reasons homework should not be abolished

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.

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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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

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

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

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

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

Should we get rid of homework?

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

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

Mr. Kang argues:

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

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

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

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

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

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

Home » Tips for Teachers » 7 Research-Based Reasons Why Students Should Not Have Homework: Academic Insights, Opposing Perspectives & Alternatives

7 Research-Based Reasons Why Students Should Not Have Homework: Academic Insights, Opposing Perspectives & Alternatives

In recent years, the question of why students should not have homework has become a topic of intense debate among educators, parents, and students themselves. This discussion stems from a growing body of research that challenges the traditional view of homework as an essential component of academic success. The notion that homework is an integral part of learning is being reevaluated in light of new findings about its effectiveness and impact on students’ overall well-being.

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 →
• 7 Reasons Why Students Should Not Have Homework →
• Opposing Views on Homework Practices →
• Exploring Alternatives to Homework →

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

In the ongoing conversation about the role and impact of homework in education, the perspectives of those directly involved in the teaching process are invaluable. Teachers and education industry experts bring a wealth of experience and insights from the front lines of learning. Their viewpoints, shaped by years of interaction with students and a deep understanding of educational methodologies, offer a critical lens through which we can evaluate the effectiveness and necessity of homework in our current educational paradigm.

Check out this video featuring Courtney White, a high school language arts teacher who gained widespread attention for her explanation of why she chooses not to assign 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

The ongoing debate about homework often focuses on its educational value, but a vital aspect that cannot be overlooked is the significant stress and health consequences it brings to students. In the context of American life, where approximately 70% of people report moderate or extreme stress due to various factors like mass shootings, healthcare affordability, discrimination, racism, sexual harassment, climate change, presidential elections, and the need to stay informed, the additional burden of homework further exacerbates this stress, particularly among students.

Key findings and statistics reveal a worrying trend:

• Overwhelming Student Stress: A staggering 72% of students report being often or always stressed over schoolwork, with a concerning 82% experiencing physical symptoms due to this stress.
• Serious Health Issues: Symptoms linked to homework stress include sleep deprivation, headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems.
• Sleep Deprivation: Despite the National Sleep Foundation recommending 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep for healthy adolescent development, students average just 6.80 hours of sleep on school nights. About 68% of students stated that schoolwork often or always prevented them from getting enough sleep, which is critical for their physical and mental health.
• Turning to Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms: Alarmingly, the pressure from excessive homework has led some students to turn to alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with stress.

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.

By addressing the issue of homework-related stress and health consequences, we can take a significant step toward creating a more nurturing and effective educational environment. This environment would not only prioritize academic achievement but also the overall well-being and happiness of students, preparing them for a balanced and healthy life both inside and outside the classroom.

2. Inequitable Impact and Socioeconomic Disparities

In the discourse surrounding educational equity, homework emerges as a factor exacerbating socioeconomic disparities, particularly affecting students from lower-income families and those with less supportive home environments. While homework is often justified as a means to raise academic standards and promote equity, its real-world impact tells a different story.

The inequitable burden of homework becomes starkly evident when considering the resources required to complete it, especially in the digital age. Homework today often necessitates a computer and internet access – resources not readily available to all students. This digital divide significantly disadvantages students from lower-income backgrounds, deepening the chasm between them and their more affluent peers.

Key points highlighting the disparities:

• Digital Inequity: Many students lack access to necessary technology for homework, with low-income families disproportionately affected.
• Impact of COVID-19: The pandemic exacerbated these disparities as education shifted online, revealing the extent of the digital divide.
• Educational Outcomes Tied to Income: A critical indicator of college success is linked more to family income levels than to rigorous academic preparation. Research indicates that while 77% of students from high-income families graduate from highly competitive colleges, only 9% from low-income families achieve the same . This disparity suggests that the pressure of heavy homework loads, rather than leveling the playing field, may actually hinder the chances of success for less affluent students.

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.

The issue of homework and its inequitable impact is not just an academic concern; it is a reflection of broader societal inequalities. By continuing practices that disproportionately burden students from less privileged backgrounds, the educational system inadvertently perpetuates the very disparities it seeks to overcome.

3. Negative Impact on Family Dynamics

Homework, a staple of the educational system, is often perceived as a necessary tool for academic reinforcement. However, its impact extends beyond the realm of academics, significantly affecting family dynamics. The negative repercussions of homework on the home environment have become increasingly evident, revealing a troubling pattern that can lead to conflict, mental health issues, and domestic friction.

A study conducted in 2015 involving 1,100 parents sheds light on the strain homework places on family relationships. The findings are telling:

• Increased Likelihood of Conflicts: Families where parents did not have a college degree were 200% more likely to experience fights over homework.
• Misinterpretations and Misunderstandings: Parents often misinterpret their children’s difficulties with homework as a lack of attention in school, leading to feelings of frustration and mistrust on both sides.
• Discriminatory Impact: The research concluded that the current approach to homework disproportionately affects children whose parents have lower educational backgrounds, speak English as a second language, or belong to lower-income groups.

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.

The need of the hour is to reassess the role and amount of homework assigned to students. It’s imperative to find a balance that facilitates learning and growth without compromising the well-being of the family unit. Such a reassessment would not only aid in reducing domestic conflicts but also contribute to a more supportive and nurturing environment for children’s overall development.

4. Consumption of Free Time

In recent years, a growing chorus of voices has raised concerns about the excessive burden of homework on students, emphasizing how it consumes their free time and impedes their overall well-being. The issue is not just the quantity of homework, but its encroachment on time that could be used for personal growth, relaxation, and family bonding.

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.

Key points of concern:

• Excessive Time Commitment: Students, on average, spend over 6 hours in school each day, and homework adds significantly to this time, leaving little room for other activities.
• Impact on Extracurricular Activities: Homework infringes upon time for sports, music, art, and other enriching experiences, which are as crucial as academic courses.
• Stifling Creativity and Self-Discovery: The constant pressure of homework limits opportunities for students to explore their interests and learn new skills independently.

The National Education Association (NEA) and the National PTA (NPTA) recommend a “10 minutes of homework per grade level” standard, suggesting a more balanced approach. However, the reality often far exceeds this guideline, particularly for older students. The impact of this overreach is profound, affecting not just academic performance but also students’ attitudes toward school, their self-confidence, social skills, and overall quality of life.

Furthermore, the intense homework routine’s effectiveness is doubtful, as it can overwhelm students and detract from the joy of learning. Effective learning builds on prior knowledge in an engaging way, but excessive homework in a home setting may be irrelevant and uninteresting. The key challenge is balancing homework to enhance learning without overburdening students, allowing time for holistic growth and activities beyond academics. It’s crucial to reassess homework policies to support well-rounded development.

5. Challenges for Students with Learning Disabilities

Homework, a standard educational tool, poses unique challenges for students with learning disabilities, often leading to a frustrating and disheartening experience. These challenges go beyond the typical struggles faced by most students and can significantly impede their educational progress and emotional well-being.

Child psychologist Kenneth Barish’s insights in Psychology Today shed light on the complex relationship between homework and students with learning disabilities:

• Homework as a Painful Endeavor: For students with learning disabilities, completing homework can be likened to “running with a sprained ankle.” It’s a task that, while doable, is fraught with difficulty and discomfort.
• Misconceptions about Laziness: Often, children who struggle with homework are perceived as lazy. However, Barish emphasizes that these students are more likely to be frustrated, discouraged, or anxious rather than unmotivated.
• Limited Improvement in School Performance: The battles over homework rarely translate into significant improvement in school for these children, challenging the conventional notion of homework as universally beneficial.

These points highlight the need for a tailored approach to homework for students with learning disabilities. It’s crucial to recognize that the traditional homework model may not be the most effective or appropriate method for facilitating their learning. Instead, alternative strategies that accommodate their unique needs and learning styles should be considered.

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

The longstanding belief in the educational sphere that more homework automatically translates to more learning is increasingly being challenged. Critics argue that this assumption is not only flawed but also unsupported by solid evidence, questioning the efficacy of homework as an effective learning tool.

Alfie Kohn , a prominent critic of homework, aptly compares students to vending machines in this context, suggesting that the expectation of inserting an assignment and automatically getting out of learning is misguided. Kohn goes further, labeling homework as the “greatest single extinguisher of children’s curiosity.” This critique highlights a fundamental issue: the potential of homework to stifle the natural inquisitiveness and love for learning in children.

The lack of concrete evidence supporting the effectiveness of homework is evident in various studies:

• Marginal Effectiveness of Homework: A study involving 28,051 high school seniors found that the effectiveness of homework was marginal, and in some cases, it was counterproductive, leading to more academic problems than solutions.
• No Correlation with Academic Achievement: Research in “ National Differences, Global Similarities ” showed no correlation between homework and academic achievement in elementary students, and any positive correlation in middle or high school diminished with increasing homework loads.
• Increased Academic Pressure: The Teachers College Record published findings that homework adds to academic pressure and societal stress, exacerbating performance gaps between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

These findings bring to light several critical points:

• Quality Over Quantity: According to a recent article in Monitor on Psychology , experts concur that the quality of homework assignments, along with the quality of instruction, student motivation, and inherent ability, is more crucial for academic success than the quantity of homework.
• Counterproductive Nature of Excessive Homework: Excessive homework can lead to more academic challenges, particularly for students already facing pressures from other aspects of their lives.
• Societal Stress and Performance Gaps: Homework can intensify societal stress and widen the academic performance divide.

