Essay On Homework Becoming Too Much

Students are stuck sitting in school for around 6 hours a day. Then, they still have more work to come home to. A survey from Stanford University concludes that 56% of students say that homework is their primary stressor. In another study, 73% of parents say that homework is their most frequent cause of family arguments (Savoie). Especially now, homework has become more and more of a chore to students and families. Homework is creating an overload of stress on students and parents, meaning it might be time to rethink why there is homework, and how much of it students should have. When grading homework, teachers do not account for the different environments students are in, the availability of parents for help, and the limited amount of time students have to complete it. Some kids might have less-wealthy parents, single parents who may work multiple jobs or parents who do not speak English that cannot help (Ponte). Some students are also in extracurricular activities, which only give them a sliver of time to work on their homework, and even then, they could be losing sleep because of it. Schools need to find a way to assign homework that will not only be beneficial, but also be an amount that will not hurt the students socially, mentally, and emotionally.

Excessively induced homework has not proven to be beneficial to students. In the 1960s, the U.S. was so concerned with being better than the Soviet Union in absolutely everything, they started to increase the amount of homework assigned to students. The amount of homework given has never decreased since then. It remained relatively steady for the rest of the twentieth century, but increased in 1999, when middle and high school students on average spend an hour on homework. Then in 2007, the average increased again to about 1 hour and 30 minutes per day (“Students and Homework”). Teachers now are expected to give endless amounts of homework because that is all that they know. It is not fair to students when they have nothing to do with the over-assignage of homework. They have to adapt to all of the changes being given when it is not even their fault. A math teacher in Juda, Wisconsin named Scott Anderson assigned around 30 algebra problems a day because he thought that is what teachers were supposed to do (Walker). Teachers now have the thought of assigning hours of homework hard-wired into their brain, which is making it harder on the students. Teachers may think that around 2 hours of homework is “good practice” but in reality there is no need for that much. The Journal of Educational Psychology states that students who spend more than 90 minutes on homework receive a worse grade than those who did less than 90 minutes. Another study from the Economics of Education Review shows that there was no change in test scores in the subjects English, history, and science (“Negative Effects of Homework”). This counteracts the stereotype that giving more homework equals better test scores. Another problem with the excessive amount of homework is that if someone does not understand, they might turn to cheating. Students who do not get what is being assigned are going to ask a classmate what the answer is before trying to teach themselves how to do it. Students who do not know how to do the assignment will turn to cheating and all meaning of the homework is lost. Excessive homework can cause cheating when students do not have time to do the work to find the answer. It takes much less time to ask another student what they did rather than spending their entire night figuring out how to solve a problem they do not understand how to do. If the amount of homework being assigned to students increases at the rate it has been for years, test grades will continue to go down along with the growth and development of students.

Too much homework not only is not beneficial, but it also creates an overload of stress. Kids from ages 11-17 need around 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep per night. But, the National Sleep Foundation records that only 20% of students get that recommended amount (Ponte). Because students have an overwhelming amount of homework, they feel the need to put their sleep schedule in danger. Students may have to pull an “all nighter” which means they do not get any sleep at all that night. When students do not get enough sleep, they will not be able to perform as well at school. Teachers may think that homework is helping the students perform better, but in reality they are not performing as well during school hours after staying up so late at night. Excessive homework can cause an abundance of stress, which could lead to mental health disorders including anxiety. Anxiety disorder is feelings of worry and overthinking that is so bad that it can interfere with one’s life. Anxiety can interfere with daily lives by affecting one’s relationship with others, and impacting how students perform at school (“How Can Anxiety Disorders Impact One’s Life?”). This shows the importance of anxiety, and why teachers should consider changing the curriculum to help with students’ mental health. A lot of schools overlook the importance of mental health in students, and it is really taking a toll on the kids. It does not make sense for teachers to assign an overabundance of homework that ends up just hurting the student more, when they thought they were helping the student. Another thing most people do not think about when talking about homework is how it creates stress on the families, not just the students. When students do not understand the homework they are given, they might turn to their parents for help. Parents have already spent around 20 years of their lives in school, they do not want to see any more of it. Sometimes in middle or high school, parents cannot help with homework anymore because they do not understand it either. The homework not only is a stressor to students, but also the parents. Some parents could potentially yell at their children if they do not understand, and that could cause a strain on family relationships. Excessive homework does not give enough time for students to have quality time with their family, which could also cause stress in families. And once that stress starts to build up, it can cause many fights in the family (“Negative Effects of Homework”). Students might become not as close with their parents, which really hurts the social and brain development of students. When people think of homework, they should start to think about the entire family’s relationship and not just the students' health. Currently, teachers assign around 1-2 hours a day of homework. Instead, a much better amount would be up to 1 hour of homework. Then, students have the time to complete it, and they will focus on it more. When students have a lot of homework, they will just complete it so it is done, and they do not focus on the quality of the assignment. Less than 1 hour gives students time to focus on the quality, which will end up helping them understand the assignment even more than they could have before. It still gives them practice, but is not too excessive to the point where it hurts them mentally. This new volume of homework creates a mentality of  “quality over quantity” which will help carry them into the real world and be successful in it.

In conclusion, although some people think that heaps of homework is good practice for students, it actually is doing more harm than good. The over-assignage can create an abundance of stress that could lead to anxiety or depression. That could interfere with one’s daily life, including school. Furthermore, the benefit of homework has never been proven. Teachers think that more homework equals more success, but that statement has never actually been proven. It’s just a stereotype that all teachers just conclude is true. Excessive homework also hurts the students’ mental health and brain development. Homework can cause an over-abundance of stress that could lead to disorders like anxiety and depression, or even suicide. These disorders can cause students to not succeed in the classroom as well. Teachers need to take these things into consideration when they are assigning homework to students, and limit the amount of homework that they give.