the documentaries “ Race to Nowhere ” and “ Beyond Measure. ”

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Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in.

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas about workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework. 

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold , says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"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 and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace , says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression. 

And for all the distress homework  can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night. 

"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely but to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggests Kang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic , making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

More: Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.

More: Some parents are slipping young kids in for the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors discourage the move as 'risky'

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Why (Most) Homework Should Be Banned

The 30-minute rule is there to justify giving a lot of homework

Anthony Malcolm ‘23 , Staff Writer December 8, 2022

There are plenty of reasons why (most) homework should be banned. I’ll start out with some general facts and look at homework in general, then go into some detail about our school.

Stanford conducted a study surveying over 4,300 students in 10 high performing high schools in California. More than 70% of the students said they were “often or always stressed over schoolwork,” with 56% claiming that homework was the main stressor. But here’s the kicker: Less than 1% said homework was not a stressor. 

The researchers then asked the students if they had exhibited symptoms of stress like headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems. More than 80% of the students reported at least one stress related symptom recently and 44% claimed they experienced 3 or more symptoms. The study also found that students who spend a lot of time working on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, and a lack of balance in their lives. The study claimed that any more than 2 hours of homework per night was counterproductive, and that the students who spent too much time on homework were more likely to not participate in activities and hobbies, and stop seeing friends and family. 

A smaller NYU study claimed that students at elite high schools are susceptible to chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and alcohol and drug abuse. About half of the students said they received at least 3 hours of homework a night on top of being pressured to take college level classes and participate in extracurricular activities (sound familiar?). The study claims that many of the students felt they were being worked as hard as adults, and they said that their workload seemed inappropriate for their development level. The study reported that the students felt that they had little time for relaxing and hobbies. More than two thirds of students said they used alcohol or drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with the stress.

Back to the Stanford study for a second; many of the students claimed that the homework was “pointless” or “mindless.” The study argues that homework should have a purpose and benefit, which should be to cultivate learning. One of the main reasons is that school feels like a full-time job at this point. We, as in BC High students, are in school from 8:25 till 2:40; most of us have some sort of extracurricular activity on top of that, and most of us have significant commutes, which means we are getting home much later. On top of a rigorous day at school, an afterschool activity, and a commute, we have to deal with a varying amount of homework every night. Sometimes it is 2 hours, sometimes 3, sometimes even 4. I will give you an example of a day in my life last year to provide a specific example, because we are not a one size fits all community. 

I live in Middleboro and Bridgewater, so I ride the train to school which takes 50 minutes to an hour. A spring day last year would start by waking up at 5:30 and then leaving my house to get to the train at 6:30-6:35, getting on the train at 6:50, getting off the train at 7:50, and arriving at the school before classes started at 8:20. I would go through the school day and stay after for track practice. After track, I would most likely get on the train at 5:00 and get home at 6:15. I would eat dinner, shower, and then start my homework around 7:30-8, and usually I would finish somewhere between 10:30ish to 11:30ish. Can you see how that can be misconstrued as a full-time job?

Some of you might be thinking (especially any teacher reading this), why didn’t you use the 30-minute rule? Well, because most (and I mean MOST) of the time the 30-minute rule is an ineffective rule that justifies giving students a lot of homework. If you use the 30-minute rule and don’t finish a homework assignment, it still has to be completed sometime, and you’ll be behind in class. It is only effective when a teacher plans for the 30-minute rule and tells you to stop at 30 minutes to get an idea of how long an assignment takes their students. The 30-minute rule is there to justify giving a lot of homework because if you say in class that the homework took a long time, you will probably be told about the 30-minute rule. But if you used the 30-minute rule, you would have an unfinished homework assignment which means, depending on the class, you would be lost and behind, and you would still have to do it at some point. If you should have to justify giving a lot of homework, then it is probably too much. 

Parker, Clifton B. “Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework.” Stanford University , 10 Mar. 2014, http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/march/too-much-homework-031014.html . 

Communications, NYU Web. NYU Study Examines Top High School Students’ Stress and Coping Mechanisms . http://www.nyu.edu/content/nyu/en/about/news-publications/news/2015/august/nyu

-study-examines-top-high-school-students-stress-and-coping-mechanisms . 

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Should homework be banned?

Social media has sparked into life about whether children should be given homework - should students be freed from this daily chore? Dr Gerald Letendre, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, investigates.

We’ve all done it: pretended to leave an essay at home, or stayed up until 2am to finish a piece of coursework we’ve been ignoring for weeks. Homework, for some people, is seen as a chore that’s ‘wrecking kids’ or ‘killing parents’, while others think it is an essential part of a well-rounded education. The problem is far from new: public debates about homework have been raging since at least the early-1900s, and recently spilled over into a Twitter feud between Gary Lineker and Piers Morgan.

Ironically, the conversation surrounding homework often ignores the scientific ‘homework’ that researchers have carried out. Many detailed studies have been conducted, and can guide parents, teachers and administrators to make sensible decisions about how much work should be completed by students outside of the classroom.

So why does homework stir up such strong emotions? One reason is that, by its very nature, it is an intrusion of schoolwork into family life. I carried out a study in 2005, and found that the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school, from nursery right up to the end of compulsory education, has greatly increased over the last century . This means that more of a child’s time is taken up with education, so family time is reduced. This increases pressure on the boundary between the family and the school.

Plus, the amount of homework that students receive appears to be increasing, especially in the early years when parents are keen for their children to play with friends and spend time with the family.

Finally, success in school has become increasingly important to success in life. Parents can use homework to promote, or exercise control over, their child’s academic trajectory, and hopefully ensure their future educational success. But this often leaves parents conflicted – they want their children to be successful in school, but they don’t want them to be stressed or upset because of an unmanageable workload.

However, the issue isn’t simply down to the opinions of parents, children and their teachers – governments also like to get involved. In the autumn of 2012, French president François Hollande hit world headlines after making a comment about banning homework, ostensibly because it promoted inequality. The Chinese government has also toyed with a ban, because of concerns about excessive academic pressure being put on children.

The problem is, some politicians and national administrators regard regulatory policy in education as a solution for a wide array of social, economic and political issues, perhaps without considering the consequences for students and parents.

Does homework work?

Homework seems to generally have a positive effect for high school students, according to an extensive range of empirical literature. For example, Duke University’s Prof Harris Cooper carried out a meta-analysis using data from US schools, covering a period from 1987 to 2003. He found that homework offered a general beneficial impact on test scores and improvements in attitude, with a greater effect seen in older students. But dig deeper into the issue and a complex set of factors quickly emerges, related to how much homework students do, and exactly how they feel about it.

In 2009, Prof Ulrich Trautwein and his team at the University of Tübingen found that in order to establish whether homework is having any effect, researchers must take into account the differences both between and within classes . For example, a teacher may assign a good deal of homework to a lower-level class, producing an association between more homework and lower levels of achievement. Yet, within the same class, individual students may vary significantly in how much homework improves their baseline performance. Plus, there is the fact that some students are simply more efficient at completing their homework than others, and it becomes quite difficult to pinpoint just what type of homework, and how much of it, will affect overall academic performance.

Over the last century, the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school has greatly increased

Gender is also a major factor. For example, a study of US high school students carried out by Prof Gary Natriello in the 1980s revealed that girls devote more time to homework than boys, while a follow-up study found that US girls tend to spend more time on mathematics homework than boys. Another study, this time of African-American students in the US, found that eighth grade (ages 13-14) girls were more likely to successfully manage both their tasks and emotions around schoolwork, and were more likely to finish homework.

So why do girls seem to respond more positively to homework? One possible answer proposed by Eunsook Hong of the University of Nevada in 2011 is that teachers tend to rate girls’ habits and attitudes towards work more favourably than boys’. This perception could potentially set up a positive feedback loop between teacher expectations and the children’s capacity for academic work based on gender, resulting in girls outperforming boys. All of this makes it particularly difficult to determine the extent to which homework is helping, though it is clear that simply increasing the time spent on assignments does not directly correspond to a universal increase in learning.

Can homework cause damage?

The lack of empirical data supporting homework in the early years of education, along with an emerging trend to assign more work to this age range, appears to be fuelling parental concerns about potential negative effects. But, aside from anecdotes of increased tension in the household, is there any evidence of this? Can doing too much homework actually damage children?