The emerging consensus from these studies suggests that the traditional approach to homework needs rethinking. Rather than focusing on the quantity of assignments, educators should consider the quality and relevance of homework, ensuring it truly contributes to learning and development. This reassessment is crucial for fostering an educational environment that nurtures curiosity and a love for learning, rather than extinguishing it.

7. Issues with Homework Enforcement, Reliability, and Temptation to Cheat

In the academic realm, the enforcement of homework is a subject of ongoing debate, primarily due to its implications on student integrity and the true value of assignments. The challenges associated with homework enforcement often lead to unintended yet significant issues, such as cheating, copying, and a general undermining of educational values.

Key points highlighting enforcement challenges:

• Difficulty in Enforcing Completion: Ensuring that students complete their homework can be a complex task, and not completing homework does not always correlate with poor grades.
• Reliability of Homework Practice: The reliability of homework as a practice tool is undermined when students, either out of desperation or lack of understanding, choose shortcuts over genuine learning. This approach can lead to the opposite of the intended effect, especially when assignments are not well-aligned with the students’ learning levels or interests.
• Temptation to Cheat: The issue of cheating is particularly troubling. According to a report by The Chronicle of Higher Education , under the pressure of at-home assignments, many students turn to copying others’ work, plagiarizing, or using creative technological “hacks.” This tendency not only questions the integrity of the learning process but also reflects the extreme stress that homework can induce.
• Parental Involvement in Completion: As noted in The American Journal of Family Therapy , this raises concerns about the authenticity of the work submitted. When parents complete assignments for their children, it not only deprives the students of the opportunity to learn but also distorts the purpose of homework as a learning aid.

In conclusion, the challenges of homework enforcement present a complex problem that requires careful consideration. The focus should shift towards creating meaningful, manageable, and quality-driven assignments that encourage genuine learning and integrity, rather than overwhelming students and prompting counterproductive behaviors.

Addressing Opposing Views on Homework Practices

While opinions on homework policies are diverse, understanding different viewpoints is crucial. In the following sections, we will examine common arguments supporting homework assignments, along with counterarguments that offer alternative perspectives on this educational practice.

1. Improvement of Academic Performance

Homework is commonly perceived as a means to enhance academic performance, with the belief that it directly contributes to better grades and test scores. This view posits that through homework, students reinforce what they learn in class, leading to improved understanding and retention, which ultimately translates into higher academic achievement.

However, the question of why students should not have homework becomes pertinent when considering the complex relationship between homework and academic performance. Studies have indicated that excessive homework doesn’t necessarily equate to higher grades or test scores. Instead, too much homework can backfire, leading to stress and fatigue that adversely affect a student’s performance. Reuters highlights an intriguing correlation suggesting that physical activity may be more conducive to academic success than additional homework, underscoring the importance of a holistic approach to education that prioritizes both physical and mental well-being for enhanced academic outcomes.

2. Reinforcement of Learning

Homework is traditionally viewed as a tool to reinforce classroom learning, enabling students to practice and retain material. However, research suggests its effectiveness is ambiguous. In instances where homework is well-aligned with students’ abilities and classroom teachings, it can indeed be beneficial. Particularly for younger students , excessive homework can cause burnout and a loss of interest in learning, counteracting its intended purpose.

Furthermore, when homework surpasses a student’s capability, it may induce frustration and confusion rather than aid in learning. This challenges the notion that more homework invariably leads to better understanding and retention of educational content.

3. Development of Time Management Skills

Homework is often considered a crucial tool in helping students develop important life skills such as time management and organization. The idea is that by regularly completing assignments, students learn to allocate their time efficiently and organize their tasks effectively, skills that are invaluable in both academic and personal life.

However, the impact of homework on developing these skills is not always positive. For younger students, especially, an overwhelming amount of homework can be more of a hindrance than a help. Instead of fostering time management and organizational skills, an excessive workload often leads to stress and anxiety . These negative effects can impede the learning process and make it difficult for students to manage their time and tasks effectively, contradicting the original purpose of homework.

4. Preparation for Future Academic Challenges

Homework is often touted as a preparatory tool for future academic challenges that students will encounter in higher education and their professional lives. The argument is that by tackling homework, students build a foundation of knowledge and skills necessary for success in more advanced studies and in the workforce, fostering a sense of readiness and confidence.

Contrarily, an excessive homework load, especially from a young age, can have the opposite effect . It can instill a negative attitude towards education, dampening students’ enthusiasm and willingness to embrace future academic challenges. Overburdening students with homework risks disengagement and loss of interest, thereby defeating the purpose of preparing them for future challenges. Striking a balance in the amount and complexity of homework is crucial to maintaining student engagement and fostering a positive attitude towards ongoing learning.

5. Parental Involvement in Education

Homework often acts as a vital link connecting parents to their child’s educational journey, offering insights into the school’s curriculum and their child’s learning process. This involvement is key in fostering a supportive home environment and encouraging a collaborative relationship between parents and the school. When parents understand and engage with what their children are learning, it can significantly enhance the educational experience for the child.

However, the line between involvement and over-involvement is thin. When parents excessively intervene by completing their child’s homework,  it can have adverse effects . Such actions not only diminish the educational value of homework but also rob children of the opportunity to develop problem-solving skills and independence. This over-involvement, coupled with disparities in parental ability to assist due to variations in time, knowledge, or resources, may lead to unequal educational outcomes, underlining the importance of a balanced approach to parental participation in homework.

Exploring Alternatives to Homework and Finding a Middle Ground

In the ongoing debate about the role of homework in education, it’s essential to consider viable alternatives and strategies to minimize its burden. While completely eliminating homework may not be feasible for all educators, there are several effective methods to reduce its impact and offer more engaging, student-friendly approaches to learning.

Alternatives to Traditional Homework

• Project-Based Learning: This method focuses on hands-on, long-term projects where students explore real-world problems. It encourages creativity, critical thinking, and collaborative skills, offering a more engaging and practical learning experience than traditional homework. For creative ideas on school projects, especially related to the solar system, be sure to explore our dedicated article on solar system projects .
• Flipped Classrooms: Here, students are introduced to new content through videos or reading materials at home and then use class time for interactive activities. This approach allows for more personalized and active learning during school hours.
• Reading for Pleasure: Encouraging students to read books of their choice can foster a love for reading and improve literacy skills without the pressure of traditional homework assignments. This approach is exemplified by Marion County, Florida , where public schools implemented a no-homework policy for elementary students. Instead, they are encouraged to read nightly for 20 minutes . Superintendent Heidi Maier’s decision was influenced by research showing that while homework offers minimal benefit to young students, regular reading significantly boosts their learning. For book recommendations tailored to middle school students, take a look at our specially curated article .

Ideas for Minimizing Homework

• Limiting Homework Quantity: Adhering to guidelines like the “ 10-minute rule ” (10 minutes of homework per grade level per night) can help ensure that homework does not become overwhelming.
• Quality Over Quantity: Focus on assigning meaningful homework that is directly relevant to what is being taught in class, ensuring it adds value to students’ learning.
• Homework Menus: Offering students a choice of assignments can cater to diverse learning styles and interests, making homework more engaging and personalized.
• Integrating Technology: Utilizing educational apps and online platforms can make homework more interactive and enjoyable, while also providing immediate feedback to students. To gain deeper insights into the role of technology in learning environments, explore our articles discussing the benefits of incorporating technology in classrooms and a comprehensive list of educational VR apps . These resources will provide you with valuable information on how technology can enhance the educational experience.

For teachers who are not ready to fully eliminate homework, these strategies offer a compromise, ensuring that homework supports rather than hinders student learning. By focusing on quality, relevance, and student engagement, educators can transform homework from a chore into a meaningful component of education that genuinely contributes to students’ academic growth and personal development. In this way, we can move towards a more balanced and student-centric approach to learning, both in and out of the classroom.

Useful Resources

• Is homework a good idea or not? by BBC
• The Great Homework Debate: What’s Getting Lost in the Hype
• Alternative Homework Ideas

The evidence and arguments presented in the discussion of why students should not have homework call for a significant shift in homework practices. It’s time for educators and policymakers to rethink and reformulate homework strategies, focusing on enhancing the quality, relevance, and balance of assignments. By doing so, we can create a more equitable, effective, and student-friendly educational environment that fosters learning, well-being, and holistic development.

• “Here’s what an education expert says about that viral ‘no-homework’ policy”, Insider
• “John Hattie on BBC Radio 4: Homework in primary school has an effect of zero”, Visible Learning
• HowtoLearn.com
• “Time Spent On Homework Statistics [Fresh Research]”, Gitnux
• “Stress in America”, American Psychological Association (APA)
• “Homework hurts high-achieving students, study says”, The Washington Post
• “National Sleep Foundation’s updated sleep duration recommendations: final report”, National Library of Medicine
• “A multi-method exploratory study of stress, coping, and substance use among high school youth in private schools”, Frontiers
• “The Digital Revolution is Leaving Poorer Kids Behind”, Statista
• “The digital divide has left millions of school kids behind”, CNET
• “The Digital Divide: What It Is, and What’s Being Done to Close It”, Investopedia
• “COVID-19 exposed the digital divide. Here’s how we can close it”, World Economic Forum
• “PBS NewsHour: Biggest Predictor of College Success is Family Income”, America’s Promise Alliance
• “Homework and Family Stress: With Consideration of Parents’ Self Confidence, Educational Level, and Cultural Background”, Taylor & Francis Online
• “What Do You Mean My Kid Doesn’t Have Homework?”, EducationWeek
• “Excerpt From The Case Against Homework”, Penguin Random House Canada
• “How much homework is too much?”, neaToday
• “The Nation’s Report Card: A First Look: 2013 Mathematics and Reading”, National Center for Education Statistics
• “Battles Over Homework: Advice For Parents”, Psychology Today
• “How Homework Is Destroying Teens’ Health”, The Lion’s Roar
• “ Breaking the Homework Habit”, Education World
• “Testing a model of school learning: Direct and indirect effects on academic achievement”, ScienceDirect
• “National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling”, Stanford University Press
• “When school goes home: Some problems in the organization of homework”, APA PsycNet
• “Is homework a necessary evil?”, APA PsycNet
• “Epidemic of copying homework catalyzed by technology”, Redwood Bark
• “High-Tech Cheating Abounds, and Professors Bear Some Blame”, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• “Homework and Family Stress: With Consideration of Parents’ Self Confidence, Educational Level, and Cultural Background”, ResearchGate
• “Kids who get moving may also get better grades”, Reuters
• “Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Research, 1987–2003”, SageJournals
• “Is it time to get rid of homework?”, USAToday
• “Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework”, Stanford
• “Florida school district bans homework, replaces it with daily reading”, USAToday
• “Encouraging Students to Read: Tips for High School Teachers”, wgu.edu
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Unveiling Why Homework Should not be Banned?

