The Homework Debate: An Updated Look at Excessive Homework
Highlighters, paper, books and flashcards surround students as they stay up late, pushing through just one last assignment. In 2016, the Silver Streak posted a story about how homework was controlling students’ lives and not in a good way. However, looking back at the story now, the amount of homework teachers are currently assigning has stayed the same, if not increased.
Everyday, I go home with at least two hours of homework to complete. At least two nights per week, my homework will take me in an excess of four hours to finish.
According to U.S. News, on average, a student is assigned 17.5 hours of homework each week. The National Association of Educational Progress reported that 39 percent of students spend an hour or more on homework each night.
In addition to school and homework, many students are involved in extra curricular activities and/or have a part-time job. For these students, their daily schedule can be hours longer than the average American adult working a full-time job.
When assigning homework, teachers should be mindful of how much time the assigned homework will take a student to complete then times that by seven, the total amount of classes that may also be assigning homework. Then the teacher should also take extracurricular activities, jobs, family time, health and sleep into consideration.
Currently, I barely get any rest and some nights the debate is if I should do an assignment or sleep. However, teens at Randall are not alone when it comes to not getting enough sleep. According to Dr. Craig Canapari, a director for the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center, 90% of teenagers in the U.S suffer from sleep deprivation. This is in part due to excessive homework.
I asked a few Randall students what their schedule looked like for the day:
Student A– School until 3:50, work from 4:15-6:30, theater rehearsal 7-10:30, homework
Student B- School until 3:50, work from 4:15-6;30, babysit 7-9, homework
Student C- School until 3:50, bus ride home until 5, 5-6 chores, dinner, homework
Student D- School until 3:50, sports practice until 6, dinner, homework
Student E- School until 3 due to senior permit, work from 5-11, homework on weekends and at school since work ends late at night
Looking at these schedules, it is easy to understand why having hours of homework is a problem for many students. According to the National PTA, students should only be doing 10 minutes of homework per grade level, so that equals to around two hours per night for a high school senior. Homework should be limited to that amount to help reduce the stress, anxiety, poor eating habits and lack of sleep that is associated with an overly busy schedule.
Maci Weathers is a senior, and this is her third year on the newspaper staff. Weathers joined newspaper because she was interested in the idea of Journalism. ...
Hannah • Jan 15, 2020 at 8:04 pm
Dear Maci,
Counter Argument: Yes, teachers do assign quite a lot of homework and could take a longer time to finish.
Argument: However, teachers either assign homework on Monday and it’s due Friday or assign homework on a certain day and it’s really important about the subject. Homework shouldn’t control your life either. You should find a balance in between homework and your social life.
anyssa fuentes • Jan 15, 2020 at 6:00 pm
Counter argument: I think having homework helps you get ready to go to college, and as well as help with your grade when its taken for a grade.
My argument: I think that some teachers tend to get a little overboard with it. But i think if you understand what you are doing or maintaining a good grade then you should be excused from it.
averi • Jan 14, 2020 at 5:36 pm
Dear Maci,
I agree that homework can be exhausting and nobody likes to do it but most times it’s necessary. In many cases I have found that the reason for homework is the lack of activity in the classroom. Many kids spend their class time talking with friends rather than getting the classwork done which later turns into homework. I think that this is a very important factor to look at when wondering why there’s such an excessive amount of after school work.
Isaiah Casarez • Jan 13, 2020 at 12:37 am
Dear Maci,
Counter Argument: Yes, homework can be a pain a lot of the times and be very hard to keep up with, but i think homework can benefit you in the long run. I think homework can teach you how to be a hard worker and to manage your time better.
Argument: Homework will teach you to apply things you’ve been taught independently rather than being guided. I think it also helps time manage due to your other things in your life like sports, work, or chores. It forces you to adjust to whatever you have going on and find a couple hours to do homework.
Avery Zuniga • Jan 12, 2020 at 5:37 pm
I definitely agree that homework can be an issue when it interacts with peoples schedules outside of school, I’ve heard many stories of friends who went to sleep really late due to homework, and although it’s insanely frustrating when getting assigned homework on a particularly busy day for me I do think homework is quite necessary. Sometimes teachers arent very considerate with the amount they give us, because they aren’t really thinking about how busy we are.
