Introduction
The struggle students, parents, and teachers face with homework has remained problematic for many generations. Some educators and parents will argue that it is necessary and helpful to the students when it comes to their academic achievement, but most students will argue that it is not as effective as it seems. In fact, homework has been a key element in the education of students since their first year of school. As students get into higher grades the amount of work they are assigned becomes increasingly difficult and can become too much for them to handle, which is the case for many high school students. The excessive amount of homework high school students receive has led many of them to have stress, thus resulting in the
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Though this is recommended for teachers to follow, the study “Nonacademic Effects of Homework in Privileged, High-Performing High Schools” found that students would receive more than 3 hours of homework daily leading them to have stress, physical health issues, and an imbalance in their daily lives (8).
Stress Caused by Homework
The word “stress” usually has a negative connotation when it is brought up, however, there is such thing as healthy stress. According to the APA, stress is our body’s natural alarm system that helps us prepare for “fight or flight” situations, but when this stress is prolonged it can become chronic stress (6). An example of a situation when natural stress occurs is when we are faced with a natural predator. Our body must make the decision to either stay and fight against the predator or prepare itself to run away. In a study done by NYU, a prestigious creditable university, it was found that chronic stress is growing among many young students to the point where their health is put at risk because of the amount of homework assigned. The study also shows that the chronic stress translates into their college years and can cause long-lasting problems as they become adults (6). More than half of the students in a study done by Denise Pope, an education scholar at Stanford, stated that homework was the main cause of stress they experienced. With homework causing this much stress on multiple
How does homework affect students in academic and nonacademic ways? Both educators and students ask this infamous question throughout the course of their education tracks. Teachers and administrators often believe that homework is necessary; whereas, students often question the legitimacy of homework. However, due to new studies and research about homework, it has been proven to be insignificant, oppressive and pernicious to the student's wellness and success.
One of the most controversial topics in education today is homework. This debate has been going on for decades, as teachers, administrators, and parents disagree on whether homework should be assigned, and if assigned, then what the right amount of homework should be. The time students spend on homework has increased over the years. “High school students get assigned up to 17.5 hours of homework per week, according to a survey of 1,000 teachers” (Bidwell). Recently, more fuel has been added in this debate because younger students in particular are receiving much more homework than before. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, states that “The amount of homework that younger kids – ages 6 to 9 – have
Not only does homework help student but also it creates interaction between teens and parents. However, statics has shown that even though homework is a way to refresh what students have learned, it also create stress for students. Homework has shown its benefits for student but most of the time when student is given a homework it’s likely he/she will not do it. They believe it’s stressful,and when they can’t get the right answer, they gave up instantly instead of keep practicing. According to researchers, they believe that when student do more homework they get better grades and do well on the test/quizzes that were given. Even though homework has many advantage toward students, it also has disadvantage. Which include having too much homework and these things could lead to mental health issue toward students.
In the article “ When Homework Takes Over,” by Merri Rosenberg, she quotes ‘ A new study finds that heavy homework takes negative impacts on the lives of high school students, resulting excess stress, physical problems, and little time for leisure. This shows that excessive homework can lead to high stress levels and physical problems for teens and children. Rosenberg also states ‘Teachers handing out more assignments than ever is making kids stressed, their sleep
High school students feel more stress than working adults, and children are beginning to feel aversion towards learning. Both adolescents and children are at risk of health issues due to anxiety and less time is spent with family, playing, and sleeping. The cause for all of this is too much homework that is suffocating students. Homework causes students to sleep less, have more stress, and even forces students to give up extracurricular activities. These negative results can be improved by reducing the homework load.
