The next time you hear a teacher, parent, or another adult telling you to stop complaining about the amount of homework you have, consider this: There are many scientific studies that show homework is not as essential as people think and those studies support the avoided opinions of students.
Too much homework can lead to an unbalanced schedule and lack of other critical skills. According to this Healthline article, students who do more hours of homework experience more academic stress, physical health problems, and lack of general balance in their lives.
Scientists have found that when students sacrifice sleep to study for a test or to complete homework, they will likely struggle and find it more challenging to focus and learn new material taught the next day. Homework is a primary source of stress; too much can lead to sleep deprivation and other health problems.
But the anecdotal evidence is also strong. Many students are often forced to cancel their plans because of homework, which indicates an insufficient amount of “school-life” balance.
When asked if she has ever had to cancel activities due to homework Megan Hayes, a junior, said, “No, I just don’t sleep.” However, completing homework late at night makes the ability to focus and to comprehend the material harder, defeating the purpose of homework.
Eleanor Kay, a sophomore, and Manaal Khwaja, a senior, both said that they sometimes have to cancel their plans because of homework. Eleanor said that on average she cancels her plans about once a week for this reason.
Every teacher assigns their students different amounts of homework. When The Lasso asked students, their responses ranged from 2-5 hours a night of homework, which leaves little time to do extracurriculars. Hayes said that she does 2-3 hours of homework a night, Kay does 3-4 hours, and Khwaja does 2-4 hours per night.
Emma Foley, a freshman, said that the most stressful thing about homework is the deadlines, which freshmen Sarah Zulfiqar and Leslie Tartt also agreed with.
Many Mason teachers agree that homework can be a beneficial practice, and is necessary to enhance students’ understanding of the subject but only in reasonable amounts.
But, would lowering the amount of homework result in more success?
According to this article in 2015, Finland was ranked sixth highest success in reading and twelfth in math even though they only have an average of three hours of homework a week.
Many successful countries, including Finland, learn their material in class instead of at home. For example, teachers could structure class time to account for homework. Instead of a 90-minute video and discussion, classes could be organized to be a 45-minute activity followed by a 45-minute “homework” assignment that could be completed in class.
To limit homework at GMHS teachers could eliminate lesson plans that were created just to fill a class or that aren’t beneficial. For instance, teachers could cut down on long videos with questions that only slightly relate to our material and also labs that don’t help us expand our knowledge. By eliminating those in-class activities it would give students more time to start or even complete their homework in class.
Leslie Tartt, a freshman said that if she was a teacher she would allow student to turn in their homework a day after the deadline and still give them full credit. With similar ideas to Leslie, Emma Foley said that she’d give her students three days to complete their homework.
Giving students more time to complete their homework would make homework more manageable and it would also solve the most commonly thought reason for homework being stressful, which is deadlines.
Although homework can cause stress and lead to an unbalanced lifestyle, students agree it can be beneficial if it is used rationally and given out in reasonable amounts. By cutting out repeated questions and non-useful homework assignment students will still get the practice they need without all of the stress.