• Post author By admin
• August 18, 2023

Discover the compelling reasons why homework should not be banned in schools. Explore how homework fosters skills, responsibility, and academic growth. Learn why removing homework might hinder students’ development.

Hey there, homework haters and education enthusiasts alike! We’re about to dive into a topic that’s stirred up a storm in schools and households – should homework be banned?

Yep, you’ve heard those whispers, but hold up! Before we jump into conclusions, let’s have a friendly chat about why homework might still have a place in our learning journey.

So, grab your thinking cap and let’s explore why bidding farewell to homework might not be as straightforward as it seems. Ready? Let’s roll!

Table of Contents

Why Homework Matters?

Have a close look at why homework matters.

Practice Makes Perfect

Homework is like your personal practice arena. It’s where you put into action all the cool stuff you learned in class. Remember acing that math problem after solving it at home? Yep, that’s the feeling of triumph you get.

Time Management Champ

Homework is your time management coach. Figuring out when to tackle assignments shows you how to balance work and play. And trust us, that’s a skill you’ll be thanking homework for later in life.

Real-Life Prep

Life’s not just textbooks and exams. Homework gets you ready for the real world. Whether it’s managing tasks or juggling responsibilities, those lessons learned while tackling assignments will come in handy.

Independent Thinker

Homework transforms you into an independent thinker. It’s like you’re in a ninja training program for your brain. You learn to tackle problems on your own and unravel solutions like a clever detective.

Brain Booster

It’s not about rote memorization. Homework is your brain’s workout session. It pushes your mind to think critically, analyze situations, and come up with creative solutions. Your brain gets stronger, and so do your thinking skills.

Study Smart

Homework is your study lab. It’s where you discover your ideal study conditions. Do you need complete silence or a bit of background music? Are you a day-time studier or a midnight genius? Homework helps you figure it all out.

Family Talk

Homework turns your family into co-learners. When you chat about your assignments, it’s like having mini-lessons at home. You get to share what you’re learning and maybe even teach them a thing or two.

Homework sometimes gives you a preview of the future. You’ll read ahead, and suddenly in class, it’s like you’ve got superpowers. You’ll be answering questions like a champion and impressing everyone.

See Your Progress

Homework is your progress tracker. As you tackle assignments, you’ll notice how much you’ve learned and improved. Those “Aha!” moments are like high-fives from yourself, reminding you how awesome you are.

No More Forgetfulness

Homework is your memory’s best friend. It keeps all those amazing facts and formulas fresh in your mind. So when you need them for a test or just to impress your friends, they’re right there, ready to roll.

So, don’t look at homework as a mountain of boredom. It’s your secret weapon to becoming a learning superhero, one assignment at a time!

20 Reasons Why Homework Should not be Banned

Have a close look at 20 reasons why homework should not be banned.

Reinforces Learning

Homework isn’t just a chore – it’s your personal practice arena. Just like a soccer player practices their kicks, you practice what you’ve learned in class.

Remember that tricky math equation? Homework gives you a chance to tackle it again, making sure it stays in your brain for the long haul.

Builds Responsibility

Imagine you’re the captain of a spaceship. Completing homework on time is like steering that spaceship – you’re in charge!

When you meet homework deadlines, you’re showing responsibility, a superpower that makes you reliable in school and beyond.

Prepares for Real Life

Life isn’t always a smooth ride. Homework is like your training wheels for life’s challenges. Whether it’s taking out the trash or finishing a project at work, homework teaches you to manage tasks, no matter how busy life gets.

Boosts Independence

Homework turns you into a learning ninja. You’re like a detective hunting for clues on your own. When you figure things out without help, you’re building the ultimate power – independence.

Enhances Critical Thinking

Ever solved a puzzle that made your brain do a happy dance? Homework is like that puzzle. It’s not just about finishing it; it’s about figuring out how. This makes your brain sharper and helps you tackle real-world problems creatively.

Strengthens Study Habits

Imagine you’re a scientist experimenting with different potions. Homework lets you experiment with how you study best. You find the perfect mix of time, place, and method, so studying becomes a breeze.

Connects Home and School

Remember the feeling of showing off a new toy to your family? Homework lets you show off what you’re learning. When you discuss it at home, you’re building a bridge between school and family life.

Previews Upcoming Lessons

Imagine getting a sneak peek of next week’s video game levels. Homework sometimes gives you a preview of what’s coming up in class. You’ll feel like you’re in on a secret mission.

Provides Feedback

Homework is like a report card for your brain. When you do it, you get to see what you’re great at and where you can improve. It’s like getting a treasure map that shows you the path to success.

Prevents Forgetting

Think of homework as a magical spell that banishes forgetting. Regular practice keeps your memory fresh. That’s how you keep acing the things you learned weeks ago.

Encourages Perseverance

Imagine you’re climbing a mountain. Homework can sometimes feel like a steep hill. But the best part? You never give up. Overcoming those challenges builds your inner strength and helps you conquer bigger mountains in life.

Nurtures Curiosity

Remember asking “Why?” a million times as a kid? Homework lets you do that with your school subjects. When you’re curious and ask questions, you’re becoming a mini scientist on a quest for knowledge.

Improves Time Management

Think of time as your magic wand, and homework as a spell you have to cast. Homework teaches you how to use your wand wisely. You’ll become a time-management wizard who can balance school, fun, and everything else.

Cultivates Research Skills

Imagine being a detective, hunting for clues in a mysterious case. Homework sometimes sends you on a similar mission – finding information. You’re not just learning; you’re becoming a savvy researcher too.

Develops Communication Skills

Remember telling your friends about a cool adventure you had? Homework is your chance to tell stories on paper. Writing assignments boost your storytelling and communication skills.

Prepares for Exams

Imagine exams are like video game bosses. Homework is your training ground, helping you level up. When you practice what you’ve learned, you’re ready to face those tough bosses with confidence.

Promotes Creativity

Think of homework like a canvas waiting for your artistic touch. Creative assignments let you unleash your imagination. You’re not just learning; you’re creating something unique and awesome.

Fosters Responsibility

Imagine your homework as a promise you make to your teachers. Completing it shows them you’re responsible and committed to your learning journey. It’s like being a superhero with integrity.

Encourages Collaboration

Remember the thrill of working together on a group project? Homework can be like that – a team adventure! You learn to listen to others, share ideas, and create something amazing as a team.

Promotes Lifelong Learning

Imagine your brain as a treasure chest, and homework as the key to unlocking it. Homework isn’t just for school; it’s a habit that sticks with you, making you curious, eager to learn, and ready to conquer any challenge life throws your way.

So, before you consider waving the “ban homework” flag, remember these 20 reasons. Homework is like a toolbox filled with skills that’ll make you a super learner in school and in life!

Why should they not ban homework?

Homework shouldn’t be banned because it:

• Builds responsibility and time management.
• Prepares for real-world tasks.
• Boosts independent learning and critical thinking.
• Provides feedback and identifies areas for improvement.
• Prevents forgetting and maintains a strong foundation.
• Encourages perseverance and resilience.
• Nurtures curiosity and further exploration.
• Improves time management skills.
• Develops communication and research abilities.
• Prepares for exams and structured assessments.
• Promotes creativity and diverse problem-solving.
• Fosters responsibility and commitment to education.
• Encourages collaboration and teamwork.
• Cultivates a habit of continuous learning.

In essence, homework equips you with skills and habits that extend beyond the classroom, helping you succeed in the long run.

What are the benefits of homework?

Have a close look at the benefits of homework.

Improves Retention

Homework’s like your memory workout. When you keep practicing through assignments, you remember stuff better for the long haul. It’s like having a trusty vault of knowledge that’s always there when you need it.

Develops Responsibility

Homework’s your responsibility coach. When you get those assignments done on time, you’re not just doing the work – you’re becoming a time management champ. It’s like mastering the art of juggling, but with tasks.

Builds Study Habits

Homework’s your study buddy. By doing assignments regularly, you’re actually training your brain to focus better. It’s like forming a habit that makes studying feel like second nature.

Fosters Independence

Homework’s your ticket to being a learning explorer. As you dive into assignments, you’re taking the wheel of your learning journey. This independence boost makes you feel like you’re ready to conquer new challenges.

