Should homework be banned? This is one common debate in the education circle. In schools and colleges, the practice of assigning homework is there for a long time. However, in recent times, students have been loaded with multiple assignments. Particularly, they have no other option than to spend day and night on assignments like report writing, literature essays, math problems, and scientific posters. As the academic workload is getting heavy, nowadays, a lot of voices are opposing homework.
Basically, for some people, homework is a good learning tool. However, some students and educators consider homework to be a useless task and are looking for a ban. Even certain surveys state that students who spend too much time on homework experience more stress and health problems. Apart from academic stress, students and educators are also pushing for a complete ban on homework for several other reasons. Here in this blog post, let us have a closer look at the major reasons why homework should be banned.
Why Homework Should Be Banned?
In general, homework has both pros and cons. But in the 21st century, instructors have been giving a lot of homework to students in all subjects. While assigning homework, many instructors either give new unknown tasks or fail to give proper homework writing instructions to the students. Hence, because of a lack of knowledge and information, plenty of students end up with incorrect homework help or solutions. Also, as today’s parents are too busy with their responsibilities, even at home, students have no one to help with homework writing. These factors make it hard for the students to do their homework correctly and on time and hence they demand to ban homework.
Listed below are some of the primary reasons why homework should be banned.
Plenty of Homework
In recent times, schools firmly believe that homework is important for students to improve their overall academic performance. Hence, they are regularly assigning a lot of assignments to students on all the major subjects in their curriculum. If there is a pile of homework, then it becomes too challenging for students to complete it before the deadline. The educational institutes are not even considering the difficulties involved in giving too much homework and are forcing parents to teach their children through multiple assignments. This will not be helpful for students’ progress in academics and is considered the initial reason why homework should be banned.
Affects the Pattern of Sleep Cycle
As the students are continuously loaded with a lot of homework and projects, they spare their sleep to submit their tasks on time. Even some children are losing their sleep because of the anxiety of a heavy workload and not being able to finish the remaining assignments. Generally, for the strong physical and mental health of students, a healthy sleep cycle is necessary. But, students are losing their quality of life because of irregular sleep patterns due to the massive amount of work. Hence, it is treated as the second reason why homework should be banned.
No Time for Physical Exercises and Causes Obesity
Like sleep, exercise is also important for people of all age groups. In particular, to stay active and energetic, students must do some physical activities or exercises. Mostly, students spend more hours a day in their school. Even after returning home, they don’t have time to relax, eat, and do little stretching exercises due to the huge amount of homework. Some children are busy doing their homework during weekends as well. This is another reason why homework should be banned.
Increases Anxiety and Stress
Overloading students with homework has negative effects on their physical and mental health. According to Standford University Research, the majority of the students say that the primary source of their stress and depression is homework. Furthermore, several students exhibit stress-related symptoms such as tiredness, headache, weight loss, sleep deprivation, and stomach problems. As homework paves the way for bothersome health issues, students ask for the ban. No homework means No stress, and obviously, the students will live in peace.
Reduces the Self-confidence of Students
It is not correct to judge the abilities of students based on their homework. Some students might not have the basic knowledge of subject concepts and will struggle to write their homework properly. Hence, because of this, they may end up incorrectly preparing the homework. Suppose, the teachers punish the students for submitting wrong information or making fun of them in front of the whole class, then high chances are there for students to lose their self-confidence. To avoid such activities, homework should be banned.
No Enough ‘Me’ Time
As students spend too much time on homework, it becomes tough for them to find time to develop their life skills. Also, they avoid participating in other favorite activities such as music, sports, dance, painting, singing, and so on. Doing favorite things and having some ‘me’ time, will keep the mind happier. Having no time to invest in their interests because of homework is yet another major reason why homework should be banned.
Negative Impact on Academic Performance
Many teachers believe that homework will improve the academic performance of students. But that is not completely true. If the teachers give more assignments to students, then there will not be any time left for the students to learn their subjects. Because of this, the grades of the students will diminish. Hence, homework should be banned.
No Time to Play Games
Due to a lack of free time, the students are unable to play games or participate in any outdoor activities. Everyone expects students to give high priority to their academics over games. But as they have a lot of assignments to complete, the time flies quickly and by the time they finish their homework, it becomes bedtime. Generally, playing outdoor games will refresh the mind. Because of a heavy workload, the students stay indoors and get exhausted. Therefore, this is considered another reason to ban homework.
