Coming from a student, after a long day of school and sports the last thing, I want to do when I get home is homework. Many teachers feel as though homework is an effective way to help the students practice their work and understand it better, however, research shows that homework can cause “unhealthy levels of stress” (www.mysunshinelearning.com). Students go to school for 7 hours every day and many have jobs and sports after school. By the time they get home around 10:00 pm, instead of having downtime to rest, they work on homework. Working on homework all night and waking up at 6:00 am causes extreme lack of sleep. It is proven that children who sleep more perform better in school; but how are kids able to get enough sleep when they are focusing and stressing about homework all night? A Stanford study showed that 56% of students said homework was a main source of their stress, and their amount of homework had caused sleep deprivation and other health problems (https://hayshighguidon.com).  

Students already spend an extreme amount of time at school. Seven hours a day, five days a week. Each teacher gets five hours with their class per week so why should the students have to go home and do more work? Spending more than the recommended time on homework is linked to lower test scores and higher rates of anxiety and depression (https://www.goodrx.com/). For decades there have been protests and debates about banning homework due to the fact that it can cause harm to a child’s health. Back in 1901, the anti-homework movement gained such strength that California outlawed homework for all grades below high school (https://www.goodrx.com/).  

Some younger kids in elementary school or even middle school need their parents to help them with their homework. Many kids might find themselves getting frustrated or yelling at their parents. This creates stress for not only the children but also the parents. Homework can also take away from spending quality time with your family. Homework leaves less time for children to be children. Kids need to get outside and play more often so they can grow and develop, but homework is holding them back from this.  

Many high schoolers have jobs and sports. After a long day at school, jobs, and/or sports it doesn’t leave a lot of time to do homework. Many kids don’t even get the chance to start their homework till very late at night. This type of schedule causes many students to have very high stress levels. It can also cause kids to have sleepless nights, leading to sleep deprivation. With a packed schedule and a huge amount of homework kids are losing sleep at night causing them to sleep in class and perform at lower levels than they are capable of. Without homework, or a reduced amount of homework, students could gain more sleep and function better during school. Some kids are too worn out after their long day of school, jobs, clubs, and volunteer work, they don’t have time to complete their homework. This can cause students’ grades to drop and make them less motivated when it comes to schoolwork. 

For all students, homework consumes free time. Going to school for seven hours Monday- Friday already takes up so much time throughout the day. A Stanford study shows survey data and student responses also indicated that students spending a lot of time on homework were “more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and pursue hobbies they enjoy” (https://hayshighguidon.com). Once kids get out of school it’s supposed to be time to themselves, time they can spend however they want. 

Homework is one of the main causes of stress when it comes to students. Although it does have many positive attributes, when teachers assign multiple assignments per night it can become very overwhelming. According to the survey data, 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress. The remaining students viewed tests and the pressure to get good grades as the primary stressors. Notably, less than 1 percent of the student’s said homework was not a stressor (https://gateway.aurorak12.org/). Eliminating homework would be the best option for anyone in school. It ultimately takes the stress away from school in general. School is already very stressful for most students and eliminating homework would help students feel less stressed.  

There can be some good attributes that homework brings such as teaching kids good time management skills and being productive. But recently homework has seemed to cause more harm than good. The negatives are starting to overcome the positives.