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Daisy Phung

Mr. Lim

Ap Language and Composition

17 May 2017

The Hidden Pitfalls of Homework

Homework is assigned because it is believed to be beneficial to students. Many believe

that it is beneficial because it had be around for so long that it is abnormal to not have

homework. When students come home from school parents usually ask if they have home and if

they say no, parents do not believe them. It is weaved into our society now that homework is

needed and if there is not homework something is wrong. However, too much homework can

create more stress for the students, especially when this homework is actually busy work

designed to keep students working without the aim of furthering their understanding. This

amount of work demanded of a student on a daily basis, especially for student athletes and

students involved in clubs and other school organizations or activities, can become unreasonable.

Therefore, having too much homework actually detracts from the true education of students as

they are merely rushing to complete assignments for a letter grade without actually absorbing the

material, the content of their work.

With the addition of AP classes, students simply do not have the time to complete the

strenuous amounts of homework given by those classes. In a study shown by Stanford, students

usually average about 3.1 hours of doing homework. Extracurricular activities can add onto these

hours and create more stress for students. A Stanford researcher mentioned that, 56 percent of

students she tested found homework to be a stressor, 33 percent found that it made them feel
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pressure to get a good grade in the class, and less than 1 percent said it was not stressful (Parker).

In a study by ​The American Journal of Family Therapy it showed how h​omework can also lead

to family stress. Parents whose education are limited struggle to help their children with the

homework that is provided. Family fights about homework were 200 percent more likely when

the parent struggled to help or did not have a degree (Levy). This causes stress among the whole

family not only upon the student. Many parents just give up on doing homework with their

children. Over 80% out of 4300 students asked suffered from these stress related problems

(Joyce). By spending so much time on homework people also suffer health issues such as sleep

deprivation, weight loss, headaches, and exhaustion (Parker).

Another problem that homework creates form students is how struggle to balance

homework and other extracurricular activities they may also participate in. Since homework

affects their grade, students feel obliged to do the homework instead of focus on their other

talents or activities. Students are more likely to spend less time with friends and family, drop

activities, and not pursue hobbies in order to finish the homework they are assigned (Parker).

Those who are more socially adapt do not only focus on their homework are less likely to suffer

from health issues due to having an abundance of homework (Zuzanek). Students need to be able

to find a balance in doing their assignments and the other activities they participate in. However,

this may be difficult because by the time students arrive home from school they are limited in

time to do anything else. The average homework time takes 3 hours to complete if the student

gets out of school at 3, which many do, there is not enough time for other activities.

Busywork is not the only way that students are not progressing in their learning but it is

also how many students copy their homework. There is no real accountability if students actually
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do it themselves but it is common knowledge that many do copy. Having homework this way is

not an accurate representation of their understand, which may not even be theirs. Many students

just try to finish the homework as fast as they can. However this will not help them in the long

run. An article on MIT News reported on copying homework and stated, “This decline caused

repetitive copiers — students who copy over 30 percent of their homework problems — to have

over three times the failure rate of the rest of the students in spite of their starting the semester

with equal ability in math and physics.” The longer time people also spend on trying to finish

their homework the more their academic value is limited (Zuzanek). In a study of 24,000 people

they found that over 95% of students said that they had cheated at one point of their life (Yee).

Copying homework causes students to not actually learn or gain the practice they needed from it.

Homework given in our society does have its benefits but the cons of homework are far

more overpowering. Homework is able to help students understand the day's work and practice

the material they were taught (Fuglei). The subject of homework being unbeneficial is also

subjective because there is no real way of measuring how much homework is too much.

However, in order to benefit our education we need to thoroughly teach students instead of

giving busy work that students take up time doing and do not even enjoy. The time it takes for

students to do homework, most of the time cause them to miss out on extra curricular activities,

and even create health problems like stress.

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Works Cited

Fuglei, Monica. "The Homework Debate: The Case Against Homework." ​Concordia University

Portland Online​. N.p., 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 May 2017.

Joyce, Amy. "Too Much Homework? Some Parents Are Just Opting Out." ​The Washington Post​.

WP Company, 26 Aug. 2016. Web. 20 May 2017.

Levy, Sandra. "Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids' Health?" ​Healthline​. Healthline Media, 11

Apr. 2017. Web. 20 May 2017.

Parker, Clifton B. "Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework." ​Stanford News​. N.p., 15

Apr. 2016. Web. 20 May 2017.

Yee, Vivian. "Stuyvesant Students Describe the How and the Why of Cheating." ​The New York

Times​. The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 May 2017.

Zuzanek, Jiri. “Students' Study Time and Their ‘Homework Problem.’” ​Social Indicators

Research​, vol. 93, no. 1, 2009, pp. 111–115. ​JSTOR​, www.jstor.org/stable/27734902.