For many parents, this is a new concept. Most of them had assignment free summers. They used to spend their summers enjoying themselves without worrying about their school life. Summer to them was a time that didn’t have any structure, and one could be lazy all round and enjoy vacations with family and camps. They did not have to worry about science, math worksheets, and a list of books to read. 

Some parents say that homework during the summer is just busywork. It steals the spontaneity and joy of summer. According to Sara Bennett, from stophomework.com, “During the school year, kids do not get enough time to relax through the school year. Summertime should be a downtime for the kids to enjoy.” 

Vacation purists say kids need a lovely old-fashioned summer. Bennett tells parents not to allow packages sent to their kids during their summer vacation. If the school asks, the parent can say the kids didn’t get to it. It can be different if the summer assignment gets graded and can affect joining a top university.

Protecting the students’ mind from melting

Apart from summer assignments debate, some parents give their children more work during the summer that the teachers didn’t give them. They give them supplemental work, even when the children are not in school. 

The parents operate with the notion that if the students don’t engage their minds during the summer vacation, the minds will melt. There is no objective data on this yet. But as Cooper says, when children continue to use their brain muscles during the summer, it will positively affect the things they can retain when they go back to school. 

Regardless of their economic status, students lose two months of their mathematic abilities during the summer month. Low-income students fall behind on reading. If a teacher doesn’t give the students, these are some areas that the teachers can provide worksheets.

No buy-in from the kids

Denise Pope, a Stanford University senior lecturer, says that there is a lag. He agrees the summer vacation is long. Three months is a long time for students not to do anything. But with that said, he is not sure if giving the students assignments is a good idea.

Pope says that he has seen teachers overtime give loads of work, and it is more of systematic practice. The challenge with this is that it requires adult supervision. It becomes a burden not only to the kids but also to the parents. 

Homework blues year-round

The homework dramas that students go through from September to June are now all year round. Pope says that another challenge with the summer homework is that it is usually put off until nearly the summer vacation before school begins. And once the assignment gets turned in, there is typically no feedback from the teachers, and it has no apparent effect on the children’s grades.

Conclusion 

There is no conclusive study that can say that summer vacation should not have homework. But it is recommended so that the students at least don’t lag when they go back to school.

Research Findings Concerning Homework

The Duke professor, Cooper Harris, notes that it is vital for students to do homework. Through his homework meta-analysis, showed that there is a correlation in completing homework and succeeding in academics, especially for the older grades. He further goes on to recommend a ten-minute regulation where grade one students receive a ten-minute assignment every day and further ten minutes for subsequent grades. By the twelfth grade, students have to complete a hundred and twenty homework minutes daily. 

His analysis, however, didn’t give proof of better performance but rather, only a correlation. Which can mean homework only works for kids who commit to doing well in school. The analysis also showed homework as a source of emotional and physical stress to students which eventually led to the development of undesirable attitudes about the learning process. He also suggested more research for a better understanding of the effect of homework on kids. 

Some researchers argue that the focus should get directed to the kind and amount of homework students get assigned and not about non-issuance of homework. They further state that homework needs to address the needs of students to get considered effective. Students, mostly from middle school, for instance, had better success with online math adapted to their specific comprehension level. But a sharp drop in their science and math scores when they got subjected to more than ninety minutes of homework. 

Indiana University researchers discovered science and math homework to improve test grades that have standardization with no difference in course grades among learners who did or didn’t do homework. They theorize that assignments don’t necessarily lead to mastery of content but familiarize kids with materials or questions that are in standardized exams. Such results point to a likelihood of homework not getting used as it should. 

So in as much as parents and teachers may support the assignment of homework daily, no strong evidence exists in support of its effectiveness.

Homework Problems

Teachers mostly assign non-targeted homework because parents expect students to have homework and teachers have no choice but to assign them without necessarily having any specific objective. Such was the finding of a teacher, Hulsman Samantha after frequently hearing parents complain about students taking longer than necessary in competing their thirty-minute assignments, then experiencing the same with her kids.

Barish Kenneth, a kid psychologist, notes that homework hardly results in the improvement of a child in school. As kids who don’t carry out their homework are either discouraged, frustrated, or anxious but never lazy. Further kids with handicaps doing homework are akin to subjecting them to jog with sprained ankles. It is possible but so painful to the students.

Conclusion

Every teacher should carefully consider the type of homework and the level of students before assigning homework or not. For elementary schools, they can do well by skipping homework altogether, although assigning high school students homework can benefit the students.

But when you have a deadline to beat, you may be forced to push through all these to have it done. If you’ve ever experienced such a situation, how good were your grades? Certainly, you may have received a low mark and probably dozed off in class the following morning.

Students at the college and university levels mostly experience this situation as most of them have part-time jobs aside from schooling. Coming to school after work or vice versa gets them exhausted, and having to do homework at night becomes a nightmare. 

Is there an option? No! The only choice you have is to do the assignment or get a zero mark. At the higher levels of education, your professor wouldn’t entertain excuses. If they were to, then everyone would have a reason not to get homework done. 

The advantages of homework

Regardless of the controversies surrounding homework, the practice has improved some students’ academic achievement. Yes, there may be some excesses, including professors assigning loads of works that don’t even correlate with your course. Some may also require long hours to complete. That notwithstanding, a well-planned purposeful take-home task does more good to students. 

