By Rossangel Fernández
As a student, I couldn’t see the point of homework. Now that I have done some research on the topic, I understand the value of homework and have learned that homework has both positive and negative effects on students. Currently, there are two main obstacles for students doing their homework: motivation and time. Students are unmotivated because they don’t see the point, and they’re given too much homework to complete given all the rest of the things on their plate.
There are only so many hours in a day. I wake up at six thirty in the morning to get to school, and get out of school at three thirty in the afternoon. I work five days a week from 4:30 to 11:00 p.m. After seven hours of school, the thought of going home and doing two or more hours of homework can be stressful. According to Alfie Kohn, an educator and author, “Most of what homework is doing is driving kids away from learning.”[1] If students do not understand why their homework is important to their education, and why they should spend their downtime completing it, there’s a good chance they’ll lose interest in school. Nobody likes the feeling of wasting time.
I interviewed Janine Bempechat, a developmental psychologist at Suffolk University who studies students’ attitudes towards homework. She says it is definitely not a waste of time. “Homework teaches how to be responsible of obligation and how to be mature…it teaches you how to deal with difficulties and teaches you good habits.”[2]
But Dr. Bempechat also says that while some stress is good, too much can affect one’s health. Teachers should give enough homework so students are able to learn and are able to understand the curriculum, but not so much that students cannot realistically get it done. The extra time spent doing homework makes what you learn in school more useful and more clear, because everyone needs practice to eventually master a skill or topic.
Teachers could make homework more active by assigning online workshops that help students learn the academic material. Students might prefer having time to do their homework in class. Maybe teachers could let the last ten to fifteen minutes of class be for students to start their homework. Not only would this take some pressure off what students have to do at home, it would give them a chance to really understand the assignment, and if they have questions, get them answered before they give up.
Balancing a job, school work, and family often leaves students stressed. Downtime is important, but finding time to relax and enjoy family is hard.
Balancing a job, school work, and family often leaves students stressed. Downtime is important, but finding time to relax and enjoy family is hard. In “Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime” Jabr writes, “Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life.”[3] Having downtime is important for your health; it’s good for you to take a break.
BPS high school teachers should balance the amount of homework and give students a chance to understand the material before giving them homework to do on their own. Students should acknowledge that even though homework can be stressful it can help them succeed. It’s important to make the effort in doing your homework not only to understand the academic material but to learn good study habits that will be useful for college. Making an effort is something that you need to build as a skill, no matter what you do in life.
- Alfie Kohn, “Rethinking Homework,” Principal, January/February 2007, 35-38. ↑
- Janine Bempechat (developmental psychologist, Suffolk University), interview with author, February 2, 2016. ↑
- Ferris Jabr, “Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime?” Scientific American, October 15, 2013, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mental-downtime/. ↑
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