is homework a waste of time essay

Is Homework a Waste of Time? Teachers Weigh In

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The debate over homework rages on.

In response to an Opinion essay by a teacher titled “ What Do You Mean My Kid Doesn’t Have Homework? ”, many Facebook users took to the comments section to voice their perspectives on whether assigning homework is outdated and unnecessary—especially during a pandemic—or whether it’s a critical step to cultivating learning.

The benefits of homework have long been disputed, especially at the elementary school level. In 2018, Marva Hinton wrote about how homework was assigned at early grades and the potential effects on these young students. Some schools embraced homework, like Arlington Traditional School, a countywide elementary school in Arlington, Va., where kindergartners were expected to complete a minimum of 30 minutes of homework a night, Monday through Thursday. But some teachers such as Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the author of Rethinking Homework worried that adjusting to school routines combined with homework could sour young students on school.

But what about the benefits for older students? In a 2019 article , Education Week Assistant Editor Stephen Sawchuk unpacked the results of a Center for American Progress analysis, which found that while much of the homework assigned to the students in the study aligned with the Common Core State Standards, it did not contribute to building more difficult skills called for in the standards, like analyzing or extending their knowledge to new problems.

Beyond considering the efficacy of homework, the debate over how much time students should spend daily on take-home assignments dates back to the early 1900s. The public furor even led some state lawmakers to ban homework entirely at one point. Multiple studies over the years have examined different angles of the homework debate, including just how much homework students were assigned. In 2003, a pair of national studies found that most American students spent less than an hour daily on homework, and the workload was no bigger than it was 50 years prior.

“There is this view in the popular media that there has been this terrible burden of homework on children, and that the homework is increasing,” said Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution to Education Week’s Debra Viadero in a 2003 article . “That is not the case.”

Fast-forward to the present, teachers and students alike might find themselves at another crossroads in the homework debate. The pandemic brought with it the advent of strategies like “flipped learning” , which relies heavily on homework as an integral component of the lesson. While this might work for some, many students grew weary of the reliance on homework during remote and hybrid learning. This is on top of the potential equity issues arising from lack of internet access affecting students’ ability to complete the steady stream of homework being assigned, and the uptick in mental health issues in students .

So what do teachers really think about homework? Here’s what they had to say in response to the recently resurfaced essay by Samantha Hulsman.

A Disconnect Between Parents and Educators

“i teach 1st grade. i had parents ask for homework. i explained that i don’t give homework. home time is family time. time to play, cook, explore and spend time together. i do send books home, but there is no requirement or checklist for reading them. read them, enjoy them, and return them when your child is ready for more. i explained that as a parent myself, i know they are busy—and what a waste of energy it is to sit and force their kids to do work at home—when they could use that time to form relationships and build a loving home. something kids need more than a few math problems a week.”.

- Colleen S.

“I tried the ‘no homework’ policy one year and received so much pushback from my parents that I began sending home a weekly packet. I pass it out on Monday and it is due on Friday. Parents [are] happy, I’m happy, and life goes on. I say pick your battles. Now, I refuse to give packets over school breaks (winter/spring). If a parent asks, I simply tell them to have them work on any app that we use in class.”

“i literally only assign homework because some parents always make a huge deal of it if i don’t.”, “parents are the driving force behind homework ... they demand it and will complain about not receiving it even after explaining your philosophy of education and providing them with pedagogy that refutes the ‘benefits’ of it.”, homework can be useful for certain subjects or grades, “as a teacher of nearly 40 years, i believe homework has its place. especially in math math needs to be practiced to learn it. i don’t believe in giving homework just because. i think it should be purposeful.”.

- Sandra S.

“For those leading the charge against homework, please think about the expectation for students beyond your classroom. If you teach elementary school, will they be asked to do homework in middle school, high school, and beyond? If so, organization, time management, and study skills are not so easily learned at a later age, when the expectation has never been present. I can’t imagine being a student, who enters college, having never had the expectation of nightly HW.”

- Bobbie M.

Is Homework Actually Helpful for Learning?

Some agree that at its core, homework is practice, which is a needed element to achieving learning.

“Homework is practice. Practice the skills we learned about in class so we can review and add to them. My instrumental students are required to practice every day. When they don’t it’s evident.”

Others aren’t as convinced it’s actually a good tool for assessing comprehension.

“As a teacher, if the kids were assigned homework, guess when the papers were graded ... After discovering a Mom had been doing the homework and was making failing grades ... I gave it up ... taught 25 years without it and my students did much better ...”

- Martha H.

Heightens Equity Issues

“no homework ever it is unnecessary it is so elitist and ableist and teaches kids that it is expected to take work home after hours of a job. nope never”, “homework just further separates the students. those who have parents home who understand the work, or can afford a tutor will do so. families already struggling financially tend not to have parents home to help and cannot afford tutors.”.

