Why Homework Is Bad

For decades, teachers have delegated homework to students. The purpose of homework is to discover if students understand the material well enough to complete an assignment on their own. Yet, is homework really helping kids or hurting them? From teachers’ point of view, homework is helpful to get an idea of how well students understand the material. On the other hand, from the parents’ and students’ point of view, homework is extremely stressful and time-consuming. I believe that homework doesn’t help students and may actually be hurting them. First, homework isn't helping kids as they rarely have time to get outside and be active. Without time to get outside and exercise, more and more kids are being diagnosed with ADHD and obesity. They don’t get to have fun and let out energy so when they are at school for seven hours a day they have a harder time concentrating. This has become a growing problem with middle and high school students as many schools have taken out physical education from the school schedule. When kids get home, they won’t have time for exercise if they have hours of homework waiting for them. Second, kids are only kids once and need time to do what they want. They need creative outlets for their personal interests, like music, drama, and sports. If kids have no time to do what they want, are they going to be happy? Of course not! If they aren't happy, will they try their best in school? Doubtful. When tired kids get overwhelmed with work, they block out or miss important information in the classroom. Then, they don’t have what they need to know for their homework and what about that test next week in Spanish class? Are they going to get a good grade on that? No! Not completing homework has a domino effect. When the teacher explains tonight's homework and stressed kids don’t get it, let’s just say, “It’s going to be a very long night!” Kids can get so upset over homework; it doesn’t only