So you can go to sleep at 1.00 am and sleep for only 5 hours before you have to get up for an other stressful day.
But 5 hours of sleep aren’t enough! (Show Visual Number 2) On this table you can see, that the human body of a 15 to 18 years old needs between 8 and 9 hours of sleep every day. Sleep, after drinking and eating, is the most important thing for our body because while you’re sleeping, the body restores itself for the next day.
So how much homework is ok? Nothing? One hour per day? Two hours?
I think you can’t give a specific answer to this question, but I think the amount of homework given in the schools is too much. A study from the year 1996 states that the amount of homework assigned isn’t an indicator for the academic performance of a student.
Sure it is important like many people say, to review things you learned in school at home, but this can’t be forced by bigger amounts of homework. The student should have the choice of reviewing and repeating his subjects. So if he thinks he understood everything in school and didn’t need to review this by doing exercises, then he shouldn’t be forced to do this, and if he made the wrong decision, than he will notice this on his decreasing grades! Another argument for more homework is, that it prepares you for college and later life, but before all it is important for children and students in the years they are going to school, to have time for other important things, like family, more sleep or sports activities.
Now one could say that you could gain more time by canceling one of the other activities, but I think that activities like sports, taking part in other clubs or serving for community is more important than homework to develop a well rounded personality. Before all sport and sleep are very important things, because health should have priority over the finished math exercises.
With more time because of less homework, students would have more time for their family, friends and things like taking part in school or other clubs, what is also important for college applications.
Some students have to go working, even on the weekends to earn money, for college or other important things, with less homework they would have less stress and a healthier life. Going to work is also important for them, to learn how to be independent with money and how to use it wisely, what is a more important lecture for life than homework.
Another argument is, that when the students would have less homework, they would do the homework they have better, because they have more time. When one gets 20 tasks and it’s very late and he gets tired, then one will probably try to finish the work as soon as possible and will make mistakes. But with less homework he would do the tasks more carefully.
Another point is that with less homework, the amount of books the students have to carry home would decrease and their bags wouldn’t be so heavy. Physicians say, that the weight of a backpack is supposed to be only 10% of the weight of the person who carries it!
An other counterargument is, that with a lot of homework teacher have more time in class to give explanations, but the classroom is the perfect place to practice the things you learned, because you have all the materials there and you can ask the teacher for help when you didn’t understand something. And if you didn’t understand something in class then you won’t learn it by doing it as homework, because nobody is there to explain it for you and if you have more time in the evening because you don’t have to do so much homework, you have more time for studying and so the students could improve their knowledge and grades.
The result I draw from this, is that the advantages for students and teachers of less homework outweighs the disadvantages. Now it is important to find the right amount. You can’t say no homework at all is the best, because there are several things which have to be done at home or which are important to repeat as homework, but I think the key for less homework is to change the kind of homework which is given. It would be better to give homework, where the students learn something while doing it, then finishing 60 tasks in your book where you only do the same and the same again! So I think the recipe is to have homework from which you can learn, not simply to waste our time!
