Homework and Students Mental Health Essay Example

Do you feel overwhelmed with work, tests, and grades when you are in school? Do you ever stare at the clock until it is time to leave your last-period class? All for what? After seven to eight hours of being at school, you come home and just do more school. Why do teachers constantly feel the need to overwhelm their students with much homework?  Too much homework dominates students and causes them to isolate themselves for multiple hours to finish and takes away valuable time that students could spend with family and friends. Still, homework also prepares for the future by causing students to work individually.  

Stress is a word used many times to describe homework and projects. The phrase, “Okay, class, homework tonight will be…,” is a phrase heard in almost every class daily.  It is known that most high schoolers have about 4-6 hours of just homework a week, and that does not include preparing for tests/quizzes and going over material discussed in class.  That’s about 2 hours of homework a night, not counting studying. Perhaps if students did not have homework and assignments, they would spend that free time on something productive. Many students say they “don’t have the time” to join extracurriculars like clubs and sports because they are busy keeping up with schoolwork and personal commitments. Do the assignments given really “strengthen and reinforce learning,” or should this policy be changed?  Homework can be beneficial sometimes, but on the other hand, too much homework isn’t because students have lives they want to live.  Besides the daily homework, students also get projects and other assignments worth a higher percentage of their grades. These assignments take longer to complete than daily homework. It is believed that projects, in particular, help students understand a topic for a good few days. Then the students forget about it once it’s over with. So basically, it’s unnecessary stress.  The same logic applies to homework as well. 

Secondly, an abundance of homework causes students to isolate themselves from their families and friends to finish assignments and prepare for tests and quizzes.  If students had less homework, they would be more active in school and hang out with their families more.  Even when students are home, they can’t be with my family because they are often stuck in their rooms trying to finish homework.  Administrators and teachers tell students to try and join a sport or club, but that extra commitment may cause grades to drop.  Excessive homework can cut down on productive family time. This is especially true in families where the parents are incapable of assisting with their children's homework. As the stress levels increase, fights begin, which can take away from any quality family time students can spend on school nights.  Parents of younger students who cannot help the child complete their homework every night experience stress from homework.  They have to juggle jobs, but they also help out their children and household chores. These tasks of juggling jobs then take away from the valuable time that could be spent together as a family, making memories that will last a lifetime.  If a child has excessive amounts of homework and has trouble balancing their life outside of school, it can rob them of their childhood. Not having time to go outside, play with friends, or just "chill" could take away from the milestone experiences of youth.   

Although homework can be damaging to an extent, it also prepares students for their futures by causing them to work independently.  This statement can be true in some cases but false in others.  Most jobs require their employees to have good teamwork and excellent communication skills.  Even if you work a desk job, you still have to learn to work with a team and communicate with business partners, managers, and customers.  So how is homework preparing us for our futures? The fact of the matter is, it’s not.  Don’t get me wrong, it will help students who struggle and need more practice on a particular subject, but why do the students who continuously excel have to be stressed out by practicing things they already excel in?  Maybe instead of an abundance of homework, have students learn essential life skills, like learning to do laundry and other household chores, writing poetry or emails, or even proposing sustainable inventions.  Why not have students practice things that interest them or would make them eager to learn?  Why waste time trying to solve linear equations or researching what the Edict of Worms was?  The previously stated topics are all things the students learn about just because they have to.  It goes in one ear and out the other after taking a test or exam.  This creates unnecessary stress and does not prepare students for the real world.  

Considering the statements made above, in more ways than one, homework is very damaging to a students’ mental health.  It overwhelms students and causes them to isolate themselves for multiple hours to finish and takes away valuable time that students could spend with family and friends, and does not prepare students for real life.  Especially in this pandemic, students are more stressed than ever, leading to mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and insomnia.  There needs to be a change, and the change needs to happen now.  Stop having students do unnecessary homework, and let them be kids.