Discussion on Whether Homework is Really Necessary for Students

Homework is something that every kid in school gets. They get it usually after finishing a lesson or chapter and have to do it at home. The amount of homework has increased in the years. I’m fine with a little homework here and there, but too much of its different. I think, if needed and has a probable cause, they should give small things to do, not things that will take more than 10 min, and it should just be work not homework and that you can do it at school.

Homework has positive and negative effects and I think teachers should be aware of these. Those who think homework is good and much of it is needed argue that studies show that the relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes is positive and significant. Others include that students in schools where homework is assigned score “23 percentile points higher on tests of the material addressed in that class than the average student in a class in which homework was not assigned”. But I believe that the things that are bad from homework outweigh the good.

Bad things about homework includes such arguments as these:

• Homework contributes to a corporate-style, competitive U. S. culture that overvalues work to the detriment of personal and familial well-being.
• Too much homework harms students’ health and family time.
• Teachers are not well trained in how to assign homework.
• Economically disadvantaged students are unintentionally penalized because their environments make it difficult to complete assignments at home.
• Homework should only be assigned if teachers can justify that the assignments are beneficial. One homework fact that educators do agree upon is that the young child today is doing more homework than ever before.

“Parents are correct in saying that they didn’t get homework in the early grades and that their kids do,” says Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and director of the education program at Duke University.

Brian Gill, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation quantifies the change this way: “There has been some increase in homework for the kids in kindergarten, first grade and second grade. But it’s been an increase from zero to 20 minutes a day. So that is something that’s fairly new in the last quarter century.”

It’s not only how much they give but how long and and hard the assignment is and how they are giving assignments that are too hard to young children. Some teachers give a huge assignment or essay the day before its due and they don’t care but that kid that you gave that assignment to could have important things to do or family matters and would maybe have to go to sleep at 3 am so he could have his assignment done on time. Some teachers give a classwork after the lesson and then a homework even though they are on the same things and its a waste. If they give work to practice in class after the lesson, that should be all to do and no homework should be given.

If you still think that homework should be given and in great quantities too, according to an article at the Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, of 500 students that were surveyed, 95% admitted to copying homework from other students. This shows that kids rush to do their work and just copy it and if they have other stuff to do they just copy it and that just because they turn in their work doesn’t mean that he or she understood the lesson at all.

After my research and personal experience, I have included that even though homework has some positive effects, it is not worth it when you consider the negative effects. Teachers should allow students to enjoy and spend their time after school time working on other thing not just academics. After school time should not be made into more school because of homework. Homework should not be the reason you do not spend time with family or exercise. All schoolwork should be done at school during school hours, not at your house which is your only time of the day away from school. Homework is unnecessary and is all pain no gain.