This week I was given a choice about what I wanted to write so I’ve decided to take this time to talk about homework. Now, most students in any class will cringe at even the thought of having homework, me being one of them.
The word “homework” makes people think of the classic debate that is still ongoing. Are students getting too much homework? I know for a fact I complain about homework every single day but as a junior, are we getting a lot of homework?
According to an article by CNN explains: “The standard, endorsed by the National Education Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association, is the so-called "10-minute rule," which means that there should be ten minutes of homework per grade level. So for example, first-graders get ten minutes of homework, and second-graders get 20 minutes of homework and for juniors, this translates into 110 minutes (Tarlo). I know that I’ll spend close to two hours every night on homework which isn’t far away from what’s recommended.
So if students are getting the correct amount of homework that’s recommended, why is homework so bad? First of all, not all students are getting the correct amount of homework. CNN stated that “Parents reported first-graders were spending 28 minutes on homework each night… For second-graders, the homework time was nearly 29 minutes… And kindergartners, their parents said, spent 25 minutes a night on after-school assignments.” Even though these may not seem like a long time to do homework compared to 110 minutes juniors are recommended, it’s a lot for students that are so young.
So why are kindergarteners getting so much homework even though the recommended amount is zero? Karen Mensing, a teacher who taught first and second grade said “Students in K-3 should not have homework besides daily reading. It is much more important for children to be playing a sport, learning an instrument, hanging out with friends or doing nothing at all than stacks of useless worksheets… Elementary students are already in school for over six hours a day. They need an opportunity to relax and be kids after school.”
They shouldn’t have to spend more time outside of school doing the work that they spent the entire day doing. Some studies show that giving students large amounts of homework doesn’t help them perform better on standardized tests. For example, “Some countries whose students regularly outperform American kids on standardized tests, such as Japan and Denmark, send their kids home with less schoolwork, while students from some countries with higher homework loads than the U.S., such as Thailand and Greece, fare worse on tests,” (Pinsker).
CNN also stated that “The data shows that homework over this level is not only not beneficial to children's grades or GPA, but there's really a plethora of evidence that it's detrimental to their attitude about school, their grades, their self-confidence, their social skills and their quality of life.” If homework is so detrimental to young students, why are they still getting homework?
Another study that focused on the stress that homework brings to families found that “as the parent's confidence in their ability to help their child with homework went down, the stress in the household went up,” (Wallace). Not only does homework affect students, but it also affects their families as well. There were many nights when I was in the lower grades where I would be crying trying to figure out my homework with my parents who were trying to teach me a much simpler way to solve a math problem then what I was taught in class that day.
I know for a fact that it’s not our parents’ fault for all the stress because all they are trying to do is help in the best way they can. But is there anyone that we can point our fingers at for our problems with homework? Many of you will believe that you can blame the teacher that gave you the homework that you don’t deem helpful but maybe that teacher thought it would be helpful to you?
This, once again, starts the debate all over again about whether or not homework is beneficial and if it’s necessary.
I believe that no grade should have homework just because I don’t like having to do it but then again, I think in high school, it’s necessary to be prepared for the future but to an extent. I don’t mind doing homework when it’s beneficial to my learning and expanding upon it but when teachers give homework just to give it, I don’t think that’s fair to us. Homework that I think is good involves reading a book or doing a couple of math problems or finishing work that wasn’t finished in class and things along those lines.
From what I think, “bad” homework might include things like doing a crazy amount of math problems or doing something that has nothing to do with what’s going on in class. In one class that I’m in, we had to find an article about things like healthcare and we were supposed to bring it to class. One would’ve thought that we might have done some work with it (like write a summary or something like that) but all we had to do was turn it in and it was never mentioned again.
School Supplies (Pixabay)
So what’s the solution?
Some schools in the U.S have created an improved homework policy. For example, the school district in Hillsborough, California created a policy that would “allow students more unscheduled time to spend with their families or to play” and it “emphasized that homework should be “meaningful” and banned due dates that fell on the day after a weekend or a break,” (Pinsker).
I think this would be an interesting policy to use. I especially like the banning of the due dates that fall on a Monday or the day we return after a break. I think getting rid of homework on the weekend would decrease stress among families. I know my family always wants to do something on the weekends because they work all week and want to do something fun but then, sometimes I can’t because I have too much homework to finish for Monday.
The only problem I see with this is that I think it would be tricky to allow this policy. Because my school rotates days that you have classes on (one week your class is on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the next week your class is on Tuesday and Thursday), it would be hard to say no due dates on Monday. When you have class on a Thursday, that would be the time your homework would be due on a Monday but normally, any other day wouldn’t work.
The word “homework” makes people think of the classic debate that is still ongoing. Are students getting too much homework? I know for a fact I complain about homework every single day but as a junior, are we getting a lot of homework?
According to an article by CNN explains: “The standard, endorsed by the National Education Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association, is the so-called "10-minute rule," which means that there should be ten minutes of homework per grade level. So for example, first-graders get ten minutes of homework, and second-graders get 20 minutes of homework and for juniors, this translates into 110 minutes (Tarlo). I know that I’ll spend close to two hours every night on homework which isn’t far away from what’s recommended.
So if students are getting the correct amount of homework that’s recommended, why is homework so bad? First of all, not all students are getting the correct amount of homework. CNN stated that “Parents reported first-graders were spending 28 minutes on homework each night… For second-graders, the homework time was nearly 29 minutes… And kindergartners, their parents said, spent 25 minutes a night on after-school assignments.” Even though these may not seem like a long time to do homework compared to 110 minutes juniors are recommended, it’s a lot for students that are so young.
