Why Should We Limit the Amount of Homework? Persuasive Essay

 
When asking students about the worst thing they find in their studies, they are likely to mention homework. Of course, if students had the right to change the system of education, they would definitely ban homework. Some may say that children and adolescents do not understand what is best for them and, hence, their arguments concerning homework should not be taken into account. However, students are often overloaded by tasks and this negatively affects their learning outcomes, researchers state (Parker, 2014). The extensive bulk of research shows that homework has its benefits but they are outweighed by its downsides. This paper dwells upon pitfalls of homework.

First of all, excessive amount of homework is associated with stress and a number of psychological issues. Thus, Parker (2014) reports that 56% of students see homework as the major source of their stress. Only 1% of students admitted that homework was not the cause of their stress. Katz, Kaplan and Gueta (2010) note that students are overloaded by tasks and they often feel depressed. Many students report that they feel depressed as they feel they cannot do their homework properly or they do not understand what is expected from them.

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Importantly, homework can often have a negative impact on students’ health. One of primary outcomes of homework is the lack of sleep (Katz et al., 2010). Students often spend major part of the nighttime studying. This negatively affects their health and their psychological state. Of course, working on homework often means sitting in a room instead of enjoying exercise and fresh air. Clearly, children and adolescents need a lot of exercise for proper development.

Many researchers and educators stress that homework negatively affects the way students experience their creativity. Students have less time for extracurricular activities or hobbies (“Is it time we banished homework?” 2013). Many researchers note that this reduces learning outcomes of students and contradicts the major goal of education, which is to help students integrate effectively into the society through acquiring certain skills and choosing their profession.

Furthermore, some researchers claim that homework contributes to inequality in education. Thus, in low-income families, parents cannot invest enough time to help their children with homework (Katz et al., 2010). At the same time, in more well-off families, parents often assist their children significantly and sometimes it is difficult to say who completed homework, parents or the student. Of course, this is also counterproductive.

Apart from this, the correlation between the amount of homework and academic performance has not been proved yet. There is a significant bulk of research on the matter but findings are rather inconsistent (Parker, 2014). More so, it has been found that high-school students may slightly benefit from homework, but there has been no correlation between the amount of homework completed and academic performance in the middle and elementary school (Katz et al., 2010). Of course, the effectiveness of homework should be questioned.