Homework is done by kids all over the world and everyday some type of homework must be done, but is it really helping the kids or making life even more stressful? In the article, Opponents of homework say that too much may be harmful for students as it can increase stress, reduce leisure and sleep time, and lead to cheating. They also say that it widens social inequality and is not proven to be beneficial for younger children. Proponents of homework say that it improves student achievement and allows for independent learning of classroom and life skills. Having to do homework after school can be hard in a world full of social media and causes kids to not be able to focus as long which prevents the child from learning anything from homework.
It’ll go in one ear and out the other because kids are going on their phone 24/7 because of how addicting it is. Even with time off the phone kids will still not be able to focus on they will doze off and think of other things or want to go play with friends or do not have enough time to finish homework and then cheat and learn nothing. For example, there’s something called “retrieval practice,” which means trying to recall information you’ve already learned. The optimal time to engage in retrieval practice is not immediately after you’ve acquired information but after you’ve forgotten it a bit like, after school. Reasons for this is because teachers aren’t properly trained about why this occurs they don’t know they need to change their homework ideas to fit a child’s schedule and help them actually remember what there doing.
The Scholastic article Is Homework Bad? references Alfie Kohn’s book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, in which he says, “There is no evidence to demonstrate that homework benefits students below high school age.” In the article it says, people tend to dislike the amount of time homework takes out of your day and causes less family time to occur after school. With this evidence is homework really the way to go when it comes to teaching kids?
Hi Cassie,
I hear your point that homework can be more detrimental to kids than it can be helpful regarding kids below high school age, and I partially agree with you that regular homework wouldn’t benefit these kids that much. However, I think that by introducing some work outside of school can help students by helping them learn to manage their time instead of throwing the new idea of work outside of school at high school students all at once. An occasional small project or assignment could help build these skills while also limiting the amount of time younger students are required to dedicate to homework and would help kids learn to be able to focus. Although, as you mention, “having to do homework after school can be hard in a world full of social media,” homework would also help them be able to manage both the desire to be on social media and other tasks they need to accomplish. Instead of “preventing the child from learning anything from homework,” I think the presence of social media while students need to do homework might be able to help children learn to separate the two sides of after school activities and improve their ability to manage homework in the future when they need it to learn important material. Would you agree that decreasing the amount of homework of students below high school age to an occasional project would be more beneficial to children than completely getting rid of homework from their lives?
This is really interesting! This article ( https://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005411 ) might also be interesting to you. It mentions the fact that homework is helpful as long as you don’t get too much, which you touched on in your writing. I think both sides have valid points. I’ll be excited to read more.
Hi Cassie,
I found it interesting that retrieval time is more effective not directly after learning something. How long should you wait for a more effective retrieval time?
I found a website that has some other pros and cons as well. https://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005411
Thank you for your time,
Emily Storie
Hi Cassie,
I found intriguing that there are both opponents and proponents of homework. I partly agree with both sides that students should be given homework but it should be at an appropriate amount. Educators should think about how to assign homework more scientifically, making it helpful and not stressing.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/homework-research-how-much/585889/
Sincerely,
Honam Cao
Hi Cassie!
Your article is very interesting and I didn’t know about the concept of retrieval practice. I agree that schools are giving us too much homework because kids are always worried about getting the work done and not being able to enjoy themselves with their friends and family.
https://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/all/article/806335/Why-Homework-Is-a-Waste-of-Time/
Here is the article I found regarding homework being a waste of time and energy.
Dear Cassie,
I agree with your viewpoint on homework, because we should have time to hangout with our families, free time to relax, and enough time to sleep. I found an article that talks about how homework not only takes away from family time, but it causes tension, because both the students and parents are stressed.
https://scienceleadership.org/blog/homework_or_personal_lives
Sincerely,
Emily Malouf