If there's one thing every student can agree on, it's that homework sucks. It's a huge pain, but that soon might be changing. There's a huge debate right now on whether to limit the amount of homework, and I would like to put in my two cents. Listen, because this might change your opinion of homework forever.
You might listen to music or watch TV to make the process of doing homework just a bit better. You might complain to your parents about the pain of doing it, but they wouldn't know what it's like. They don't know what it's like to stay up late doing work you hate.
Do you remember when you were in first grade? You complained back then too, and you might have had only 10 minutes worth of homework. If you were their mom or dad, would you tell them to be quiet? They don't even know what it's like to have lots of homework, so they don't get to complain. How about now? You might think you have a lot of homework, but you'll have much more down the line, so you don't get to complain. Obviously, this logic is flawed. It doesn't matter what is in your future, homework is always annoying. In the moment it's bad, so you have every right to complain. You might as well say, “Oh, you have Alzheimer's disease? Well you shouldn't complain, because you're going to die someday, and that's a lot worse than this.” That makes no sense, so case closed, you can complain about anything.
But that's not true, you can't complain about everything. 10 minutes of homework is nothing, and that's not worth complaining about! In five years, you could have two hours of homework, and that's a lot worse. There's a difference between having 10 minutes of homework in first grade, and having 2 hours of homework in sixth grade. Besides the grade level and the amount of homework alone, what's actually different?
Let's look at this logically. 2 hours is 12 times longer than 10 minutes. Sixth grade isn't 12 times worse than first grade, but the amount of homework in sixth grade shouldn't be the same as in first grade. The topics are more complex, so you need more practice outside of school.
Well, the National Education Association says that the maximum amount of homework should be about 10 minutes times the grade level. This is often called the 10 Minute Rule. So the sixth grader should get about an hour of homework, and the first grader should get 10 minutes. As you can see, the first grader is getting the recommended maximum amount, while the sixth grader is getting double. This sixth grader is getting screwed over! He should complain!
Well, most adults believe the flawed logic at the beginning, where you shouldn't complain if you have worse things down the line, so no changes happen. Or is it that students don't actually get this much homework?
According to a survey using over 4,300 high school students, the average time spent on homework is over 3 hours. You might think this might be a case of a single high school, but multiple high schools were included in the study. If we assume there was an even amount of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, that would mean the average amount of homework high schoolers actually get is almost double what should be the maximum.
This is great, because homework actually helps students, so the more the merrier! Right? Think about this: why would the National Education Association make a recommended maximum instead of a minimum? Why would this organization, with over 2 million members, stress a maximum amount of homework?
First, the study showed that the majority of students feel homework is a primary stressor in their lives. This is not okay. Even if there weren't negative effects associated with homework, this should be reason enough to try and limit homework given out.
But there are negative effects. And they aren't just psychological, they are physical. Migraines, ulcers, stomach problems, sleep deprivation, and weight problems are just a few symptoms associated with homework. But don't worry, the study found that students experienced a slight improvement in behavioral engagement.
This doesn't even take into effect the other problems having homework brings up. How are kids supposed to lose weight if we can't even go outside? How are kids supposed to have a balanced life, full of extracurricular activities, if we already have to deal with so much stress?
You might say this isn't a problem with kids in elementary school, but let me tell you this: homework in elementary school has never been proven to have any positive effects on students. So why do they even have it? Why does anybody have it?
The purpose of homework is to cement concepts from school into students' heads. The argument given is that we don't have time to do repetitive tasks in class, so this must be done outside of school. But why don't we have enough time in school? We control the curriculum and the speed it goes at, so why can't we just change that?
Well, this would mean less material would get covered. Curriculum directors need to find the perfect speed at which the curriculum goes at, and homework usually isn't placed as a priority. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't limit the amount of homework given to students.
Also, if students already understand the concepts they need to learn, why give them homework? It's simply not needed.
I'm not saying the positive effects of homework aren't true, but at what point is student health more important than possible learning benefits? There are many other ways to improve learning, many of which aren't mainstream yet, nor do they affect student health. We should implement these practices instead of homework.
Until now, we've been assuming the effects of homework are the same across various subjects. That simply isn't true. The one subject where it is critical you have homework... is math. Math requires students to repeat practicing concepts until they understand how they work. However, even in math, there is such a thing as too much homework. Just think about it, if a student already understands the concept, why make them keep practicing it? It's redundant.
It is almost universally accepted that homework in other subjects like Science, English, and History, where information needs to be memorized, has little impact on comprehension.
It's also important to remember that the quality of homework is important to take into consideration. For example, when homework is spread out over multiple days, learning increases, even if the total amount of homework stays the same. This is called the spacing effect.
Other practices, like using new and old concepts in worksheets, have similar effects, as the student is forced to remember this information. It also teaches the brain that the information that the student needs to learn are useful, even if they aren't, because they use the information over and over again.
The problem is that teachers don't often use these strategies correctly, so any possible benefits are lost.
Even though the poor quality and large quantity of homework seem related at first, they actually come from separate issues. The poor quality of homework stems from poor teaching techniques, a much larger issue, while the large amount of homework simply comes from ignorance and tradition, which are easier to correct.
I will also only focus on the correct amount of homework because the effects of quality depend on the right quantity being given.
My question is, why can't we fix homework? Why can't we take the positive effects and remove the negative effects? I'm not one to just point out facts and say, “I don't know what we should do, just something!” I come up with solutions.
One possible solution is to limit the homework load. Make an artificial limit to how much homework teachers can give. Make them actually do the work themselves, and tell them if it took ten minutes for them, it probably will take twenty minutes for a student. Make a limit per class based on the 10 Minute Rule. Weekends are for free-time, and no homework is allowed. Students in elementary school would get no homework at all. This solution is very straightforward, but takes all evidence into account. This is the solution I would endorse.
A solution raised by many others is to simply make all homework optional, or even extra credit. This would be much easier to implement, as teachers wouldn't have to change their homework plans much. The downside to this is that we don't know much about how it would impact students, because this hasn't been tested much. What could happen is that students only do the homework in subjects they struggle in, but by their choice.
But my prediction is that it would worsen a problem I like to call the “education gap”. This is the gap between the best students, and the average to worse students. The best students, who would most likely already understand the concepts, would still do the homework, even though it doesn't benefit them as much. The rest of the students, the majority who need homework much more, wouldn't do any of it, resulting in worse grades overall. This solution is actually worse than the broken system we already have.
The last solution is to remove all homework. This seems easy at first, but everything in school would have to be changed. The whole curriculum would have to adapt, teachers would scramble trying to figure out how to teach their students, and learning could either skyrocket or plummet. This is by far the most extreme policy, not taking into account any positive effects of homework. It could either be amazing, or fail miserably. The latter is much more likely, so I wouldn't support this solution.
Well, what can we do right now? You could start by contacting your Board of Education and making it clear you care about this issue. Campaign for small things, like homework banned on weekends. Then you could address issues that come from that, and soon enough, the solution to the homework crisis could finally become a reality.
The pain you feel doing homework could be solved, because the facts back you up. Right now, homework does more bad than good. We can’t ignore the facts because following the past is comfortable. We have to do what’s best for students, because in a few decades, they won’t be students anymore. We depend on education for the future, so it’s important we get it right. And right now, the biggest issue is homework.