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Especially in today’s education, homework is becoming longer and harder. Is it helpful to these students, or is it time consuming for no reason?
Is homework harmful or helpful?
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Definitely helpful. Talking from my experience, the amount of homework I had was a lot, but it established the work ethic I now have by completing all of it on a consistent basis. Also, most of what I learned was from my own work that I did from studying and doing homework, rather than sitting in class.
Nah, homework doesn't do anything at all. There are different methods of learning, and if homework isn't one of them, it's just wasting your time.
Kids with families that eat a meal together do better academically. So wouldn’t you agree that spending time with the family contributes to success in school? One way that homework is harmful is that time spent on doing it subtracts from time you could be spending with the family. While homework is assigned with the intent that you will benefit from it, kids spend so much time doing it (in fact, studies show that the amount of time spent on homework has tripled in length since 1981) that it really is damaging.
Is homework really helpful? You may say yes, it is in the sense that it reinforces what you’ve learned in class, but what if you didn’t understand what you learned in class? Then it doesn’t reinforce anything but confusion. In other words, if you didn’t get it at school, you’re not going to get it at home.
I believe that productive homework is a positive to have. However, if the homework is just a list of questions that is used just to take up time, it won't help at all. Busy-work worksheets should be stopped, but thoughtful assignments are fine.
Exactly! The occasional project or paper is fine, but this homework every class for the sake of homework is so pointless and stupid.
the amount of homework is crazy and not helpful kids are in school for a major part of their day teach them there if you cant you shouldnt be a teacher plus parents are responsible for at home learning. they should be doing productive things with their children to improve their knowledge of the world. to make children do so much homework is like beating a dead horse
I disagree here with you, Misty, there is a healthy amount of homework being implemented in schools and I believe that there is definitely a reason for it. The length and difficulty of the homework increases with the learning ability and development of the student. Busy work in classes gives students something productive to do and they learn from it rather than have them do nothing and take away nothing from their time in school. The amount of homework can reduce the amount of juvenile delinquents in society today and the things students do to get into trouble. The bottom line is it gives them something productive to do and they learn from it when they dont take part in sports and other activities. If they do, its not a lot of homework that is just unbearable and cannot be accomplished. It teaches them time management also and prepares them for college. If they can get accustomed to this homework in school then it wont feel unbearable to them in college and they'll get better and faster at it.
ok i have to say as an education major im well aware with how much home work children are given on average across the US but all of this is IMO…that being said….: busy work…makes children hate school their not idiots and they know when their not learning…to give them busy work is like insulting their intelligence …also as a teacher if i give a child busy work i am saying i dont have time for you right now to help you grow and learn…..time in school also is to provide the learning experience of social skills..to many children are made to sit still and quiet…..all bc the teach doesnt put the effort into structured socialization which is critical to student especially in low income schools{thats a different story} and juvenile delinquents…..again i say this it seems like all the time…parents need to do their job and be held accountable for it…also we need to have more funding in non profit after school programs to help witrh this issue the cost of the paper used for home work would suffice and in fact most CHILDREN are given 7-8 hours of home work a week……..not counting the extra reading kids need to be doing….and most home work doesnt reinforce the lesson of the day…if i kid doesnt get it in school they wont when they get home..and i have less homework in college that i ever had middle school on……but this my thoughts
homework is a good idea, it helps the student learn, and get ready for tests. the busy worksheets things you are all talking about are just busy work, but they help as well, i enjoy doing them because later on for the test those sheets helped me, i have way more homwork at college now then in middle school, i barely had any because i did it in study hall, that is what schools need to have, study halls becasue they help, to get your homework done.
Homework is for babies!
Misty's right. a kid's education should blossom from their own curiosity, not be forced into their heads by insanely monotonous texts books and worksheets and anxious parents. Hell, if I'm going to learn algebra, i should WANT to learn it! Forcing kids to do their homework and schoolwork and not even trying to get them interested – and even expect them to pay attention – is incredibly stupid. It goes no where. How do schools expect the child to want any of it? Because they're always being assured that it'll HELP them in the future? They're kids! They need proof of everything! and teachers go babbling on in classrooms for an hour about history of English or whatever, and the kids are supposed to like it! No, and after ALL that, they stuff homework under kids' noses to spend another hour on AT HOME. Kids stay up till 12 doing homework only to forget whatever they're doing next week. Hello! If you can't teach what you're teaching in an hour, then maybe the lesson will just have to overflow into tomorrow's lesson. I can't imagine why nine hours of school isnt enough. To be honest, when a teacher taught me something, I would have to teach myself the lesson again, just to clarify. On top of that, I did my homework. Kids worry about grades and trying to make it in life. School is a big pressure on kids. It affects their home lives and their happiness. And is it REALLY necessary to do that to an innocent child? They already have the world for stress; they dont need their childhoods spoiled too. No wonder they hate it! What do they have to live for? How can all kids learn the same way? We're all different. Curiosity is what started discoveries. School takes curiosity away. Homework takes childhood away. What's left? When I was little, I didnt even want to inherent the world becuase it was so screwed up! Everything I did was based on school. So naturally, I came to hate it. But when I wonder, i taught myself, and that was when I was happy. school should be based off the kids, not their futures. And hey, I might sound like a fanatic, but its the truth. Kids hate homework, so forcing them to do it is wrong.
