I think I speak for all of us when I say I hate homework. No matter what grade you’re in, I’m sure there was a point in your life where you had piles of homework one day. Before I do my homework, I need to mentally, physically, and emotionally prepare myself for it, because it’s something that can consume my life.
7:55 A.M, and you have to start out the day by sitting at an uncomfortable desk with bad posture. That lasts for the whole day. Then, you end up staying up till midnight, trying to get everything done quickly and efficiently. The next day, you go to school, looking like a raccoon with bags under your eyes from the lack of sleep you got. And everyday, the vicious cycle repeats itself.
Each of us has a life outside of homework. We participate in sports, music, and other activities. Add a load of homework to all that, and you’ll have kids pulling all-nighters trying to get everything done.
Students come to school the next day, drained of energy, tired, and they will definitely not have the desire to learn anything new. Is that healthy? Everywhere, you see students saying that they have stress and anxiety. They fall into depression because they can’t keep up at school and their mind is cluttered with the things they need to do each day.
“Homework wastes my life,” says a sophomore who preferred to not be named. “I am tired, especially after practice. I have tons of homework. I have to stay up till two in the morning, and I have to wake up for Early Bird. I barely get any sleep.”
Edutopia, an educational research website shows that homework causes students to have physical and emotional fatigue, increased pressure from parents to perform well, and a decreased leisure time. Students also lose interest in academics. Students lose precious time doing homework. They don’t spend enough time with their families, they don’t have a social life, and they just don’t live life in general. Research also shows that there is no consistent relation between the amount of time spent on homework and the child’s level of academic achievement. There is very little correlation between homework and standardized test scores. Researchers have found that too much homework can lower or cancel its benefits and become counterproductive, because students become burned out (Wonderopolis).
So the question is, do students really need homework? I, personally, am not totally against homework. I’d be okay with having a balanced amount of it. However, looking at our current academic situation, I don’t think anybody is going to try to balance it out anytime soon. Although there are rumors that teachers know how much we are stressed out about homework and might be planning on reducing the amount given to us. With all this evidence, parents and teachers still respond to this by repeating the importance of homework, complaining how anybody who doesn’t think students should have homework is failing to prepare them for the “real world.” But to those I say, the actual real world doesn’t revolve around homework.
Do I think a little homework is healthy? Sure. Do I think we really need homework? Not really. I’d still be okay with having homework — just not a truck load. But I’m done writing this because I have to go do my homework.