Persuasive Essay Example: Abolishing Homework
When considering the issue of homework in school systems, it is clear that homework is best off abolished or diminished from/in the education systems in schools across the globe due to the negative effects it generates.
To begin, a reason to defend this claim is that homework induces many negative impacts among students and their families. For one, students exhibit higher levels of stress and are more likely to become sleep deprived due to the amount of homework assigned. For instance, one such study that supports this discusses, "...only 20 percent of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17 get the recommended amount of sleep," (Ponte). According to this study, it is clearly evident that homework is harmful towards a student's wellbeing. Additionally, homework can make learning much more difficult and dreaded among students; causing students to perform more poorly academically. For example, a piece of evidence that supports this states, "...the study shows a negative relationship between higher homework amounts and student achievement in elementary schools, and only a very small benefit in middle schools," ("Global Homework Practices Do Not Always Correlate with Performance"). As you can see, too much homework can actually decrease student performance. This is a clear example of how homework can be injurious towards students.
Thirdly, homework is not advantageous for families. To elucidate, homework puts more stress on the families of students. To support this, an author writes, "After a long day at work, many parents understandably resent having to play Homework Cop, nor do they need any more issues over which to butt heads with their kids," (Ponte). This makes it evident that homework is not helpful for parents. As displayed, these three instances and studies both prove that high amounts of homework are detrimental towards students' health and academic performance along with their families. Therefore, it must be noticeable that homework should be reduced or removed from schooling.
Moving onward, a sum of proponents of homework would propose that homework assists in helping students build up and construct organizational skills. Proponents explain that homework helps create a sense of responsibility within students; children are required to learn how to budget and ration their time to complete assignments. Another counterargument is that homework "drills" information and material in students to allow them to learn the information effectively. These are a few of the counterclaims brought up by proponents of homework.
Regardless, one could still argue that homework does not help students become more organized and responsible. Students are never permitted to make a decision on whether or not they have homework or what type or kind of homework. They are limited to what and when they have to complete assignments which does not allow them to make decisions themselves other than only budgeting their time. Additionally, it is also known that not many schools and/or classes teach students how to manage and organize their workload and time. Continuing, homework does not help a child understand the material by mass repetition with many problems. This is supported by a study that shows, "... according to the US Department of Education (DOE), five algebraic problems are all it takes to demonstrate whether or not a child understands a particular mathematical function," (Ponte). This represents how a student does not need hours of repetition within homework to understand classwork material. These pieces of evidence clearly depict how homework should be at least diminished or removed in schooling.
Ultimately, it is indisputable that homework has unfavorable effects on students within educational systems across the face of the Earth. As displayed in this presentation, homework is clearly shown in how it negatively impacts those who are assigned it. Therefore, homework should be reduced to be much shorter or even completely banned.