Evidence suggests extreme amounts of homework can indeed have serious effects on students’ health and well-being. A Chinese study carried out in 2010 found a link between excessive homework and sleep disruption: children who had less homework had better routines and more stable sleep schedules. A Canadian study carried out in 2015 by Isabelle Michaud found that high levels of homework were associated with a greater risk of obesity among boys, if they were already feeling stressed about school in general.

For useful revision guides and video clips to assist with learning, visit BBC Bitesize . This is a free online study resource for UK students from early years up to GCSEs and Scottish Highers.

It is also worth noting that too much homework can create negative effects that may undermine any positives. These negative consequences may not only affect the child, but also could also pile on the stress for the whole family, according to a recent study by Robert Pressman of the New England Centre for Pediatric Psychology. Parents were particularly affected when their perception of their own capacity to assist their children decreased.

What then, is the tipping point, and when does homework simply become too much for parents and children? Guidelines typically suggest that children in the first grade (six years old) should have no more that 10 minutes per night, and that this amount should increase by 10 minutes per school year. However, cultural norms may greatly affect what constitutes too much.

A study of children aged between 8 and 10 in Quebec defined high levels of homework as more than 30 minutes a night, but a study in China of children aged 5 to 11 deemed that two or more hours per night was excessive. It is therefore difficult to create a clear standard for what constitutes as too much homework, because cultural differences, school-related stress, and negative emotions within the family all appear to interact with how homework affects children.

Should we stop setting homework?

In my opinion, even though there are potential risks of negative effects, homework should not be banned. Small amounts, assigned with specific learning goals in mind and with proper parental support, can help to improve students’ performance. While some studies have generally found little evidence that homework has a positive effect on young children overall, a 2008 study by Norwegian researcher Marte Rønning found that even some very young children do receive some benefit. So simply banning homework would mean that any particularly gifted or motivated pupils would not be able to benefit from increased study. However, at the earliest ages, very little homework should be assigned. The decisions about how much and what type are best left to teachers and parents.

As a parent, it is important to clarify what goals your child’s teacher has for homework assignments. Teachers can assign work for different reasons – as an academic drill to foster better study habits, and unfortunately, as a punishment. The goals for each assignment should be made clear, and should encourage positive engagement with academic routines.

Parents should inform the teachers of how long the homework is taking, as teachers often incorrectly estimate the amount of time needed to complete an assignment, and how it is affecting household routines. For young children, positive teacher support and feedback is critical in establishing a student’s positive perception of homework and other academic routines. Teachers and parents need to be vigilant and ensure that homework routines do not start to generate patterns of negative interaction that erode students’ motivation.

Likewise, any positive effects of homework are dependent on several complex interactive factors, including the child’s personal motivation, the type of assignment, parental support and teacher goals. Creating an overarching policy to address every single situation is not realistic, and so homework policies tend to be fixated on the time the homework takes to complete. But rather than focusing on this, everyone would be better off if schools worked on fostering stronger communication between parents, teachers and students, allowing them to respond more sensitively to the child’s emotional and academic needs.

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

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Caitlin Moran on why homework should be banned

Hi, I’m Caitlin Moran, and welcome to this week’s Moranifesto.

On the 3rd May, the day this blog goes online, a national protest has been suggested by parents, despairing of how pressurised their children’s education has become. A group called ‘Let Kids Be Kids’ are calling on parents to remove their children from school for the day and let them run around in the sun, or more realistically, snow, and have some fun. Or at the very least stay at home in their pyjamas and watch Homes under the Hammer while eating Quavers. They are concerned about the increasingly joyless, test-driven, uncreative, sedentary curriculum imposed on our small, curious and restless children. A curriculum, I should add, which is generally hated by the teachers who are meant to enforce it.

In Moranifesto, I address modern education’s unhappy march towards meaningless tasks, constant tests and bloodless, force-fed fact regurgitation, with, I might claim, a rather bold suggestion. Now, I’m not one for craven populism. I dare to say the unsayable. In my time, I’ve suggested some pretty contentious things: that jam is horrible, that fish are evil, ketchup shouldn’t be kept in the fridge, and Father Christmas is the sexiest man alive. But this week, I’m going to say something that I confidently expect will win 100% support. I cannot imagine a single person disagreeing with me, because, it is this: We should ban homework.

If one thing happens in 2016, it should be a concerted campaign to eradicate this illogical, damaging, pain-in-the-ass institution once and for all. It is an invention universally loathed, and it is slightly less popular than mouth ulcers. For children, homework is one of the classic immortal foes up there with vegetables, darkness, teeth-cleaning and bed-time. Parents, meanwhile, are doubly enraged. As former children themselves, parents can’t believe this homework stuff has come round again, this time with the added top-spin of you now being the poor sap that has to haul the kids in from the playground and make them give any kind of a shit about Richard II on one side of A4 paper. Even as your offspring scream, ‘I hate you! I’m too tired to do this and I want to die.’

 Finally, should parents and children wish to round on the people who have given them the homework – the teachers –  they would find that teachers are the ones who hate homework most of all. Teachers are all like, ‘don’t have a go at us. We’d kick homework in the nuts if we could’.  Teachers loathe homework. It’s yet another round of projects to be set, handed out, nagged over and then marked. Homework for kids basically means homework for teachers, too. And everyone is quite right to hate it. For it makes life far worse than we had ever imagined.

Look, these are days of rocketing child obesity, anxiety and emotional disorders. Prescriptions for tranquilizers for children have gone through the roof. I don’t think I’m being too fanciful to suggest that as soon as children complete their seven-hour long academic day, they should be free to run around in the park, muck about with their friends and have a chance to interact with their parents, not centred around screaming ‘I hate you! I’m too tired to do this and I want to die.’ And this would, obviously, improve the physical and mental health of British children immeasurably.

When else are they going to do all that running around and being happy we keep saying that they need to do? The winters are long, they’ve got homework until 8pm, and then they’ve got that big history project over the weekend. Homework means our children never really leave school. Even when they’re at home, they’re still strapped to that bulging rucksack of folders. They’re still on deadlines. They’re still producing. And whilst that’s never fun for any child, for some, it’s utterly devastating.

If you know in your bones that academia is not for you, then those final hours of homework mean you’ve spent your entire waking day doing stuff that you feel a failure at. You have no time to go out there and find the things that you might excel at, that give you joy and change your life. You could be helping your mum mend the clutch on the car, or being taught how to cook by your dad, or hearing the record that makes you form a band, or spending five hours obsessively practicing free kicks with your mates. Instead, it’s that sad chair at the kitchen table and the slow pen across the pages as your heart revolts and, sometimes, breaks.

I loathe my children’s homework with a passion. When they come home from school, I want that time to be ours. I want my children. How many hours do we have left of their already dwindling childhood? How many more of these ultra vivid years do we have, when an evening walking along the river, visiting nan, learning how to do magic tricks, reading stories. It’s something that we will all remember forever, or that might even become their future. That my children spend these evenings exhaustedly weeping over a cardboard model of a neutron, which will just get chucked into some cupboard at school, and which doesn’t even count in their exams, makes me feel a sad and desperate fury. And not least because of the final awfulness of homework: that my kids are the lucky ones.

Homework just about works for them because they have a calm house and parents who have the time, just about, if we forget that I actually wanted to go and listen to Serial while having a hot bath, to help them. But for those children who are not lucky, who live in a chaotic house, who have parents who are busy or who are gone, homework is the cruellest reminder yet that the biggest factor in most children’s educational attainment is, over and over again, their parents’ education and class. It is often the final blow to the already struggling.

So, let’s call homework what it really is. It’s not homework. It’s a parent test. It’s a life vampire. It’s a future heart-attack. It’s emptied our playgrounds and panicked our children. It puts work in the home, and I wish it death. I hope the biggest dog in the world comes and eats it.

I’ll see you all next week. Thank you.

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Debate on Homework Should be Abolished [In Favour and Against]

Homework, a task students complete outside of school hours, sparks a widespread debate. Many argue it should be abolished. Today, with evolving educational methods, the relevance of homework is a hot topic. Its impact on students’ well-being and learning experience is under scrutiny.

Arguments in Favour Of Homework Should be Abolished

Argument 1: positive effects of abolishing homework on student mental health.

Homework can sometimes feel like a never-ending cycle of stress and pressure for students. Imagine a world where students could focus on learning in the classroom without the looming burden of homework hanging over their heads. Abolishing homework could have a profoundly positive impact on student mental health.

