Halt the Needless Homework!

One thing every student complains about weekly is homework. Homework is oftentimes described to students as “a continuation of practicing the topic we learned today at home.” However, this is the primary cause of complaint among students: the added workload they have. With the burden bestowed upon us every night, questions begin to arise. Is homework helping us at all? Is it too much? Should we even continue to have it in the first place, or include rigid guidelines for teachers to follow?

A standard year of school contains a minimum of 180 instructional days with seven hours per day. This makes school a full-time job, pushing students past an industry-standard forty-hour work week if you take into account extracurriculars. Adding homework into this situation can easily overwhelm a student. Homework typically lasts between one and two hours each day, but can last even longer depending on how much is assigned. This “extra practice” is said to be helpful, but there are three big questions that need to be considered when reflecting on the role of homework.

The first is what if the student doesnʼt understand the assignment? At home, they canʼt reliably contact the teacher, which limits their opportunities should they not fully grasp the content. If students look up videos, sometimes they use different methods or procedures that you havenʼt been shown yet (oftentimes in mathematics) or provide facts that are unnecessary to your topic (frequently in history classes). Students cannot be expected to simply solve all academic questions in office hours due to other commitments, such as sports, school clubs, or parents needing to get home or pick up siblings. Asking friends wonʼt help either if they also do not understand what the assignment is attempting to convey. Homework ought not to be something that requires teachers to provide an in-depth explanation for, so why do we still receive it when we donʼt fully understand the expectations or the content?

Secondly, what if the student is consistently stressed about homework? Such unnecessary stress can affect our health in numerous ways. Students can experience anxiety issues that will impact their lives in the long run, struggle with a lack of sleep every night (ruining their overall academic performance), and give up on assignments, leading to the constant use of AI or plagiarism. Simply typing a problem into the AI response engine will give you an answer in a second, and itʼs exactly what tired and distressed students will look for to complete the work as soon as possible.

This wonʼt cut it in real life; you canʼt take a picture of your issues all the time and have someone else, nonetheless a robot, do the problem-solving for you. This is exactly what teachers tell us to avoid, but some students are still drawn back into the trap because itʼs a straightforward solution to an issue that can be confounding to students. Additionally, students may enjoy a particular subject, but homework piling up for the class can remove the joy of learning instilled in them, and their performance in school will decline. With all the anxiety placed on top of that, school will feel more like a heavy burden rather than a place to receive and apply knowledge.

Additionally, suppose the student has outside activities. As mentioned before, the student can be participating in outside activities such as sports and school clubs. Being a student-athlete already presents such challenging tasks, with homework being an unnecessary nuisance on top of it. They can run out of time to do homework because of what their lives outside of school call for.

Finally, we are still growing up as students at St. Paul. We are called to try new experiences and create memories with friends that will last a lifetime. We are meant to shape our childhood, not let it be devoured by schoolwork. Sometimes, students need to create memories to pass down and create joy in their lives. They want to improve their social skills and make friends outside of the school setting. We already spend seven hours a day at school, so why is it necessary to weigh us down with these extra hours of work? Why canʼt we enjoy life outside of learning and become who we are meant to be?

Teachers have made claims that homework benefits our academic success, but in reality, it can only go so far if we continue to get mile-high stacks of homework assignments. If itʼs extra practice for us, shouldnʼt we be able to choose how to train our minds to retain information, especially since all students may learn differently from each other? These statements allow us to say that homework should be reduced in an effort to protect the health of students and help them grow at the same time.

Although homework is heavy and shows no signs of leaving just yet, it is still our responsibility to come in prepared for learning. Whether or not we receive homework, we ought to arrive with an open mind, ready to absorb information so homework does not appear as a necessity for teachers to assign extra practice. This is not to say homework should be taken away forever, but it must be reexamined for its perceived need. For example, perhaps an agreement can be made where a classwork assignment, long-term project, or anything you need to correct can qualify as homework, not unseen assignments. This creates balance without argument and provides students with the ability to dive into the task with the teacherʼs guidance.

Ultimately, the acceptance of homework becomes a social contract. Teachers must recognize that students may have other commitments and want to enjoy their lives; however, students must be aware that it is their responsibility to come to school ready to learn if they want teachers not to consider homework a required labor. Homework must therefore be reduced to maintain the students' love for learning, protect their overall health, and create opportunities for the students to tackle new experiences outside the classroom.