Homework Should Be Abolished Research Paper

Homework has always been associated with school, but not until recently has its usefulness been doubted. Students spend eight hours a day at school, not counting those in extracurricular activities, leaving little time to do anything besides their daily homework when they do get home. This brings up the age old argument of whether homework is harmful and should be abolished, or if homework is beneficial and should stay. Although some people believe homework is beneficial towards students, homework should be abolished because it does not guarantee that the student understands the subject, it increases stress levels, and it does not significantly affect test score.

There are those who believe that homework should not be abolished because it benefits

Usually, parents are the first people to notice that their child is becoming too stressed out. Almost 40 percent of parents say their high-schooler is experiencing a lot of stress from school, according to a new NPR poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. In most cases, that stress is from academics, not social issues or bullying, the poll found. (NPR). This information shows just how needless homework is. Work that is assigned by teachers should be finished during the class period instead of at home so that the stress factor is diminished. Students do not need the added pressure of trying to finish all of their homework for every one of their classes before the assignment is due the next day. Too much stress from homework can also make students physically sick from worrying about finishing it and staying up late through the night to finish it. “We found a clear connection between the students’ stress and physical impacts -- migraines, ulcers and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss,” says Denise Pope, co-author of the study. (Daily Mail). Students should not be getting physically sick because of school. School is meant to promote learning and success, not sickness and

Most of the homework given to students by teachers is remedial busywork that barely covers the topic or challenges the student to learn something new. According to Richard Walker, an educational psychologist at Sydney University, data shows that in countries where more time is spent on homework, students score lower on a standardized test called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. (Huffington Post). Students who do the remedial homework score significantly lower than students who did not do the homework at all. For example, the country of Finland has little to no homework in their education system and has a high school graduation rate of 93%, compared to the United States’ rate of 75%. Standardized tests do not play a big part in Finland’s education. Students in New York take up to 10 standardized tests before high school, whereas students in Finland only take one standardized test before they turn 16 years old. This is because Finland’s teacher to student ratio is 1 to 12, giving the teachers more time to interact with the students on a personal level and creating a better learning environment. Teachers are also required to obtain a master’s degree before they are allowed to teach. (Neonam). Finland is a perfect example of why homework is not needed for students to thrive and learn in