Homework has been a staple of the American Education system since the Cold war. In total, American students spend almost 67-million hours on homework each night, that’s almost 12 trillion hours a year. But many students across the nation see homework as a waste of time. So does it increase a student’s aptitude in school, or is it just pointless busy work?
The goal of homework is to practice and cement the topics learned in class, in order to give students a better understanding of the topic and prepare them for the test. There can, however, be some unintended consequences of homework, both good and bad.
Pros of Homework
As mentioned before, one of the only intended effects of homework is practice and retention. According to Joseph Lanthan, PhD at the University of San Diego, “Students typically retain 50% or less of what they hear, read or see in class; additional engagement with course content helps increase that retention.”
Practicing the subject at home can help increase a student’s retention, which is supposed to help with students’ performance in the classroom; “Students benefit greatly from doing homework as it provides necessary background info. It also helps students encode the information by seeing it multiple times, in class and at home,” said Chris Turley, an LHS AP Human Geography teacher.
According to one study done by the American Psychological Association in 2012, ”The results indicate that there is no consistent significant relationship between time spent on homework and grades, but a consistently positive significant relationship between homework and performance on standardized exams.”
But according to LHS geometry teacher Even Thorton-Kolbe, his “gradebook shows a clear [positive] correlation between homework scores and summative scores. If you do homework on time and completely, you will most likely do well on tests and receive a higher grade than peers who do not.”
So doing your homework could help you get better grades, but school performance isn’t the only benefit of homework. Another upside of homework is the time management benefits. Homework can help teach you to manage your schedule, prioritize tasks and balance academic responsibilities with personal ones, skills that can help you through college and beyond.
Cons of Homework
Although homework can help you in school and with time management skills, it also has some downsides. One such con could be the limited time it creates for after school activities. With an average of two hours of homework a day, this can limit the time students have to participate in clubs and sports, as well as limiting the time students can spend with friends or family.
Another downside of homework is that it can affect a student’s mental health. According to a study done by Stanford University in 2014, almost 99% of students see homework as a source of stress, and over 50% see homework as their primary stressor. Higher-achieving students—those who may have more homework—are at particular risk for stress-related health issues including sleep deprivation, weight loss, stomach problems and headaches.
So, should we get rid of homework? The answer is not that simple. According to Sean Coughlan with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Finland has significantly less homework than the United States. The average Finnish student only having 30 minutes of homework a night, while according to a recent advocate pool, the average LHS student has almost three times that. But Finland has the fifth highest test scores worldwide, with the United States ranking 28th overall.
But these higher test scores could be caused by a multitude of factors, not just their lack of homework. LHS Math teacher, Douglass Matulka, said that “Getting rid of homework could alleviate stress from the home life of students, but with the task of teaching a new skill and practicing that skill with support I do worry that removing it entirely does remove a component of learning that I believe is necessary in our current climate.” Getting rid of homework could also “diminish from work time in class, there wouldn’t be room for the more creative assignments,” according to LHS English Teacher Laura Aten.
So what is the solution? It is somewhere in the middle. Homework can help students boost their grades and understanding in a topic, but its effects only show to a certain extent. Too much could have negative consequences. Of the 84 people who filled out the form, only 13% said they always enjoyed doing homework, with 75% of responders saying homework was a major stressor in their lives.
Teachers, especially in higher grade levels, hand out an excessive amount of homework. Three to four hours of homework each night is unreasonable, especially for kids with extracurricular activities or jobs. Think students could benefit from a reduction of homework, but totally getting rid of homework could just create more problems.