One primary reason why abolishing homework would benefit students’ mental health is the reduction of stress and anxiety. Students often feel overwhelmed by the amount of homework they have to complete, leading to high levels of stress that can affect their overall well-being. By removing this extra pressure, students would have more time to relax, unwind, and engage in activities that bring them joy.

Additionally, abolishing homework can help students maintain a healthier work-life balance. Students deserve time to pursue their interests, spend time with family and friends, and engage in extracurricular activities. Without the burden of homework, students would have more opportunities to explore their passions and develop a well-rounded lifestyle.

Furthermore, abolishing homework can enhance students’ confidence and self-esteem. When students are constantly struggling to complete assignments, it can take a toll on their belief in their abilities. By eliminating homework, students can feel more confident in their academic skills and approach learning with a positive attitude.

In conclusion, abolishing homework could be a significant step towards promoting better mental health among students. By reducing stress, improving sleep quality, fostering a healthier work-life balance, and boosting confidence, students can thrive academically and emotionally in a homework-free environment.

Argument 2: Fostering Family Bonding and Social Skills Through the Abolition of Homework

When homework is abolished, families have more opportunities to bond and connect with each other. Instead of being engrossed in individual tasks, students and their families can engage in shared activities like cooking together, playing games, or simply talking about their day. These moments of togetherness can strengthen family relationships and create lasting memories that may not have been possible if homework were taking up all the time.

Furthermore, abolishing homework can also help students develop important social skills. Without the burden of homework, students have more time to interact with their siblings, parents, and even neighbors. These interactions allow them to practice communication, empathy, and teamwork in a real-world setting. Through conversations and activities with family members, students can learn how to express themselves effectively, resolve conflicts peacefully, and understand different perspectives.

In addition, by abolishing homework, schools can encourage students to participate in community activities and events. Students can join clubs, sports teams, or volunteer organizations, fostering a sense of belonging and social responsibility. These extracurricular activities not only provide opportunities for students to make new friends but also help them develop leadership skills, teamwork, and resilience.

In conclusion, abolishing homework can have a positive impact on fostering family bonding and social skills among students. By prioritizing quality time with family members and engaging in social activities outside of school, students can develop stronger relationships, communication skills, and a sense of community. Ultimately, by promoting these aspects, schools can contribute to the holistic development of students and prepare them for success in both their personal and professional lives.

Arguments Against Of Homework Should be Abolished

Argument 1: detrimental impact on academic performance and learning retention.

Homework can be a source of stress and anxiety for many students. It takes away precious time that could be spent on other activities like hobbies, sports, or spending time with family and friends. This burden of homework can lead to students feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, affecting their overall well-being and mental health.

Furthermore, the pressure to complete homework assignments can sometimes result in students rushing through their work just to meet deadlines. This rush to finish tasks can compromise the quality of their learning and understanding of the material. Instead of deeply engaging with the subject matter, students may simply focus on completing the assignment quickly, leading to surface-level learning that is quickly forgotten.

Research has shown that excessive homework can actually have a negative impact on academic performance. When students are overloaded with homework, they may struggle to retain the information they are trying to learn. This can result in lower test scores and a lack of true mastery of the material. Without sufficient time to review and consolidate what they have learned in class, students may find themselves falling behind academically.

Moreover, the stress and pressure associated with homework can create a barrier to effective learning. Students may feel demotivated and disengaged from their studies when faced with an overwhelming amount of homework to complete. This can hinder their ability to develop a genuine interest in the subjects they are studying and can lead to a lack of enthusiasm for learning.

In conclusion, the detrimental impact of homework on academic performance and learning retention is a significant concern that should not be overlooked. By abolishing homework, we can create a more balanced and holistic approach to education that prioritizes student well-being and genuine understanding of the material.

Argument 2: Loss of Individual Accountability and Work Ethic

Additionally, when students are given homework tasks that they do not understand, it can be demotivating and lead to a lack of effort in completing the assignments. This lack of motivation can hinder the development of a strong work ethic, as students may not see the value in putting in the effort to complete tasks that they perceive as irrelevant or too challenging.

Moreover, the pressure to complete homework assignments on time can sometimes cause students to prioritize speed over quality. This can result in rushed and incomplete work, which does not foster a sense of pride in one’s accomplishments or encourage students to strive for excellence in their academic pursuits.

In conclusion, the practice of assigning homework can inadvertently contribute to a loss of individual accountability and work ethic among students. By abolishing homework, we can create a learning environment that encourages students to take ownership of their education, develop a strong work ethic, and prioritize meaningful learning experiences over rote tasks.

That’s it! I hope the debate helped you.

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No More Homework: 12 Reasons We Should Get Rid of It Completely

Last Updated: May 4, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Finn Kobler . Finn Kobler graduated from USC in 2022 with a BFA in Writing for Screen/Television. He is a two-time California State Champion and record holder in Original Prose/Poetry, a 2018 finalist for the Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate, and he's written micro-budget films that have been screened in over 150 theaters nationwide. Growing up, Finn spent every summer helping his family's nonprofit arts program, Showdown Stage Company, empower people through accessible media. He hopes to continue that mission with his writing at wikiHow. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 146,785 times. Learn more...

The amount of homework students are given has increased dramatically in the 21st century, which has sparked countless debates over homework’s overall value. While some have been adamant that homework is an essential part of a good education, it’s been proven that too much homework negatively affects students’ mood, classroom performance, and overall well-being. In addition, a heavy homework load can stress families and teachers. Here are 12 reasons why homework should be banned (or at least heavily reduced).

School is already a full-time job.

• For years, teachers have followed the “10-minute rule” giving students roughly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. However, recent studies have shown students are completing 3+ hours of homework a night well before their senior years even begin. [2] X Trustworthy Source American Psychological Association Leading scientific and professional organization of licensed psychologists Go to source

Homework negatively affects students’ health.

Homework interferes with student’s opportunities to socialize.

Homework hinders students’ chances to learn new things.

Homework lowers students’ enthusiasm for school.

Homework can lower academic performance.

Homework cuts into family time.

Homework is stressful for teachers.

Homework is often irrelevant and punitive.

• There are even studies that have shown homework in primary school has no correlation with classroom performance whatsoever. [9] X Research source

Homework encourages cheating.

Homework is inequitable.

Other countries have banned homework with great results.

• There are even some U.S. schools that have adopted this approach with success. [13] X Research source

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• ↑ https://time.com/4466390/homework-debate-research/
• ↑ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220485.2022.2075506?role=tab&scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=vece20
• ↑ https://kappanonline.org/teacher-stress-balancing-demands-resources-mccarthy/
• ↑ https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-homework-pros-cons-20180807-story.html
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6294446/
• ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/homework-inequality-parents-schedules-grades/485174/
• ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/education-37716005
• ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-homework-its-the-new-thing-in-u-s-schools-11544610600

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• Child Development

Should Homework Be Abolished?

The french president proposes banning homework. is he right.

Posted October 18, 2012

• Understanding Child Development
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French President François Hollande proposed banning homework as part of his plan to reform the French educational system. But is he throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

Hollande believes homework favors the wealthy and disadvantages children from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds because wealthier parents are more likely to have the time and means to support, monitor, supervise, and assist their children when they are doing their homework. The reality of such distinctions aside, such an all-or-nothing approach misses the more practical problems ALL students face when dealing with homework—the sheer volume of homework they are assigned.

I’ve written about this question previously (read, How Much Homework is Too Much ?) and stated that there are few if any studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of piling on excessive amounts of homework on students, especially when it comes to children in elementary and middle school.

When children are assigned too much homework, it taxes not just them but their parents as well. Further, children who are assigned hours of homework a day are often unable to engage in the kind of socializing and play that are essential for healthy child development . One easy guideline to keep in mind is that children should be assigned no more than 10 minutes a day of homework per grade level. A sixth grader should be doing no more than an hour of homework a day, and a senior in high school should have no more than two hours a day of homework. However, such is rarely the case, especially (but not exclusively) when it comes to private schools.

The French President’s initiative notwithstanding, homework is not likely to be abolished in the United States anytime soon. So what can or should parents do when they have concerns about the amounts of homework their children are assigned? First, parents should try and come together so they can address homework concerns to schools as a group. Second, they also need to become informed about studies that have examined the impact of homework on children. They should also be ready to inform their children’s teachers and principal, many of whom aren't aware of these findings, or in some cases, that such studies even exist.

