Is Homework Necessary?

Homework. One of the most dreaded parts of academic life. Homework is meant to help students do better in school and give them practice for tests and projects. However, homework may not be necessary. Too much homework can be harmful to students’ health, but too little might leave them unprepared. Despite the fact that homework can aid a student in a class, many students believe that homework is pointless and that teachers should not give it out. There are many different opinions on homework, especially in AISG.

There have been many different opinions regarding homework among experts. Some say homework is beneficial, while some say it is harmful. Every three years, the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) test is administered to 72 countries, and over 540,00 students. In 2015, Singapore, a country where the average student does about 9.4 hours of homework a week, ranked the highest in each category (math, reading, and science). Although this might seem like it proves that homework is the key to success in school, Finland ranked among the top ten in reading and science, yet Finnish students do less than 3 hours of homework a week. So, is there a correlation between homework amounts and success in school? According to the National Education Association, students should do about 10 times their grade level in minutes. That means second graders would be doing 20 minutes a night, while high schoolers should be doing about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours per night. However, lately, many teachers have been pushing for less homework and encouraging students to do more socially and physically.

Where does AISG stand in the homework debate? Some students think that homework is too time-consuming while others believe that it is good preparation for large summatives. I interviewed a couple of students on their thoughts about homework. One anonymous student commented, “Sometimes there’s too much homework because on people’s schedules there are core classes on one day, and there’s none on the other.” The student then followed up with “[Homework] is not evenly spread around.” Another student said “[Homework] only helps if you know how to do it.” When asked how many hours they spent on homework each night, a student replied: “About 4 hours a night, depending on the day.” This, of course, is more than double the suggested ‘healthy’ amount. Sophomore Prerna K. said, “I think [homework] is useful and necessary.”, while sophomore Sophie M. countered with her belief that homework is useful but not necessary, however, she said, “It definitely helps though.”

After interviewing the students, I interviewed Mr. Tragert on his thoughts about homework. Mr. Tragert said “[Homework] is a cause of stress. […] one of our problems is that we have really great kids.” Mr. Tragert then clarified that he meant that students at AISG are very hardworking and will do any amount of homework a teacher tells them to, even if the homework is reading an entire book in a night. He followed up by saying, “Teachers have to be careful because they can really stress out students if they assign too much homework.” When I asked him if he thought homework should be mandatory, he stated “Bad homework is a waste of time”, and that “homework doesn’t enhance learning unless it’s very purposeful and geared towards something very specific.” One thing Mr. Tragert said that he believes is that “homework can be very beneficial if teachers give feedback on it.” He also said that students “…learn a lot by answering a question and then engaging in conversation with your teacher on it.” Mr. Tragert said that he does not believe homework should be 100% mandatory, especially if it’s “just practice for the sake of practicing.” When I asked him about the amount of time students should put into homework, he referenced the study by the National Education Association and said that students should be doing “roughly the grade you’re in, times 10.” In minutes, this means that 9th graders do 90 minutes while 12th graders do about two hours. Mr. Tragert ultimately said that students should be “giving teacher’s feedback” about their homework policies and that students and teachers should work together to ensure that students get the best learning experience.

Finally, I talked to Ms. Dean to get her views on homework. Ms. Dean said, “I try not to overload students with homework […] I give what I judge to take about 45 minutes to accomplish.” This homework includes reading, annotations, and of course, vocabulary. When I asked what type of homework she assigns, she replied, “A lot of the homework that I assign is either preparatory in nature in order to accomplish a task in the next class, or it’s a chance to let students practice what we did in the previous class.” Ms. Dean thinks preparatory homework is more helpful because it allows her to discuss with her students. In general, Ms. Dean agreed with Mr. Tragert that homework should be used to create discussions in class so students have the chance to talk with their teachers and have their questions answered.

Overall, the amount of homework given in a class is up to the teacher to decide, however they should confer with students and take their opinions into consideration, as long as they are justified and rational. Homework can be beneficial, as long as there is not too much given. Cramming is known to be unhealthy and not very effective. Students should get a reasonable amount of homework each night, however, if students decide they need more help or wish to do more practice, then they should be able to access practice sheets and other means of assistance. Students should be able to study at their own pace and be able to choose the amount of homework they get. That way, students will learn to be more independent and fully understand how they can learn best.