Most of the homework adolescents tend to receive from their teachers is busy work, and children and family agree this is not fair to them. This issue is affecting adolescents, parents, and families. When students are overloaded with responsibilities from schoolwork, their participation in extracurriculars and social activities decreases. An argument over homework might seem trivial, but there are many negative effects on children who are attend school and go through this pressure. The debate that is currently happening throughout America is whether children should or should not be forced to have homework, a standard part of education that has been in existence since atleast early 1900’s. Homework began generations ago, and “has generally been …show more content…
Many believe the idea of assigning homework has been blown completely out of proportion. “Work assigned outside of the classroom should be in reasonable amounts, and should be to the benefit of the student” says Wendy Ponte. However, educators give students assignments just to keep them occupied. Teachers do not realize the negative effects that heavy homework loads have on children. Teachers need to focus on the needs for each individual student, "Naturally, some kids need more practice before math skills become automatic, but pages of problems rarely help the whole class. Teachers can’t check all of these..—and some children truly are left behind” (Kalish). This issue is brought on by teachers having the mindset of “Quantity over Quality.” Most parents are not likely to sympathize with their children when they complain about having too much work, but some have started listening. When researching it parents have been shocked, "I’d always assumed homework was essential. But I finally researched about it, I was floored to find there's little to support homework—especially in vast quantities. Many children are now overloaded as early as kindergarten" (Kalish). When it comes to homework, "More is not better," says Harris Cooper, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience. Educators assume that adolescents do not have anything else to do after school besides their …show more content…
Statistics have shown the positive impact of homework on students. When a school district in Texas experimented with abolishing homework, statistic showed the following :"After the first six weeks of the year, about half of all the district's high school students—4,597—were failing one or more classes, compared with 3,412 students who were during the same period last year” (Graham). Susan Graham, a fellow of the Teacher Leaders Network, says “It seems that, no matter how good you are at something, practice helps and that most of us could use some outside motivation to get that practice accomplished.” Young teenage brains have not fully developed yet, which is why if children are not assigned homework, they will not learn the material. Seeing what taking away homework does to children makes educators and plenty of other adults say “Benefits of homework show up in its absence” (Graham). That statement can be proven to be true. If schools took away homework from children, they would still have to be responsible enough to study, read over notes, and absorb all the information taught at school. Susan Graham states that “In a perfect world, everyone would be intrinsically motivated to enrich their minds and produce their best efforts.” Sadly, there is no perfect world, and that i teachers feel the need to put the pressure of homework on minors. Some say homework is the only way