Homework Should Be Abolished Argumentative Essay

One of the longest arguments in history has everything to do with school. Should homework stay or go? As a parent, it can be difficult to understand why today’s children shouldn’t be learning exactly how they did as a child. 20 years ago, people learned strictly by the book, therefore everyone did the same thing. It’s time to branch out and create new norms. Many argue that homework is beneficial to the process of learning by teaching students how to work independently. They could even argue that homework gives students much-needed responsibility. These points appear great until you look at the fine print. When you look deep into the effects of homework you realize just how bad it can become. Homework should be abolished across the globe because it is hurting students’ mental health, there are much better ways to benchmark academic progress, and homework is stealing real-world experiences from the growing youth.

Presently, Students are extremely overworked and it will cause detrimental effects in the future. There have been considerable amounts of studies conducted on children’s mental health, and the results are not promising. A study conducted by The American College Health Association found “stress as the No.1 ‘impediment to student performance’, and found that nearly one in 10 students had seriously considered suicide”(Alex). These statistics are horrifying! Everyone can agree that mental health comes before anything. Suicide and depression should not be common traits between students. These statistics are backed up by students who report “that homework causes them to sleep less than they should and leads to ‘headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems’ as well as a lack of balance in their lives”(Strauss). Here is another common theme, but not only between one school but students all over the world. In the real world, when a large group of individuals is negatively affected by something, people come together to reform and revise. In the 1960s the women’s rights movement was created to give women a more comfortable and fair life. So why aren’t we standing up for our youth the way we do for adults? Children are the future of this world. We do not want to kick them down before they even have the chance to stand up.

Not only is homework negatively affecting students, but it is also completely unnecessary. Many people argue that homework is an excellent way for teachers to see how well students can handle the curriculum on their own. However, there are flaws with this logic. The first flaw is that when most students hit a roadblock while doing homework they head right to the internet to look up the answers. By cheating, students aren’t learning anything. The second flaw is that there are more conventional ways to benchmark a student’s progress in the classroom, without cutting into their much-needed free time. So what are those ways? The main ways teachers can benchmark a student’s academic progress is through tests, quizzes, labs, papers, and projects. When students are assigned in-classroom work, they are able to seek help through teachers and build a strong understanding of the topic, unlike homework. In fact, studies have proven that students perform much better when they are not assigned homework on a regular basis. Researchers who worked closely with students on a performance study in Australia recommended “that less homework should be given and the assignments chosen for students should be of higher quality, eliminating the drill and practice work”(Asbury Park Press). Given the fact that academic professionals advise against homework, it is pretty clear that homework is harmful instead of helpful. However, this concept can still be foggy when you just have an opinion and not true results. A school in New York decided that it was time for change and they completely threw homework out the window. Following this bold move, other schools jumped on the bandwagon, consequently “the schools that [had] given up assigning homework report uniformly fabulous results”(Suhay). This statement from a professional, Alfie Kohn, who has conducted studies and even wrote a book on this topic, is truly eye-opening. Not only do you have experts left and right saying that homework is useless, but you also have statistics explaining that homework does little to nothing for students. If we want our youth to perform at their highest potential, we need change.

Not only is homework unnecessary, but it is also taking up too much of students’ free time that could be used to build real-world experience. Almost every parent and teacher have seen these effects first hand. In an interview, Buckberry, a Michigan school board member emphasizes the problems they have seen throughout their student body, “we leave no unoccupied time in their day. We’re raising kids who don’t know how to sit under a tree and think about things”(Frerking). Buckberry has a great point. By putting so much structure into a child’s life, they grow up and never learn how to effectively manage their time. When given the chance, children should be able to just sit down to relax and think. Not about what homework they need to get done or what grade they have in their class, but about how they are feeling and what they need more of in life. Not only are students lacking this beneficial exercise, but researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder have also found that “children who spend more time in less-structured activities (such as reading, drawing, free play or social outings) are better at setting and accomplishing their own goals than those whose pursuits were more scripted”(Abeles). The foundation of success comes from self-motivation and organization. Without the ability to effectively work on your own, you will never learn anything or go anywhere in life. When you can make your own goals and set yourself up for success, you can learn and do anything you want. So let’s set the future up for success and let our children explore and learn how they navigate life best. 

Given the incredible information provided by these professionals, homework should be abolished across the globe because it is hurting students’ mental health, there are much better ways to benchmark academic progress, and homework is stealing real-world experiences from the growing youth. There is countless research on the worsening mental health pandemic across the world’s youth, and it all connects back to homework. Something so useless and small is creating extremely large issues across the globe. It’s time we take a trip back to the drawing board and help the growing youth live up to their greatest potential. 

Works Cited

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Alex, Patricia. "Students with Mental Troubles on Rise." The Record, 25 Jun 2007. SIRS   

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"Does Homework Work?" Asbury Park Press, 10 Sep 2013. SIRS Issues Researcher,  

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Frerking, Beth. "The Problem with Homework." Plain Dealer, Feb 1999. SIRS Issues  

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Strauss, Valerie. "Homework Hurts High-Achieving Students, Study Says." Washington Post -  

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Suhay, Lisa. "New York School Abolishes Homework. does Homework do any Good?"  

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