Strengthens Skills

Homework’s your skill-building playground. While you’re crunching numbers, writing essays, or digging into topics, you’re also sharpening skills like research and time management. These skills aren’t just for school – they’re life skills.

Encourages Creativity

Creative assignments are like your imagination spark. They push you to think outside the box, try new angles, and show your ideas in cool ways. Whether it’s a story or a project, creativity gets a big high-five from homework.

Previews Lessons

Homework’s like a teaser trailer for what’s next. Sometimes, assignments drop hints about upcoming topics. So, when your teacher dives into it, you’re already in the know, nodding along like a pro.

Encourages Responsibility

Meeting homework deadlines isn’t just about getting stuff done. It’s showing that you’re responsible for your education. It’s like a little flag that says, “Hey, I’m committed to this learning journey!”

Promotes Collaboration

Group assignments are your teamwork practice. When you team up with classmates, you’re learning how to talk, share ideas, and work together. These are skills that work not just in school, but in the big wide world too.

Prevents Procrastination

Homework’s got your back against last-minute panic. When you make studying and finishing tasks a regular thing, you’re creating a routine that kicks procrastination out the door. It’s like having your own superhero sidekick against the urge to delay things.

In essence, homework offers a range of benefits that extend beyond academic achievement, preparing you for success in various aspects of life.

What would happen if homework was banned?

Have a close look at what would happen if homework was banned.

Less Practice

Think of homework like practice for a sport. If it’s gone, you might not get as many chances to practice what you learn in class. It’s like skipping practice sessions and then feeling a bit rusty during the big game.

Missing Skills

Homework isn’t just about the assignments. It’s like a secret teacher that helps you learn skills like time management and responsibility. Without it, you might miss out on learning these important life skills. It’s like skipping the “how to ride a bike” lesson.

Exam Trouble

Homework is like your superhero sidekick for tests. It helps you get ready and confident. Without homework, tests might feel like facing a boss level in a video game without any power-ups.

Thinking Skills

Homework is like a puzzle that makes your brain stronger. It makes you think hard, solve problems, and get those brain muscles working. Without it, you might not get to flex your thinking skills as much. It’s like having a gym but never going.

Responsibility Lesson

When you finish your homework, you’re showing that you’re in charge of your learning journey. You’re taking responsibility for your education. No homework might mean missing out on this important lesson in being responsible.

Talking Less

Homework chats at home are like mini classroom sessions. They’re your chance to tell your family all the cool stuff you’re learning. Without homework, you might not have as much to share with them about your school adventures.

Time Challenge

Homework is like a time management coach. It helps you figure out how to get things done on time. Without it, managing your time might feel a bit like solving a tricky puzzle without any hints.

Parents Less Involved

Homework often brings your parents into your learning journey. They get to help you, learn with you, and cheer you on. Without homework, they might be a little less involved in your school adventures.

Skills Practice Missing

Homework is like a practice ground for skills like researching and writing. Without it, you might not get to sharpen these skills as often. It’s like having a musical instrument but never playing any tunes.

No Feedback

Homework is like a sneak peek at your progress. It shows you where you’re doing great and where you might need a little help. Without it, you might not get that helpful feedback that makes you even better at what you do.

So, if homework disappeared, we might miss out on practicing, learning important skills, and getting ready for tests. It’s like losing a helpful teammate on our learning journey.

Is homework necessary pros and cons?

• Reinforces Learning: Homework helps reinforce what’s learned in class, making sure the concepts stick.
• Practice Makes Perfect: Regular practice through homework improves understanding and retention.
• Prepares for Assessments: Homework readies students for exams and quizzes, boosting confidence.
• Skill Development: Completing assignments hones time management and responsibility skills.
• Critical Thinking: Homework encourages deep thinking and problem-solving, boosting skills.
• Parental Involvement: Homework discussions at home engage parents in students’ learning.
• Independent Learning: Homework fosters self-directed learning and independent thinking.
• Life Skills: Homework teaches skills like research, writing, and task management.
• Future Readiness: Homework preps students for future tasks that require meeting deadlines.
• Feedback Loop: Homework offers feedback, helping students identify areas for improvement.
• Stress and Overload: Too much homework can lead to stress and impact students’ well-being.
• Time Constraints: Homework can consume time meant for extracurricular activities, hobbies, and family time.
• Unequal Access: Some students might not have the resources at home to complete assignments.
• Creativity Limitation: Excessive homework might limit time for creative activities outside school.
• Diminished Engagement: Repetitive or excessive homework can lead to disengagement from learning.
• Burnout Risk: An overload of homework might lead to burnout and decreased interest in learning.
• Inflexibility: Homework might not account for different learning paces and styles.
• Parental Pressure: Homework can sometimes lead to undue parental pressure and involvement.
• Reduced Family Time: Too much homework might cut into valuable family time.
• Impact on Sleep: Excessive homework can affect sleep patterns, impacting overall health.
• Balancing the benefits and drawbacks of homework is essential to ensure it contributes positively to students’ education and overall well-being.

So, that’s the scoop on why homework shouldn’t be banned. It’s like a helper on your learning journey, giving you a chance to practice and become a pro at what you’ve learned in class. It’s not just about school stuff – homework teaches you skills like managing time, thinking critically, and being responsible.

Sure, there are times when homework might feel like a mountain to climb, and we get it – nobody wants to drown in assignments. But here’s the thing: finding a balance is the key.

Instead of waving goodbye to homework completely, we can make it work better for everyone. We’re talking about assignments that actually make sense, and that don’t gobble up all your free time.

In the end, it’s about making homework your sidekick, not your arch-nemesis. With a bit of homework magic, you’re not just acing tests – you’re picking up life skills that will come in handy down the road.

So, the next time you’re scribbling away on an assignment, remember – it’s more than just paper and ink; it’s your ticket to learning and growing in and out of the classroom.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is homework causing excessive stress.

It’s important to strike a balance between the amount of homework assigned and its impact on students’ stress levels. Teachers should consider assigning reasonable amounts and providing guidance on time management.

Does homework infringe on students’ free time?

Homework should be designed to complement, not replace, students’ free time. Effective assignments can be completed within a reasonable timeframe, leaving ample time for extracurricular activities and relaxation.

Are students spending too much time indoors?

Homework can be an opportunity for students to explore topics beyond the classroom. Assignments that encourage outdoor exploration, research, or creative projects can address this concern.

Does homework impede creativity?

Homework can be structured to foster creativity. Assignments that allow for personal expression, critical thinking, and alternative approaches can actually enhance students’ creative abilities.

Does homework negatively impact family time?

By setting clear guidelines and expectations for homework completion, students can manage their time effectively and still participate in family activities.

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15 Should Homework Be Banned Pros and Cons

Homework was a staple of the public and private schooling experience for many of us growing up. There were long nights spent on book reports, science projects, and all of those repetitive math sheets. In many ways, it felt like an inevitable part of the educational experience. Unless you could power through all of your assignments during your free time in class, then there was going to be time spent at home working on specific subjects.

More schools are looking at the idea of banning homework from the modern educational experience. Instead of sending work home with students each night, they are finding alternative ways to ensure that each student can understand the curriculum without involving the uncertainty of parental involvement.

Although banning homework might seem like an unorthodox process, there are legitimate advantages to consider with this effort. There are some disadvantages which some families may encounter as well.

These are the updated lists of the pros and cons of banning homework to review.

List of the Pros of Banning Homework

1. Giving homework to students does not always improve their academic outcomes. The reality of homework for the modern student is that we do not know if it is helpful to have extra work assigned to them outside of the classroom. Every study that has looked at the subject has had design flaws which causes the data collected to be questionable at best. Although there is some information to suggest that students in seventh grade and higher can benefit from limited homework, banning it for students younger than that seems to be beneficial for their learning experience.

2. Banning homework can reduce burnout issues with students. Teachers are seeing homework stress occur in the classroom more frequently today than ever before. Almost half of all high school teachers in North America have seen this issue with their students at some point during the year. About 25% of grade school teachers say that they have seen the same thing.

When students are dealing with the impact of homework on their lives, it can have a tremendously adverse impact. One of the most cited reasons for students dropping out of school is that they cannot complete their homework on time.

3. Banning homework would increase the amount of family time available to students. Homework creates a significant disruption to family relationships. Over half of all parents in North America say that they have had a significant argument with their children over homework in the past month. 1/3 of families say that homework is their primary source of struggle in the home. Not only does it reduce the amount of time that everyone has to spend together, it reduces the chances that parents have to teach their own skills and belief systems to their kids.

4. It reduces the negative impact of homework on the health of a student. Many students suffer academically when they cannot finish a homework assignment on time. Although assumptions are often made about the time management skills of the individual when this outcome occurs, the reasons why it happens is usually more complex. It may be too difficult, too boring, or there may not be enough time in the day to complete the work.

When students experience failure in this area, it can lead to severe mental health issues. Some perceive themselves as a scholarly failure, which translates to an inability to live life successfully. It can disrupt a desire to learn. There is even an increased risk of suicide for some youth because of this issue. Banning it would reduce these risks immediately.

5. Eliminating homework would allow for an established sleep cycle. The average high school student requires between 8-10 hours of sleep to function at their best the next day. Grade-school students may require an extra hour or two beyond that figure. When teachers assign homework, then it increases the risk for each individual that they will not receive the amount that they require each night.

When children do not get enough sleep, a significant rest deficit occurs which can impact their ability to pay attention in school. It can cause unintended weight gain. There may even be issues with emotional control. Banning homework would help to reduce these risks as well.

