In 1901, the state of California passed a law that abolished homework for elementary school students. In addition, for several decades after this doctors supported political groups that were against homework. However, now things have changed. In today’s society both parents and teachers feel that homework is a necessary part of your child’s learning process. The main reason that they regard homework so highly is that they think homework is the only way for our nation to catch up on their education. Our nation is falling behind other nations when it comes to the standards of education, so teachers and parents alike feel the extra hours spent doing work outside of the classroom will help improve their quality of education. However, more and more schools are beginning to hear the complaint from parents about homework overload.
Here is a look at the negative effects that too much homework could have on children of all ages.
Number one: Nervousness
Having too much homework can make a child nervous or stressed out. Some children will be affected more deeply than others because of their need to do everything right the first time. Having too much homework can hurt children emotionally because they don’t ever have any downtime. Not having any downtime prevents the child from going out and doing things that children do, which is enjoying themselves while they play with friends or even by themselves. Children who are burdened with too much homework often appear sullen and burned out.
Number two: Family bonding
Having too much homework can also get in the way of family bonding. The main reason for this is that children who have too much homework must spend hours working on that homework. The hours spent on homework is cutting into the time that could be spent with family. Sure parents can help their children with homework, which encourages spending time with children, but most children would much rather be doing something fun with mom or dad, such as going for a bike ride or playing a family game.
Number three: Burden
Going to school for children is something that is supposed to be enjoyable. Children should have a thirst for knowledge; in fact most kids are always intellectually curious. These children want to know why things work and just can’t seem to get enough when it comes to learning new things. However, having too much homework can stop kids from wanting to learn. Piling on the homework tends to take the joy out of learning. Kids who are faced with homework overload tend to take the viewpoint that learning is a burden rather than something fun. What happens with these kids is that they will stop reading or doing anything that will lead to more learning. Eventually they will start to dread going to school because they dislike it so much.
Number four: Parents’ responsibilities
It used to be that parents helped teachers when it came to teaching their children. The reason for this was that many parents would create knowledge based environments for their children to help satisfy their intellectual curiosity. Now with homework overload parents are no longer taking the responsibility of helping their children learn by creating knowledge based environments. Now, all that parents seem to be doing is relying on the school and the teachers to teach their kids anything and everything that they want to know. Many parents will blame it on their busy schedule and having both parents working, but that is an excuse. Parents can spend time helping their children satisfy their thirst for knowledge by simply taking them to the library or even a bookstore rather than to the movies or the local mall.
What we need to remember is that the main purpose of school is to teach our children to love knowledge so that even after they are finished with school they will still want to learn everything that they can.
Parenting viewpoints from parents in the trenches, because parenting doesn’t come with a manual. In addition to
Bravo! I applaud the author of this article for stating the OBVIOUS but sadly overlooked fact that too much homework takes the fun out of learning. I see students so stressed and demoralized from doing hours and hours of silly, busy work that they no longer want to read, never pick up a book for fun, and come to hate learning. It is so sad and tragic for students, parents, teachers and society. Great article!