Are Teens Overworked?
Today has been a busy day. I spent 7 hours at school and I still have homework to do! Let’s see, I have a research paper for English due Monday, math homework, a history project due in two days, science test tomorrow, vocabulary words to study, and I have to complete the rest of my student notes packet. Not to mention I have some chores to do and I need to take care of my dog. After I spend at least three hours on homework and housework, I have to go to volleyball practice. I’m glad this is my day off. I am already having a nervous breakdown because I have no time to waste and I can’t take a break to calm down. Since I don’t have to work tonight, I was planning on getting time to myself this evening, but with so much work to do, I don’t think I will have any free time to relax. Tonight is going to be a long night.
This is what goes through the head of a teenage girl after a tough day at school. Teachers are giving out assignments left and right and she doesn’t know what to do. She is already working hard trying to do a sport, maintain a part-time job, care for her household, and have fun with the little time she has to herself. She says homework just adds to her stress and she doesn’t think she can keep this up any more. Although it may seem harmless, too much homework can affect a student’s performance in school, cause depression and anxiety, it gives teachers more work, and to a certain extent, it isn’t necessary.
Maybe students are being assigned too many hours of homework each night. According to guidelines endorsed by the National Education Association (NEA), a student should be assigned no more than 10 minutes per grade level per night. That would be 20 minutes a night for a second grader or 80 mi...
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...information. Excessive amounts of homework given at a time may cause a downfall in a student’s academic level. If a student is given math problems to complete and completes them incorrectly, he or she will likely fail a test. According to the U.S. Department of Education, most math teachers can tell after checking five algebraic equations whether a student understood the necessary concepts. Practicing redundant problems for homework each night incorrectly only implies wrong method.
Teachers believe that assigning more homework will improve standardized test scores. However, in countries like the Czech Republic, Japan, and Denmark, which have higher-scoring students, teachers give little homework. The United States is among the most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh and eighth grade, so more homework clearly does not mean a higher test score.
The first major step in healing America’s exhausted teenagers is to reduce the amount of homework they receive. Kids from the ages of fourteen to twenty-two alike are expected to play sports, join clubs, and hang out with friends – all on top of an average of three and a half hours of h...
"I didn’t feel [stressed] until I was in my 30’s. It hurts my feelings that my daughter feels that way at eleven" (Ratnesar 313). This statement describes the intense issue facing the American Education System today. More and more students are spending a lot of out of school time on enormous amounts of homework. The overabundance of homework is putting pressure on the students, along with their parents. Our nation has steadily focused on after school studying to the point of possible exhaustion. In this paper, I will attempt to explain how educators are relying on homework as the major form of education, and how the amounts are too demanding on the students.
However, parents need to educate themselves about the fact that homework is not going to make their child any smarter. Parents go from helping their child with homework to even completing the homework themselves. If the teacher is using homework as a gauge for understanding, that is simply not going to work. When it comes to homework load, teachers must review the options of homework and evaluate what is developmentally appropriate, what their students can handle, and what the goal or point of the homework actually is. In reality, school is in session for seven hours a day, and that should be plenty of enough time to impart the knowledge students need to learn. There is so much more to a child’s life than what is happening in
A problem with elementary students having homework is that their parents end up doing it just to get it over with. According to today.com there was a rule established by the National Education Association that limits the amount of homework any age kid, especially elementary should have to do. This is called “the 10 minute rule.” Kindergarten students should not get homework but first graders gets 10 minutes, second graders gets 20 and so on. This rule has been broken by teachers giving kindergarten students almost as much homework as a third grader should have. Because this rule is so often broken, parents are forced to step in and help their kids so they don’t look back on their life as all I did was homework.
When you think about school one of the first things that pops into people’s mind is homework. Basically if you have asked your parents or your grandparents they would say that they remember the homework load. Now we all know that homework can be beneficial but also can be very unhealthy with all of the stress that it causes. Over the years the homework load has increased because of the fact that schools think that they need to try to keep up with other countries in academics. And will doing all of this homework now be all for nothing later? The homework load has increased these past couple of years and it is causing a lot of stress on kids and overall is not helping their academics in the long run.
Homework has been an integral part of education since children started to be educated. Recently however, homework has begun to be assigned more and more often to students, especially in the United States, as it has begun to fall further and further behind countries like China, Singapore, and Japan. Homework is anything assigned by teachers to be completed by the students either at home, or just on their own time. The workload for students has gotten to the point where more and more parents are starting to notice the load for their kids has gotten to be too much. Many kids in high school, even 9th and 10th graders, can have 3 or even 4 hours of homework every night. In the past couple years, homework has gotten so out of control that parents are starting to speak out, and protest the amount of homework that students get each night (Marzano). In addition, studies have been done to determine the value of homework, but overall, the results are mixed at best (Kohn). Even studies that show a positive relationship between homework and test scores, among other things, show that homework is only effective when assigned in a moderate amount. Too much homework can be counter-productive, or have adverse effects on students. Students with too much homework can perform worse on tests, and develop serious physical and mental health problems from too much stress or lack of sleep.