- Rebecca J.

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Homework. How can one little word cause so much trouble? Almost all schools require homework , but should they? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of homework, plus what the research says you should really be doing after school. 

As a pupil in the UK, you will without a doubt encounter homework during your school years. Some kids love it, others… not so much! Many parents struggle to make their child complete their homework and to fit it into their family’s busy schedule, and many kids and teens find homework quite boring. But let’s put our feelings about homework to the side, and focus on a more important question – is homework really necessary?

Is homework helpful or harmful?

Well, it depends. There’s loads of debate about homework and whether or not it helps you learn. Researchers have been trying to find the answer to this question since your parents were in school!

It all comes down to the purpose of the homework and the age of the student, as well as their interest in the topic at hand. 

For secondary students, homework is useful as a "short and focused intervention .” That means something like a research project that you complete at home. 💻

For primary students, homework can help reinforce skills students are learning in school. It makes sense to practice spelling words at home or working on reading skills , for example. 

How does homework promote learning?

One way homework can promote learning is by giving older students a chance to read more content than can be covered in class. For example, a Literature student might read a couple of chapters of a novel at home and then spend the class time discussing its themes with peers. This saves classroom time for the part of learning that’s done with other students.

Research shows that the best homework is closely linked to what you’re learning in the classroom. It should expand your learning and always be something you can complete independently. ✔️

It goes without saying that homework takes time. The more homework you have, the less time you can spend outside or relax. 

Homework leaves less time for creative activities that are also very important for brain growth. 🧠

Studies show very little difference in test scores between students who spend lots of time on homework and students who do less homework. For primary school students especially, not many benefits have been found. 

So, should students have homework?

In an ideal world, primary students would not have homework. And secondary students would only have short-term homework assignments with a very specific goal, like a book report or a science project. 

Since students often do have homework, it shouldn’t take much time - the benefits are the same for a few minutes and a few hours of homework!

Stress-free homework tips 

At the end of the day, there may be very little you can do right away about your homework situation. If your teacher assigns it, it must get done – but here are a few tips to make it less stressful:

• It’s a great idea for you to be independent with planning and managing your work time rather than being hounded into starting your homework by your parents. As you get older, it’s up to you to manage yourself – maybe you’d prefer to divide the work up into manageable chunks, for example tackling one subject before dinner and another one after.
• You should have a distraction-free space to work at home. Turn off the television, and keep electronics out of sight to make it easier to stay focused.
• If you’ve had a long school day, it’s a great idea to take some free time after school before starting your homework. You may need a chance to relax and regroup before jumping right into homework. 
• If you find yourself struggling with your workload, you should have a chat with your teacher or speak to your parents about it. Homework should closely follow the in-class learning and shouldn’t take more than an hour.

Homework help with GoStudent

If you’re struggling to manage your homework, a GoStudent tutor can help. Our experienced, friendly tutors have a deep understanding of the content they teach, and your tutor can give you the one-on-one support you need to get back on track and be able to finish that homework in no time! 🚀

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Is homework a waste of time.

Homework has always been one of the biggest challenges to school and home life, causing family tension, stress and time pressures.

Research from Stanford Graduate School of Education  conducted amongst 4,300 students highlighted that over 56 per cent considered homework to be a primary source of stress, whilst others reported increased levels of anxiety, sleep deprivation, exhaustion and weight loss.

After considerable review and debate, ACS Egham has decided to drop ‘traditional’ homework for students aged four to eleven.

The educational debate over the merits of homework has been going on a long time, with different countries taking very different approaches. Wanting to discover the best approach to setting homework to achieve optimal wellbeing for students and parents, our teaching team collaborated on a research project to help find the solution. Our findings highlighted that for homework to be truly effective, it must be highly personalised for each student. So we set about making these changes.

Traditional homework

Traditional homework or ‘busy work’, as we like to call it, is generic across a class, and does little to enhance the individual student learning experience. This kind of homework assumes that every student is the same, that each has the same maturity, concentration and ability level. It is, therefore… a bit lazy. As we all know, in real-life abilities vary enormously from one person to the next, and students can often find this type of homework very stressful, especially if they feel they have been set impossible tasks that they must face alone.

Children are already at school for some seven hours a day and ‘busy work’ simply eats up their free time, which they could be better spending with their families, or taking part in extra-curricular activities to refresh their minds and bodies. Younger students especially should be encouraged to use time after school for unstructured play and developing their own creativity.

Reflecting upon these issues, we decided to replace ‘busy work’ with a personal, guided approach building on class work and learning, which parents and students can share together, making the work more meaningful, manageable and worthwhile.

Personalised approaches

Instead of setting homework, ACS Egham teachers share with parents the learning topics for the upcoming term and suggest that these subjects are explored at home. The Lower School intranet hosts ‘talk topics’ which link in with lessons and can be discussed at home around the dinner table or during car journeys. We also include extra-curricular activities which tie in to each unit, such as visiting a museum, art exhibition, or hands on activities.

