The Homework Battle!

[Dogboy2709]

Now, I'm sure we all have different ideas about homework, Good or bad? How much kids should get? that kind of. well, i think school should lower the amount of homework kids get. Here's why, this comes from tesh.com

is Homework Actually Helping Kids?

Three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and homework. Homework's important, because it makes children smarter, helps them earn better grades, and helps them get into better colleges, right? Not necessarily. According to ABC News, these days, kids are bringing home mountains of homework and starting in kindergarten, they're expected to do an hour of homework a week. Which rises slowly to 2-and-a-half hours a day - or more - for high school seniors. Educators say that when kids get piles of homework, they begin to see learning as a chore. Not something fun or interesting. When young kids get into trouble for not turning in their work, it turns into a combative relationship. Basically, teachers, schools, and parents versus students.

That's the main reason teachers in Great Britain want to abolish homework for elementary school students – and reduce the amount kids are given in middle school and high school. Some experts say that homework may not be good for anybody - other than teaching kids how to be responsible and organize their time. In his book The Battle Over Homework, Duke psychology professor Harris Cooper crunched the numbers on dozens of homework studies and he found that homework has no effect on the test scores of elementary school students. In fact, even though high school kids who did some homework scored slightly better on standardized tests, high school students who did more than 2 hours of homework a night actually had lower test scores! Studies also show that students living in countries that don't give a lot of homework – like Japan and Denmark – perform better on tests than children in homework-heavy countries.

So, do you agree, or disagree, and why?

 

[Motsuko Live]

Well, being a high school student, and witnessing the effect mass amounts of homework can have on a teenager, I'm obviously going to blend in with the stereotype and say yes, schools need to reduce the amount of homework. But not only for these, simple reasons.

For students who are gifted, or at least understand what they are being taught, homework is completely unnecessary. Why? Because of what I just said; they understand what they are being taught. I know homework is supposed to improve problem solving skills in a certain area, but what's the point of that if you already know what you're doing? The homework becomes boring, and kids start to lose interest (in worst case scenarios turning to drugs and alcohol as time killers; worst case scenario).

My solution to this problem? More tests! (lawlz, out of the frying pan, into the fire). But seriously; if students had to take an evaluation test at the beginning of each lesson, just to see where they were at, it would be much simpler, and a lot easier on the students. If a student shows enough understanding, they would be able to move on to the next lesson, and so on. If the student fails (as most probably would the first time) they would go about the lesson as usual. In about 2-3 weeks, the students would take the test again to see how they did. If they passed, they moved on. If they failed, the did it again.

That's just how I think it should be.

 

[icomeanon6]

If you ask me, they should make school days longer and have students do their work at school. I'm not saying that kids have too much work, but the schools should really make sure that not so much of it has to be done outside of school. After school should be when kids can spend some time with their families and just get away from school for a few hours. When it gets to the point where time at home becomes just another class, the psychological effects that it has on kids can't be understated. Less homework would probably give more kids a chance to get outside and breathe a little.

 

[Motsuko Live]

If you ask me, they should make school days longer and have students do their work at school. I'm not saying that kids have too much work, but the schools should really make sure that not so much of it has to be done outside of school. After school should be when kids can spend some time with their families and just get away from school for a few hours. When it gets to the point where time at home becomes just another class, the psychological effects that it has on kids can't be understated. Less homework would probably give more kids a chance to get outside and breathe a little.

Excellent point. I think kids today don't hate school itself as much as they hate never getting any "out-of-school" time.
Though I don't see how increasing the length of school days would help much. They would spend just about as much time at school as it would take for them to get their homework done at home. Solution? Less Homework. xD

 

[Midnight Beat]

Originally Posted by tesh.com
Which rises slowly to 2-and-a-half hours a day - or more - for high school seniors.

XD Now that is a joke. I just finished with my sophomore year of high school and I was easily doing 2-3 hours of homework a night. With my Junior year coming up, it's only going to get worse. Granted I purposely take harder classes, but it still is annoying. However, I'm going to have to disagree and say that the level of homework is right where it needs to be. If students plan to go on to college, they need to be accustomed to long nights studying, and huge work loads.