If your children are doing excessive amounts of homework and you want to learn how to advocate for them you have to become a squeaky wheel, and not just speak up, but learn to do so effectively! For more on how to complain effectively as well as on how complaining psychology impacts our advocacy efforts, check out The Squeaky Wheel .

View my short and quite personal TED talk about Psychological Health here:

Copyright 2012 Guy Winch

Follow me on Twitter @GuyWinch

Guy Winch, Ph.D. , is a licensed psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts.

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Should Homework Really Be Banned? It’s Complicated

By Leon Wilczek Categories: People & Society June 3, 2023, 8:42 AM

Should homework be banned? Every student has asked themselves this question. Is homework actually just annoying or does it also provide some benefits?

Should homework be banned? Once you’ve been out of school for some time, this question doesn’t even seem relevant until you have children of your own. That said, some believe that homework serves a number of important purposes, such as:

• Practice: Doing your homework allows you to put what you learned in class into practice and improve. To make sure you comprehend the information, it works like extra practice.
• Independent learning: Doing your homework helps you to be in charge of your own education. You gain the crucial ability of time management and independent learning.
• Preparation for class: Occasionally, homework helps you get ready for the upcoming lesson. Before a topic is covered in class, you might read up on it or conduct some research to find out more information. You’ll be able to participate in conversations in class better as a result.
• Feedback and evaluation: Teachers use homework to determine your level of comprehension of the subject. They can offer you comments on your work and support you if you are having problems.
• Involvement of parents: Parents have the opportunity to have a glimpse into their learning and academic performance. Homework can give them the chance to participate in their child’s education and can assist them if they need it.

There are many differing opinions about homework. While some think having too much homework can be detrimental, others think that it’s crucial for learning. Let’s have a closer look at the positive and negative aspects of homework while we consider if homework should be banned. 

Benefits of Homework

Next to the number of purposes listed above there are some more benefits of homework that speak for keeping homework as a part of the learning process:

• Learning skills: Homework can help in the development of vital abilities. It enhances your ability of analysis, critical thought, and problem-solving. You gain knowledge on how to apply what you’ve studied to actual circumstances.
• Time management and responsibility: Doing your homework teaches you how to be responsible and manage your time. You develop the time management skills necessary for academic and personal success by completing assignments on time.
• Independent learning: Homework inspires independent learning. You can look into many subjects, conduct research, and learn more. This encourages your curiosity, motivation, and independence as a learner.
• Exam preparation: Homework helps you get ready for exams. It provides you with practice and helps you understand concepts better. It may enhance your performance on tests as a result.
• Extension of learning: Homework lets you explore topics more deeply. You can do extra research and learn more about the things that interest you. This helps you understand the subject better.
• Improved memory: Homework helps with the retention of classroom material. Doing extra practice at home makes the information stick in your brain longer.
• Connecting school and home:  Homework enables you to discover how the lessons you learn in class connect to your daily life. It enables you to put what you’ve learned into practice and discuss it with your family.

In general, there are many benefits of homework that speak against the question “Should homework be banned?”. But let us have a look at the opposing sides of homework before drawing any conclusions.

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Negative Effects of Homework

While there are certainly many advantages, it’s important to consider some of the potential negative effects of homework as well. Here are some aspects to consider when wondering if homework should be banned:

• Mental health: An excessive amount of schoolwork might leave students feeling worn out and frustrated. It might be exhausting and leave you with little time for leisure or other enjoyable pursuits.
• Lack of balance: Homework takes up a lot of time, meaning students have less time for hobbies, sports, and time with family and friends. It might be challenging to achieve a balanced lifestyle.
• Unequal access:  Not every student can access the same materials at home. Some people might not have access to computers, the internet or a peaceful space to study. This may make it more difficult to finish assignments.
• Achievement gaps: Different schools and teachers may have different expectations for homework, which can affect how well students learn. Students who have less support or fewer resources may struggle to keep up, widening the gap between privileged and marginalized students.
• Physical health: Too much time spent on schoolwork might result in long periods of sitting. This can affect mental and physical health and lead to problems like elevated stress levels or sleep deprivation.
• Loss of interest and creativity: If students have too much schoolwork, they may not have time for hobbies or creative interests. It might diminish their love of learning new things and make it seem like work.

As one can see, homework has a substantial impact on learners, especially when they are children. Let’s draw a conclusion based on the positive and negative aspects we just explored.

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Should Homework Be Banned? A Conclusion

All in all, perhaps homework shouldn’t be banned completely, but it needs to be considered in a fair and balanced way. Here are some important points to remember that take the individual needs and resources of students into account:

• Everyone is different: Every person is unique, and each student learns differently. Homework should be personalized to meet each student’s needs and abilities.
• Homework should have a purpose: The goal of homework should be to reinforce the lessons learned in class. It should be meaningful. Students should have the chance to put their knowledge to use and gain a deeper understanding of the situation.
• The workload should be reasonable: Students shouldn’t be given so much homework that it becomes overwhelming. It’s crucial to have a balance so that they have time for other activities and don’t get too stressed.
• Fairness for everyone: Not every student’s family has the same resources. All students should be able to access and finish their assignments, and teachers should take this into account. Those that require it should receive additional assistance.
• Different learning styles: Homework should be adaptable so that students show their understanding in various ways. Additionally, it’s essential for teachers and professors to provide students with feedback and support when they require it.
• Physical and mental health is important: Students shouldn’t feel overburdened or that their time is completely consumed with homework. Make time for enjoyable activities and build in self-care days . 

Homework should be given with the intention of assisting in your growth and learning. It needs to be reasonable, fair, and adjusted to individual requirements. While doing homework, keep in mind to take breaks and take care of yourself as well.

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Why homework should be banned?

Banning homework could significantly reduce stress and pressure on students while promoting a more equitable and effective educational system. Homework exacerbates educational inequalities, lacks consistent effectiveness, encourages academic dishonesty, and hinders the promotion of lifelong learning.

There are many reasons why homework should be banned. Students claim they don’t have enough time for it. Nevertheless, professors give more and more assignments for self-education. As a result, the stress of deadlines adds up, diminishing students’ motivation to learn. 

Many people argue that the modern curriculum leaves too much for self-study. Students don’t get enough explanation on the topic and end up with surface-level knowledge across many fields rather than an in-depth understanding of one.

Banning or at least reducing the amount of homework could be the answer to these concerns. Yet, many educational institutions are reluctant to change their curricula or don’t see the need for it.

8 Reasons why homework should be banned

When looking for arguments to support our stance, we stopped at eight. They are as follows: 

Increased stress

• Less time for family
• Lack of equality among students

Poor sleep schedules

• No time for after-school development

Questionable academic benefit

• Worsened student-teacher relationships
• Risk of burnout

All these are real implications that homework has on students. In the later sections, we will expand on each in more detail.

When it comes to the reasons why should homework be banned, stress is the first one that comes to mind. With each year, academic demands only grow. It gets harder and harder to get into educational institutions, hence, it is also hard to stay. Students are expected to perform at an extraordinary level only to secure their spot. 

At the same time, they hardly ever get any financial support, so some have to combine studying with work. With such a schedule, it’s very hard to find time for homework. Learners are forced to do it at night, in between classes or at work, running the risk of making their manager or professor mad. This is why students are under insurmountable pressure from their school, family, and themselves. 

No time for family

The continuing debate on homework should be banned leads us to the next point. Students who are always busy with homework, hardly have time for themselves, not to mention their family. Reduced family visits or even conversation can lead to the feelings of loneliness and isolation.  

Banning homework, or at least reducing its amount, could help students reconnect with their loved ones. For many students, especially freshers, loneliness is one of the biggest concerns. Many people struggle with making friends or even striking up a casual conversation with a stranger. Even a small encounter can make one feel less lonely, yet how do you find time for it if you’re always in your room doing homework?

Lack of equality

While the demands on students are approximately the same, some peoples’ resources are more limited than others’. Students from wealthier backgrounds have access to more modern technology, and, as a result, may even have more time on their hands.

At the same time, students with less resources are stuck with outdated library computers that take 20 minutes only to turn on. This inequality can lead to unfair judgment, resentment and even more inequality among students.

At the same time, in class, everyone has the same resources - the same amount of time, pen and paper. Doing assignments in class could ensure that everyone gets the same treatments based on their knowledge.