Arithmetic and literacy skills can also be enhanced at home without endless sums and compulsory reading times. Parents can help their children practice mathematical skills in everyday scenes; calculating a grocery budget, or measuring furniture on a trip to IKEA. Equally, parents are actively encouraged to read with students as much as they can, and for as long as it’s enjoyable. When reading is not a chore but an enjoyable activity, students’ literacy skills increase.

All these opportunities allow students to apply their class-based learning in a different context. In a multi-cultural class, exploring topics at home can be particularly important for students who have a native language other than English, giving them the forum in which to widen their vocabulary in their mother tongue. If students have struggled with a specific task, parents can notify the teachers, enabling teachers to give more targeted support in these areas.

Alternative education systems

In Finland, students are generally assigned virtually no homework; they don’t start school until age seven, and the school day is short. Despite this, Finland is considered to have one of the leading education systems in the world. Finnish students achieve some of the world’s best international PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test results; in 2016 achieving fourth place in reading compared to the UK in 22nd place, and 12th place in maths, compared the UK in 27th place.

According to a BBC article, a key concept in the Finnish school system is trust, where there’s little homework and no culture of extra private tuition. This trust is built from parents’ trusting schools to deliver a good education within the school day, and schools putting trust in the quality of their teachers. This certainly resonates with our opinions on homework; if a student has been delivered a quality education in the school day, there should be no need to spend hours in the evening carrying out a rigid schedule of homework.

Developing skills for the future

We prepare our nine to eleven year olds for secondary education through ‘I-Inquiry’ projects. These are individual research topics which students investigate over a period of four to six weeks. Recently students designed, created and built virtual models of their own imaginary planets, following a unit of inquiry that explored the solar system.

Using their iPads, students researched the characteristics of different planets before creating and naming their own. The final projects were then presented back to the class using iPads, artistic drawings and in some cases, hand built models.

Through the I-Inquiry project, students developed a whole range of essential life skills. These included time management and organisational skills, as students were required to work on the project both at home and at school; independent inquiry, exploring different sources to create their planet; as well as helping develop a creative mindset. Students also enhanced their communication skills and public speaking through their final presentations. Most importantly, students were energised by their learning and engaged with their subjects on a much deeper level.

We strongly believe that setting homework for the sake of it doesn’t benefit children or prepare them in a robust way for their next steps. It can also be a cause of family stress and tension, and potentially even hinder the wellbeing of the student. Where we’ve adopted our new approach at ACS Egham, we can see our students develop life skills through extra-curricular activities, spending time with their friends and family, and engaging at home with meaningful, highly personalised tasks, like the I-Inquiry Projects, which equips them for success beyond education and develops a curious mind as well as a lifelong love of learning.

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Homework is a Waste of Time

Homework isn’t helping kids improve, it’s dragging them down.

Photo JC Thaxton

A canva graphic showing an example of a kids phone after a week of school.

JC Thaxton , Senior Staff Writer October 10, 2022

Sitting at the dinner table till 10 or 11 pm just doing some of your homework. Taking hours to finish some math when you still have an essay to write. That can be taxing on the brain. A lot of people don’t see how much pressure we put on kids to make them “perfect.” Extra work to compensate for the? That’s kind of a joke.

“Children who don’t do their homework are not lazy, he said, but they may be frustrated, discouraged, or anxious. And for kids with learning disabilities, homework is like ‘running with a sprained ankle. It’s doable, but painful,'” child psychologist Kenneth Barish said.

Every kid learns differently and the fact all teachers “have to” assign homework is absurd. Kids get very overwhelmed with the amount of work they get per week even per day. With the amount of work kids get, they don’t get a chance to debrief at home. Kids need to let out their stress by doing fun activities or things to get their mind off of school. When kids go from school to home, they shouldn’t be doing more school. It is too much! This leads to over working the brain.

With all this extra work to do at home, kids can’t go out and genuinely be a kid. I am still a kid and I wish I could have gone out more and not stressed about a grade in my class. They only have so much time until they’re a considered adult and now the society is giving kids a lot of work and over working them. Kid’s brains are on overload and technically working overtime since it’s not in a classroom. When I see the word “overtime”, I think of money. Since kids can’t run around and be kids, they should be paid some money to work overtime. I’m just kidding. Unless I’m not.

It is said that homework “ can help students practice core concepts and develop study habits and time management skills.” What happens if you don’t do it well? What is the point if you do all this work, yet don’t understand any of it? Also, What is the point if the teacher doesn’t review it? It’s pointless. If teachers don’t walk you through the work the send home, then they shouldn’t be sending it home in the first place. You could be doing it wrong the whole time and you wouldn’t know until it is test time and then, at that point, you’re screwed. No idea where you went wrong and now too afraid to go home and ask for help. Seeing that you’re a failure and that is stressing you out some more. To the teachers, we are numbers. Some will help you and others, who knows.