I do believe that homework is beneficial and prepares us for college and being an adult. It may seem unnecessary but it’s also really good practice on the subject, it allows us to try and figure it out without help from our teachers and I really think we learn more and do better that way.
Diego De La Cruz • Jan 12, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Dear Maci,
Counter Argument: Homework is necessary to one give the students practice and also for the teachers to see if they need to reteach or give a certain student more help. Homework also prepares students for the adult world.
Argument: However too much homework can overwhelm students causing them to be stressed and lose sleep. Kids then can’t learn as well when they are not rested enough.
Theodore Ruzicka • Jan 10, 2020 at 1:52 pm
I do agree that homework takes up a lot of time, but it’s really important to have it during high school. In college they assign so much homework that if you had none at all in high school it’d be insane. Randall High has plus time in order to get some homework done, and a lot of homework could be finished during class. I’d say if you scheduled your time and squeezed in when you can do homework and get it done as soon as you can, it’d be a lot more do-able than people realize.
Karli Lakey • Jan 10, 2020 at 10:53 am
Dear Maci,
I do agree that the homework given to teens from teachers should lower, however I seem to do my best thinking when I am in my room because you can control your surrounding and it makes you think for yourself. True that life gets crazy and that sometimes you can’t get it all done, but that is when communication with your teacher comes into play. I can’t leave school till 6, sometimes 6:30 because of tennis practice for the school, so and then go home and help my mom with my niece till 8 so most nights I don’t start homework till 8:30 or 9. Teacher were once teens too so they will be willing to help you are give you one more night to finish the homework given. The homework helps us to learn how to manage our day and balance our lives for when we start the real world.
Sarah Hope • Jan 9, 2020 at 7:37 pm
Maci,
Counter Argument: I understand where this is coming from, but you only interviewed students who have many extracurricular activities. Many of the people who complain about the homework are those who go home and stay on their electronics and don’t get anything done. Then the end up swamped with multiple assignments from several classes due the next day.
My Argument: I think that homework is beneficial in small doses, but when students complain about their schedules then maybe they should think about cutting somethings down or out of their schedules.
Gillian F • Jan 9, 2020 at 4:42 pm
Dear Maci,
I find it hard to disagree with your points. However, when taken into perspective from both sides of the argument, I understand why teachers may end up having to pile up their students with work to take home every evening. Students have plenty on their plate. They all have to sit in each of their 45-50 minute class periods and learn a topic based on the teachers’ planning. This doesn’t give them time to chat to friends or relax, however, that’s what lunches and flex-time offers. Despite this, I find it clearly possible to take care of the majority of your daily pile of homework at the same times. If we’ve talked in class while doing assignments, surely it wouldn’t be any different while they’re away from the classrooms. Teachers also take various amounts of hours to put together this work, in hopes it will assist their struggling students remember how to do what was said in the lesson – without teacher help.
On the other hand, everyone must about 6 class periods, all back-to-back, students often feel overwhelmed with the amount of school work they must finish or take care of at home. Due to this, most would feel like putting it off until they get “free time.” This causes them to push it off until after they’ve gotten home from work/school, in which makes it just as overwhelming as when they were assigned the work. This causes most of the anxiety and sleep deprivation in some teens. I also understand the struggle with having to take care of siblings or other things. My brother usually comes home from school on the daily, just to leave once more to head to work. This will take up most of his night, leaving him to come home early in the morning. I don’t see him finish his school work often, and it harms his grades just because he’d taken care of work and chores before then. Great job on your persuasion!
Shayli • Jan 9, 2020 at 4:40 pm
Counter argument: Homework causes stress and a lack of sleep.
Argument: I agree with you homework really stresses most students out including me. Homework can help us understand school work better because we can practice it. But some students wait to do their homework later. Also some students have a really busy schedule and don’t have time to do tons of papers of homework. People can stay up hours and tiredness really tears you down the next day at school.
Kendi Brown • Jan 9, 2020 at 4:30 pm
Dear Maci,
Counter argument: I am aware that in the future, students that want to attend college will have to deal with a large amount of homework. Teachers in high school are just trying to prepare us for it.