As we’ve already mentioned, some students have to work after school. And even if they don’t work, they may have multiple assignments due on the same day. Everybody needs some time to themselves, student or not. Relaxing is also vital for comprehension and memory. If you don’t sleep well, all that cramming just goes to waste, because it doesn’t make the trip from short-term memory to long-term storage. 

Luckily, there is a solution. Using a do my homework service can provide students with more time for themselves or other important assignments. Getting help with homework will not only ensure that you are well-rested before class, it can also help you see a different perspective on a topic you may be struggling with. Because when a paper is completed by a professional writer, it can be an amazing learning resource. 

No time for extracurriculars

Extracurricular classes, clubs and societies play a vital role in students’ holistic development. Participating in debates, math, or drama clubs can help you learn in practice, develop leadership skills, and gain real experience that can later help you excel in your profession. 

Cutting all those things out for the sake of homework will leave you with theoretical knowledge only. Which is why homework should be banned. 

College should give you a well-rounded education and prepare you for the real world. If you don’t engage in after-school development, don’t socialize with other students and don’t develop leadership skills, you’re going to have to learn those skills from scratch in the workplace. That makes you a less eligible candidate compared to those with practical skills.

With all the drawbacks presented above, it’s hard to argue for homework. When a student is stressed, lonely, isolated, and hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in months, writing another essay won’t do them much good.

Some research suggests that there is little to no correlation between homework and academic success, especially for younger students. That should push educators to reassess the current teaching methods and come up with better strategies for education. 

When it comes to academic success, educators should focus on what can be achieved in class rather than at home. After classes, students should have time to rest, socialize and recharge.

But who invented homework and why ? Read our article to find out all about homework and its inventor!

Poor relationships between students and teachers

When teachers ask a lot from students, it can lead to resentment. Without properly explaining the task or the benefit behind it, teachers load students with an assignment every week. But when a student doesn’t understand why it’s important, they may end up doing the task haphazardly. 

On the other hand, when a student who performs well in class comes back with an assignment done carelessly, the teacher may apply even more pressure on that student.

So, why should homework be abolished? Because it leads to a lot of miscommunication between teachers and students. Teachers tend to put a lot of expectations on students without considering that they have many other commitments and classes.

Academic burnout

Burnout has become increasingly more common among students. It can be characterized by the following symptoms: 

• Chronic fatigue
• Irritability
• Distraction
• Loss of motivation
• Reduced performance.

It is usually caused by high expectations placed on a student by themselves, their teachers or parents. High workload can also lead a student to burn out. Perfectionism, lack of support and poor time management are among other contributors to burning out.

The easiest way to deal with burnout would, of course, be to ban homework. But, when it’s not possible, you could also try the following: 

• Self-care . Take a day off or implement small habits into every day that would remind you that you are your own priority. It can be a nice meal, sports, or meditation.
• Setting goals . Determining your priorities and writing them down can be an efficient tool for those who lack motivation.
• Seeking support . Counseling services, therapy, or just talking to a friend can make a world of difference for people struggling with burnout.

Taking a break . Sometimes, it’s hard to think straight when you’re so close to the fire. Taking a vacation, a gap year or a week off can really help you evaluate your priorities and see what’s causing you stress.

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Why homework should not be required?

Homework should not be required because it can cause significant stress for children. Research indicates that extra assignments, especially for younger students, can lead to unhealthy levels of stress. When students are bombarded with numerous lessons both at school and at home, they may experience stress and anxiety if they cannot complete the assignments on time.

Many studies have confirmed that homework negatively affects students’ performance, mood, motivation and even health. Those who have access to quality homework help can consider themselves lucky. But the rest may feel isolated, struggling on their own. 

What educators must understand is that homework is already a full-time job. Those teachers do not come back from work and do more work, but students do, all the while paying insane amounts of money for that education. This inevitably poses the question of whether higher education is even worth it anymore.

It can lead to burnout, cause severe mental and physical health problems while draining your family of its life’s savings. 

Banning homework for students with different learning styles

It’s no secret that people have different learning styles. However, homework is not adapted to that difference, which is another r eason why homework should be banned. The four commonly defined styles are:

• Read/Write,
• Kinaesthetic.

That means that for someone who derives most benefit from Kinaesthetic-styled learning, reading a book may not be efficient. In the same way, a visual learner will hardly benefit from writing an essay. 

Yet, when it comes to homework, a teacher can’t give everyone a different task. They will normally assign the same project to everyone. That means that only ¼ of the group will benefit from that task.

Socialization should be prioritized

So, why homework should be banned? Because it takes away the time that could otherwise be spent socializing. Students that don’t have a social life do worse with their studies. When you don’t have anyone to talk to, you can feel isolated, lonely, and even depressed. 

On the contrary, when you have a few friends or simply are in contact with your classmates, you have someone who can share your struggles with you. College can be a great time to bond, even if over a tyrant teacher. 

Extracurriculars, study groups, and clubs can give you valuable experience that you can apply in class or even in the workplace. 

Having a few extra minutes to call your family can help you reduce anxiety, feelings of separation and loneliness.

Stress doesn’t have to be an integral part of the college experience

Students are under a lot of pressure. Many of them report wanting to quit because the demands are so high. People who are the first generation from their family to attend college report even higher levels of pressure due to the feeling of responsibility before their family. 

Yet, at the same time, the resources to help these students are quite scarce. Counselors’ offices are always booked weeks in advance, and therapy is not affordable to an average student with zero income.

Depression is very common among college students, while those are supposed to be the happiest years of one’s life. Could homework be the reason for that? We say yes. So, why homework should be abolished is not even a question anymore.

Final thoughts

Even though in this article, we argue against homework, we also have a few arguments on why is homework important : 

It can help students dive deeper into the concepts explained in class. Lectures are limited in time, but a student may need longer to grasp a concept. While studying at home, they may use different resources and gain a deeper understanding of the topic in their own time.

Homework is also vital for teachers to be able to assess students’ understanding. There’s, unfortunately, no better way for teachers to know if you’ve understood a topic other than homework.

Overall, even though it has many drawbacks, homework doesn’t yet have an alternative. And while causing stress, it also has benefits, like deeper understanding and ease of assessment.

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Frequently Asked Questions 

Why should we ban homework.

Homework doesn’t make much sense in the modern world. Most students have to work to support themselves or their families. This leaves them with little to no time for self-education. While it used to be customary for young people to live with their parents throughout college, it’s no longer the case. 

Most students have to fend for themselves - pay rent, buy groceries, and pay bills, starting at about 18 years old. Doing all that while also writing endless essays and projects for school is hardly impossible. Yet, people who combine all those things often end up stressed, burnt out and unmotivated. This may lead to frustration with the educational system and even dropping out. 

On top of the stress of test scores, more homework can slow down school learning for elementary students and make them lose their motivation for further studying and academic performance. So, how can they find the motivation to go through it?

Where to find motivation for doing homework?

How to motivate yourself to do homework is a big and loaded question, but we’ll try to give you an easy answer. First of all, you should try to remember what you’re here for. Did you enter college to become a highly qualified professional? Do you want to make your parents proud? Are you internally curious and want to know everything about everything? Think of other reasons that made you go to college in the first place.

Planning out your assignments will also help. Break bigger tasks into smaller ones, plan breaks in between and come up with a course of action. This way, these assignments will seem more approachable.

You can view this from the perspective of educators who are preparing students and encouraging students for more difficult academic responsibilities later on. On the other side, it's perfectly normal for your motivation to waver when met with too much homework. Too much homework, long school hours, and a lot of time spent on even more homework can explain why banning homework can be an option.

How do I find time for leisure when homework exists?

So, why should homework be banned? Because students don’t have any time for their personal lives and end up stuck doing homework for hours on end.

If you feel it influences your mental health, it’s detrimental to take a break and find some time for yourself. It may be difficult when homework has no end. 

Luckily, services like Studyfy can offer a helping hand in the time of need. Outsourcing your homework to a professional writer will not only give you a few hours to spare, but also a perfect paper sample you can use to educate yourself. 

Alternatively, you can: 

• Ask your professor for an extension
• Combine efforts with your friends to finish the task faster
• Get smaller tasks out of the way, your schedule will clear up, and you might find time for a walk in the park.

How to improve my performance in class?

All the way from elementary school to middle school and beyond, academic achievement and academic performance have been tied to test scores and assigning homework. You may have struggled with answering can homework improve academic achievement, especially with such repetitive homework tasks. The best thing you can do for your future education is to complete assignments on time, increase your academic performance, and use the education system for essential life skills.