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The Student News Site of West Middle School

Homework is a Waste of Time

Nailah Spencer

Ava Obrock, Olivia Stults, Viviana Buzzelli, and Caitlyn Blasch work on homework during the school day.

Nailah Spencer , Reporter October 26, 2018

Kids at West Middle School say Homework is a waste of time! Did you know that West Middle School does not require teachers to give out homework to students? “Teachers give out homework according to how they feel about a student or a class’s learning process,” Mr. Smiley told me. I did some research, interviews, and additional thinking to see how some of the students and staff feel about homework.

”I strongly dislike homework because it stresses me out. We go to school to for many hours a day to learn, I don’t get why we have to go home and spend 1-2 more hours on homework,” Hannah Comar, a 7th grader at West, explained to me.

According to the Drop Out Prevention Center (D.O.P.C.),  “32.1% of students from 8th grade through high school drop out each year because they can’t keep up with all their homework assignments.” This research was done in the United States. 

Mrs. O’dell, a sixth-grade teacher at West, explained to me,  “I have over the years seen behavior changes with students.”

Academic Partnerships states,  “When kids know they will have to go home from school and work to do more work at home they become disengaged and don’t come to school the next day ready to pay attention and are usually talkative and disruptive for no time to themselves after school”. Mrs. O’Dell states, “Yes,  have seen students overwhelmed with work, but behavior changes, not so much. Mostly just [students’] grades dropping.”

Mrs. Odell reflects, “I give it out so I can see the students’ progress, it also builds on good habits, like time management and organizational skills.”

Mrs. Horvath’s Journalism states that they can have anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours of homework a night between all their classes.

Free time to yourself is essential, whether it is for sports or just time with your family. Free time gives you a chance to refresh and get ready for the new day to come.

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Richard Cao • Jul 3, 2021 at 12:29 pm

I think Homework should be abolished in schools. Students already have a difficult time in school so giving more work at home would just stress out even more. Students should have time to spend with their family and friends, while also learning essential skills such as cooking, cleaning, and getting plenty of cardio exercise. Also it would benefit teachers because they would have less things to grade.

bababoi • Dec 8, 2020 at 11:05 am

Desi • Mar 30, 2020 at 7:41 pm

Homework is a waste when we go to school for several hours a day all for what so we could go home and do even more work instead of relaxing many kids drop out because of how much time they wasted on doing stressful meaningless work

joey • Dec 19, 2018 at 12:40 pm

I do agree that homework is a waste of time because we work all day and then we get homework so we have to work at home too.

Joey • Dec 19, 2018 at 12:39 pm

homework doesn’t do anything I just forget everything that teachers give homework on quicker then usual.

Jacob • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:49 pm

Homework is useless because kids spend almost half their at school then having to worry about homework once they get home its to much pressure for kids our age, high schools should be the grade when homework starts and we know homework is supposed to prove what we learn but we don’t learn anything from test nor homework we just memorise it, do it, then we forget everything we learned because you have to then memorize other things and forget others. And that is why I think homework is a waste of time.

The truth talker • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:44 pm

Homework is too stressful, and is too time-consuming.

Jacob Mdelski • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:44 pm

Homework can be good for us but it can just be too much for some students to handle.

finn st john • Nov 15, 2018 at 8:16 am

homework is not good. we are at school for 7 hours and some of us stay at club (after school thing) till 4 5 or even 6! homework is just what we were doing that day all over again but at home.

the derp • Nov 2, 2018 at 12:53 pm

homework helps us but can sometimes be a waste of time

Ryan M • Nov 2, 2018 at 12:47 pm

Homework is like telling a dog never to play or lick your face again

Madisyn Hackett • Nov 2, 2018 at 12:42 pm

Homework is very stressful!

Dillon Starnes • Oct 31, 2018 at 12:12 pm

This is an excellent article, Nailah!

Kyle Dani • Oct 31, 2018 at 12:10 pm

This is a great article. I agree that teachers hand out way to much homework.

Hannah Comar • Oct 31, 2018 at 12:03 pm

I agree with this considering I was one of the interviewees. Great article Nailah!

Maddie Andrews • Oct 31, 2018 at 11:59 am

I like your picture and I agree, homework is very stressful!

Maddie Andrews • Oct 31, 2018 at 11:57 am

I like your picture! I agree homework can be very stressful!

