As a senior in high school, I personally find it extremely difficult to balance school, a social life, and a part time job. Having to juggle those common teenager hardships, homework is something that I just don’t find a necessary tool to help students learn. Not only does it come off as unnecessary, but it turns out homework is actually more harmful than helpful to teenagers in general.
First and foremost, homework has been found to be mentally and physically harmful. In an article written by Sandra Levy in 2019, she states that students who spend too much time on homework are found to be more stressed, suffer different physical health problems, lack a sense of balance in their lives, and are even sometimes found alienated from society. Another article by Fiona Trinh talks about the different types of consequences homework has on teens, including stress, depression, anxiety, and more. On the more physical side, too much homework can even result in a lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion, and weight loss. When 56% of students are reporting that homework is a primary cause of stress, is it really worth it?
Another important factor in growing up is learning how to build relationships with people and to learn how to become a somewhat social person. However, having kids sitting around with four hours of homework a night after a seven hour long school day completely strips them from their time that could be spent making friends, eating dinner with their family, etc. In fact, a student statement to “The Top 10s” reads, ““I love spending time with my family but school takes it all away with the help of homework.” Giving kids mandatory schoolwork to bring home after class takes away their time to do other important things, like build and maintain relationships.
Lastly, and most ironically, while homework was made to be a helpful tool for students to continue learning outside of the classroom, it is very common to see cheating occur on homework assignments. Copying others’ homework as a result of not having enough time to finish all of the homework assigned, or even just copying to get something on the paper, leads to students being rewarded for cheating, which is a lose-lose for everyone. Too much homework can actually backfire and result in unintentionally encouraging cheating. Homework in today’s society has just become busy work and a waste of everyone’s time.
Even though people out there could say that homework is important to keep students engaged in their learning and helps them stay caught up, I believe that students shouldn’t have to be engaged in their schoolwork outside of school. Although I could see falling behind in class lead into some catch up work, if a student is actively paying attention and focusing on understanding the material in person, there shouldn’t be a need to get it going outside of the classroom after school hours.
After personal experience and more facts to back it up, I can easily conclude that homework is a part of our curriculum that can, and should, be removed. Something that gives students more harm than good shouldn’t be a puzzle piece to the complex school system.