6. It increases the amount of socialization time that students receive. People who are only spending time in school and then going home to do more work are at a higher risk of experiencing loneliness and isolation. When these emotions are present, then a student is more likely to feel “down and out” mentally and physically. They lack meaningful connections with other people. These feelings are the health equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day. If students are spending time on homework, then they are not spending time connecting with their family and friends.

7. It reduces the repetition that students face in the modern learning process. Most of the tasks that homework requires of students is repetitive and uninteresting. Kids love to resolve challenges on tasks that they are passionate about at that moment in their lives. Forcing them to complete the same problems repetitively as a way to “learn” core concepts can create issues with knowledge retention later in life. When you add in the fact that most lessons sent for homework must be done by themselves, banning homework will reduce the repetition that students face, allowing for a better overall outcome.

8. Home environments can be chaotic. Although some students can do homework in a quiet room without distractions, that is not the case for most kids. There are numerous events that happen at home which can pull a child’s attention away from the work that their teacher wants them to do. It isn’t just the Internet, video games, and television which are problematic either. Household chores, family issues, employment, and athletic requirements can make it a challenge to get the assigned work finished on time.

List of the Cons of Banning Homework

1. Homework allows parents to be involved with the educational process. Parents need to know what their children are learning in school. Even if they ask their children about what they are learning, the answers tend to be in generalities instead of specifics. By sending home work from the classroom, it allows parents to see and experience the work that their kids are doing when they are in school during the day. Then moms and dads can get involved with the learning process to reinforce the core concepts that were discovered by their children each day.

2. It can help parents and teachers identify learning disabilities. Many children develop a self-defense mechanism which allows them to appear like any other kid that is in their classroom. This process allows them to hide learning disabilities which may be hindering their educational progress. The presence of homework makes it possible for parents and teachers to identify this issue because kids can’t hide their struggles when they must work 1-on-1 with their parents on specific subjects. Banning homework would eliminate 50% of the opportunities to identify potential issues immediately.

3. Homework allows teachers to observe how their students understand the material. Teachers often use homework as a way to gauge how well a student is understanding the materials they are learning. Although some might point out that assignments and exams in the classroom can do the same thing, testing often requires preparation at home. It creates more anxiety and stress sometimes then even homework does. That is why banning it can be problematic for some students. Some students experience more pressure than they would during this assessment process when quizzes and tests are the only measurement of their success.

4. It teaches students how to manage their time wisely. As people grow older, they realize that time is a finite commodity. We must manage it wisely to maximize our productivity. Homework assignments are a way to encourage the development of this skill at an early age. The trick is to keep the amount of time required for the work down to a manageable level. As a general rule, students should spend about 10 minutes each school day doing homework, organizing their schedule around this need. If there are scheduling conflicts, then this process offers families a chance to create priorities.

5. Homework encourages students to be accountable for their role. Teachers are present in the classroom to offer access to information and skill-building opportunities that can improve the quality of life for each student. Administrators work to find a curriculum that will benefit the most people in an efficient way. Parents work hard to ensure their kids make it to school on time, follow healthy routines, and communicate with their school district to ensure the most effective learning opportunities possible. None of that matters if the student is not invested in the work in the first place. Homework assignments not only teach children how to work independently, but they also show them how to take responsibility for their part of the overall educational process.

6. It helps to teach important life lessons. Homework is an essential tool in the development of life lessons, such as communicating with others or comprehending something they have just read. It teaches kids how to think, solve problems, and even build an understanding for the issues that occur in our society right now. Many of the issues that lead to the idea to ban homework occur because someone in the life of a student communicated to them that this work was a waste of time. There are times in life when people need to do things that they don’t like or want to do. Homework helps a student begin to find the coping skills needed to be successful in that situation.

7. Homework allows for further research into class materials. Most classrooms offer less than 1 hour of instruction per subject during the day. For many students, that is not enough time to obtain a firm grasp on the materials being taught. Having homework assignments allows a student to perform more research, using their at-home tools to take a deeper look into the materials that would otherwise be impossible if homework was banned. That process can lead to a more significant understanding of the concepts involved, reducing anxiety levels because they have a complete grasp on the materials.

The pros and cons of banning homework is a decision that ultimately lies with each school district. Parents always have the option to pursue homeschooling or online learning if they disagree with the decisions that are made in this area. Whether you’re for more homework or want to see less of it, we can all agree on the fact that the absence of any reliable data about its usefulness makes it a challenge to know for certain which option is the best one to choose in this debate.

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'

The Case for Homework

• Posted September 29, 2016
• By Matt Weber

This fall, the start of the new school year seemingly brought with it a trend of teachers forgoing homework assignments in order to allow their students more time outside of school for family and play. A number of these announcements took off on social media, with many parents supporting the stance and wishing that their own child's teacher would follow suit. While few would dispute the importance of family and play time for young children, it may be shortsighted to believe that eliminating homework altogether is the answer.

"All children should be doing homework," says Duke University Professor Harris M. Cooper , who has researched and wrote on the topic for over 25 years. While Cooper acknowledges that an excess of homework is both unnecessary and potentially detrimental, the upside of homework is too great to ignore. Not only is it important in reinforcing skills learned during the school day, it also teaches time management, study skills, and independent learning, as well as keeps parents connected to their children's learning.

"Really good homework assignments" in subjects such as math and science, says Cooper, also highlight skills children use in other areas of their life — in sports, games, and everyday tasks like grocery shopping with their parents. "A really good teacher is one that takes the skills that [their students] are learning in the abstract — or more abstract — in their classroom, and uses homework to show them these are the skills they need to enjoy things they do even more," says Cooper.

In this edition of the Harvard EdCast, Cooper evaluates the dissatisfaction with homework practices and discusses all of the reasons why, for children, homework is essential.

About the Harvard EdCast

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iTunes U page, that features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber, the Harvard EdCast is a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.

An education podcast that keeps the focus simple: what makes a difference for learners, educators, parents, and communities

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Nobody knows what the point of homework is

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As the Covid-19 pandemic began and students logged into their remote classrooms, all work, in effect, became homework. But whether or not students could complete it at home varied. For some, schoolwork became public-library work or McDonald’s-parking-lot work.

Luis Torres, the principal of PS 55, a predominantly low-income community elementary school in the south Bronx, told me that his school secured Chromebooks for students early in the pandemic only to learn that some lived in shelters that blocked wifi for security reasons. Others, who lived in housing projects with poor internet reception, did their schoolwork in laundromats.

According to a 2021 Pew survey , 25 percent of lower-income parents said their children, at some point, were unable to complete their schoolwork because they couldn’t access a computer at home; that number for upper-income parents was 2 percent.

The issues with remote learning in March 2020 were new. But they highlighted a divide that had been there all along in another form: homework. And even long after schools have resumed in-person classes, the pandemic’s effects on homework have lingered.

Over the past three years, in response to concerns about equity, schools across the country, including in Sacramento, Los Angeles , San Diego , and Clark County, Nevada , made permanent changes to their homework policies that restricted how much homework could be given and how it could be graded after in-person learning resumed.

Three years into the pandemic, as districts and teachers reckon with Covid-era overhauls of teaching and learning, schools are still reconsidering the purpose and place of homework. Whether relaxing homework expectations helps level the playing field between students or harms them by decreasing rigor is a divisive issue without conclusive evidence on either side, echoing other debates in education like the elimination of standardized test scores from some colleges’ admissions processes.

I first began to wonder if the homework abolition movement made sense after speaking with teachers in some Massachusetts public schools, who argued that rather than help disadvantaged kids, stringent homework restrictions communicated an attitude of low expectations. One, an English teacher, said she felt the school had “just given up” on trying to get the students to do work; another argued that restrictions that prohibit teachers from assigning take-home work that doesn’t begin in class made it difficult to get through the foreign-language curriculum. Teachers in other districts have raised formal concerns about homework abolition’s ability to close gaps among students rather than widening them.

Many education experts share this view. Harris Cooper, a professor emeritus of psychology at Duke who has studied homework efficacy, likened homework abolition to “playing to the lowest common denominator.”

But as I learned after talking to a variety of stakeholders — from homework researchers to policymakers to parents of schoolchildren — whether to abolish homework probably isn’t the right question. More important is what kind of work students are sent home with and where they can complete it. Chances are, if schools think more deeply about giving constructive work, time spent on homework will come down regardless.

There’s no consensus on whether homework works

The rise of the no-homework movement during the Covid-19 pandemic tapped into long-running disagreements over homework’s impact on students. The purpose and effectiveness of homework have been disputed for well over a century. In 1901, for instance, California banned homework for students up to age 15, and limited it for older students, over concerns that it endangered children’s mental and physical health. The newest iteration of the anti-homework argument contends that the current practice punishes students who lack support and rewards those with more resources, reinforcing the “myth of meritocracy.”

But there is still no research consensus on homework’s effectiveness; no one can seem to agree on what the right metrics are. Much of the debate relies on anecdotes, intuition, or speculation.

Researchers disagree even on how much research exists on the value of homework. Kathleen Budge, the co-author of Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools and a professor at Boise State, told me that homework “has been greatly researched.” Denise Pope, a Stanford lecturer and leader of the education nonprofit Challenge Success, said, “It’s not a highly researched area because of some of the methodological problems.”

Experts who are more sympathetic to take-home assignments generally support the “10-minute rule,” a framework that estimates the ideal amount of homework on any given night by multiplying the student’s grade by 10 minutes. (A ninth grader, for example, would have about 90 minutes of work a night.) Homework proponents argue that while it is difficult to design randomized control studies to test homework’s effectiveness, the vast majority of existing studies show a strong positive correlation between homework and high academic achievement for middle and high school students. Prominent critics of homework argue that these correlational studies are unreliable and point to studies that suggest a neutral or negative effect on student performance. Both agree there is little to no evidence for homework’s effectiveness at an elementary school level, though proponents often argue that it builds constructive habits for the future.

