Author: Pippa Comrie 8d
To be completely honest, I don’t think homework is beneficial at all! There is no evidence that it helps to improve your marks. Getting homework in subjects like maths and languages is understandable to a certain extent since these are subjects that you have to practice. Is additional homework really necessary?
The reason I say it isn’t, is because it can be really stressful. Putting pressure on young developing children is just not on! It can cause a lot of frustration and anxiety knowing that you can’t really complete your homework for the next day due to having a busy schedule. Such stress isn’t good for your mental health.
I for example have multiple extra murals after school and my day usually goes something like this; I wake up, go to school, get home, do schoolwork, go to my extra mural(s), get back from my extra murals, eat dinner and do more schoolwork. Isn’t that a bit ridiculous?
I don’t even live far from school. Many of my friends and other peers live quite far away from school and have to take the bus home. Some of them only get home at 6-6:30pm. They then have to do chores, do extra murals and then somehow fit homework into their day. This can also lead to sleep deprivation since they end up doing their homework late in the night and sometimes into the mornings. If this homework isn’t completed by its due date these students get punished or get bad grades. That’s not fair!
You may ask, ”Why don’t you just cancel your extra murals to make time for your homework?” The thing is, it is good for your mental health to do the things that you love doing. It is proven that you perform better in school and your everyday life if you are in a good mental state. It also just feels so good to take your mind of all your stress and worries for a few hours.
A survey was taken on 4th graders. It showed that the children who didn’t do their homework had even better marks than those who did. I think this is because they actually made time for themselves. They could sort their lives out and spend more time with their friends and family. In the end we’re all human and need to interact with people around us and homework takes away from that.
Temple University professor, Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek says,” They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing homework.” I totally agree! Learning other skills e.g. playing tennis, learning how to play an instrument, dancing and many more are all far more useful than completing a task like match collum A to collum B. I’m also very sure that Bill Gates didn’t get homework sheets telling him how to create Microsoft.
Many teachers say that fitting homework into our day is just pure time management. They also say that we’re on our phones too often. In some cases this is true, but I think it is mostly just to escape all the stress of homework and to forget about school for a while.
A poll was taken in multiple schools in American schools;
◦ 82% of students said that homework stresses them out ◦ 59% said they have too much homework ◦ 43 % said that homework is their greatest source of stress (not gonna lie that’s shocking)
The world has evolved and adapted to people’s needs over the years but the school system is still based an archaic Victorian system, which is completely inhuman.
In conclusion homework does not help you at all, it stresses you out and eats into you precious free time.