It’s no secret that being active and communicating with the professor can get you some cookie points. If they notice you are trying hard, and you make a good impression, they may let some of your homework mistakes slide. This is why it’s important to address other aspects of your school performance since banning homework is not an option.

To get better in your teacher’s eyes is not that hard, really. You just have to be active. Try to sit closer to them, and maybe even further away from your friends so that you don;t get distracted. Take notes, write everything down and ask questions.

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Homework Solutions

Should Homework Be Banned? A Question For The Ages

There are always going to be disputes over whether or not homework is important. Students might not want to do their homework, but they might also have a point. Let’s look at the two sides of the no homework debate.

As you will see, the arguments that people have surrounding whether or not homework is sensible are heated and include many points that will directly influence what you feel might be right. There will be a strong need to look at how well one’s studies are laid out and that there is a good plan in mind for getting the most out that work. It is not always easy to get a homework task completed though, as this listing of the pros and cons of homework is concerned.

Why Homework Should Be Banned There are many sensible reasons for why school homework needs to be banned. These include arguments that go long beyond what students might think:

• The homework a student completes might not be as indicative of what a student understands as what might be found on a test or exam.
• All students learn differently from one another. Some students might not be capable of learning much off of their homework tasks.
• Homework is not as comprehensive as a test in terms of how well information is gauged and what a student can handle for one’s studies in general.
• Schools hardly ever factor homework into their grades these days. Final exams and other massive tests make up much of a student’s grade in a class anyway.
• Students have far too many things to bear with relating to many courses they are taking, their work duties, and other out-of-class endeavors and responsibilities they might have. Adding homework into the mix only makes it harder for students to be fully prepared to do homework.

Why Homework Should Not Be Banned There are plenty of equally understandable arguments for why is homework important. Many of these are aspects suggesting that homework is something that cannot be ignored when trying to get a good work plan running:

• Homework encourages kids to be responsible in their studies. They will need to complete their tasks within specific time periods so they can get the best grades possible.
• Homework also helps students to review many things relating to what they need to understand regarding their subjects of interest. By completing their homework tasks, those students will have a clear idea of what they need to learn.
• One of the top benefits of chemistry homework is that it helps students to organize their knowledge. It becomes easier for students to keep certain concepts gathered together in the note-taking or learning process.
• Homework also gauges whether or not a student is learning things appropriately. A teacher may adjust one’s work plans based on whether or not the students are learning accordingly based on what they are coming across in their studies.

The dispute over the importance of homework is an interesting aspect of education that will always be worth analyzing. This is a topic that is always going to be discussed quite well and should be noted appropriately.

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20+ Reasons Why Homework Should Not Be Banned

Homework has been a source of many heated discussions—and one of the most common questions people ask is whether or not it should be banned.

Many believe homework stifles student creativity, while others see homework as an important tool to help students with their studies.

The following are valuable insights from professionals on why homework should not be banned:

Greg Freebury

Educational Empowerment Expert | Founder, Think & Evolve

Homework is a pathway to mastery

Like any skill in life, practice is essential for improvement. This is a universal truth.

• Want to get better at basketball? Go dribble and shoot the ball repeatedly.
• Want to get better at math? Do math problems until you dream of numbers.
• Want to get better at Call of Duty? Play round after round of team deathmatch until you finish in first place.

The formula is simple: practice more, get better.

It’s ludicrous to believe that someone, especially a child, could perform at a high level merely after listening to a lecture or watching a video.

Think about it. Would you sit your kid down, having never driven a car in their life, have them watch a 45-minute presentation on parallel parking, and then ask them to go parallel park on a hilly San Francisco street during rush hour traffic? No, that would be preposterous.

You would be putting them in a position where failure is almost a certainty.

Well, when we remove homework from education, then we are doing the exact same thing: setting our kids up to fail.

Homework is the equivalent of practice for school

If students never practice what their teachers are teaching them, then they will never learn the material. Nobody ever became great at writing by simply listening to a teacher talk about great writing. They actually had to write.

The same goes for history, science, math, art, music, and any other subject taught in school.

Without homework to practice the knowledge and skills they are learning:

• students would progress at slower rates,
• have difficulty with retention, understanding, and mastery, and
• perform poorly in high-pressure situations such as taking tests or quizzes

I know because I’ve seen it.

I used to teach high school level math at a progressive 6-12 school in West Hollywood, CA. Unsurprisingly, the students who completed their homework assignments on time performed better on tests and had better grades.

What surprised me more was that this was the case even for the students that were ‘average.’ When I say ‘average,’ I am talking about a student that puts in enough effort to get by but will never go that extra mile.

They don’t particularly love the subject they are learning, but they don’t hate it either. Sometimes they turn in their homework, and other times they don’t. And that is why they make a great case study for homework effectiveness.

I remember one student in particular that whenever he did his homework, his test grades would be A’s and B’s, but if he didn’t do his homework, then he would get C’s and D’s. He didn’t particularly like math.

In fact, he was constantly anxious that he wouldn’t understand the material, and he had chronic test anxiety. Yet, if he did his work, then he performed better.

One student is obviously a small sample size, but I saw this happen with several of my students. Consistent practice always led to better understanding and improved performance.

Those that never did homework or always turned it in late had the worst grades and the least understanding.

Improved knowledge retention and understanding are not the only positive benefits of homework too. Kids can also learn useful and advantageous life skills through consistent homework practice.

Homework teaches kids self-reliance

At home, students must find a way to answer the question presented to them without the immediate presence of their teacher.

They need to either find out the answer themselves or they have to find someone that can help them answer the question. They will either learn to be self-reliant or learn how to ask for help.

Both outcomes are desirable.

Struggling to find an answer to a question is the place where maximum learning occurs.

When kids sit down and stare at their homework, they are forced to recall the things they learned in class. They are forced to play with the ideas in their brain to develop a solution or express their thoughts.

Maybe the answer comes to them after some thought and effort, maybe they have to go find the answer on the internet, or maybe they have to ask the teacher or one of their classmates for help.

Regardless, they are learning to rely on themselves to come up with solutions or to seek out people or places that can help them , which will be useful skills to have later on in life.

Without homework, students would be deprived of valuable opportunities to learn these skills.

One of my biggest fears as a tutor is that my students will become too reliant on me to help them, which is why I never offer solutions without making them work for it first.

When kids tell me, “I don’t know,” I respond with, “Well, if you did know, what would you do?”

My goal is to build them up so that they don’t need me anymore . I want to make them feel like they can handle things on their own. I want to instill that self-reliance down to their core.

For parents looking to hire a tutor potentially, I recommend you find one that will foster self-reliance in your kids rather than just being a means to complete homework for the sake of completing it.

If the tutor does all the work, then homework loses its effectiveness.

Homework teaches kids discipline

Beyond self-reliance, homework also teaches kids discipline. Let’s be honest. Homework is generally… unpleasant.

Related: Why Is Self Discipline Important?

During my time as a teacher, I did not meet many students that relished the idea of going home after school and doing more school work.

That sentiment is perfectly understandable. I would rather binge watch Netflix, skateboard down some sunny streets, or hang out with my friends instead of doing homework too.

However, the unpleasant nature of homework actually teaches a valuable lesson.

For the vast majority of us, there will be tasks in life that are unpleasant yet necessary , especially within a job or occupation. Cleaning a baby’s diaper, having an uncomfortable conversation with a coworker, sweating it out through an hour-long workout are all examples.

The discipline to get those unpleasant tasks completed is a major determiner of success.

Homework is practice for completing those unpleasant yet necessary tasks and will help set up kids to be successful in their future careers. As they become more disciplined at finishing unpleasant tasks, the more successful they become.

Related: 55 Characteristics of Highly Successful People

The more successful they become, the more they can hire people to take care of those unpleasant tasks for them, whereas someone that procrastinates on completing unpleasant tasks will always have unpleasant tasks to do.

Homework is a first taste of what ‘grown-up’ life is like and is essential for helping kids mature into responsible adults.

Now, that’s not to say that homework should intentionally be fashioned to create a miserable experience for kids. I believe educators should make homework as fun and engaging as possible.

Kids should certainly be able to enjoy themselves and do pleasant activities as well, but a little unpleasantness and discomfort from time to time is healthy.