For anyone who remembers homework assignments from both good and bad teachers, this fundamental disagreement might not be surprising. Some homework is pointless and frustrating to complete. Every week during my senior year of high school, I had to analyze a poem for English and decorate it with images found on Google; my most distinct memory from that class is receiving a demoralizing 25-point deduction because I failed to present my analysis on a poster board. Other assignments really do help students learn: After making an adapted version of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book for a ninth grade history project, I was inspired to check out from the library and read a biography of the Chinese ruler.

For homework opponents, the first example is more likely to resonate. “We’re all familiar with the negative effects of homework: stress, exhaustion, family conflict, less time for other activities, diminished interest in learning,” Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, which challenges common justifications for homework, told me in an email. “And these effects may be most pronounced among low-income students.” Kohn believes that schools should make permanent any moratoria implemented during the pandemic, arguing that there are no positives at all to outweigh homework’s downsides. Recent studies , he argues , show the benefits may not even materialize during high school.

In the Marlborough Public Schools, a suburban district 45 minutes west of Boston, school policy committee chair Katherine Hennessy described getting kids to complete their homework during remote education as “a challenge, to say the least.” Teachers found that students who spent all day on their computers didn’t want to spend more time online when the day was over. So, for a few months, the school relaxed the usual practice and teachers slashed the quantity of nightly homework.

Online learning made the preexisting divides between students more apparent, she said. Many students, even during normal circumstances, lacked resources to keep them on track and focused on completing take-home assignments. Though Marlborough Schools is more affluent than PS 55, Hennessy said many students had parents whose work schedules left them unable to provide homework help in the evenings. The experience tracked with a common divide in the country between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

So in October 2021, months after the homework reduction began, the Marlborough committee made a change to the district’s policy. While teachers could still give homework, the assignments had to begin as classwork. And though teachers could acknowledge homework completion in a student’s participation grade, they couldn’t count homework as its own grading category. “Rigorous learning in the classroom does not mean that that classwork must be assigned every night,” the policy stated . “Extensions of class work is not to be used to teach new content or as a form of punishment.”

Canceling homework might not do anything for the achievement gap

The critiques of homework are valid as far as they go, but at a certain point, arguments against homework can defy the commonsense idea that to retain what they’re learning, students need to practice it.

“Doesn’t a kid become a better reader if he reads more? Doesn’t a kid learn his math facts better if he practices them?” said Cathy Vatterott, an education researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. After decades of research, she said it’s still hard to isolate the value of homework, but that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned.

Blanket vilification of homework can also conflate the unique challenges facing disadvantaged students as compared to affluent ones, which could have different solutions. “The kids in the low-income schools are being hurt because they’re being graded, unfairly, on time they just don’t have to do this stuff,” Pope told me. “And they’re still being held accountable for turning in assignments, whether they’re meaningful or not.” On the other side, “Palo Alto kids” — students in Silicon Valley’s stereotypically pressure-cooker public schools — “are just bombarded and overloaded and trying to stay above water.”

Merely getting rid of homework doesn’t solve either problem. The United States already has the second-highest disparity among OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations between time spent on homework by students of high and low socioeconomic status — a difference of more than three hours, said Janine Bempechat, clinical professor at Boston University and author of No More Mindless Homework .

When she interviewed teachers in Boston-area schools that had cut homework before the pandemic, Bempechat told me, “What they saw immediately was parents who could afford it immediately enrolled their children in the Russian School of Mathematics,” a math-enrichment program whose tuition ranges from $140 to about $400 a month. Getting rid of homework “does nothing for equity; it increases the opportunity gap between wealthier and less wealthy families,” she said. “That solution troubles me because it’s no solution at all.”

A group of teachers at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, made the same point after the school district proposed an overhaul of its homework policies, including removing penalties for missing homework deadlines, allowing unlimited retakes, and prohibiting grading of homework.

“Given the emphasis on equity in today’s education systems,” they wrote in a letter to the school board, “we believe that some of the proposed changes will actually have a detrimental impact towards achieving this goal. Families that have means could still provide challenging and engaging academic experiences for their children and will continue to do so, especially if their children are not experiencing expected rigor in the classroom.” At a school where more than a third of students are low-income, the teachers argued, the policies would prompt students “to expect the least of themselves in terms of effort, results, and responsibility.”

Not all homework is created equal

Despite their opposing sides in the homework wars, most of the researchers I spoke to made a lot of the same points. Both Bempechat and Pope were quick to bring up how parents and schools confuse rigor with workload, treating the volume of assignments as a proxy for quality of learning. Bempechat, who is known for defending homework, has written extensively about how plenty of it lacks clear purpose, requires the purchasing of unnecessary supplies, and takes longer than it needs to. Likewise, when Pope instructs graduate-level classes on curriculum, she asks her students to think about the larger purpose they’re trying to achieve with homework: If they can get the job done in the classroom, there’s no point in sending home more work.

At its best, pandemic-era teaching facilitated that last approach. Honolulu-based teacher Christina Torres Cawdery told me that, early in the pandemic, she often had a cohort of kids in her classroom for four hours straight, as her school tried to avoid too much commingling. She couldn’t lecture for four hours, so she gave the students plenty of time to complete independent and project-based work. At the end of most school days, she didn’t feel the need to send them home with more to do.

A similar limited-homework philosophy worked at a public middle school in Chelsea, Massachusetts. A couple of teachers there turned as much class as possible into an opportunity for small-group practice, allowing kids to work on problems that traditionally would be assigned for homework, Jessica Flick, a math coach who leads department meetings at the school, told me. It was inspired by a philosophy pioneered by Simon Fraser University professor Peter Liljedahl, whose influential book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics reframes homework as “check-your-understanding questions” rather than as compulsory work. Last year, Flick found that the two eighth grade classes whose teachers adopted this strategy performed the best on state tests, and this year, she has encouraged other teachers to implement it.

Teachers know that plenty of homework is tedious and unproductive. Jeannemarie Dawson De Quiroz, who has taught for more than 20 years in low-income Boston and Los Angeles pilot and charter schools, says that in her first years on the job she frequently assigned “drill and kill” tasks and questions that she now feels unfairly stumped students. She said designing good homework wasn’t part of her teaching programs, nor was it meaningfully discussed in professional development. With more experience, she turned as much class time as she could into practice time and limited what she sent home.

“The thing about homework that’s sticky is that not all homework is created equal,” says Jill Harrison Berg, a former teacher and the author of Uprooting Instructional Inequity . “Some homework is a genuine waste of time and requires lots of resources for no good reason. And other homework is really useful.”

Cutting homework has to be part of a larger strategy

The takeaways are clear: Schools can make cuts to homework, but those cuts should be part of a strategy to improve the quality of education for all students. If the point of homework was to provide more practice, districts should think about how students can make it up during class — or offer time during or after school for students to seek help from teachers. If it was to move the curriculum along, it’s worth considering whether strategies like Liljedahl’s can get more done in less time.

Some of the best thinking around effective assignments comes from those most critical of the current practice. Denise Pope proposes that, before assigning homework, teachers should consider whether students understand the purpose of the work and whether they can do it without help. If teachers think it’s something that can’t be done in class, they should be mindful of how much time it should take and the feedback they should provide. It’s questions like these that De Quiroz considered before reducing the volume of work she sent home.

More than a year after the new homework policy began in Marlborough, Hennessy still hears from parents who incorrectly “think homework isn’t happening” despite repeated assurances that kids still can receive work. She thinks part of the reason is that education has changed over the years. “I think what we’re trying to do is establish that homework may be an element of educating students,” she told me. “But it may not be what parents think of as what they grew up with. ... It’s going to need to adapt, per the teaching and the curriculum, and how it’s being delivered in each classroom.”

For the policy to work, faculty, parents, and students will all have to buy into a shared vision of what school ought to look like. The district is working on it — in November, it hosted and uploaded to YouTube a round-table discussion on homework between district administrators — but considering the sustained confusion, the path ahead seems difficult.

When I asked Luis Torres about whether he thought homework serves a useful part in PS 55’s curriculum, he said yes, of course it was — despite the effort and money it takes to keep the school open after hours to help them do it. “The children need the opportunity to practice,” he said. “If you don’t give them opportunities to practice what they learn, they’re going to forget.” But Torres doesn’t care if the work is done at home. The school stays open until around 6 pm on weekdays, even during breaks. Tutors through New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development programs help kids with work after school so they don’t need to take it with them.

As schools weigh the purpose of homework in an unequal world, it’s tempting to dispose of a practice that presents real, practical problems to students across the country. But getting rid of homework is unlikely to do much good on its own. Before cutting it, it’s worth thinking about what good assignments are meant to do in the first place. It’s crucial that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds tackle complex quantitative problems and hone their reading and writing skills. It’s less important that the work comes home with them.

Jacob Sweet is a freelance writer in Somerville, Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, among other publications.

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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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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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StarTribune

Should homework for schoolkids be a thing of the past.

On the first day of school, teacher Maya Kruger announced to her sixth-graders at St. Anthony Middle School that her policy is to give them time to work on their assignments in class. Anything that students don't complete in school, they'll need to take home to finish.

But beyond that, there will be no homework, she explained. Most of the kids were shocked.

