The benefits of homework has been debated by teachers, parents and educationists for many years as the very word evokes different connotations to each involved – students, parents and teachers. Although many people think homework does more harm than good by causing copious amounts of unnecessary stress to everyone, others believe that it has great advantages for children by encouraging them to think more independently outside the classroom and learning to be self-dependent from an early age.
The Benefits
- The first benefit of homework is that it allows students and teachers to work more closely together. They can discuss their assignments or any problems that they are having with parts of their textbooks, before or after classes. It leads to a more interactive inter personal relationship between the teacher and the students.
- The second benefit is that it can bring families closer together as students may ask their parents or siblings for help on their homework. Not only will this help the students get a better understanding of their work with any parts they are stuck on, it will also allow parents to get more involved in their child’s educational life. The parents can see what assignments have been given by the teachers and whether they are proving knowledge on the right track or not. This is especially important during the formative years when basic education is being instilled in the children.
- Thirdly, doing homework will prepare students for the main examinations. If a child does poorly on an assignment then they will learn what is necessary to do well on the next test without being punished. It also provides students with the opportunity to practice at what it takes to be successful in school. Like they say, practice makes perfect. It also inculcates the habit of being independent and prioritizing their assignments from an early age and when they enter college, they will be better adept to carry out their tasks and assignments. Good habits should be incorporated since childhood and by doing homework, they become self-sufficient.
Doing homework is also a great way to develop responsibilities. By being assigned work one day and knowing that it has to be done by the next day, they will develop a sense of punctuality by turning their work in on time.
The course at school needs to be completed within a given period of time and school can only be for 7-8 hours each day. If homework is not given, there will be a tremendous load on the teachers and school to finish the curriculum and also the practice of the students on a particular topic will get jeopardized. The students may have to sit for additional hours at school to finish the assignments which again is not a very solid proposition.
The Potential Harm
Homework can be a beneficial tool to help a student apply certain concepts that they have learned in class. However, since they may not have someone sitting next to them or working through it to make sure that it is correct; they could just be practicing bad habits and learning how to do problems the wrong way. Perfect practice is the only way to ensure that students are learning the right concepts. If they are doing it wrong, then it isn’t helping and is actually making things worse. Parents today are very busy having to spend their whole day at work and may have learnt how to do many of these concepts so long ago that they may not be able to assist their children in their homework. That leaves the student to fend for himself.
Students sit in school all day and barely get any exercise. When they get home, they have to sit some more and do their homework. By the time they are done, it is time to get ready for bed. Where is the time for activity? Where is the time for exercise? The fact is that there is no time. During the school week and sometimes on the weekends, the student is busy doing work and school and homework at home. They don’t have time to play sports and if they do then they are rushing through their homework anyways. A child needs to have a holistic development and not just academic excellence. They need to also unwind themselves by playing sports, games and doing other activities to take their mind off studies. If they get too much homework from school, they barely get any time to indulge in other activities, which is detrimental.
Homework can be an improper tool to test a student’s abilities. If you copy the homework from your classmates or have your classmate do your homework for you, then it looks like you really understand topics that you don’t really understand. You can give your teacher and parents the improper information. If you do the homework yourself and just rush through it, you can make careless mistakes and that will lead to incorrect information being given to your teacher as well. Hence, homework is not a proper measure for testing a child’s academic ability or aptitude.
It reduces the amount of time that children could be spending with their families. Family time is especially important to a growing child and without it social problems can crop up and a family unit can be compromised by a lack of time being spent together.
Homework can cause conflict between children and parents when the parent wants the child to do their homework but meets resistance from the student to do an overwhelming task.
And finally, a lot of teachers don’t often have the time to check and grade the homework and assignments properly as they are too busy with designing lesson plans and consulting teaching resources in order to just manage lessons. So by the time students are getting their homework back, the class may have moved on to a new topic.
