Every day after school my days are very packed because I have many responsibilities. One of my responsibilities every day is homework, many times an hour or two hours of homework. I understand studying for tests and little assignments, but it can be a lot on a student to do their homework, especially when they have many other things to do such as after school activities, sports, and family gatherings. Homework is also graded very heavily in a student’s grade which can make it more stressful to get it done. These are just opinions, however, there are many studies that prove homework has more cons than pros.
One study from Oxford Learning says that excessive homework can lead to cheating. With too much homework, students could end up copying off one another in an attempt to finish all their assignments. From this study it shows that excessive homework is bad because of cheating reasons. Also when students cheat, they do not learn and it can reflect on other assignments and tests. Another study from Science Directs view on if homework can lead to depression they said, independent of effects on sleep, long hours on homework/studying on weekends may be a risk factor for depression. Reducing adolescents’ workload outside of class may benefit their sleep, schoolwork-life balance, and mental well-being. Depression is a huge deal in America and adding homework can lead to depression that can be stopped with less homework.
One common pro of homework is that it improves students studies and grades, but a survey that was done by ProCon.org says, “We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students.” A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse.
All of this proves that homework has more cons than pros. A teacher’s objective is to help their students learn, and care for their students, and homework helps with neither of those.