Less Time with Family Members
This is one of the important reasons why homework should be banned. Students spend more hours on homework. Hence, it becomes difficult for parents to spend time with their children. As soon as the students reach home, they begin working on their projects and assignments. Due to this, they barely have time to interact with their family members and attend weekend activities, family events, and dinners. Moreover, students will have more time to build their bonds with their families.
Conflict with Parents
Every parent wants their children to perform well in academics and score top grades. Hence, they force their kids to concentrate more on their homework and other learning activities. But as students are staying in school for long hours, they might feel tired when they reach home. Some students will start their homework once they reach home but many students will feel lazy and will love to sleep. Since students refuse to complete their homework, an argument arises between children and their parents. This circumstance sometimes leads to a big conflict. Hence, it is good to ban homework.
Homework Affects the Freedom of Students
In general, during holidays or weekends, children will love to sleep for long periods and will not wake up early in the morning. Moreover, the holiday is the best time for children to spend more hours in bed and relax. But, nowadays, because of the latest education culture, teachers give homework to students even on weekends as well. Because of this painful action by the educational institutes, the students are losing their freedom. So, this is treated as another critical reason why homework should be banned.
Loss of Social Life
Students give more importance to homework over social aspects. As students have piles of assignments to complete, they don’t have time to socialize. In particular, they lose the ability to communicate effectively with others and make friends. Mainly, because of too much homework, many students have stopped functioning as responsible adults. Also, some students face difficulties in surviving in society. Hence, this is the next reason why homework should be banned.
Promotes Cheating
When there is a lot of homework to finish within a shorter duration, some students will copy from their friends or classmates. So due to this habit of copying, the students learn how to cheat the teachers. If a teacher identifies the similarities in the homework, then for sure, they would give punishment to the students. That is why homework should be banned.
Extra Challenges
Some college students after their classes will go for internship training or part-time jobs. So, for such students, it would be more challenging to do their homework after their regular working hours. Therefore, this is considered another reason to ban homework.
Irrelevant Content
Homework should be banned if it has nothing to do with the subject being studied. It is not fair to ask students to complete homework on any topic that teachers deal with in class. If the students do not know new concepts, then it would become tougher for them to finish such homework on time.
Less Guidance from Teachers
Generally, during in-person learning, students can raise their hands and get valid clarifications from their teachers whenever they have doubts about the concept taught. But that is not possible while doing homework. Whenever they have queries while writing assignments, they can’t immediately get proper clarification or guidance from their teachers. That is why in-person learning is preferred and several students wish to ban homework.
Frequent Rote Learning
The homework assigned for the majority of subjects doesn’t play a key role in the improvement of skills. Instead, most of the time homework involves rote learning, which is not the best way to learn. The ultimate purpose of education is to provide high-quality training for vocational professionals to develop their skills. However, homework focuses only on word problems that have no basis in the real world. Hence, it is chosen as another reason why homework should be banned.
No Fun in Learning
Students will doze off, if the class is too boring or if they experience difficulties in paying attention to the session. During such a situation, it would be more pressurizing for students to understand the topic and complete the homework on their own. Moreover, this way will not help students in developing a love of learning. If the learning is full of fun, then students can sit and attend hours and hours of class, which in turn will reduce the troubles in writing homework. So, students choose the lack of fun in learning as one of the reasons to ban homework.
Makes the Subject More Complex to Learn
The counterproductive nature of homework is another reason why homework should be banned. Often, teachers neither cover the entire curriculum prescribed by the institution nor use all the materials for teaching. Instead, they expect students to prepare homework on their own. In such a case, students would find it strenuous to comprehend the subject. Also, more challenges would creep in, if they don’t have appropriate resources for reference. This will increase the complexity level of learning.
Didn’t Match the Expectations of Students
Homework is not what students want and hence it should be banned. Students of all academic levels have some sort of hatred toward homework. We can easily state a reason that ‘students are not living in the real world’. The real world is more creative and diverse when compared to stagnant and repetitive homework. Instead of asking students to write information on a piece of paper, teachers will have to bring new changes into the learning approach. The education system should concentrate on teaching students how to be self-sufficient and it should allow them to earn more benefits by providing diverse resources or subject materials.