Argument: With that said, there is still a great deal of high schools students with other things to do than two, or more, hours of homework. It just isn’t reasonable for the people who have busy lives.
bryson loveday • Jan 9, 2020 at 3:47 pm
I believe that homework should be given but make it optional. So that way if I completely understand something I don’t need to do it, but if I’m struggling with the subject then I will gladly do it so I can understand it better. When I don’t have much to do homework is also a good time consumer and I will go to a friends house and do it with them and chill out while also working.
annanoyms e • Jan 9, 2020 at 3:41 pm
No homework would be an ideal world, but homework helps you prepare for real life . For example, college will ask a student to study every night of the week. Someone thats going to college should have home work at least 2 nights a week so that they wont be overwhekmed when they start getting home work everyday in college.
sadie alumbaugh • Jan 9, 2020 at 3:31 pm
I agree, homework should be limited. I think we should not have any homework. Not having homework would leave more time for things like sports, jobs, studying, and friends. We spend most of out time learning at school, only to have the expectations of going home and doing more work. Students cant be expected to go to school for 8 hours and then do homework that takes more time then it needs to, its not practical.
Carson • Jan 9, 2020 at 2:02 pm
I think homework should be less teens these day have to juggle sports, homework, and anything else they have going on at the time. Although homework is time consuming and annoying I think students need it to prepare them for college. In college they will need to be able to handle a lot more then just sports and homework they will need to provide for themselves and I think that all this homework is helping prepare them for that.
Santiago Coronado • Jan 9, 2020 at 12:13 pm
Counter Argument:
Yes i agree that we should have less homework, it would help sleep deprivation, stress, and bad eating habit, but if that were to happen nobody would be ready for college. The reasons our teachers give us that much homework is to help us prepare for the hundreds of pages we will have to read in college.
Argument: If we were given less homework and more free time we would not study as much and probably make much worse grades which does not reflect well on the teachers, and in college you do not have to do the homework but at that rate you won’t stay in college very long.
Arianna • Jan 9, 2020 at 11:16 am
Counter Argument: People take advantage of free time they have during school to do their homework and other work for classes, so they wont be as stressed as the others who procastinate.
My Argument: I procastinate when I have long due date for homework, so I stress when I wait last minute to do it all.
alyssa loveday • Jan 9, 2020 at 11:02 am
counter argument: no one likes homework, and yes we should only have it if we don’t understand the unit of the subject. it’s pointless to do it if you don’t have to, unless it’s for a grade.
argument: having homework now can prepare you for college, they have you doing like 20 pages of homework a night. so if you didn’t have any homework now you wouldn’t be able to have time management for the actual doing of the homework.
Sidney P • Jan 9, 2020 at 10:59 am
I agree with your argument that many students have too much homework. Many of my friends stay up until 1 in the morning doing homework. However, 95% of the time this is because they wait until that last minute to do it, causing it to pile up. I myself almost never have homework. I get it all done during class and if I don’t finish during that time, I work on it during flex time or lunch. Plus, I never let homework sit in my backpack until the day before it’s due. I do understand that most people don’t want to spend every free moment doing homework, but it helps them in the long run when they aren’t staying up until 1 working.
Heather Carrillo • Jan 9, 2020 at 10:56 am
I do feel that homework should be optional. I do agree that homework takes up most students time, can give us a bit of a headache or can interfere with our extracirricular activities but some students might need that extra practice for understanding in a subject or correct mistakes that have been difficult to comprehend in class.Another example is the upper level after high school, in college you get 2-300 pages a week to read for homework,having the assigned homework we have it prepares us for that transition.
Ashley Norman • Jan 9, 2020 at 10:53 am
Dear Maci,
Counter argument: I agree with you that sometimes when you get home from school you don’t have very much time to finish your homework but I think homework is necessary to get us ready for the rest of our lives as adults, especially if we want to get good grades to get into college.
My argument: I think that a little bit of homework is necessary for a good transition into how college homework is going to be like.
Ethan Baria • Oct 23, 2019 at 5:50 pm
Homework should be entirely optional,if you understand it you don’t need home work and if you don’t then why is your practice graded?Why is homework graded because no where else is practice a grade.