Caitlin Noe • Oct 31, 2018 at 11:50 am

I like your picture a lot it is very creative and I agree homework is just a recap of what we learned.

unknown • Oct 29, 2018 at 1:51 pm

homework is ok I always finish it in class so I don’t have homework relly

AAron • Oct 26, 2018 at 12:49 pm

i hate having to do work at home it is a wast of my time

AAron • Oct 26, 2018 at 12:48 pm

i think homework is a wast of time

Bob Ross • Oct 26, 2018 at 12:45 pm

I get it homework is stress full but homework is good for us examples: Homework is like a mini quiz that lets the teachers know if you actually learned something in their class.

Lizzy Gutkowski • Oct 26, 2018 at 12:21 pm

I think homework is too stessful. It makes me have to stay up late and work on my homework.

Home | Education | Learning | Homework

Is Homework a Waste of Time? Argumentative Essay

• Updated July 25, 2023
• Pages 5 (1 147 words)
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As you may not know, in our kind of generation numerous of children and some even teachers complain about the piles of homework they get in a weekly base, on average secondary school pupils spend around 7 hours a week on homework.

Some say that homework can help to develop your ability to learning and work on your brain but does teachers not know the amount of stress pupils have to go through? And the number of hours that has been wasted for homework? Why waste our time with useless homework where it might not even help? Young students are better off spending more time with their family rather than doing homework.

Most people would say that homework causes anxiety and stress, leaving students very little time to spend with family and other things. Which is evidently true, even parents can agree to this standard. More than half of parents think that homework is a waste of time and it also adds extra stress for the students to cope with.

A study poll by Good Morning Britain revealed that 52% in favour of a ban and 48% against one. The survey that has been gathered by over 300 parents revealed that their children can find the homework a cause of “overwhelming” and damaging to their health and self-esteem. Such small thing can cause something so damaging, even your own mental health.

What’s shocking is that over 300 parents complained about this matter, you would think that parents should encourage their children to do their homework, however, parents seeing the pile of homework getting more bigger they feel broken seeing their children with numerous amounts of homework. Would other parents seeing their children at this state would be okay with it?

On the other hand, it may be different from another parent’s perspective. Practice assignments do improve scores on class test at all levels. A small amount of homework may help secondary school pupils build up study habit as. It can help them recognize that learning can occur at home as well as at school. Homework can foster independent learning and responsible character traits. Showing that pupils do show improvement in their learnings if they are able to achieve good scores in tests.

It is not all negative about homework, even a study in the UK showed that in 2014, it was concluded that students in Year 9 who spent between two and three hours on homework on an average weeknight were almost 10 times more likely to achieve five good GCSEs (A*, -C) than students who did no homework at all. Homework does not look that bad if a massive number of pupils are able to achieve good grades? This is already been proven by the UK study so why do people think it’s so bad? To some extent, homework can be good for you. That’s not the case.

Students actively less enthusiastic about learning because it is being forced upon them and it closes their minds. Having them work numerous hours on pointless homework that it might not even help them in the future. Homework can affect both students physical and mental health. A study revealed by Stanford University, 56 per cent of students considered homework a primary source of stress. Too much homework can result in lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion and weight loss.

On the other hand, homework allows students to extend their learning, building on what they have learned in the classroom at home. Homework can be useful as a way of developing a student’s independent learning and research skills. Similarly, there is a clear argument to suggest that homework acts an excellent preparation for later life promoting self-discipline and time management and also helping young people to learn an important lesson. Spending more than 2 hours a night doing homework is linked to achieving better results in English, maths and science, according to a major study which has tracked the progress of 3,000 children over the past 15 years.

It’s not just students that are affected by this, teachers can also face the same burden due to homework. Homework places additional burdens on parents – who often don’t know how to help their children and it also places burdens on teachers as well, who have enough to do without having to collect, mark, and redistribute extra work for their pupils. It’s a struggle for both parents and teachers as parents might not be able to help their child and as for teachers, they already have a massive moment of teaching and preparing work for pupils in class to do, they can’t afford the time to mark all those papers and still enjoy a little free time.

They might even have to give up their weekends to mark homework, which is definitely not fair on them. Yes, they might have signed up to be a teacher but that doesn’t mean the head teacher have to assign every teacher to give out homework to the pupils and ask the teachers to make it, head teachers can’t take their weekend break away for some garbage homework. Working from 8am-4pm, even longer than spending the rest of their evening marking homework, and repeat the process. This is not what kind of treatment teachers should be getting they are making it harder for themselves.

A teacher, Cecily Hanlon, from Liverpool said that: “Homework is a waste of children’s time, teachers’ time and from what I have heard parents think it’s a waste of time as well. At this stage in their lives, homework mitigates against children who already have difficulties – if they have chaotic home lives, single parents, physical or mental illness.” Homework can not only face mental health problems but can also face family problems as well. People might think homework can just be a minor thing and it’s not a big problem on the other hand, wouldn’t you feel bad for a single mother/father working parents that are trying to work a living for their child and not being able to spend time with them or even help them out? How would you feel if that was you in that situation? There can be so many possibilities in the world that we cannot doubt on.