So why are kindergarteners getting so much homework even though the recommended amount is zero? Karen Mensing, a teacher who taught first and second grade said “Students in K-3 should not have homework besides daily reading. It is much more important for children to be playing a sport, learning an instrument, hanging out with friends or doing nothing at all than stacks of useless worksheets… Elementary students are already in school for over six hours a day. They need an opportunity to relax and be kids after school.”
They shouldn’t have to spend more time outside of school doing the work that they spent the entire day doing. Some studies show that giving students large amounts of homework doesn’t help them perform better on standardized tests. For example, “Some countries whose students regularly outperform American kids on standardized tests, such as Japan and Denmark, send their kids home with less schoolwork, while students from some countries with higher homework loads than the U.S., such as Thailand and Greece, fare worse on tests,” (Pinsker).
CNN also stated that “The data shows that homework over this level is not only not beneficial to children's grades or GPA, but there's really a plethora of evidence that it's detrimental to their attitude about school, their grades, their self-confidence, their social skills and their quality of life.” If homework is so detrimental to young students, why are they still getting homework?
Another study that focused on the stress that homework brings to families found that “as the parent's confidence in their ability to help their child with homework went down, the stress in the household went up,” (Wallace). Not only does homework affect students, but it also affects their families as well. There were many nights when I was in the lower grades where I would be crying trying to figure out my homework with my parents who were trying to teach me a much simpler way to solve a math problem then what I was taught in class that day.
I know for a fact that it’s not our parents’ fault for all the stress because all they are trying to do is help in the best way they can. But is there anyone that we can point our fingers at for our problems with homework? Many of you will believe that you can blame the teacher that gave you the homework that you don’t deem helpful but maybe that teacher thought it would be helpful to you?
This, once again, starts the debate all over again about whether or not homework is beneficial and if it’s necessary.
I believe that no grade should have homework just because I don’t like having to do it but then again, I think in high school, it’s necessary to be prepared for the future but to an extent. I don’t mind doing homework when it’s beneficial to my learning and expanding upon it but when teachers give homework just to give it, I don’t think that’s fair to us. Homework that I think is good involves reading a book or doing a couple of math problems or finishing work that wasn’t finished in class and things along those lines.
From what I think, “bad” homework might include things like doing a crazy amount of math problems or doing something that has nothing to do with what’s going on in class. In one class that I’m in, we had to find an article about things like healthcare and we were supposed to bring it to class. One would’ve thought that we might have done some work with it (like write a summary or something like that) but all we had to do was turn it in and it was never mentioned again.
School Supplies (Pixabay)
So what’s the solution?
Some schools in the U.S have created an improved homework policy. For example, the school district in Hillsborough, California created a policy that would “allow students more unscheduled time to spend with their families or to play” and it “emphasized that homework should be “meaningful” and banned due dates that fell on the day after a weekend or a break,” (Pinsker).
I think this would be an interesting policy to use. I especially like the banning of the due dates that fall on a Monday or the day we return after a break. I think getting rid of homework on the weekend would decrease stress among families. I know my family always wants to do something on the weekends because they work all week and want to do something fun but then, sometimes I can’t because I have too much homework to finish for Monday.
The only problem I see with this is that I think it would be tricky to allow this policy. Because my school rotates days that you have classes on (one week your class is on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the next week your class is on Tuesday and Thursday), it would be hard to say no due dates on Monday. When you have class on a Thursday, that would be the time your homework would be due on a Monday but normally, any other day wouldn’t work.
Works Cited
Pinsker, Joe. "The Cult of Homework." The Atlantic, Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2019,
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/homework-research-how-much/585889/.
Accessed 11 Dec. 2019.
School Supplies. 2019. Pixabay, 2019,
pixabay.com/illustrations/school-supplies-school-color-cup-3109465/. Accessed 13 Dec.
2019.
Tarlo, Shira. "Experts Say Kids Still Have Way Too Much Homework." Salon, Salon.com, 9 Dec.
2019, www.salon.com/2019/12/08/experts-say-kids-still-have-way-too-much-homework/.
Accessed 11 Dec. 2019.
Wallace, Kelly. "Kids Have Three Times Too Much Homework, Study Finds; What's
the Cost?" CNN, Cable News Network, 12 Aug. 2015,
www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/health/homework-elementary-school-study/index.html.
Accessed 11 Dec. 2019.
A well-reasoned and researched post. It is balanced and supported. I like your use of questions to transition between sections, though you ask a question about why students in kindergarten and first grade are getting more homework, but I don't think you really answer that question.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wonder about the comparison to other countries where there isn't as much homework but test scores are higher. We can't assume that homework is the difference, correct? What else is the difference between education in these countries?
We can't assume that the homework is the only difference but I believe that it contributes a little bit to other countries and their success on their test scores. I think another difference might be that education is super important to them and they might want to show the world that they are the best of the best. Unfortunately, I didn't research more about the differences between other countries and the US.
DeleteI really liked this piece. I know that some schools create blocks of time during school for students to do homework, do you think schools should take time out of other classes to create this block of time?
DeleteI really liked the points you made in this. You mentioned that an article said that kids should be able to be kids after school and are already in it for over 6 hours, but it only talked abut Elementary students. I agree with this but I also think it very much applies to high school and middle school students as well. We always hear people saying that these years are the most important and that we should just be kids, but how can we if we're stressed out with homework?
ReplyDelete