Is homework actually helping students?
“Sorry, I have homework,” a phrase that almost every student has said after a seven-hour day at school. Almost every student at Davis High School goes to school from 7:30 AM to 2:20 PM, and most have extracurriculars to do afterwards. Moreover, they also have hours of homework, the pile growing bigger as they go from class to class. While homework might increase test scores, it does a better job at increasing the rates of depression, anxiety, and sleep deprivation.
A survey that was given at a high school in California resulted in 55% of students claiming they thought they had too much homework, and 82% of students said that they were constantly stressed about it. Many schools back up homework by saying that it helps improve grades and performance, but in the survey, many of the highest achieving students at the school said that their homework leads to headaches, fatigue, and stomach problems. Izzy Martinez, a junior at Davis High School, said, “I don’t think homework is necessary when we already have to go to school five days a week for seven hours.”
Everyone knows that cheating is highly looked down upon at schools. It doesn’t help you learn and understand the problem. Teachers give out homework for practice, yet all it really leads to is an increase in the rates of cheating at schools. According to a study, 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admitted that they have copied off their friend’s homework. They do this because there is literally no time to get it done with all that they have on their plate. And when their friend already did it in class and it’s almost midnight, what else do you expect the student to do? They already must get to school by 7:30 in the morning without falling asleep in first period, so they would choose the option of copying the homework and getting to bed faster.
Teachers, while they may not get paid enough, get paid nonetheless at school. Students do not. Still, students need to make money somehow, and their parents are also on their backs on getting jobs. These jobs usually happen right after school. So, what is a student going to do when they have four pages of math and an essay due by midnight, but they work after school until 9 PM? And what if they have a family gathering, or a mom asking them to do dishes afterwards? Students have lives outside of school. Interests, hobbies, jobs, and families. School simply cannot take over all of it. It leads to zero balance in life and is detrimental to a student’s mental health.
One of the school’s focus these days is to improve student’s mental health. You see it through counselling and assemblies year-round. Regardless, do schools really think that late nights of homework, leading to sleep deprivation, is helping students’ physical and mental health? You don’t need to get any form of education to know that that just won’t happen. Keslee Pinson, a junior at Davis High School said, “My main cause of stress is because of homework and school, so take away the ridiculous amounts of homework and then maybe teens will start feeling better and depression rates will go down.” Schools need to understand that their students are exhausted and drained. Unlike the employees, students don’t have time to dedicate their lives to education. They have other pursuits and are not going to be spending all day on school when they want to make the soccer team, an aspect that schools and colleges encourage.
Students already forcefully dedicate so much time for school as it is. Imagine there is a student who needs help with their math. The math teacher says that they only have until 3:30 after school, then they must go home because the teacher has other things to do besides school. And to stay past 3:30 is seen as completely disrespectful to the teacher.
Now, let’s look at that from a different perspective. A student has until 2:20 PM at Davis High to get their assignments done, which is seven hours. But then teachers pop up and give them two more hours of homework for home. That is wasting and using up precious time that does not belong to the school. That is downright disrespectful to the student. If it is so rude to take up teacher’s time after school hours, why is it normalized for students? Younger or not, students have lives outside of science class. Do not use up more time after taking so much. Respecting a person’s time is important and could improve the morale at school.
Keslee Pinson also said, “I think when we’re in school for so long, we should only have homework for classes that we absolutely need it in.” For lots of students, math is the subject that involves homework. Math takes time and practice to understand and can be tough subject. Homework provides practice which can lead to better performances during tests and in class. Abby Freireich and Brain Platzer, founders of Teachers Who Tutor said, “At-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts.” Math homework helps students practice the concepts that were learned in class.
However, the homework given by teachers to students often consist of problems that are much more complicated than the problems learned in class. Imagine learning the piano for the first time. The teacher teaches you a simple scale, then gives you a song to practice. And yet, when you go home, you realize that the music is an intermediate piece, with sharps and complex counting. This is how math homework feels to students. In class, you feel confident because the problems are easier. But when you go to the homework, it feels nearly impossible. Teachers are teaching students basics, then try to “stretch their brains” with more complex problems and no help. Instead, this leads to frustration and feelings of inadequacy. And suddenly, YouTube videos are teaching students more than their teachers at school.
Education is an amazing opportunity for everyone who can go to school. It gives students a better chance at life, and it can be placed to make relationships that last for a lifetime. Schools should stop giving out homework because it leaves students exhausted, increases cheating, mental health issues and stress, and many other reasons. Homework can be a good thing to help students preform better at school, but it also is making students hate school and associate the worst feelings towards it. For an education system that claims to care about their students’ time and health, they need to start doing their own homework and realize students have lives outside of their classrooms.
