Is homework more harmful or beneficial? Homework is the one thing every student has to manage. It takes time away from other activities that could be more useful to students. The amount of homework piling up each week can overwhelm students and lead to stress.
Of course all students learn differently and find study habits that are most helpful for them. However, how is assigning required coursework to complete after school or on weekends helpful to the student? If anything, it makes the average student feel stressed and overwhelmed. A significant percentage of students are involved in extracurricular activities such as sports, clubs, and a job. This can lead to risks of not only mental health issues, but physical health issues as well. Research shows, “prolonged stress from overwhelming homework loads can weaken the immune system, making students more susceptible to illness and infections”(Healium). With this being said, there are ways to get around assigning hours of homework each night. For Ipswich High School teacher Mr. Krieger, it seems that he has cracked this case.
Mr. Krieger is one of the only teachers at Ipswich High School that tries to avoid giving homework as much as possible. He described how he questions the value of homework. He instead tries to make class time much more engaging. From my personal experience, I am more focused in his class compared to any of my other classes. This is mainly because of the minimal homework that is assigned. It forces students to be engaged during class because it’s their only chance to get all of the information on the lesson. Mr. Krieger explains how, “It’s the quality of the things you do in the classroom, not the quantity.”
Furthermore, many teachers argue that homework is helpful when it comes to improving test scores and your overall understanding of a subject. When asked if giving homework has been found to improve or hurt test scores, Mr. Krieger claims he has found no changes, “last year I looked at data and there was no marked difference in assessment scores”. In addition to this, outside sources have shown similar results, “research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance”(Forbes). With all of this being said it’s clear that assigning homework has no significant positive effects.
As stated before, being involved in school activities like sports, clubs, and other outside of school activities can result in students having a lot on their plate. Junior, Faith Hauenstein, is a multisport athlete while also being an AP and honors student. She shares that she spends around 2-3 hours a night and 15 hours a week on homework. With hours of homework mixed with sports, she describes how it can leave her stressed, anxious, and tired. This then forces her to stay up later to make sure all of her work is done. She later states that, “for the most part my homework tends to be busy work. It’s different when it comes to studying for a test, but overall it doesn’t seem very beneficial in my opinion.” Many students can probably agree with this statement. Homework can seem pointless at times especially when you have just spent a whole class period learning about the same topic.
In closing, homework seems more harmful than beneficial. It has yet been shown that hours of required homework actually benefit students. Again, from personal experience, my understanding of a school subject increased when no excessive amounts of homework was assigned. It drove the class to be engaged and focused during class time instead of learning it on a homework assignment. In addition to this, homework has been shown to just leave stress, lack of sleep, and overall damage to students when assigned excessively. Why wear students down when you could just get the work done during the class period? Many teachers should reconsider the amount of homework they assign to their students.
