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Is homework harmful or helpful? We bet that every single one of us has thought about this question. Whether we like it or not, homework has always been there. Some of us prefer to come to terms with it. While others strongly believe that homework is harmful and want it to be removed from the academic program completely.
If you are a student at school or college, you certainly face lots of homework every single day. Of course, you can prefer to entrust it to professionals from EssayPro.com by the request "write my essay" and get it done with minimum effort. But it is still there. So, is homework helpful or harmful?
So, is homework harmful or helpful? This question is as old as the world. Ever since there were first schools, there was homework of some kind. Some people believe that it is an integral part of the educational system, while others stand against it. It seems like this centuries-old debate is neverending. But, which point is right? In reality, is homework helpful or harmful?
To find the answers, it is vital to understand what exactly can make homework helpful or harmful. Is it the overall scope of tasks or tight deadlines? Or is it just the nature of academic assignments? What in fact makes us ponder about “Is homework harmful or helpful?” And if we find the answer, what would be those key factors that influence it?
Before we move on to a discussion on “is homework helpful or harmful, let’s look at a few facts. The key thing you need to understand is that the volume of tasks students are assigned to do grew significantly over the past decades. Today, students can spend more than 17 hours doing their assignments every week. This is one of the main factors that cause the debate on “is homework harmful or helpful” and, in this article, we are going to look for the answer.
If you are wondering is homework harmful or helpful, you should dive deeper into the details to discover the answer. Let’s look at both sides of the coin separately.
First, let’s figure out this - why is homework helpful? Here are some of the main reasons that make homework helpful:
If you are wondering why is homework helpful, the biggest argument for it is the fact that assigning tasks helps reinforce the learning process. Not all students absorb the provided information right in class. In most cases, new knowledge gets lost if you don’t use it again. Homework, in its turn, is a perfect opportunity for students to look back at what they’ve learned and memorize the material better.
Another good reason that makes the answer to the question “why is homework helpful” quite obvious is that doing tasks at home helps students develop vital skills like priority setting and time management. Both these skills are needed to get your tasks done in time. And both skills will come in handy in the future.
Take-home tasks really get parents involved in their child’s learning process. With the help of these assignments, parents can track their kid’s performance and identify their key strengths and weaknesses. And it is one more answer to the question “why is homework helpful”.
Now that we’ve answered the question “why is homework helpful,” it is time to look at the issue from a different angle and learn what makes it bad for students. Just like there are quite a few people who advocate for academic assignments, there are no fewer people who believe that homework is harmful. What makes them think so, and how is homework harmful?
To answer these questions, let’s look at some of the main counter-arguments that prove that homework is harmful:
Answering the question “how is homework harmful,” it is impossible not to talk about the stress it causes. According to surveys, more than half of students confirm that homework is the biggest trigger of stress. Students stress out because of the fear to get their tasks wrong or not being able to finish them in time.
So if you are thinking “is homework helpful or harmful”, the stress it causes is definitely harmful.
It has been numerously proven that the right life-study balance can improve a student’s overall performance. But, if your tasks take 100% of your free time, there is no balance at all! So if you are still thinking “how is homework harmful,” there you have one more reason.
Looking for the answers to the questions “is homework harmful or helpful” and “how is homework harmful” we should also look at it from the health perspective. Numerous health problems result from the excess of stress. Students who get too many tasks often suffer from different mental and physical health issues, including depression, headaches, anxiety, and more. And this is one more argument against the question “is homework harmful or helpful.”
So, how is homework harmful? If you think about why exactly is homework harmful or helpful, some may come to the conclusion that it is not too bad for you. But, apart from other issues that we discussed earlier, it can be especially disadvantageous for low-income students. The thing is that low-income students may not have all the resources they need to finish their tasks. Respectively, their performance may drop and they can experience twice as much stress as their peers.
Looking back to all the reasons that make homework helpful or harmful that we’ve discussed earlier, we can give only one answer - it is both. To a certain extent, you can say that homework can be both helpful and harmful.
There are multiple factors that show how good it can be for students. And, there are also factors that prove that homework is harmful.
Then how to ensure the best student experience? Obviously, the only reasonable solution is to find the right balance. There is no need to completely eliminate homework from the educational system.
However, it is vital that schools and teachers find a way to reduce the time students spend on it per day. By finding and maintaining the right number of hours, we can improve the overall life-study balance and, thus, boost students’ experience and performance.