so itll help them take the tests, and then what? They'll know all about the carbon cycle when they grow up to be a designer or sales manager? That's ridiculous. They should learn what theyre curious about. that leads to a good education.
gives them something productive to do wile the teacher checks her facebook. I didnt kearn jack from busy work, and im sure loads of kids dont kind the method effective either. They feel trapped when they have homework. They will blow it of if they feel hateful enough. Its the schools that make kids hate homework, not themselves. Then management-schmanagement, they'll hate it so bad they'll get a job that doesnt involve it at all because they're so sick of it. and college is school too. its all the same thing. only in college, we learn what we want to learn about, and that's what makes homewrok bearable then.
That's it. what are you supposed to get out of homework if you feel like its just something in your way? If you went and evaluated what an adult got out of homework now, they'd probably say most of their useful information came from training (college) and experience, not some essay on the life of King Henry III.
plus, when i was younger, i never studied for an exam and i made an a and up most of the time, and the one time i studied for a test i got a seventy. Bad luck? I dont think so. It differs from person to person, but homewrok is just stupid.
Every point you've made there is 100% valid, CrazyHater. Being a student in high school presently, I'd have to say that homework has been heaped on far to heavy. It's all too easy to assume that, mayhaps, children will memorize material better if repetition is used. When this concept is applied by making students trudge through hours of work that they already know and understand, it only becomes a hindrance. Also, since homework normally takes up a good percentage of one's grade (About 30% in our school, Chariho) it's entirely possible to pass tests, quizzes, and classwork with flying colors, yet fail a class because of homework. Free time at home to explore hobbies and interests is all but eliminated; when housework is added into the mix, it isn't uncommon to end up with only a half hour of freetime. (Returns home: 2:30 – Goes to bed: 11:00) Overall, all it causes is grief, insecurity, and general bad blood between the student body and the school. It should be wiped off the map.
yes it will help some people learn by letting them practice. however, some people understood it the first time, for them the homework is make-work. they already know how to do it, doing it a couple of time to make sure is good; doing it 30 more times if boring make-work. homework should be optional, or at least exemptable. having to do make-work just so your doing the same amount of work as the people who need to do the work for practice is stupid
practice is helpful for all skills, which include a lot of things which you get given in homework from mathematical skills to essay writing etc. it is also a useful way for the teacher to discover how well their students grasped a topic, in a big class it often isn't possible for a teacher to have a chat with every student about what they did and did not fully grasp and homework can highlight problem areas to be gone over again and also individuals who perhaps need extra help. Homework therefore has a role quite apart from the teaching which goes on in class time, though it can be used for further research. And also, the point of education being provided by the state is that we DONT VALUE IT as much as we should. Sure every kid would rather not have homework, though they might actually enjoy doing some of it if it interested them, but that doesn't mean it won't help them learn!
I agree though. Like all they do is stand there. I learn by seeing and slightly doing like you can't just say it and expect me to get it you know. Homework doesnt do anything for me becuase I just dont have motivation to study at home. like my home life can be rough my dad left home my mom doesnt know anything about what we do in school you know so i'm kind of screwed and you knows its just different for me because I just can't go home and do it its just pointless to me. I dont learn anything in my school and I go to Irmo High School. I hate homework I hate this school. Like thats always been my problem is homework and projects. If they didn't put as much on us as they do I would pass fine you know but it doesn't happen that way and no one sees that. I'm not like everyone else. I dont learn like everyone else yet my mom yells at me saying to study all the time i'm like it doens't do anything for me at all. If I put everything i learned in a song it would all stick with me but just listening doesnt do a thing.
I agree though. Like all they do is stand there. I learn by seeing and slightly doing like you can't just say it and expect me to get it you know. Homework doesnt do anything for me becuase I just dont have motivation to study at home. like my home life can be rough my dad left home my mom doesnt know anything about what we do in school you know so i'm kind of screwed and you knows its just different for me because I just can't go home and do it its just pointless to me. I dont learn anything in my school and I go to Irmo High School. I hate homework I hate this school. Like thats always been my problem is homework and projects. If they didn't put as much on us as they do I would pass fine you know but it doesn't happen that way and no one sees that. I'm not like everyone else. I dont learn like everyone else yet my mom yells at me saying to study all the time i'm like it doens't do anything for me at all. If I put everything i learned in a song it would all stick with me but just listening doesnt do a thing.