Kruger arrived at her no-homework approach after more than a decade of trial and error, starting her teaching career sending home thick study guide packets, then only assigning work that she didn't have time to cover in class. She eased up on homework entirely after reading research articles suggesting it was virtually pointless.

"It's when a lot of those education blogs caught on and drew huge conclusions with clickbait-y headlines about homework, like, 'It's bad!' 'It's damaging!' or 'Here's one thing you can do,' " she recalled. "Young me was like, 'All right!' "

Kruger was dipping her toe into a homework abolition movement that has gained popularity in schools, particularly among lower grades. Several books have been written decrying the "myth" of homework , saying it often amounts to busywork, robs kids of sacred family time, overburdens overscheduled kids, and widens inequities already in the home.

Oh, yeah, and there's basically no evidence that homework in elementary school boosts academic achievement.

A vastly different childhood

My fifth-grader typically brings home no work at all. For years, his main assignment has been to spend 20 to 30 minutes a day reading a book of his choice. While we occasionally have studied state capitals or spelling words for an upcoming test, he usually finishes all of his worksheets at school, so his nights are free from any ounce of academic pressure. He is advancing through his elementary school years without having the consistent drumbeat of homework that I remember from my childhood.

As a parent, I am not complaining. Daily homework would be a nightly battle between my kids and me, and it would be ugly. My home-schooling attempts during the pandemic proved I am not capable of coaxing, commanding or inspiring headstrong souls to finish the simplest of written assignments. But I do wonder what is lost in a world without homework.

When will my child learn to buckle down and learn to study? Will a lack of independent problem-solving come back to bite him as he gets older? And isn't it irrefutable that repeated practice can lead to mastery of a new skill?

Michael Rodriguez excelled in school and now serves as the dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, so I expected him to be on Team Homework. But even he advocates for a middle ground. Too much homework, especially if it's rote and meaningless, can be harmful, he said.

"When we continually ask kids to do busywork, we're continually demonstrating to them that perhaps school isn't for them," he told me. "We're diminishing their own internal joy of learning. That's my biggest fear."

My earliest recollection of homework goes all the way back to second grade. Foreshadowing what would become an extreme life flaw, I had put off a coloring assignment until the last minute. It was well beyond my bedtime, and I had enlisted my mother to join me at our kitchen table with a set of crayons to help me color a stack of photocopied worksheets. (She didn't appreciate it when I, already a procrastinating perfectionist at 7, critiqued her for scribbling outside the lines.)

We can probably agree that coloring was a frivolous exercise. Now imagine a teacher sending home busywork to a kid whose parents work multiple jobs, can't speak English or aren't able to teach their kid the concept at hand.

Homework should be relevant to students' lives and extend their learning opportunities, Rodriguez added. The amount should be low in early grades, and "a bit more" in higher grades. (He also thinks homework should be forbidden on Fridays, which I'm sure would delight high school students everywhere.)

When Rodriguez studied the impact of homework years ago, he found that students who performed the weakest on a standardized math test were receiving more homework — typically from workbooks. Those students whose teachers assigned them creative math activities that were embedded in real-world problems earned much higher test scores.

"Ideally, we would want to give the meaningful, enriching kinds of activities to all students, not just the highest-performing," he said. "Instead, we give the very rote, meaningless worksheets to the students that really need the additional supports. And one thing we know is that if something's not working in the classroom, it's not going to work after school."

We all want our kids to catch up after learning losses during the pandemic. The latest test scores show that Minnesota students are way behind in literacy and math proficiency, performing lower than even before COVID-19. Perhaps the right kind of homework, at least in the higher grades, can help narrow these gaps. Rodriguez said students can grow when there are opportunities for them to do their homework after school, with the help of tutors, peers or teachers.

"A zero-homework policy is not the right answer and not the right message," Rodriguez said.

Some kids want homework

I was surprised by one development Kruger shared with me: Though she stopped assigning homework, some kids invariably ask for the extra work to take home. She's happy to help them explore options. For others, she said it's important to meet students where they're at and help them develop their interests. "Not every kid wants to be a CEO," she said.

As she's matured as a teacher, she said she's confident she's giving her students enough opportunities to learn and practice a new skill — in her classroom, with her support and surrounded by their peers. If they goof off at their desks, they will still need to complete the assignment at home. So it ends up being an exercise in time management.

Like me, Kruger grew up with homework, but she's not sold on the belief that it helped her learn. Will she ever go back to assigning it?

"I'm always open to new information," she said. "If somehow it comes out that this is the ticket to student success and happiness, I'm all in."

Laura Yuen , a Star Tribune features columnist, writes opinion as well as reported pieces exploring parenting, gender, family and relationships, with special attention on women and underrepresented communities. With an eye for the human tales, she looks for the deeper resonance of a story, to humanize it, and make it universal.

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School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: December 7, 2023

Published: January 23, 2020

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

Photo by  energepic.com  from  Pexels

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

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

2. Homework Gets Parents Involved

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

3. Homework Teaches Time Management

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

4. Homework Opens A Bridge Of Communication

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

5. Homework Allows For More Learning Time

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

6. Homework Reduces Screen Time

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

The Other Side: Why Homework Is Bad

1. homework encourages a sedentary lifestyle.

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

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

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

2. Homework Isn’t Healthy In Every Home

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

3. Homework Adds To An Already Full-Time Job

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

4. Homework Has Not Been Proven To Provide Results

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

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

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

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

5. Homework Assignments Are Overdone

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

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

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

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

Related Articles

Why 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.

More from TIME

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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Pros and cons of school assignments: Should kids have homework?

Do you think homework is good for kids? Should it be abolished? Find out the pros and cons of homework for students and join our education poll and debate. 

Should kids have homework? 

Pros and cons of homework.

Some researchers have identified a strong correlation between homework and academic success. Harris  Cooper, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, led a  meta-analysis  in 2006, " Does homework improve academic achievement?, " which showed that homework can improve students' scores on class tests. The study demonstrated that accross different topics, including Math, English, American History, and Social studies, student who had done homework performed better than their classmates who had not. 

In addition to improving grades and results in standardized tests, there are many other pros to homework such as:

• Homework provides parents with the opportunity to participate in their children's education.
• Possibility for kids to further explore a subject at their own pace. Not all children have the same capacity to assimilate all the information covered in class.
• School assignments can help develop a sense of responsibility and time management.
• It facilitates rote learning.
• It reduces the time kids spend watching TV as well as playing video games and with their cell phones .
• Homework is an opportunity to practice some research and study skills and deepen understanding of some concepts which cannot be fully developed in class.

However, some voices have started to point out some disadvantages of doing homework and questioned the traditional education model in place. Some of them claim that homework should be abolished. The publication   “The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning” by Kralovec and Buell (2000) has brought into the discussion a very interesting new angle. Kralovec and Buell argue that homework contributes to a competitive culture that overvalues work to the detriment of personal and family well-being . Moreover, there are several other problems associated to homework, such as:

• Homework is very unfair because economically disadvantaged students can’t study at home with the same conditions and support as the wealthier children.
• Too many school  assignments  can excessively reduce the time for playing, doing sports or simply interacting socially with friends and family. Homework can also interfere with kids' household chores .
• Cheating is easy. Often students simply plagiarize their assignments from others or from the Internet and therefore the learning objectives of homework are not fulfilled. In occasions parents or older relatives do children's coursework.
• Sometimes homework is not well designed and do not really contribute to learning. In other cases homework is not marked shortly after being submitted and, therefore, feedback does not reach students as soon as it should. Students may get frustrated and lose interest.
•  It may keep students up late at night, reduce their sleeping time and therefore their performance in class the following day.
• As Galloway et al (2013) show, homework can be a source of stress and physical health problems for children.

To summarize, there are several pros and cons to the use of homework as educational tool for children. What side of the debate are you on? Do you think homework is overall good or bad for the development and education of children? Vote and tell us why (see below).

Watch these videos on the homework debate:

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The Surprising History of Homework Reform

Really, kids, there was a time when lots of grownups thought homework was bad for you.

Homework causes a lot of fights. Between parents and kids, sure. But also, as education scholar Brian Gill and historian Steven Schlossman write, among U.S. educators. For more than a century, they’ve been debating how, and whether, kids should do schoolwork at home .

At the dawn of the twentieth century, homework meant memorizing lists of facts which could then be recited to the teacher the next day. The rising progressive education movement despised that approach. These educators advocated classrooms free from recitation. Instead, they wanted students to learn by doing. To most, homework had no place in this sort of system.

Through the middle of the century, Gill and Schlossman write, this seemed like common sense to most progressives. And they got their way in many schools—at least at the elementary level. Many districts abolished homework for K–6 classes, and almost all of them eliminated it for students below fourth grade.

By the 1950s, many educators roundly condemned drills, like practicing spelling words and arithmetic problems. In 1963, Helen Heffernan, chief of California’s Bureau of Elementary Education, definitively stated that “No teacher aware of recent theories could advocate such meaningless homework assignments as pages of repetitive computation in arithmetic. Such an assignment not only kills time but kills the child’s creative urge to intellectual activity.”

But, the authors note, not all reformers wanted to eliminate homework entirely. Some educators reconfigured the concept, suggesting supplemental reading or having students do projects based in their own interests. One teacher proposed “homework” consisting of after-school “field trips to the woods, factories, museums, libraries, art galleries.” In 1937, Carleton Washburne, an influential educator who was the superintendent of the Winnetka, Illinois, schools, proposed a homework regimen of “cooking and sewing…meal planning…budgeting, home repairs, interior decorating, and family relationships.”