In the end, homework is not the only way of achieving better grades in school, homework only causes stress but the ability to be not able feel motivated in doing other activities. For students, if homework is a primary source of mental health then something should be done about it, we can’t just sit here and do nothing. Students already have enough to stress about when they are older, adding their piles with homework isn’t going to make it any better for them.

• Homework – Free Essays
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Is Homework a Waste of Students’ Time? Study Finds It’s the Biggest Cause of Teen Stress

It’s the bane of every teen’s existence. After sitting through hours at school, they leave only to get started on mountains of homework. And educators are mixed on its effectiveness . Some say the practice reinforces what students learned during the day, while others argue that it put unnecessary stress on kids and parents , who are often stuck nagging or helping.

According to a new study, conducted by the Better Sleep Council , that homework stress is the biggest source of frustration for teens, with 74 percent of those surveyed ranking it the highest, above self-esteem (51 percent) parental expectations (45 percent) and bullying (15 percent).

Homework is taking up a large chunk of their time , too — around 15-plus hours a week, with about one-third of teens reporting that it’s closer to 20-plus hours.

The stress and excessive homework adds up to lost sleep , the BSC says. According to the survey, 57 percent of teenagers said that they don’t get enough sleep, with 67 reporting that they get just five to seven hours a night — a far cry from the recommended eight to ten hours. The BSC says that their research shows that when teens feel more stressed, their sleep suffers. They go to sleep later, wake up earlier and have more trouble falling and staying asleep than less-stressed teens.

“We’re finding that teenagers are experiencing this cycle where they sacrifice their sleep to spend extra time on homework, which gives them more stress — but they don’t get better grades,” said Mary Helen Rogers, the vice president of marketing and communications for the BSC.

RELATED VIDEO: To Help Or Not To Help: Moms Talk About Whether Or Not They Help Their Children With Homework

Another interesting finding from this study: students who go to bed earlier and wake up earlier do better academically than those who stay up late, even if those night owls are spending that time doing homework.

To end this cycle of sleep deprivation and stress, the BSC recommends that students try setting a consistent time to go to sleep each night, regardless of leftover homework. And their other sleep tips are good for anyone, regardless of age — keep the temperature between 65 and 67 degrees, turn off the electronic devices before bed, make sure the mattress is comfy and reduce noise with earplugs or sound machines.

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Homework is a waste of time, new studies say

A new group of studies finds that homework in a variety of subjects has little impact on test grades, although math homework was the exception to the findings.

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Why Homework Is a Waste of Time

Why do we even need homework? To practice? We do that enough already.  Homework is a waste of time. It takes the enjoyment out of school and it takes up teacher time. Students need more free time for other activities such as sports, homework takes it away from spending time with family and friends.

     Is homework a waste of time ? The study of 18,000 schoolchildren finds no relationship between working hard at home and better grades. More  homework assignments  didn’t translate into better grades. Next time you hear a child complaining that their science and math homeworks are wastes of time they might have a point. Young children spend enough of their day at school. When they come home, they should be free to dump the school bag and get busy doing non academic stuff such as getting a job and starting on something to pursue their career.

        Students need more free time for other activities. Education isn’t the only important activity in everyone’s life. We all need some time to ourselves to prevent stress or blow off from some steam. It can damage family relationships and stresses parents out as well  as their children. School takes up a lot of time that children can be using to do something more productive.

Homework takes up teacher time. Teachers would have more time if they didn’t assign homework.  The teacher  needs to design the homework, explain it , mark each piece individually and tell everyone if they got it right or wrong. Teachers could as easily use the classwork to find out who knows what they are doing. We aren’t the only ones who take a lot of time on homework, our teachers do as well. Homework loses it’s value because we need to be told individually what our mistakes are.

It takes the enjoyment out of school. We would enjoy school more if we didn’t have any homework. When we only get homework occcassionally we will consider that piece more important. Especially if we get too much homework it can take the enjoyment out of learning. No matter how engaging the teacher is in class , homework will almost certainly  be stressful , boring and tiring. We know that there is no direct link between how much homework is set and grades.             

Some people believe that homework isn't a waste of time. You have to try your best to do the homework that's given to you. Millions of people work for themselves or work from home. The main aim of education is to prepare us for the rest of their lives. Homework is teaching us a key skill that we will need in the future . When we do homework we are learning on our own.                 Homework is a responsibility. We should expect to get a certain amount of homework per day. Homework aids class work by providing a space for those who haven't finished the work. Teachers will need to mark and go through work whether it's classwork or homework . Whether homework puts us off learning will always depend on what the homework we are given is.            

This paragraph presents that homework is a responsibility for high school kids and students. The importance of this argument is that homework takes away time from spending it with family and friends.  The reader should take homework away from this because it's it takes a long time to do and it's a waste of time.