Khristina Janer, a mother from Illinois, says, “I don’t feel like a parent. I feel like a drill sergeant!” when making her kids finish their homework after an extended period of time (Wallace). Many studies show the effectiveness of homework and all of the benefits it can do for us; the problem is: teachers are making kids do too much homework when they get home from school. The teachers don’t take in the environmental factors that could be harming any student 's ability to get a task done. Teachers automatically believe that kids are irresponsible or unmotivated when they don’t succeed in finishing their homework. When kids are given this much, or this difficult of, homework, sleep is being sacrificed. Even when they are doing all of their
Assigning copious amounts of homework decreases the student’s interest and drive to complete the work. Dr. Cooper, the Duke University social psychologist mentioned earlier, bluntly states in source B that “Kids burn out” (Source B). This simply-put statement supports the earlier claim, especially when acknowledged by one of the most prestigious homework-researchers in the country. As a student myself, I can personally attest to feelings of disinterest and being “burnt-out” quite often while completing four to six hours of homework on weeknights. Assigning too much homework also puts quantity ahead of quality. The cartoon by Randy Glasbergen supports this. By having the teacher say “just read every other word”, Glasbergen is acknowledging how, in order to complete vast amounts of homework, students and sometimes even teachers find it acceptable to cut corners, a lesson that serves only to hurt the education of students. Realizing several negative effects result from assigning too much homework, including driving the wrong behaviors, the best course of action is to adhere to the ten-minute rule. The ten-minute rule is where the child’s grade level is multiplied by ten, which results in the amount of homework they should do, in minutes (Source C). Following the ten-minute rule would allow students to be able to
A study in 2002 shows that homework causes kids moods to increased anxiety, depression, anger, and other mood disturbances among students. (Coulson)Kids have a seven hour day of school and then on top of that teachers are piling up a minimum of one thirty minutes worth of homework in each class. Kids get stressed out when they realize that they can't do anything fun in the evening which is suppose to be there fre. Homework causes kids to increases in stress and sleep deprivation.In time because they have to stay at home and finish their homework April, a researcher at Stanford University found that too much homework negatively affects kids by increasing stress and sleep deprivation and generally leaving less time for family, friends, and activities. (Graham)Kids don’t get enough sleep and get even more stressed out which causes them to do worse in school.Homework increases family and there conflict.Homework increases family conflict. And the more parents help with children’s homework, the more tension children experience.(Coulson)Homework causes more family conflict which tears families
Many parents are also bothered over the force of homework on the connection between their kids and teens.... ... middle of paper ... ... Think about how much homework we’ve done since we were in kindergarten, how many times we’ve stayed up and woke up half-awake, how many times we’ve kept others awake, and how much paper we’ve wasted. If you think that is a lot, think of all of the students around the world doing the same.
Excessive stress in high school students is a concerning outcome that results from an excess of work from school. Sixteen year old student Bretta McCall, who has had her fair share of homework, says, “Academic stress has been a part of my life ever since I can remember. This year I spend twelve hours a day on schoolwork. I’m home right now because I was feeling so sick from stress I could not stay at school.” (MindShift) Because McCall is a high school student herself, she knows first-hand what it is like to deal with overly excessive amounts of work and stress. McCall deals with twelve or more hours spent working on schoolwork, which is more than any full-time job expects. The purpose of high school is to prepare teenagers for the dedication required to maintain a full or part-time job. However, like McCall, many students are forced to work more hours than that of an actual job. The students are overworked and overstressed, which leaves them with health issues that make them feel sick. Mary Alvord is a clinical psychologist in Maryland and public educator coordinator for the American Psychological Association. As a professional on the subject, she says, “A little stress ...
Many of the teachers give way too much homework, and do not realize that student have more homework other than theirs. They might have other classes such as Math, Science, or Social studies homework, and to top it off, they get more homework such as English. Because of this, the children do not have free time to themselves or for their interests and hobbies. To take this a step further, much of their homework is unnecessary work that has already been understood in class or does not need more practice. Many believe that homework can make a student brighter or help them get better grades in school. This is partially true, but too much can cause the productivity, performance, and comprehension of the student to lower drastically rather than raising
In today’s world, education is more important than ever, and with education comes homework. However, many teachers give too much homework, which makes students extremely stressed. In addition, some are into sports or after school activities, and some have part time jobs they have to work at, which adds additional stress to the already overworked students. Mounds of homework can cause students to be under so much stress that it affects them mentally, physically, and emotionally. Stress can make students sick with colds, stomach aches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, and/or anxiety disorders (Menninger and Dugan).
Students are bombarded with hours of homework every night and it interferes with their lives. They are tired of staying up late at night to finish their homework or a paper that is due the next day. They should not have this workload that they have every night because they also have to live their childhood. Life is too short to be staying up until 11:00 because of schoolwork. Homework is unhealthy for students and it is not academically beneficial for them.
Although in some countries homework is not assigned, it is better to give students appropriate work in terms of availability of help, learning weaknesses, age and aim. In these days, the amount of homework has no a major effect on the academic results. According to the International Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and various education research partners, China has the highest record of 13.8 hours per week for 15-year old students, where Finnish