No one likes to take job home and pull an all-nighter to complete it. For some reason, parents who think so, have a different attitude to home tasks their children accomplish daily and oppose home tasks ban actively.
However, both situations are pretty much the same! Children and students, just like grown-ups, have the right to have rest, spend time on self-development and things they like. So, the parents’ claim that without homework their kids would be lazy and would not be able to polish their skills does not seem valid.
Moreover, the argument that each of us has to come through loads of homework at some point in life does not have a logical background.
We study to live, not actually live to study. So, there is a necessity to weight the content of tasks, the time spent on accomplishing them, the overall use of home assignments in life and the development of necessary competencies.
Thinking outside the box, you may understand why homework should be banned. Now I understand why I did not want to do my homework when I was a student: it was a logical subconscious rejection.
Let’s Look at Statistics
Hypotheses are good, but they are pointless without support of the appropriate research. It would be much wiser to review why students shouldn’t have homework through the prism of the research results.
Reforming Homework by Mike Horsley, Richard Walker
This is the whole book, devoted to research on usefulness of home assignments. It was published in 2013, so it is quite fresh. The authors aim to find the correlation between the academic achievements and the amount of homework.
As a result, they state that accomplishment of home assignments bears no fruits to school students of 1st-3rd grades, brings doubtful benefits to 4th-6th-grade students, is barely useful to 7th-9th-grade students, and is only quite effective for high school students (10th-12th grades). This is a good basis for arguments why kids shouldn’t have homework at the beginning of their studies.
However, even in the case of high school students, scientists argue that the type of homework needs to be transformed if not banned. They supported the claim that the number of home tasks should be compensated by the quality of the tasks. By this quality Horsley and Walker mean the tasks that allow kids to decide what to do and how to do it (with the selection of topic and methods), as well as those developing self-control, independence, self-confidence, and responsibility. The examples of such tasks are provided in the book.
Stanford Research
Denise Pop, Jerusha Conner, and Molly Holloway have also carried out research on the topic and published it in 2013. The results claim that kids who spend too much time doing their homework (2 hours per day and more) suffer from distress, as well as have serious troubles with physical health and social relationships. They are prone to depression, psychological disorders, suffer from a headache, etc.
The scientists also talk about the “paradox of academic success.” It is about the schools with high ranking that practice intensive homework and develop a cult of studying. It leads to egocentrism, social passivity, and weak social position of their students.
Data by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
One more thing to pay attention to concerning the ban of home tasks is the statistics gathered by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in 2014.
One of the indicators is the time spent by students on homework. Chinese children are considered the most hard-working, since they spend averagely 13,8 hours per week on their home assignments. The second hard-workers are Russian kids, spending 9,7 hours per week. Finnish children are the happiest from this point of view: they need averagely 2,8 hours per week to handle all the tasks. American children need to devote around 6,1 hours per week to their home assignments, and British students spend slightly less: 4,9 hours. However, if we compare all those results to the ones of 2003, we can notice the tendency for decreasing the number of home assignments. Thus, educators change their attitudes towards the question on how much homework is too much.
The same report contains some other interesting results. For example, it considers how compulsive accomplishing of home assignments in various countries is. In Russia there are general norms for home assignments. British and American schools leave the right to regulate the amount of homework locally. And in Switzerland and Finland students are free to choose whether to do home tasks or not. It looks like the last-mentioned countries know the secrets why homework is bad and do not want their students to suffer.
Psychological Practice and Reason Why Home Tasks Are Bad and Need to Be Banned
One of the principles that must be applied to bringing children up is “too much is not good.” Parents limit the time kids can spend with computers and tablets, limit the number of sweets their children eat, and control their sleep regime. For some reason, when it comes to studies, this principle is replaced by “there cannot be too much,” and banning home tasks is viewed as something unnormal.
Children who spend hours at school and at home studying are not likely to enjoy happiness from reaching new academic heights. They take studying as a burden and all they want is to cope with home assignments asap to have a possibility to do what they like. Banning home tasks will change such attitudes.
Misguidance
Moreover, children are misguided about the benefits of home assignments. Indeed, being a diligent student and reaching success in the adult life do not correlate. Trust in one’s own abilities and ability to enjoy the life are the features that need to be developed for the future success. Ironically, homework may have an opposite effect, and this is another reason why students shouldn’t have homework.
Good grades are put as the main achievement for kids. And clearly, this is not what they should strive to. Even the formulation “sufficient knowledge” is bad, since the main purpose for kids should be self-realization and learning how to enjoy life as it is.
Somatization as a Reason to Ban Homework
If school studies and too much homework make it impossible for kids to have rest, spend time with mates or on doing something they enjoy, kids try to find ways out, even at the subconscious level. Their organisms give up, so they get ill just to have a possibility not to study for some time. The constant lack of psychological relief, in addition, leads to formalized life, serious psychological illnesses in the future, constant depression and dissatisfaction, hence poor physical health conditions.
So, Why Is Homework Bad and Needs to Be Banned?
Let me try to summarize my idea of why kids shouldn’t have homework.
Homework Needs to Be Banned, Since Is Bad for Health
- Kids spend a lot of time sitting at the desk at school. If they continue spending time in the same position, this will be bad for their health: they may develop spine deformation, resulting in serious issues with different systems of organs. So, banning home tasks will contribute to public health.
- Reading and writing for a long time is a challenge for students’ eyesight. Often they are forced to stay late hours, and that even worsens the condition. Banning home assignments will make it possible for kids to avoid problems with eyesight.
- Working under the pressure of assessment, which starts at school and continues at home, leads to the development of stress, anxiety, and depression. Banning homework will help to reduce the risk by half or even more.
Homework Should Be Banned Because It Does Harm to Learning Motivation
- The need to study at home at the cost of walking or playing reduces willingness to study. Hence, this is a good reason to ban such activity.
- Children who get low grades for home tasks are demotivated and resist learning. Thus, home assignments should be banned to develop proper motivation.
- Kids who get high grades for homework assignments develop perfectionism and false beliefs that people love only those who do not make mistakes. Moreover, they may feel superior towards those who score bad grades. Banning home tasks will help to improve the psychological state of such kids.
Homework Should Be Banned Because It Is Bad for Relationships with Mates and Parents
- Differentiation based on grades leads to school bullying, humiliation of those students who get lower grades, and other conflicts. Banning home assignments will help to reduce the number of such cases.
- Homework often becomes a challenge for the whole family. Tired after work, parents do not have fun with their kids but play the role of controllers and tyrants. Banning homework will improve family relations.
- Because of homework overload, students develop bad habits, such lying and cheating. Sometimes they skip classes because they did not manage to complete home tasks. Banning homework will reduce the problem of such bad behaviors.
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