Homework No More
Homework Be Gone Did you finish your writing, reading, and spanish homework? Yes, I finished all my homework, but I was up until 12:30 am finishing it all. Many teachers feel that homework will help you better your education. Others feel that homework is pointless and unnecessary. The amount of homeworkgiven to children per night is disgraceful.
Homework itself is not a bad thing, but it’s the amount that is given to students that is a bad thing. Students who receive a lot of homework per night can end up with serious problems. For example, giving students a lot of homework in one night can cause sleep deprivation, the teacher can teach all needed material in the time the teacher is given with the students, lastly it can cause stress on the student’s body. There are many reasons why students should not get homework, in this essay I will only be sharing the top three reasons. The first reason I believe that students should not be given homework is because it can cause sleep deprivation.
A researcher who goes to Stanford University whose name is Denise Pope found that “Too much homework can negatively affect kids by increasing stress and sleep deprivation and its generally leaving no time for students to socialize with friends or family members(Graham).After I read this quote I could relate because when I get home at 4:04 I go straight to doing my homework and most times I don’t get finished until it’s time for me to go to bed which is at 10:00. So, from the time I leave school and get home it’s like I’m going to school all over again, just in the comfort of my own home.Also what researchers found is that “Regardless of how much a student studies each day, if that student sacrifices sleep time to study more than usual, he or she will have more trouble understanding material taught in class and be more likely to struggle on an assignment or test the following day(Graham.) I think teachers need to take note of that research because teachers will want us to study the night before a test, but if we study to long and loose sleep we will not do good on the test. Next, Dr.
Alison Baker states that “Homework is a major contributing factor to sleep deprivation which is unique to adolescence”, the typical middle school and high school students natural time to fall asleep is 11pm or later.(Garey)The time I go to bed is 10:00 on most nights I go to sleep around 10:45 or later because I am up all night doing homework. Finally, teachers should not give homework because it can cause sleep deprivation. The second reason that students should not have homework is because the teacher should be able to to teach all necessary material in the time the teacher is given with the student. An expert on Child Education named Alfie Kohn said that “There are simply no compelling data to justify the practice of making kids work what amounts to a second shift when they get home from a full day of school”(Graham)What I think about that comment is that I don’t know why teachers give us a lot of homework because we might have after school activities, Plus teachers don’t want to waste their time at home grading papers all night. Then Alfie Kohn goes on “My general suggestion is to change the default: No homework should be the new norm.
“Six hours of academics is enough-except on those occasions when teachers can show strong reason to infringe on family time and make these particular students do more of this particular schoolwork(Graham) I agree with Alfie Kohn six hours is enough time to do all necessary class work. Homework is like going to school for a second time, just the homework may take no longer than maybe 30 minutes to an hour. Next, Karen Spychala, a teacher in San Jose says that “Homework has it’s place: to practice skills and most importantly to involve families in their child’s learning. “But too much homework that takes over everyone’s lives should never happen, There should be agreed upon standard homework times per grade level. I believe that if there were standard homework times that students would not be up all night completing homework( Ben Brumfield). I agree with Ben, if there is a limit on the amount of time that children spend on homework kids would not have so many problems at completing homework every night.
Finally students should not have homework because we have enough school work to do while we are at school then we have to do more work at home. Another reason that I believe that students should not have homework it can cause stress on the student’s body. A senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate school of education and co-author of the study published in the journal of experimental education named Denise Pope found that “We found a clear connection between the students stress and physical impacts, migraines,ulcers, and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss (Graham)Knowing that homework can cause these problems teachers should limit the amount of homework given to students or some students will end up with health problems. I think some students already suffer from sleep deprivation because they are so tired in class from the night before. Also students also have stress to their body because after school most students do after school activities like ir homework done that is due the next day.
Denise Pope also said that some students are doing more than three hours of homework a night and that all this homework is literally making us sick. Denise also says that the three hours of homework that students do is just an average (Graham) If three hours is the average amount of homework that students then that is just insane. Students have lives outside of school just like teachers and students can’t live there lives because we are stuck doing homework. I know teachers do not like to waste their weekends grading homework papers so why do they give us homework. So they can make us make us stress and get ulcers, I think not.
The last thing that Denise Pope said in her article was that “We realized that we need an intervention around homework”,and not just with high school students”.While the present study was conducted with high schoolers, we have the same data from the younger years(Graham) What this means to me is that teachers need to have a meeting with each other and come up with a schedule on when certain teachers can give out homework. So students will not have a bunch of homework on one whole night. Finally students should not have homework because they have a life to live outside of school Some people might say that giving students homework is useful and necessary. I on the other hand disagree.
“Students have enough work to do in the seven hours they are in school, giving them more work for when they go home is just unfair and a waste of the students time”,Also, there could be some sort of arrangement with the student and the teacher Ben Brumfield), For example the teachers could get together and set an arrangement for when certain teachers give out homework so students are not overwhelmed with homework. The last reason I believe students should not have homework is because they will not learn from doing the assignment. An example is a teacher could give students homework and the student might not know how to do the work. Although I think homework is not worth doing some people disagree.They might say that giving students homework can improve their performances and standardized tests.
Even though that might be true the amount of time that students spend on the homework can negatively affect them on standardized test. Studies show that “Regardless of how much a student studies if they sacrifice sleep time to study more than usual, he or she will have more trouble understanding material taught in class and be more likely to struggle on the assignment or test the following day(Graham)Knowing about this study homework can not help students on standardized test it will decrease their chance on getting a good grade. Then, homework can stress out families. Over 90% of American children say “That there parents are involved with their homework, according to a study by the Indiana University and Purdue University,Although it might stress kids out, it can prepare kids for higher grades. If students aren’t given homework in elementary school they won’t be able to handle middle school, high school, or college (Garey). This is very untrue because in 5th grade I never got that much homework and I did pretty well my 6th,7th, and 8th grade year.
Finally students should not have homework because it might not help on standardized tests In conclusion, students should not have homework because it can cause sleep deprivation, it can cause stress to the body, and the teacher can teach all necessary material in a given class period. Now that you know this information you should tell your teachers no homework because it can cause all these problems that I have said above. Ben Brumfield, Cnn. “Schools in Virginia Shut over Anger at Islam Homework – CNN.com.
” CNN. N.p., 18 Dec. 2015.
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