The Negative Effects of Homework Essay Example

As of late, many students of all ages have been complaining about homework. Homework can be detrimental to students’ school and at home lives, as well as mental and physical health. While it can speed up the learning process, homework has more negative effects than positive effects because students get less sleep trying to stay up late to finish, prevents social life such as the ability to participate in extracurriculars, and can affect mental health in a negative way. 

During  teenage years, the body and brain experience important developments. Sleep is crucial for this time to let teens’ brains work behind the scenes to help them mentally and physically. But, research shows that teenagers aren’t getting nearly enough sleep that they should be getting. According to The Journal of Adolescent Health, only 8% of highschool students are getting a good 8-9 hour long sleep every night. 33% of students get 6 or less hours of sleep every night. Many people believe that the problem behind this is homework. Students could get an easy assignment in one class that only would take ten minutes to complete, but then they get 10 more assignments from their other classes. Even though the assignment is easy, it could take up to hours to complete. Many students also try to handle extracurricular activities like sports, clubs, jobs, etc. Students can’t do their homework until late and end up staying up doing it. This is detrimental because it makes the students sleep deprived which doesn’t help them when they get to school and have to sit there for 8 hours trying to learn. Research also shows that homework can affect test scores. The Journal of Educational Psychology states that students who have more than 90 minutes of homework per night performed worse on a test than students who had less than 90 minutes of homework per night. 

Having a social life is very important, especially for teens. Having an overload of homework makes it difficult to make that happen. Kids are stressed that they won’t finish their homework, or that they will get a bad grade, so they don’t hang out with friends or participate in extracurriculars. This is important because without a social life, people start to feel isolated and lonely. This can fall into a domino effect resulting in depression. In 2013, research taken at Stanford University showed that over 70 percent of students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework tend to experience higher stress levels, lack of balance in their lives, physical health problems, and feel isolated from society.

Students are more likely to be successful in classes they don't have homework in, rather than in classes that they do have homework in. By not assigning homework, teachers give students more time to be able to focus on their learning or studying for their class, or other classes. They teach their students enough in class, so that the students feel comfortable with the material without having to have extra practice outside of school. Texas A&M says, “Students may be enthusiastic about learning a new subject, but what was a fun learning experience can become a negative one when homework is assigned. Struggling students might be overwhelmed by homework they can't complete alone, especially when there is no one qualified, willing or available to assist them. Highly successful students might lose their enjoyment of learning once forced to complete work outside of school hours.” This shows that students who don’t have homework tend to be more excited about the subject and attending class. With homework, they feel overworked and can quickly get burnt out from the subject from doing it so much outside of class. For another example, I get better grades in science than I do in social studies and math. Mr. Frost, the social studies teacher, and Mr. Wendling, the math teacher, both assign homework. Mrs. Shield, the science teacher, teaches us lots during class, while math and social studies have flipped classrooms. Flipped classrooms means you do the work at home and then in class you discuss what you learned from your work. 

Homework can be helpful for some students but not all. Some might also argue that homework can help students be successful. Homework does force students to do material and learn material. This allows them to have more practice at what they are learning which can help them learn fast and easy. Going through subjects fast is not a good idea. Many students work at a slower pace than others and assigning homework to move on quicker is not fair. At home while doing homework, students can not reach out to teachers in the same way they would be able to in class. This holds them back from getting the help they need. Parents can not always help their kids with homework because they learned how to do things very differently when they were their kid’s age. Overall, homework is not helping students as it was created to. If students are not learning better or showing good results with homework, the best choice is to stop assigning it.