Other Key Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned
Here are a few more reasons why homework should be banned.
- Homework affects the physical health of students.
- This forces children to work like machines.
- It’s a waste of students’ time.
- It does not provide any practical knowledge.
- Homework creates a habit of procrastination in children.
- Kids hate studying because of homework.
- Homework is boring.
- Students feel like dolls.
- Homework repeats concepts that instructors teach in school.
- Creates memorizing habits in students.
- Requires more amount to purchase internet and study materials.
- Lack of downtime.
- It becomes hard for students to spend their time reading books and building their imaginations.
- Difficulty in concentrating on extra-curricular activities.
- Tough for college students who are doing part-time jobs to make a living.
- Leads to a poor academic work-life culture.
The Benefits of a Homework Ban
As we said before, homework has both advantages and disadvantages. However, burdening students with too much homework is detrimental to their health and affects their overall academic performance. Especially when homework is prohibited, students have many extraordinary benefits. Some of the benefits of banning homework are listed below.
- Increase the time to communicate with family.
- Reduce stress.
- Students have more time to study their subjects and prepare well for exams.
- Help students develop social and other life skills.
- Easy for students to balance their academic and personal lives.
- Improves the physical and mental health of students.
- Students can have a happy weekend.
- Help students maintain normal sleep cycles.
Proven Reasons Why Homework is Beneficial
Typically, students and parents quote several reasons listed above to ban homework. But if students understand the importance of homework, then they will change their mindset. Here, let us look at some key reasons why homework is considered to be beneficial for students.
- Reinforces learning: Homework allows students to reinforce what they have learned in class. Furthermore, students can better recall and understand the subject if they practice and apply the concepts they learn in class.
- Develops time management skills: Homework enhances students’ ability to manage time. Especially, students who finish their assignments on time develop time management and prioritization skills that they may use both inside and outside of the classroom.
- Fosters independence: Homework fosters independence in students. Students become more independent and learn to take ownership of their education when they finish homework on their own.
- Prepares for tests: Homework prepares students for tests. Through the process of practicing and reviewing content covered in class, students can improve their performance on quizzes and examinations.
- Encourages critical thinking: Homework promotes critical thinking skills. If students apply classroom concepts to real-world events or issues, then they may acquire critical thinking abilities that are necessary for academic and professional success.
- Builds confidence: Homework can help students gain confidence. Completing homework and receiving positive feedback from teachers boosts students’ confidence in their talents.
Possible Alternatives to School Homework
Homework has both positive and negative effects on the scholastic life of students. The aim of giving homework is to improve the subject knowledge and skills of students. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers use homework as extra lesson time. Therefore, it is troublesome for students to spend time on boring textbooks and worksheets. Since many students experience difficulties with writing homework, they wish to ban it. However, instead of homework, teachers may try other creative homework alternatives and help students.
Listed below are some potential alternatives to homework
- Project-based learning: Practical knowledge is essential for students to understand theoretical concepts. So, to improve the practical knowledge of students, teachers may use a project-based learning approach. Instead of asking students to write lengthy essays, teachers may encourage students to explain any concept using arts and crafts. Some of those activities include making a model, creating charts, etc.
- Real-life learning: Textbooks are not the only source of learning. Even through real-life observation and involvement in outdoor activities, students can learn a lot. For instance, teachers may ask students to visit a zoo, or local dumping ground, take part in social activities, etc, and ask them to create a report based on their observations.
- Games and activities: Even through funny games and activities, students can learn a subject. Besides that, by playing games, students can build their analytical skills and problem-solving skills. For example, on any subject, teachers may ask students to solve crossword riddles, puzzles, and so on.
- Digital activities: Nowadays, students widely use the internet and spend time on digital activities like preparing an album, creating a video, and more. So, to keep them involved in academics, teachers may ask students to create infographics or videos on any particular subject. This is one of the advanced and more trending alternatives to homework that will be engaging to students.
Conclusion
We hope you have now understood the major reasons why homework should be banned. Generally, educational institutes will not ban homework quickly. It takes time to put a complete ban on homework. So, you should know to manage your time and complete your homework properly. In case, you face any troubles in writing your homework or need help from an assignment expert, then approach us immediately.