 

[Victoria~]

Well, I think that homework is an important thing. It's a way of study and fixation of the subject you had. You have the class, then at home, you study it.
It's a way to get prepare for the tests and helps to remember the subject, so you can use it in the future.
I'm not saying that it's a nice friday night program, or something like this. We just need to understand that homework is a worth sacrifice.. we'll just prejudice ourselves not doing it :/ I know, sad to admit it.
Also, what Midnight Beat said is right; the schools are here to teach us how to deal with the future. Not exactly with the subjects and all, but mostly because of the responsability that we need to have before going to college, for instance.
Some habits you take some time to learn. It's important to have this notion of responsability, irresponsability and it's consequences.

About the poll.. I didn't vote on it :B~ I don't think that less homework is gonna get things better. neither would more homework make me happier. geez. the way it is.. is fine :]

 

[GKS]

Homework is a great idea to help student learn and also to give them a chance to get a better grade. Would you rather not get any homework and just be expected to learn on you own at home. If you don't you will do badly on your tests and get a bad grade. I you have homework and actually do them, you could get point for doing homework and also do well on tests. Homework is great.

 

[Dogboy2709]

Homework is a great idea to help student learn and also to give them a chance to get a better grade. Would you rather not get any homework and just be expected to learn on you own at home. If you don't you will do badly on your tests and get a bad grade. I you have homework and actually do them, you could get point for doing homework and also do well on tests. Homework is great.

But what about kids in kindergarten, should they get homework? I really don't think so, especially not 1 hour a night, kindergarten is supposed to be free of homework, IMO. my meomry is a bit faded, but every now and then, i remember parts of it..the only "Homework" i remember was taking car of a bear called "Teddy" for a while. that was fun. but not much else then that in kindergarten.

Plus, some kids in my school don't even bother to do homework, My history teacher, Mr.Matz (First name hidden for his privacy) once said to the class this:

Why give homework if you're not going to do it?

After that statement, he didn't give much homework at all, oh and by the way, the course was CP US history 2

 

[Kylie-chan]

Why isn't there a 'No, kids get enough homework as it is, not too much, not too little' option, out of curiosity?

I think it should be reduced, simply because students evidently aren't getting it done and it's causing a lot of them unnecessary stress :| Not a reduction in the amount of assignments, but homework should be reduced and better study habits should be more actively encouraged [although you can only go so far with this :\ People need to apply themselves 8D *hypocrite*]. Nearly half of my teachers aren't even qualified in their subjects [longterm substitutes, basically just babysitters for the class], so I almost never get homework, which is just as well as I'm homeschooled in most subjects and get home for the day, then start working D:

 

[Saryka]

I dunno, really. I mean, sure, we all wish to have less homework, because, you know, it's not the most enjoyable thing in the world. But as Midnight Beat said, if one is to pursue a college or university education, they will need to get used to heavy workloads. I dislike homework as much as the next guy, and I know other people in this thread dislike it as well, but homework can actually make a big difference in academic performance. There have been times where I didn't do homework and didn't do so well on tests, even though I studied beforehand.

Let's face it. If someone wants to pursue college or university education, it's great to have the preparation in high school. If we hate homework now, think of how much more we're gonna hate it when we get to our post-secondary choices. :/

As for the poll, I didn't vote. I like the homework level where it is right now. (b")b

 

[Charz]

As much as I'd like to go with the 'less homework! Yay!' option, I would have to disagree. I'm fluctuating in the gray area between the 'more homework! D:' section and the 'enough work!' section. I believe that the purpose of homework is to get you used to the stress you will encounter in later years. Both college and the real world won't baby you because you're too stressed out. If there's one thing I learned from observing the real world, it's that life is not fair and that you will break if you can't handle the pressure. Homework is just another way for us to slowly get accustomed to a stress-filled lifestyle.

 

[Saltare.]

totally less! especially for the gifted kids(smart) cuz im in the realy high classes and I have about
5-8 hours of homework everynight (not counting studying) so reduce and my motto:

SAVE THE TREES,DON"T DO HOMEWORK!