As my uncle used to say to me when he made me chop firewood for hours while I was ‘vacationing’ at his house in Michigan, “it builds character.”

Arguments against homework

One common argument I hear against homework is that it takes up too much of kids’ free time outside of school and that kids need to be able to “just be kids” instead of constantly attending to their studies. I agree.

Kids should not be tasked with three to four hours of homework per night . They need time to socialize with friends, go to sports practice, or simply unwind and relax.

However, I don’t believe homework needs to be abolished to achieve a healthy school-life balance.

In my class, I gave kids a weekly assignment with 20-30 math problems. That breaks down to about three to four questions per night, which is about 20 minutes of worktops. This is entirely manageable.

Teachers don’t have to assign tons of homework in order to get the majority of the benefits.

As a tutor, I personally despise homework assignments that go on and on ad nauseam even after the student has demonstrated proficiency in the necessary skill.

Homework should be designed to allow kids to reach adequate proficiency and still allow time for other non-school activities.

If students want to reach mastery, they can always do more practice problems at their own discretion.

Some may also argue that homework could simply be transformed into classwork. I found as a teacher that there simply was not enough time to both adequately teach the material and allow enough time for sufficient practice in class.

Students were often left even more confused when we did homework as classwork because they felt like they had no idea what to do since the instruction was cut short.

A final argument against homework is that it increases stress on students while not legitimately demonstrating increased comprehension of the material being studied.

I believe this point speaks more to the quality and type of homework being assigned rather than the homework itself.

The practical truth about teachers, just as in any group, is there are going to be great teachers, OK teachers, and poor teachers. Many of the “OK” and poor teachers often assign mind-numbingly boring homework.

An endless sequence of repetitive math problems, a list of vocabulary words to memorize, a long passage to read out of a dry textbook… it’s no wonder kids check out and resist.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

As a tutor, I have seen teachers come up with incredibly clever assignments that are both stimulating and interesting. The trouble is that these homework assignments are not always ready-made. It takes effort to create them.

A teacher can’t just pick some numbered problems from a textbook or download a basic worksheet to hand out.

They have to sit down and create something unique and engaging, and that takes time — a commodity that teachers often lack.

Fortunately, sites such as Teachers Pay Teachers are helping connect teachers so that they can share their best work with each other, including outstanding homework assignments.

This type of collaboration among teachers is necessary to keep homework effective and relevant.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail

The debate about the merits of homework is contentious. Although there are certainly improvements that need to be made regarding the length and quality of homework assignments, homework is still an effective tool for improving kids’ understanding and grades.

Additionally, homework is valuable not only for improvement and success at school but also for success later on in life. It can help instill virtues like self-reliance and discipline into kids, and it is a pathway to excellence.

If homework were to be eliminated completely, then we would be doing a disservice to students and their prospective futures. You wouldn’t put your kid behind the wheel on a busy San Francisco street without being fully prepared.

Don’t send your kids into life unprepared by eliminating homework, either.

Shayna Pond

Former Teacher | President, Model Teaching

When homework serves a clear purpose , is well-aligned to the curriculum , and can be individualized to students , it’s an important component of a well-rounded education.

Related: Why Is Education Important in Our Life?

Students that interact with content more frequently retrain more information and convert more short-term concepts into long-term memory.

Teachers can utilize homework in a variety of ways:

Homework allows students to increase their fluency and proficiency

This allows students to increase their fluency and proficiency with a single skill.

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It’s helpful to students that have been recently introduced to new topics that they need to master or as an ongoing practice for skills that are carried through the course lessons— like multiplication facts, for example.

Homework allows students to prepare

This allows teachers to make the most out of instructional time. It requires students to become familiar with background information on their own at home so that class time can focus on a more profound analysis of the content and more engaging discourse.

Homework assists in the practice of study skills

Allows for homework to be assigned that is directly aligned with an upcoming assessment and to assist in the practice of study skills for success on a test.

Studying also allows students to interact with multiple skills and concepts at once, which assists with the practice of long-term memory retrieval as well.

Homework helps build students’ motivation and interest in a topic

Finally, using homework as an extension activity helps to build the students’ motivation and interest in a topic.

These are the kind of homework activities that are typically more open-ended and creative, where individual student learning styles can be acknowledged, and students can demonstrate what they know and have learned.

Each of these ways of assigning homework has a place in the classroom and are all critical to developing well-rounded students that can interact with the lesson content in more meaningful ways.

But, homework is only as effective as the planning that goes into it.

When teachers develop homework thoughtfully and choose a homework activity that serves a clear purpose, it helps students learn content more deeply long-term.

Some valid objections to homework include:

• teachers assigning too much of it,
• homework not reinforcing classroom concepts,
• negatively impacting family time, or
• introducing additional inequitable barriers to students that may not have the necessary tools or support at home to interact well with homework

However, if those objections are addressed in the classroom, and teachers are mindful of using homework purposefully, it can instead enhance learning and be an asset for the classroom.

Anna Latorre

Founder, Anna Spanish

Homework teaches time management and the importance of deadlines

Although, as a teacher, we want to ensure students are absorbing what they learn in class, homework also teaches them time management skills and the importance of deadlines.

These skills are needed in the workforce later in life, which is why homework is still vital today. It also gives children more responsibility which is why homework increases as they age.

They need to be able to take on these responsibilities and be accountable , as, in the workplace, you often are taking on many projects and tasks that you have to complete on your own.

In many cases, homework also allows parents to monitor their children’s progress in school and to see what they are learning. Although it is the student’s responsibility, parents can offer support and ensure they are staying on top of their studies.

This also helps parents to become informed about what their children are learning and therefore can look into how they might be able to help their children.

Giving students homework is also an excellent way to see the progress of each child and be able to pinpoint where they might need help.

Students might not see this at the time, but teachers want to know where students might be struggling as they can then alter their curriculum to ensure everyone understands what they are learning.

Homework helps with their memory and retention skills

Lastly, homework helps with their memory and retention skills. Although they learn theory in class, there is often not enough time in class to practice it.

Homework allows students to think back to what they learned in class and to use that information to complete the work.

In higher educational settings, taking notes and applying your knowledge is a major factor in succeeding. Homework only scratches the surface of what they are likely to face as they leave elementary, middle school, and high school.

It is a great precursor to larger projects and work tasks they will deal with later in life which is why homework is still needed.

Philip Wride

Founder, ClassBridges

Homework should not be banned for two reasons.

The first reason is because the school system is broken. I know this statement sounds at odds with the article title, given that schools are normally the ones that set homework but let me explain.

Homework helps bridge the gap by giving a topic more attention

The pandemic has already set the current school generation back years, and estimates put the lifetime loss of earnings at $17 Trillion.

The model that schools use is what I call a “Once Through” model — topics are often only taught once in a year because teachers have so many topics they need to get through to meet the requirements of the system.

One of the things I hear the most in conversation with teachers is, “Yes, we’re starting a new topic next week.”

For transparency, my partner is a teacher, and I have lots of friends who are teachers.

This once-through model means that any children who don’t grasp and understand a concept or method when they are taught in the classroom may have to wait a year until that topic is revisited.

Homework helps bridge the gap a little because it provides additional time on a topic.

This can increase the chance of a child becoming comfortable with the concept or method.

Homework is possible to be changed to “work at home”

The second reason homework should not be banned is because it’s possible to change it to be “work at home.”

The material taught in the classroom is often uninteresting or not relevant to children and their view of the world.

This current school generation is used to devices, instant gratification at the touch of a button, and so much variety, whether that’s games, YouTube videos, or other content-on-demand services.

If homework provides the freedom and flexibility for children (and parents) to base it on the interests of the child rather than what the teacher has been told to set as homework, then you increase the engagement with the child and, ultimately, their learning.

I’ve experienced this increase in engagement first-hand. My partner needed a lesson plan for a math lesson the next day, and the topic was perimeter.

In conversation, she’d mentioned that all her students were crazy about the video game Among Us , so I suggested we use that as the focus of the lesson. Among Us has levels, like a spaceship, with rooms of different sizes that players go to in order to complete tasks.

The plan we created asked the students to design new rooms for the spaceship, and they had to calculate the perimeter and also had to work with some constraints (like the total perimeter for all rooms).

The next day my partner sent me a WhatsApp message saying that all her students were hooked because they recognized the game references.

Homework could be set as open-ended, with children able to fill in the blanks based on their interests.

Now you may argue that some topics like math require a strict approach and repetition, and I agree, but you can still base math questions on the interest of the child.