The need to do your assignment despite being tired teaches you some great life lessons, including time-management and self-discipline. You can manage your limited time to include all critical activities, like homework, helps you to stay focused. You can eliminate all distractions to work within time. Choosing your homework over a night’s sleep is a great sacrifice that can help you in future decision-making. You will always choose purpose over pleasure.

Facing challenges head-on makes your strong, so doing your home task while also needing sleep builds your resilience. Also, challenging yourself to achieve more during critical times defines successful and average people. Other benefits of homework include reinforcement of skills and serves as a preparation for the next topic.

Why you shouldn’t deprive yourself of sleep

Sleep deprivation has been one of the main concerns raised by people against long-hour homework. Denying yourself the required amount of sleep for an extended period can have adverse effects on your health. It causes depression, stress, anxiety, poor balance, and weakens your immune system. Imagine yourself staying awake throughout the night to do homework, how are you going to perform in class the next day? It is obvious that you will go to class exhausted and might doze off, lose focus, or miss most of the class lessons. On the other hand, a good sleep provides the body with the needed energy needed for the next day’s work. It improves cognition, alertness, and replenishes the brain. Let yourself rest well and order help with your assignments at https://domyhomeworknow.com/. Writing professionals know how to provide you with the highest quality work.

Conclusion

You should always find a balance between having a good sleep and having time to do your homework. Don’t substitute one for the other. Homework is important, but sleep is critical for development. 

Is homework going to benefit the students? Should parents allow their children to be given homework in addition to rigorous school work? Here are three pros and cons of homework.

Pros of Homework

1) Homework is an indication of academic development

Assigning homework is a way of tracking students’ level of development. Homework allows teachers to know whether students are learning or not. This approach makes it easier for teachers to identify the needs of their students, those who need more attention, and those who are comprehending well.

2) Homework provides more learning time

Homework extends the learning time of students. Most school subjects don’t go beyond 30-60minutes of classroom teaching. Giving students homework provide them more time to study and learn, allowing them to affirm the knowledge acquired from school. Insufficient time can cause partial learning. Homework can help to fix those learning gaps.

3) Homework strengthens the parent-child relationship

A lot of parents find themselves too busy to even ask about their children’s school activities. With homework, parents will be compelled to provide their knowledge to benefit their wards. It is also a means for parents to know if their children are developing academically and what they will be needing.

Cons of Homework

1) Homework reduces students’ rest time

Most students put in so much energy and seriousness into their education. They hardly get enough time to rest their head during school hours. The only time to relax is when they get home. Giving them homework will most definitely minimize their rest time. For students to be academically sharp, they need sufficient time to rest and play.

2) Homework does not equate perfection

Assigning homework does not mean that students will become academically sound. Many students have to rely on other students or their parents to get the resources for their homework. The purpose of homework is to help students further understand the topics learned in school. If the basics of that information are not adequately understood, then the use of that homework is lost.

3) Homework reduces the ability to be creative

Teachers often make homework about the students’ ability to create something out of nothing. Its structure is to get the homework done, not how it is done. This arrangement shows that homework only teaches compliance rather than concepts of skill development. This method results in students getting their homework done and not being creative.

Conclusion

Arguing on the advantages and disadvantages of homework may continue ages as parents and teachers give their personal views on the topic. If this debate continues, the student will be at the receiving end. It is then of necessity that both sides find common ground so that the students can get the best of the educational process.

While some parents agree that extra homework helps, they also state that the quality of the homework and intention of the teachers’ matter. They also agree that homework could infringe on a child’s schedule and disrupt their education.

We will see more explanations below.

The Impact of Homework on Students’ Learning

Teachers don’t just give their students work to be done at home for nothing. There is a goal for that task. Research has shown that a homework solver can help students retain what they have learned in class. It can also help to foster student’s individual problem-solving skills like time management and critical reasoning while creating room for parent-child bonding.

All of these have been said to contribute to a child’s academic performance. In light of this fact, homework is extra practice for students. Setting the brain to such a practice gives it the ability to transform short-term knowledge into the long-term.

What Challenges Do Educators Face with Homework?

For homework to fulfill its intentions, students must attend to them with the right approach. For example, it is wrong for a student to miss the same thing over and over again.

This occurrence defeats the need for homework in the first place. It ends up in frustration when a student does not get helpful feedback from homework, especially if the student gets the homework wrong each time.

Therefore, without the help of an educator, homework becomes stressful and challenging for students. On the flip side, the unavailability of an educator also makes homework tasks less challenging than it should be.

So, giving complex homework to students frustrates them, and elementary homework doesn’t help as it makes them lose interest.

Another challenge that usually accompanies homework is its design or structure. A poorly planned homework is highly telling on the relationship existing between parents and their children.

For instance, a highly intricate and tedious homework can be unproductive in many cases, and hence creates a struggle between parents and their wards. In such cases, parents are confused if they should downplay the essence of such homework or if they should encourage their children to obey the teacher’s instructions.

Also, a common challenge with assignments is how grades are awarded upon submission. For educators, we are not sure how students got answers to their homework. Some of them do independent work while others get help from parents, tutors, or even classmates.

The limitation with perfect homework done with third party help is that students don’t get to learn from teachers what their mistakes were while attempting the homework. In other words, such perfect homework denies students receiving helpful feedback that their teachers would have otherwise given them.

Conclusion

Homework can become too much if it is not given with the right motive. Educators and parents need to rise to the task and ensure that children get the right amount of homework that will benefit their learning.