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3 Reasons Why Doing Homework is a Waste of Time

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Not a sign of intelligence, doesn’t make much sense, makes you miss the motivation wave, wrapping up.

Students are often burdened with doing homework assignments that get the better of them and their valuable time. However, it is also possible for these students to use this time instead for doing other productive tasks or even for intended procrastination, which may in-turn help increase productivity. Here’s a viewpoint on why doing homework is a waste of time and how to use this time to better your productivity. ~ Ed. 

Do you know people who always have tons of motivation to do homework ?

I haven’t come across such people. Though there might be a few, I guess majority want to avoid doing homework.

Me too! But it turns out that it`s okay to be a bit lazy. It’s okay not to have motivation for doing homework.

Let me bring it down real quick. It is okay to have zero desire to do homework and to procrastinate for hours instead of being all energetic and productive.

No, it doesn’t mean that you’re lazy or foolish; this phenomenon has many explanations. But the thing you’ve got to remember for sure is that it is fine if you can’t catch up with the A-students.

First and foremost, you’ve got to face reality here. How important are the grades for you?

If you want to receive a grand to get a master’s degree in another country, then, of course, grades are important. When all you need is a diploma which you will proudly hand over to your mom and never use it again, then you have the right to dedicate some time to procrastination .

Don’t you dare to think that I’m trying to lure you into the world of drop-outs and couch potatoes? I only want you to learn how to set your priorities right.

Success in life cannot be determined by the number of essays that you wrote at the university. You may not even write them at all. The simplest way to avoid all that stress is by addressing a good homework doer service.

I’m going to calm down your stressed out nervous system and conscience, and tell you why you shouldn’t be all anxious about having zero motivation to do homework.

But before we do that, please note that such an emotional state when you have little desire to do anything, not just your homework, may be a sign of such serious mental condition as clinical depression. So, please be careful with that and never hesitate to ask for professional help.

Okay, so as per my thoughts, here are the three main reasons why doing homework is a waste of time:

As I’ve mentioned above, a state of procrastination doesn’t necessarily point out to your inability to study.

A scientific study reports that people who have a higher intellectual level tend to procrastinate more . Just don’t perceive this information as an excuse for your social media addiction, it doesn’t work this way. How is that even related?

It’s believed that very smart people are thinking all the time, even without realizing it. They have very active brain activity, and they may even try to solve the world issues on the subconscious level.

The moments of procrastination are highly important for people of this type. It gives their brains a chance to cool off and relax a little bit. Because, yes, our brain does get tired from time to time, and it can switch off your concentration and attention when it feels like having a little rest so that you can go on with all the thinking processes.

No matter how much you love studying, and no matter how great your university is, still there is no way of avoiding some absurd and senseless assignments. You have no idea why you would do this or why such a huge piece of work is assessed with so few points.

Your logic isn’t as dead as you may think. It’s still somewhere in there, and it can give you a hint that you really shouldn’t do this task because it’s nothing but a complete waste of time. Of course, you lose any kind of motivation with such assignment.

Don’t worry. Just think whether this homework will have a big impact on your final score and then make a decision.

One of the biggest mistakes that you can do while feeling all down and unmotivated is looking at other people, who seem extremely productive and compare your pitiful self to those walking energizers.

We all may feel that way from time to time – mainly because our powers aren’t infinite. We get tired and worn out. So, just stop sobbing and go out for a walk. You’ll be surprised how inspirational one single stroll around the town can be. Your demotivation just a phase, and you’ve got to get over it.

And while you’re still in the moment when you can get nothing done, make a list of activities and tasks that you need to finish.

Then you have to learn how to be a surfboarder. No need to buy a ticket to Australia, you just need to learn how to catch the waves. One “wave of motivation,” to be precise.

Have you noticed that sometimes the feeling of productivity and endless energy rushes through your veins, and you just get everything done in no time?

Congrats, you`re just an average human being. You need to learn how to spot those moments of motivation and get as much work done as it’s humanly possible.

And when you have a day or two of no motivation at all, you won’t feel so frustrated because you know for sure that the productivity will eventually come back.

Doing homework is not a sign of intelligence. It’s okay to procrastinate at times if it helps you relax and solve bigger issues.

If you think your homework doesn’t make much sense or it’s not worth spending your valuable time that you can use elsewhere for more worthy tasks, then you may think of using any homework services.

Missing out on the homework may give you the opportunity not to miss the motivation wave that can help you become more productive .

Over to you –

Have you ever felt that doing homework is a waste of time? Share in the comments.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are entirely of the author.

Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you're suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected] . Thanks.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — American Education System — School Is a Waste of Time

School is a Waste of Time

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Words: 652 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 652 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

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Limited practical skills, excessive focus on standardized testing, high financial burden.