Another reformer explained that “at first homework had as its purpose one thing—to prepare the next day’s lessons. Its purpose now is to prepare the children for fuller living through a new type of creative and recreational homework.”

That idea didn’t necessarily appeal to all educators. But moderation in the use of traditional homework became the norm.

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“Virtually all commentators on homework in the postwar years would have agreed with the sentiment expressed in the NEA Journal in 1952 that ‘it would be absurd to demand homework in the first grade or to denounce it as useless in the eighth grade and in high school,’” Gill and Schlossman write.

That remained more or less true until 1983, when publication of the landmark government report A Nation at Risk helped jump-start a conservative “back to basics” agenda, including an emphasis on drill-style homework. In the decades since, continuing “reforms” like high-stakes testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Common Core standards have kept pressure on schools. Which is why twenty-first-century first graders get spelling words and pages of arithmetic.

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• Child Development

Should Homework Be Abolished?

The french president proposes banning homework. is he right.

Posted October 18, 2012

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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8 Reasons Why Homework Shouldn’t be Banned

Are you wondering Why homework should not get banned? Many parents think homework is a waste of time, but there are many reasons why homework should not be Banned. Homework has a lot of benifits that many people do not know. Let us see what experts have to say about this concern.

Table of Contents

Here are five reasons why homework shouldn’t be banned

1. retention of class learning.

Students need to practice what they learn. If they do not practice, then they will forget what they learned.

This is a common problem: Children often get busy with their gadgets and play once at home. As a result, the learning in school starts fading. Homework gives the students a good revision and can refresh the teaching in the comfort of their Home.

Homework was invented for this reason by Roberto Nevilis, an Italian teacher who is considered the inventor of Homework. As a teacher, Nevilis found that his teachings lost meaning when students were taken away from the class and back home. Anguished that his students failed to overtake their peers despite their actions and efforts, he chose to use a different technique. So Homework was invented.

2. Scorecard for Teachers

Homework gives teachers insight into how well their students understand concepts. The seriousness of a child is determined by how much time and effort he dedicates to his homework. Is he focused or very casual with the task given?

The teacher would tailor their teaching based on the output that comes only from homework. It also helps the teacher to understand which student in the class needs more attention and guidance.

3. Focused Learning at Home

Homework allows students to work at their own pace. The classroom may not give you adequate time or attention to understand all the concepts and learning imparted among many students.

The classroom is a common environment when learning is standardized to suit a general audience in school. Going back home and looking at the same learning gives the child time to understand and pickup up the concepts of the topic.

Children can dwell more on the topic and do more research once at Home, as they have access to parents and other friends, which is impossible in the classroom setup. Taking extra classes or tuition is also a form of Lesson.

4. Get deeper learning

Homework provides opportunities for students to apply what they’ve learned. A student can check out library or internet resources or perform practical tasks at Home. This is an opportunity for students to get more insight into the topic learned in a classroom.

Students can even look up Youtube for videos on relevant topics. It is quite possible that student has not understood the lesson from the school teacher but may understand it better when taught by listening to many teachers on Youtube.

This time may create more doubts or questions, which the student can go back to school and ask the teacher. It will facilitate more interactive learning versus just simple theory.

5. Self Discipline

Homework can help students build self-discipline. This is the best way to prepare the child for life. Classroom learning and self-practice or homework will help the child be responsible and form discipline in life. This will help them to take up any responsibility in the future.

Discipline will put things in perspective and drive the child in a systemic approach to learning and life. This will also positively affect their mental health .

6. Homework gives teachers insight into how students learn best

Teachers need to understand how students learn so they can help them with their homework. They also need to ensure students do not fall behind because of missed assignments. To accomplish these goals, teachers must first determine how students learn best.

There are several ways to do this. One method is to observe students while they work on homework. Another option is to ask students to write their thoughts about how they learn best. A third option is questionnaires to find out how students learn best.

Once teachers have determined how students learn best, they can decide whether homework should be banned. If homework is banned, teachers should provide alternative activities such as reading books, playing games, watching movies, etc.

7. Homework allows parents to see how their children are doing at school

Parents often worry when their child starts school. They wonder what will happen to their child’s grades and test scores. However, research shows that homework does not affect student performance.

Students who complete more homework tend to perform better than those who do less homework. This is true even among students who struggle academically.

8. Homework provides a sense of accomplishment

In addition to helping students learn, homework also gives them a sense of accomplishment. Research has shown that children who feel good about themselves are more likely to succeed in school.

Students need to practice what they learn

Students should be allowed to complete homework assignments as often as possible. This will enable them to practice what they have learned. However, there are times when homework should be banned. These situations include:

• When the student has been disruptive during class.
• When the teacher feels that the assignment is too difficult.
• When the teacher feels the student does not care about learning.
• When the teacher feels it would be better to spend more time teaching than doing homework.
• When the teacher feels they cannot give enough individual attention to each student.

Do you want to learn more exciting facts about Homework and would like to know who invented homework and why? Read Here.

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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 133,776 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://www.edutopia.org/no-proven-benefits
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/03/homework
• ↑ https://healthier.stanfordchildrens.org/en/health-hazards-homework/
• ↑ https://teensneedsleep.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/galloway-nonacademic-effects-of-homework-in-privileged-high-performing-high-schools.pdf
• ↑ 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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Why homework has merit and can be a force for good

The brouhaha about the need to abolish school homework, as if it was a recently invented form of cruelty to children, needs perspective and reasoned discussion.

Homework is an important bridge between school and the home. It allows parents to be part of a child’s educational journey and to contribute in a meaningful way.

I come, not to bury homework, but to praise it.

Recent discussions about cancelling homework for good seem to be focused almost entirely on the needs of time-poor parents, rather than the benefits to students.

In spite of the protestations that schoolwork – set by teachers to complement classroom learning – must be abolished with immediate effect, the facts are that there are myriad benefits accruing to your child from homework that we should not lose sight of.

Painting homework as the enemy of busy children misses the bigger and more nuanced picture. The idea that it should be cancelled outright seems like a knee-jerk reaction to what amounts to a modern family time-management issue. And it must be noted that generations of children have survived the imposition of homework, and many have even thrived.

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This line of thinking also misses the whole purpose of home-based assignments.

Homework is an important bridge between school and the home. It allows parents to be part of a child’s educational journey and to contribute in a meaningful way. It keeps the channels of communication about what happens in school open, an important consideration.

[  Homework: ‘If educators saw the stress it causes, they would be horrified’  ]

To suggest that a broad array of extracurricular activities should take precedence entirely over home-based school work is misguided at best. It also sidesteps the fact that many children in homes where money is too tight to mention will be the biggest losers here, as they won’t be spending their time being ferried from one draughty hall to another for ballet or tai chi lessons.

Comparing attending school to going to work as an adult misses the point by a country mile, and amounts to an erroneous justification for such a move. Education is a lifelong journey. If you demonise homework you are giving a child the message that schoolwork/learning is a negative thing. Learning is a wonderful thing. That’s a really worthwhile message to pass on to your children.

However, that is not to say that there is, or at least should be, an optimum amount of work set by a teacher that is age-dependent. If you haven’t 20-30 minutes to spare with your smallie, then the issue is a lifestyle one set up by you, rather than the school one. I am perplexed by parents who believe that their child’s formal education is solely the remit of the school. There is only so much one teacher with up to 30 pupils in a class can do. Issues with a child’s ability to learn will likely be picked up faster on a one-to-one basis at home rather than in a busy classroom.

[  How homework can help children feel happier  ]

Conversely, if you have a very fast learner, you can encourage them to do more to ensure they don’t get bored and lose interest.

Additionally, homework tasks can allow the parent to expand the content to include other ideas and different content. Homework also teaches your child the importance of beginning and finishing a task, a worthwhile life skill.

As a parent I have enjoyed being part of my child’s learning journey. I have fond memories of a little head at the kitchen table calling out “Mum” followed by questions about the meaning or spelling of a word. “Why is the sky blue” stands out vividly as a taxing question that we both had fun establishing the facts for, compliments of Mr Google.

Learning can be fun and that is an important message for parents to give their children. Parents are key educators too. The importance of a visit to the local library and the luxury of time to read a book is arguably more beneficial to a child than contorting their fingers around the neck of a violin. Time to stop, to think and just to be is underrated in modern life, where being busy all the time is considered desirable.

That being said, I think some reworking of homework is overdue. The tedium of completing workbooks being a case in point. Teachers should be encouraged to set stimulating and more creative tasks as homework also. The very idea of written wellbeing homework is faintly ridiculous. It doesn’t take a genius to say “Homework this evening is to dance for 15 minutes to your favourite music.”

[  Why do parents allow children to continue doing homework when they can just opt them out?  ]

The proliferation of after-school activities is also an undoubted indicator of affluence. You would need to ask why one fairly small child needs to attend ballet, violin, swimming, piano, GAA, chess, martial arts, drama, art, French and the rest. Bragging rights for parents shouldn’t form part of the equation, but they often do.

If homework is abolished in primary schools, as sure as night follows day, it will also be dropped at second level too. Given that the Irish examination system is a written one – with many subjects based on essay-style answers – the inability to write well and succinctly will be an impediment to success. Practice does make perfect.

Traditionally, teachers work fewer hours to compensate for time spent correcting homework. There is nothing to stop any parent dropping a note to the teacher to say that no homework was completed last night as we were otherwise engaged.

The bottom line here is that if extracurricular activities are preventing your child from doing homework, the issue is perhaps the out-of-school schedule rather than the homework.

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