{"id":21615,"date":"2023-03-09T03:49:03","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T03:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/?p=21615"},"modified":"2023-07-16T23:45:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T23:45:35","slug":"reasons-why-homework-should-be-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/reasons-why-homework-should-be-banned\/","title":{"rendered":"21 Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"homework<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The homework debate has strong arguments on both sides. Commonly-cited reasons why homework should be banned include the idea that it is often counterproductive, stifles students\u2019 creativity, and limits their freedom outside the classroom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students already have up to 7 hours of schoolwork to complete 5 days a week; adding more contributes to increased anxiety, burnout, and overall poor performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But arguments for homework include the fact it does increase student grades (Cooper, Robinson & Patall, 2006), it instils discipline, and it helps to reinforce what was learned into long-term memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following are common arguments for banning homework \u2013 note that this is an article written to stimulate debate points on the topic, so it only presents one perspective. For the other side of the argument, it\u2019s worth checking out my article on the 27 pros and cons of homework<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. It Contributes to Increased Anxiety<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s one word that describes middle-school and high-school students, it\u2019s anxiety. In my homework statistics article<\/a>, I cite research showing that 74% of students cite homework as a source of stress.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have so much to juggle, from the novelty of adolescence to the realization that they must soon start preparing for college and their life after (Pressman et al., 2015).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a lot to manage, and adding homework that reduces their free time and makes them even more restricted is downright harmful. The natural outcome of this dogpile of pressure is anxiety, and many students often feel overwhelmed, both by the hours and hours of coursework in a day and the extensive homework they are assigned (Galloway, Conner & Pope, 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because teachers often don\u2019t communicate with one another over curricula, major assignments can overlap such that students have to tackle numerous large projects at once, which contributes to severe anxiety over good grades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to this, some students check out of school entirely, letting their academic future go to waste. While, of course, it\u2019s not fair to strawman and say that homework is to blame for all these cases, it may indeed by a contributing factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. It Offers Less Social Time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Homework cuts out free time. Children already spend the better part of their day learning in a school environment, and when they come home, they need to socialize.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s family or friends, a social balance is important. Depending on the coursework they\u2019re assigned, homework can detrimentally affect students\u2019 social life, which feed back into more of our first gripe about homework: its anxiety-inducing nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, social time is extremely important for children to grow up well-balanced and confident. If a child is highly intelligent (book smart) but lacks to social skills we might call street smarts<\/a><\/em>, they may struggle in adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. It Detracts from Play Time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Play is extremely important for children\u2019s physical, social, and cognitive development<\/a>. In fact, children naturally learn through play<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when children get home from school, they need a few hours to play. They\u2019re actually learning when playing! If playing with friends, they\u2019re learning social skills; but playing alone also stimulates creative and analytical thinking skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Play is also a different type of learning than the learning that commonly happens at school. So, allowing children to play at home gives their brain a break from \u2018school learning\u2019 and lets them learn through active<\/a> and even relaxing methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. It Discourages Physical Exercise and Contributes to Obesity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Exercise is an important part of life for everyone, but especially for children. Developing a positive self-image and disciplining oneself is an important skill to learn, one that becomes much more difficult when homework is in the picture.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homework can demand a lot of attention that kids could be spending exercising or socializing. These two important life pursuits can be left by the wayside, leaving students feeling confused, depressed, and anxious about the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physical exercise should be considered a key feature of a child\u2019s holistic development. It helps keep children healthy, can reduce anxiety, and support healthy immune systems. It also helps with physical development<\/a> such as supporting fine and gross motor skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, some scholars (Ren et al., 2017) have even identified excessive homework as a contributing factor for childhood obesity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. It Disrupts Sleep Patterns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Everyone knows the trope of a college student staying up late to finish their homework or cram for a test.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it would be unfair to credit homework exclusively for an unhealthy sleep schedule, the constant pressure to finish assignments on time often yields one of two results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students can either burn the midnight oil to make sure their homework is done, or they can check out of school entirely and ignore their academic interests. Neither is an acceptable way to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This point is particularly pertinent to teenagers. They are not lazy; teens need 12-13 hours of sleep every day because their bodies are changing so dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To pile additional homework on them that interferes with the circadian rhythm is not just unhelpful\u2014it may be downright harmful (Yeo et al., 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. It Involves Less Guidance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s beneficial about the in-person learning experience, it\u2019s the ability to raise one\u2019s hand and let the teacher know when something is unclear or difficult to understand.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That handheld process isn\u2019t available for homework; in fact, homework matters little in the grand scheme of learning. It\u2019s just busywork that\u2019s supposed to help students consolidate their knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, homework becomes something that students resent and can fill them with feelings of frustration\u2014something that would be much more readily addressed if the same content was covered in-person with a teacher to guide the student through the assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. It\u2019s Regularly Rote Learning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In most subjects, homework isn\u2019t reflective of the skills students need to learn to thrive in the workforce. Instead, it often simply involves rote learning<\/a> (repetition of tasks) that is not seen as the best way to learn.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A main goal of education is to train up vocational professionals with defined skills. But more often than not, homework winds up as a bland set of word problems that have no basis in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking through real-world examples under the guidance of a teacher<\/a> is much more beneficial to student learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. It Can Detract from a Love of Learning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you know what it\u2019s like to doze off during a boring class or meeting, then you can relate to the difficulty students have paying attention in class.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That motivation starts to dwindle when students must complete assignments on their own time, often under immense pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not a healthy way to inspire kids to learn about different subjects and develop a love of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students already need to sit through hours and hours of class on end in-person. This learning time should be used more effectively to eliminate the need for home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When children finally get out of class at the end of the day, they need to socialize and exercise, not spend even longer staring at a book to complete a bunch of unhelpful practice questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. It Convolutes the Subject<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another important consideration about homework is that it can often be counterproductive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because teachers don\u2019t always use the full curriculum material for their teaching, and they may choose to develop their own homework rather than to use the resources offered by the curriculum provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This homework can often be off-subject, extremely niche, or unhelpful in explaining a subject that students are studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who don\u2019t understand a subject and don\u2019t have resources to rely on will eventually give up. That risk becomes even more prevalent when you factor in the scope, complexity, and type of assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students need to be taught in a safe environment where they can feel free to ask questions and learn at their own pace. Of course, there\u2019s no fairytale way to perfect this ideal, but what is clear is that homework is not beneficial to the learning environment for many students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. It\u2019s Not What Kids Want<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, homework should be banned because it\u2019s generally not what students want. From elementary to college level, most students harbor some sort of resentment towards homework.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be easy to dismiss this to say that the students \u201caren\u2019t living in the real world.\u201d The truth of the matter is that the real world is a lot more nuanced, creative, and diverse than the repetitive, broad, and often stagnant homework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to understand why most students wish that more time in school had been spent on learning how to live rather than trying to figure out how many apples Johnny had. Subjects like car maintenance, entrepreneurship, computer skills, socialization, networking, tax filing, finances, and survival are touched on at best and ignored at worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not enough for students to be able to regurgitate information on a piece of paper; in the end, the education system should teach them how to be self-sufficient, something that might be much easier to do if resources were divested from homework and poured into more beneficial subject material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider these 11 Additional Reasons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n