Homework+Pros+and+Cons

The Importance of Homework

People throughout the United States have been debating the impact of homework in a child’s life. Is it positive or negative? Some children claim to like homework saying it helps them practice what they do in school while others complain about it saying it is pointless and should be banned from all schools. Everyone around the world has a different point of view when it comes to homework, what is yours? I have chosen to closely examine the pros and cons relating to homework and create an opinion of my own.

According to some experts homework is not as positive in a child’s academic life as many people believe. It may help in subjects like math, but is it really as effective as we think? Experts say children ten and under should not be given homework. They say all it does is take away their childhood by giving them unnecessary assignments. Assignments that contain topics not addressed in class which can make a child’s homework difficult. This however, is not the only reason children despise homework, they also dislike it because of the repetitive problems throughout the entire thing. “How many times do you have to add seven plus two?” says Ms. Cushlanis, mother of a second grader. She hates the ridiculous amount of homework teachers overwhelm their students with. When they give their students multiple worksheets on the same topic containing very similar questions it is just busy work, work that they are not really learning from because it is nothing new. The reason children do the homework is because they are responsible and care about school or else they would most likely not do the work and enjoy valuable bonding time with their family instead. “…I hate seeing my middle-school-age son miss out on the afternoons of his childhood,” says Jessica Lahey, the author of an article titled “I Hate Homework. I Assign it Anyway”. She sees how homework takes away from her son’s free time and prohibits him from bonding with them on a daily basis. Many people agree with her and say “parents want their kids back.”

Teachers however can not visualize the idea of students not having homework because it is something that they have done for many years. Homework was created as a way to improve children’s test scores, but even so “There is simply no proof that most homework as we know it improves school performance,” says Vicki Abeles and she is right. There is just no proof that homework helps improve children’s tests scores. The United States has tried to be higher than China and India in education but can not do it, they see homework as their way to fulfill their goal. There is a possibility that homework may improve test scores, but it is not guaranteed. Homework is good in the sense that it often reinforces classroom learning which allows students to test their knowledge by doing something similar to what they did in class on their own. This helps students determine whether they have the ability to do what they learned in class without their teacher’s guidance or not. This helps them determine them whether they do or do not have much knowledge on a subject and they will know they have to put an effort to improve. They are responsible for completing their homework and will get it done if they are looking for improvement. It teaches them to be self-dependent because they rely on themselves to complete the work. Many students say quality homework is worth the effort. “If I didn’t have homework, I don’t think I’d do very well. It’s practice for what we learn in school,” says one of Jessica Lahey students. By them doing work similar to what they do in school they are not only helping themselves, they are helping their parents as well. “ ‘I think people confuse homework with rigor,’ said Donna Taylor, the Brooklyn School’s principal, who views homework for children under 11 as primarily benefiting parents by helping them feel connected to the classroom.” It helps notify parents what their children are doing in school so they can help them in any way they can to further their knowledge on the subject if they have the ability to.

Homework is not only important to parents and students it is very important to teachers as well. It helps teachers finish assignments faster and use more time in class for other assignments instead of spending a large amount of time on just on assignment. “..efforts to roll back homework have been opposed by those who counter that there is not enough time in the school day to cover required topics and that reinforces classroom learning,” says Winnie Hu. Teachers have a lot of topics to cover and find themselves assigning more homework than they planned because there was not enough time for students to finish during class. If they were to not assign homework they would have to use up other time or leave the assignments incomplete. By doing their homework, children allow their teachers to teach them new things by giving them more time in the day to cover new topics.

To me, homework is very valuable. It allows me to study for upcoming tests and practice to see what I can or can not do. If it wasn’t for homework I would probably have lower grades than I presently do because I am not a very good test taker. I receive a decent amount of points on tests, but it is nothing extraordinary. This causes my grades to lower, but since I complete the majority of my homework I manage to earn A’s and B’s. I find homework easy most of the time, but even if it is difficult I complete it because it effects my grades. I personally do not mind doing it though, it has been part of my daily routine for many years now and I have seen very little difference in the amount of homework from middle school to high school. I have no problem with homework and I do not care if it is or is not banned from school, because I have never seen it as a problem. I never really thought of it being pressure for us students to improve our test scores. To me it is just a way for us to complete work on our own so we can test our knowledge and use our skills to answer questions related to topics addressed in class. Homework is not a problem for me. I would like schools to continue to give out homework because I think it is very helpful in improving children’s test scores, but if homework was to be banned, I would still review my notes and test my abilities and knowledge on my own.

Overall, like many controversial topics homework has its pros and cons. A person’s opinion depends on their experience with homework and the way they saw homework affect them, either positively or negatively. In my opinion it has a positive effect but not everyone agrees. However, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and the importance of homework will most likely be discussed for many years.