Should Students Have Homework or Not?

Here’s one thing we all can agree on: it’s nearly impossible to imagine college life without homework.

No matter what your academic level is (elementary, middle, high school, or college/university), it’s more likely you have to do your homework in your free time. With the ‘big shift’ in education, it’s important to study effectively, improve hard and soft skills, and obtain knowledge.

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Students get various homework assignments, and it takes much time and effort to complete their tasks on time. Although parents and teachers want to raise well-rounded kids, students are overwhelmed with the number of assignments they get. Not only does it lead to stress, anxiety, and headaches, but it also affects parent-child relationships.

As a result, a logical question appears: Is homework beneficial?

The concept of the homework debate isn’t new, but it has gained in popularity of the last few years. Case in point:

One research by Heidi Maier, the new district’s new superintendent, has found that assigning homework to young students has no effect on their academic performance. Thus, the Marion County public school district of Florida stopped requiring traditional homework to its elementary school students during the 2017-2018 school year.

Today, more and more schools and parents think about the ‘no homework’ movement.

The Popularity of the Homework Debate

When it comes to child development, keeping a study-life balance is important. But if students work hard on their assignments after hitting the books at school, it can negatively affect their study performance, well-being, and academic achievement.

Here’s the deal: the average student spends around 17 hours each week preparing for classes.

Since school students waste a lot of time on assignments after classes, it’s harder for them to keep a study-life balance. According to the Debate.org, 77% of people believe that there’s no need to do homework in school.

And here’s the list of frequently-asked questions about homework:

  • Why is homework important? Or why homework is bad?
  • What are the benefits of homework?
  • How many minutes of homework should students have?
  • Should parents help kids with homework?
  • Should students have homework at all? Maybe, should homework be banned?

It seems homework stresses both kids and parents, so it’s no wonder that people want to understand whether should students have homework or not.

The Pros and The Cons of Daily Homework

If you want to make a sensible decision whether students should have homework or not, it’s important to pay close attention to the list of pros and cons first. Let’s dive in.

The Pros

Although most students dislike homework, it has many benefits. Some of them include:

  1. Better academic achievement: It’s no secret that submitting well-written assignments is a proven way to improve your grades. However, homework also helps to get better academic achievements as it has a positive effect on academic success, especially for high school students and university freshmen, unless teachers assign too much schoolwork. The more students work on the material (in-class and out-of-class), the better they understand the subject and the faster they turn theoretical knowledge into practical skills.
  2. Improved time management skills: When students have to deal with a great amount of homework, they need to prioritize their tasks. Working on assignments, it’s also important to manage your time well in order not to spend the whole day on homework. Thus, most students who work on tasks at home know how to optimize their time and use it the right way. Plus, parents agree that homework helps their kids manage their time wisely if they want to have fun with their friends.
  3. Connection with parents: From time to time, even university students have questions about their homework assignments. Whether they don’t understand the task or lack skills in completing it, they seek out assistance and they turn to their parents for help. Since most fathers and mothers are interested in their kids’ academic performance, they spend time with children to help them complete homework. As a result, they communicate more and establish a bond. After working parents on homework, it’s easier for kids to share their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

The Cons

When it comes to the cons of doing homework, most people agree on the following drawbacks:

  1. Physical and mental health problems: Do you know that 56% of students claim that homework is a primary source of stress? Since kids get many assignments, it requires much time and effort to complete them on time. If they don’t meet the deadlines, they start being nervous which negatively affects their physical and mental health. Many parents agree that their kids are prone to stress and headaches when doing homework.
  2. Study-life imbalance: Kids get too many homework assignments. But the youth is not just about doing tasks after classes. To enjoy the childhood, kids need to keep a study-life balance, so it’s important to pay attention to the amount of time they spend on out-of-class activities. Some researchers believe that teachers should follow a “10 minute rule”: students receive 10 additional minutes of homework per day each subsequent year. Here’s how much time an average student needs to do homework:
  • Elementary school: 10-50 minutes per day
  • Middle school: 45-75 minutes per day
  • High school: 75-150 minutes per day
  • University level: 200 minutes per day
  1. Ineffective time-spending: Most students claim that working on assignments at home is daunting and boring. Firstly, some of them don’t understand the task well. Secondly, other kids well overwhelmed with the number of assignments they need to complete. Thirdly, students want to have fun with their friends. As a result, they procrastinate or cheat on assignments which leads to inefficiency of homework.

The Bottom Line

Homework has always been an important element of the educational process, whether we like it or not. Today, people debate on the importance of out-of-class activities and it’s no wonder parents and children want to make their lives easier. However, it still has some benefits that help to raise well-rounded kids, so asking yourself whether it’s important – there’s no right answer as everything depends on many factors.

So, should teachers assign homework or not? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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