After students come home from an exhausting day at school, the last obligation they want to worry about is homework. Although teachers assign countless worksheets in hopes of reinforcing a concept, the stress that comes from a work overload overrides all of the benefits. Homework puts students at a disadvantage for gaining “real world” experiences that one would receive through a job, internship or even volunteer project. Students should be resting after a long day of hard work rather than hitting their books and studying until they find themselves sleep deprived and cramming study material all night long.
Whether students are working on English, chemistry or even ceramics homework, they are simply working on the assignment in order to get it done and are not completing the assignment in order to retain any of the information. Instead, students attempt to temporarily memorize the concepts and do not absorb any of the information afterward. Students are wasting their time on insignificant assignments rather than effectively using that time to achieve other accomplishments and milestones. According to www.dailymail.com, many parents and community members are concerned that homework is being assigned rather than being used to integrate what teachers are covering in the classroom. Students need time to rest their brains from a strenuous school day full of intellectual thinking. Homework is a tedious activity and if at-home assignments were eradicated, students would have much less stress and could focus more on their passions and hobbies.
“I feel that my grades would improve if I were not given homework,” said junior Rachel Brodsky. “I do not retain any knowledge from doing a bunch of worksheets after a long day of school.”
Time that is spent doing homework is time that could be spent experiencing what life outside of school is like. Homework gets in the way of participating in community service events as well as opportunities for getting a job or being a part of an extracurricular activity. These responsibilities are important for teenagers to take on because they prepare them for the “real world.” Without the proper exposure to work that is not school-related, students will find themselves lost and overwhelmed after they graduate. If homework were no longer given, students would have a lot more time to mature in other fields rather than being educated solely on academics.
“I would much rather be spending after-school hours by working on community service projects or making money at a job,” said junior Ilana Markowitz. “Due to excess amounts of homework, tutors just do the homework for their students and the students end up doing worse later on in life.”
Sleep is vital to one’s health, especially for that of a teenager. A healthy amount of sleep for teenagers is about 8.5 to 9.5 hours. Yet, according to wwww.sleepfoundation.org, one study found that only 15 percent of teenagers reported sleeping 8.5 hours on school nights. This is due to excessive amounts of work that teachers give to their students for homework. In spite of the fact that teachers want students to do better on tests and absorb the material that they are teaching, homework is not accomplishing its purpose. By eliminating homework, students would have more time to study test material such as in-class notes and study guides, resulting in higher test scores and an increased amount of sleep.
Because school is becoming increasingly more competitive and challenging, homework is becoming a setback rather than extra practice. Its removal would benefit the well being of teenagers as well as encourage them to get out in the “real world” and discover themselves instead of staring at a pile of daunting assignments.
