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Homework: Why Our Kids Get Too Much Of A Bad Thing

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One of the most controversial topics in education today is homework. This debate has been going on for decades, as teachers, administrators, and parents disagree on whether homework should be assigned, and if assigned, then what the right amount of homework should be. The time students spend on homework has increased over the years. “High school students get assigned up to 17.5 hours of homework per week, according to a survey of 1,000 teachers” (Bidwell). Recently, more fuel has been added in this debate because younger students in particular are receiving much more homework than before. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, states that “The amount of homework that younger kids – ages 6 to 9 – have …show more content…

Glenda Pryor-Johnson of Concordia University says that homework assists in developing four essential qualities in children: Responsibility, Time Management, Perseverance, and Self-Esteem (Fuglei). In addition, homework fosters greater self-direction and self-discipline in students. These are the necessary qualities that will help them become high-achieving students. These skills acquired from homework will also benefit students in the real-world, and in college too. Students who regularly completed homework will be more inquisitive in life and participate in more independent problem solving (Plato). In college, professors expect that students have well-developed study habits from all those years of homework. Proponents believe that homework serves as the foundation for acquiring these qualities and study habits, however, the opposers of homework believe these benefits to be highly subjective, and cite lack of evidence as their reasoning behind refuting this …show more content…

Homework allows parents to become involved in their child’s education, and communicate more with their children regarding school (Plato). It is the link which allows parents to know what their child is learning at school. Homework is also a great method for reinforcing concepts learned in class. Sharon Stallings, principal of Signal High School in NJ says that “Homework is important because it’s an opportunity for students to review materials that are covered in the classroom. You need to practice in order to become proficient” (Akman). There is only so much time that teachers have in the classroom. Homework offers more practice that can’t be completed in class time so students can master the subject content. This practice at home is essential, because American students already spend much less time studying academic content when compared to students of other countries. A study by the National Education Commission on Time and Learning found that “students abroad are required to work on demanding subject matter at least twice as long as US students” (Marzano & Pickering, 2007). With that said, the fact that students in countries like Japan, Germany, and France outperform students in the US is not that surprising. Proponents of homework believe homework is one of the ways we can raise the quality and standard of American

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