When it comes to homework, most students likely dread it. They are given more work than they can manage, have a hard time balancing their personal lives with school, and/or they just simply don’t feel the need to do the additional work. Is homework really as beneficial as people make it out to be? Does homework put an unnecessary strain on students? Could homework do more harm than good to not only just students, but also to teachers?
Is homework really as beneficial as people make it out to be?
A common argument I’ve heard, mainly from teachers, is that homework helps students practice what they learned in class outside of school to get a better grasp of the material. But with most concepts being taught online because of the pandemic, most students are just concerned with getting their assignments in and trying to pass their classes. School has turned into obtaining good grades and getting done work the quickest rather than actually trying to obtain useful knowledge from our classes/homework. That’s just the sad reality. As a result, it’s more likely for students to do the bare minimum in order to try and pass classes (especially if it’s in subjects they may not have much of an interest in). In order for students to learn and retain knowledge from their classes, there is a need to restructure the way our schools are.
Does homework put unnecessary strain on students?
It’s pretty common for students to spend many hours completing their assignments, even to the point of losing sleep where it ultimately affects their wellbeing. There are also some students who have a difficult home life and may need to do more in order to provide for themselves but struggle to just keep up with their school work. As a student, teachers need to be mindful that not only do students have other classes to be concerned about, but they also have lives outside of school that may or may not be difficult to manage. If it’s obvious that there are students running on very little sleep and are just not engaged in their classes, maybe it’s about time to evaluate the workload many students are given. There needs to be a evaluation of what can be done to make students have a better time in school and prevent them from falling so behind.
Could homework do more harm than good (not only to students, but also to teachers?)
I’ve had a few teachers say to me how they don’t feel there is a need to give students a heavy workload. Not only does it make students feel overwhelmed, but also it can be a lot of work grading a bunch of assignments. If teachers are capable of not giving students so much work outside of school, they probably shouldn’t since it really would benefit both sides. I’ve seen teachers overwhelmed with the amount of assignments they’ve had to grade and at times mention that it could take a while to get through everyone’s work. From my perspective, teachers already deal with enough as it is, so I don’t think they should overwork themselves if they have the capability of doing so.
I can see both sides of the argument on whether homework is actually beneficial for students, but from my point of view, the bad seems to outweigh the good. Not only is homework detrimental to the health and personal lives of students, but teachers also end up doing more work than necessary.