Homework forms a vital part of the learning setup of most education systems and schools’ world over. Students get assigned homework by their teachers which they must complete and submit within stipulated timelines for grading. The discretion of the quality and amount of homework assigned lies with the teachers, and some take advantage of assigning students a vast workload.
In most cases, the learners also get similar after-school assignments from different classes with related timelines and what seemed like adequate homework balloons and become insurmountable for students to finish at home. Students often receive limited college homework help from parents on tough assignments. Therefore, boredom can arise from doing such assignments in isolation. The enormous workload and impossible timelines can also cause anxiety, depression, and stress which can ultimately hinder good performances in school.
The Homework Quantity Effect
Different guidelines had to get developed concerning homework. Mainly because of the outcry and divisive opinions concerning homework from students, parents, and experts alike. As such, the quantity of homework became a sharp focus point, and something had to give for homework to continue as a means of catching up with the rest of the world, especially on technological advancement.
According to guidelines issued, kids in the first grade need a maximum of ten minutes of homework each night with subsequent classes getting additional ten minutes per class. It means seniors in high school have to do a minimum of two hours of homework each night. However, Sierra’s policy on homework stipulates that not even one class has the right to assign homework that exceeds ten minutes each night, and this translates to a cumulative of fifty minutes in each team.
Research findings show that when students spend a lot of time doing homework, it is highly likely that they won’t meet their requirements in terms of development or in cultivating vital skills that can help them in life. A vast majority are likely also to stop meeting and seeing family and friends, forgo some activities, and stop participating in hobbies. When a student goes to such lengths means only one thing, the onset of battling depression or stress.
A research group from Harvard health did a study by asking students if they exhibited physical stress symptoms such as exhaustion, headaches, weight loss, stomach problems, or sleep deprivation. Over two-thirds of the student respondents admitted to getting stressed with the same student proportion guilty of using drugs and alcohol besides primary marijuana as a coping mechanism to stress.
In as much as homework can prove useful, students spending a majority of the day in school learning only adds to overburdening students by expecting them to spend another two hours doing homework on top of the eight hours already spent in school. Homework on the flip side can also assist students in catching up with the contents of the unit besides enabling better comprehension.
Conclusion
Homework, when adequately administered, can prove useful to students as it can impart and enhance life skills such as problem-solving or independence in working under intense pressure. It also reinforces what students learn in class besides helping with students grades at the end of the learning term. However, too much homework beyond the recommended rates can work at cross-purpose and prove counter-productive to students. Quality often surpasses quantity in the fields of education.