It doesn’t matter if their interest is jewelry, animals, football, or video games. There are ways to create questions and tasks related to the things that interest and are relevant to each child.

This “work at home” approach enables children to learn and make progress, even if the school system uses the “once-through” model.

Chloe Daniel

Tutor, My Tutor Source

I have been tutoring for the past five years, and I have always been a strong advocate of not banning homework. If given in moderate amounts, homework can be quite beneficial for the academic and general lives of students.

There are definitely some good reasons to the point that homework should not be given, but they are outnumbered by the opposing ones.

Here I have talked about some reasons why I think that homework should not be banned.

Completing work at home increases productivity

Usually, students are tired at school. When they are at home, they are in their comfort zone. They can sit quietly and relax to complete their work in a lesser time frame with a fresh mind.

So completing work at home increases productivity to a great extent.

Homework keeps the parents in the loop

They should be updated about what the child is learning in school and what are their academic weak and strong points.

When the students are doing homework with the help of their parents, it also enables the parent-child bond to grow.

Homework gives students a sense of responsibility

It gives them a sense of responsibility because the students know that they have some work to do before they go back to school. They will know that they have to finish off their work first before going out to play or to sit and relax.

This will teach them how to prioritize important work to get all the work done rightly.

Homework teaches students time management

When they have a deadline to complete their homework, they manage their time for homework, playtime, and family time accordingly.

Time management is a very important skill that helps throughout life in different ways.

Every task requires time management, and if students are working on their homework, they will set up a schedule for their daily activities, which will lead to efficient time management.

Cynthia C. Muchnick, M.A.

Educational Consultant | Former Teacher | Author, “ The Parent Compass “

Homework gives students time to process class concepts

Homework, when assigned thoughtfully and effectively, can help to reinforce in-class concepts and allow students time to process and obtain a broader understanding of classroom information.

Whether practicing mathematics problems, learning and applying foreign language vocabulary, or completing writing prompts, homework, when not overloaded and well-balanced, provides a great way to practice extensions of classroom lessons at home.

Offering reasonable limits on suggested time spent on homework as well as fair deadlines can make homework a useful tool for students and teachers alike.

Krystal DeVille

Former Educator | Founder, STEM Education Guide

If you ask a student why homework is important, they might say, well, it’s not. But as parents and educators, we know homework is important, even if it’s challenging to pinpoint why .

Let’s get into some of the reasons and good discussion points if a student or your child asks why homework is important?

Homework increases exam confidence

When a student does something they haven’t done before, they get in the sense of accomplishment as they persevere to find the correct answer. By finding challenges for students that push their boundaries, they’ll take on these problems and push forward to the correct solutions.

Students that take on new challenges broaden their knowledge and build confidence . A student having confidence is half the battle when it comes to education.

Homework builds this confidence when it comes to taking a test. A student might not realize that the homework is building confidence, but really, the homework challenges them to solve problems in preparation for the test, which translates to real-life solutions.

Homework is a good activity for family time

I’m a mother of three that takes on a lot of responsibilities. Sometimes it can feel as much as a chore to me as it does to my kids when we do homework together.

I have to remember that even though we’re solving problems and doing homework together, this is family time that my kids will remember.

If you look at doing homework with your children this way, it will never feel like a chore, and you’re spending time with your kids, which is always a good thing.

Courtney Galyen

Marketing and Education Specialist, Boluo School

Homework helps combat the tendency to forget things

The modern attention span is getting shorter and shorter-both in children and adults. The human brain is changing , and teachers and students must adapt.

Concepts presented in shorter chunks with more frequency are most effective.

My students would often forget what we discussed in the previous lesson from one day to the next. Homework helps combat this tendency to forget things from one day to the next.

If students review or practice the material at home, it reinforces the concepts presented in the classroom and creates “stickiness” with the lesson.

The United States is lagging far behind other developed countries in education, while US teachers report an unprecedented burnout level.

In order to stay competitive in the global economy, American students must start working harder . This, unfortunately, means homework. The homework must be meaningful, and students must be held accountable for its completion.

Mark de la Cruz

Guitar Teacher and Owner, Fretboard Revolution

Students will learn faster if they apply problem-solving skills consistently

One of the most important things in learning anything, whether it is guitar, math, skating, etc., is consistency.

Part of a student’s plan to improve should include some kind of routine to review or practice the things that were taught during their lessons. This could be seen as necessary for performance-oriented activities, but this is necessary for math and science as well.

Learning to apply problem solving-techniques to different situations and doing this consistently will help students learn faster.

Homework is necessary for improvement

Similarly to consistency, having the discipline to review what your problem areas are and making a plan to improve in those areas are necessary for the path to improvement.

Feelings of motivation will fire students up and only last for a small period of time. Having the discipline and focus to do your homework and finish what needs to be done will be worth more than motivation in the long run.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is homework beneficial to students.

Yes, homework can be beneficial to students in a variety of ways, including:

• Reinforcing learning : Homework assignments allow students to practice and apply the concepts they have learned in class, which can reinforce their understanding of the material.

• Developing good study habits : By completing homework assignments, students learn to manage their time, prioritize tasks, and develop self-discipline, all of which are important skills for success in academic and professional settings.

• Preparing for exams : Homework assignments are often designed to prepare students for upcoming exams, which can help them identify areas where they need additional practice and review.

• Providing feedback : Homework assignments provide an opportunity for students to receive feedback on their understanding of the material, which can help them identify areas where they need to improve.

However, it is important to note that the benefits of homework depend on the quality and quantity of the assignments. Homework that is purposeful, relevant, and appropriate for the students’ level of understanding is more likely to be beneficial than homework that is busywork or too difficult.

Additionally, homework should not be excessive, as this can lead to stress and burnout.

How does homework help students in the future?

Homework helps students develop important skills that are essential for success in their future academic and professional pursuits. By completing homework assignments, students learn to manage their time , develop self-discipline , and prioritize tasks .

These skills are critical for success in college and beyond, where students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning and manage competing demands on their time.

Additionally, homework assignments are often designed to prepare students for upcoming exams or to reinforce concepts that will be important in future coursework. By completing these assignments, students are better equipped to succeed in their future academic pursuits.

Moreover, homework assignments often require students to work independently and to develop problem-solving skills. These skills are essential in today’s rapidly changing world, where individuals must be able to adapt to new challenges and technologies.

How can teachers ensure that homework is beneficial for students?

Teachers can ensure that homework is beneficial for students by:

• Assigning purposeful and relevant homework : Homework assignments should be designed to reinforce concepts learned in class, prepare students for upcoming exams, and provide an opportunity for independent practice.

• Ensuring appropriate level of difficulty : Homework assignments should be challenging but not too difficult for the students’ level of understanding.

• Providing timely feedback : Teachers should provide feedback on homework assignments in a timely manner, so students can use it to improve their understanding of the material.

• Encouraging student engagement : Teachers should provide opportunities for students to ask questions and engage with the material, both in class and through homework assignments.

• Balancing quantity with quality : Homework should not be excessive, as this can lead to stress and burnout. Instead, teachers should focus on quality assignments that are purposeful and relevant.

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Quotes & Sayings About Why Homework Should Be Banned

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Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones

As the new school year starts, a wave of new laws that aim to curb distracted learning is taking effect in Indiana, Louisiana and other states.

By Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer covers technology in schools. She welcomes reader tips at nytimes.com/tips

Cellphones have become a school scourge. More than 70 percent of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a “major problem,” according to a survey this year by Pew Research .

That’s why states are mounting a bipartisan effort to crack down on rampant student cellphone use. So far this year, at least eight states have passed laws, issued orders or adopted rules to curb phone use among students during school hours.

The issue isn’t simply that some children and teenagers compulsively use apps like Snap, TikTok and Instagram during lessons, distracting themselves and their classmates. In many schools, students have also used their phones to bully, sexually exploit and share videos of physical attacks on their peers.

But cellphone restrictions can be difficult for teachers to enforce without schoolwide rules requiring students to place their phones in lockers or other locations.

Now state lawmakers, along with some prominent governors , are pushing for more uniform restrictions in public schools.

How Has Tech Changed Your School Experience?

Teachers, students, parents and school administrators, tell us in the form below about the technology benefits or tech-related school problems that you have observed. We’re interested in beneficial uses of school tech as well as classroom drawbacks like online learning distractions and cyberbullying.

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