In Denise Pope’s study 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary stress. High school students are under a great amount of stress
David Mills’s article published in Healthline, “Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids’ Health?” is a piece focused upon the extensive amount of time consumed by homework by students of all ages as well as the subsequent health effects that typically result from the issue. With the assistance of multiple studies, Mills argues that current students are highly exceeding the national standard of allotted time for homework and instead recommends several alternatives to the problem, such as primarily focusing upon the assignments that they deem as of appropriate and beneficial quality. Although he specifically asserts that refusing to do the work altogether is one of the best methods to easily relieve the increasing pressure felt by students in vigorous schooling systems, it actually has the opposite effect: by delaying the work until later, students fall into an endless cycle of being
As a high schooler, you get lots of homework which can easily cause you stress, but others like parents have another understanding of homework because they think it gives their children something to do besides sitting and watching the television. Also teachers tend to give out homework for the benefit of your learning skills or just of what you learned on that school day in general, which isn’t always helpful. The harsh thing parents and teachers don’t realize is the agonizing pain and life consuming of having large amounts of homework which causes us to have negative consequences.
Some believe homework is just stressful. Students should not be given homework on a nightly basis. Article 3 states “It was reported in a study that 89% of American students in grades 3 through 12 felt stressed about homework”.
Having the stress of finishing homework almost every school day can have a toll on students who can't handle this much tension and strain each night. Students and children don't usually get as much sleep as they should when they have homework, for example, “During the school week, she averages three to four hours of homework a night and six and a half hours of sleep” (Greenfield). This explains that students that spend too much time on homework and lose sleep time each night can affect kids later. Losing sleep is not a healthy thing for students who need to wake up early and go to school. Since students spend so much time on homework, it can cause different forms of depression, ¨I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to go in the backyard and just run around,’ a teenage girl laments in the film. ‘I’ve gone through bouts of depression’ from too much homework, another confesses. A bewildered-looking third girl says: ‘I would spend six hours a night on my homework.’”(Hancock). This proves that homework can cause forms of mentally challenging issues or less sleep. Most kids go through depression and having something like homework that you constantly have can not be a good thing. Homework stress can cause many mentally challenging problems for students and other problems like this can be caused by too much
Students claim that due to numerous hours of homework assigned, it tends to build up on them and thus, causing said students to fall into a stressed state. Although this claim is proven to be valid, the fact stands that stress will not only be encountered during an average American student’s 12 years of schooling. In 2014, The American Institute of Stress released the statistics relating to that of a person’s daily life. From this data performed by the American Psychological Association, it was found that job pressure was- and still proves to be- the leading cause of stress in Americans. The category includes those who feel this job pressure from work overload in particular. Therefore, the stress that is caused from homework in students is actually preparing these individuals for the higher workload that they may face in their lives outside of school. Adults essentially face homework as well. Although it may not be identified as homework, many of these adults take home work from their job in order to complete it on time. Thus, the factor of stress does not prove as an effective argument as to why homework should be banned.
Having homework can lead to poor health. According to a Stanford study, more than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive. When it comes to stress, 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary. 43 percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. If
Between managing school, extra curriculars, and anything else a student gets involved in, there is a lot of stress. With kids trying to manage their time with their hectic daily schedules, there is not much time to be fretting over ample amounts of homework. In Kelly Wallace’s article “Kids have three times too much homework, study finds; what's the cost?” she found, “students in the early elementary school years are getting significantly more homework than is recommended by education leaders, in some cases nearly three times as much homework as is recommended.” The effects of having three times the amount of homework can be a substantial amount of stress on a student. Instead of the heavy workloads, it’s recommended that students receive 10 minutes of homework per grade level (Wallace). Homework over this level is not only not beneficial to children's GPA or grades. There is a plethora of evidence that it is detrimental to their attitude about school, their grades, their self-confidence, their social skills and their quality of life. If teachers were to follow this “10 minute rule”, there wouldn’t only be an increase in students work ethic, but their stress levels would decrease. Students who are less
The average homework for high school is 6.8 hours of homework per week. “Metlife studies found 50 percent” of students spend more than one hour. “The Metfile studies found that 70 percent of student have stress over homework”
The majority of students have, at one point or another, wished for less homework. For some student’s homework is not a big issue but for other students it can take hours and even days to do all their homework. That wasted time could be used for enjoyment or learning life skills instead of homework. Nine in ten high school students reported feeling stressed about homework (Galloway 4). So, should students get less homework? Yes, students should receive less homework because it improves their well-being by reducing stress and its impacts on health, increasing leisure time, and showing that homework does not affect grades significantly.