• "Average undergraduate tuition and fees and room and board rates charged for full-time students in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1963-64 through 2013-14". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
• "Student Loan Debt Statistics in 2021: A Record High". Forbes. Retrieved October 6, 2021.

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Kirstie Allsopp is right – homework is a waste of time

I would rather spend the time when my children are not at school doing things we enjoy, than waste it on frustrating busywork.

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Kirstie Allsopp’s recent tweet about “the tears” and “the time together lost” over forcing her sons to do homework really resonated with me as a parent; those are the same reasons I don’t do it with my children who are eight, 10 and 13.

Property presenter Kirstie – who shares Bay Atlas, 16, and Oscar Hercules, 14, with her husband Ben Anderson, as well as two step-children from Ben’s previous relationship – said “one of her greatest regrets” was forcing her children to do homework.

I wholeheartedly agree. Homework causes unnecessary stress , invades family time and ruins weekends. I would rather spend the time when my children are not at school doing things we enjoy, not cursing my way through Sunday making a model boat, trying to print off PDFs from Microsoft Teams, or sitting down to learn about declensions.

I make sure to spend half an hour every evening reading with my younger two but that’s it. My eldest is now at the stage where he can take responsibility for his own homework and rarely asks us for help. He learned over lockdown how hopeless I was at maths and anything remotely science related, and eventually gave up on asking. I think it’s actually quite a good life lesson in self-sufficiency and responsibility.

As the daughter of a teacher, I also know how much time teachers have to spend setting and marking homework, so I do wonder who actually benefits from it. I’ve seen very little research to support the idea that it actually aids learning anyway.

Yes, giving children responsibility to manage some aspects of their own school work might help consolidate their learning and also help teach them to work towards a deadline, but trying to force tired primary school aged kids to sit down and look at spellings for half an hour a night in between dinner and bedtime just seems like work for the sake of work.

Kirstie also tweeted: “Question, real question not reason for abuse please. How much difference would it make to a teacher’s working day if the Gov said ‘from now on homework is reading only, no more written homework that needs marking etc’?”

When one follower asked her how teachers would be able to assess students, she replied: “Don’t want to cause a pile on David, but homework as a way of assessing a student?! Are you mad? Do you have any idea how much is done by parents, including GCSE coursework?”

And that’s another key point. It’s almost always the over eager parents which do most of the homework anyway, especially at primary school. It’s often more about them than the children, in my experience.

My middle child is also on the autism spectrum and trying to get him to sit down and do school work outside of school is a whole other challenge. He has quite a black and white way of looking at the world. School is where you work, home is for relaxing, Lego and Minecraft .

We learned this the hard way over lockdown and I nearly lost my sanity in the process. Homework for children with additional needs adds a whole other layer of complexity, and is another example of how a mainstream curriculum does not work for many of them. It’s not a level playing field, and a parent with one conscientious child who works part-time has much more free time than a frazzled working mother of three.

We also put my eldest through the 11 Plus – which is another thing I know can be quite divisive – and that was pretty hellish too. I have to admit I outsourced much of it to my husband, and was only really able to help out with verbal reasoning and English. He passed, by the way, so it did pay off; but I vowed not to put my youngest through anything like that again.

As Kirstie recently tweeted: “Dear God, Give me the strength to be polite & kind to all the people about to tell me their children love homework.”

Good for them, I’d say but don’t drag the rest of us who loathe the stuff into it.

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Francis Collins: Why I’m going public with my prostate cancer diagnosis

I served medical research. now it’s serving me. and i don’t want to waste time..

Over my 40 years as a physician-scientist, I’ve had the privilege of advising many patients facing serious medical diagnoses. I’ve seen them go through the excruciating experience of waiting for the results of a critical blood test, biopsy or scan that could dramatically affect their future hopes and dreams.

But this time, I was the one lying in the PET scanner as it searched for possible evidence of spread of my aggressive prostate cancer . I spent those 30 minutes in quiet prayer. If that cancer had already spread to my lymph nodes, bones, lungs or brain, it could still be treated — but it would no longer be curable.

Why am I going public about this cancer that many men are uncomfortable talking about? Because I want to lift the veil and share lifesaving information, and I want all men to benefit from the medical research to which I’ve devoted my career and that is now guiding my care.

Five years before that fateful PET scan, my doctor had noted a slow rise in my PSA, the blood test for prostate-specific antigen. To contribute to knowledge and receive expert care, I enrolled in a clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health, the agency I led from 2009 through late 2021.

At first, there wasn’t much to worry about — targeted biopsies identified a slow-growing grade of prostate cancer that doesn’t require treatment and can be tracked via regular checkups, referred to as “active surveillance.” This initial diagnosis was not particularly surprising. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the United States, and about 40 percent of men over age 65 — I’m 73 — have low-grade prostate cancer . Many of them never know it, and very few of them develop advanced disease.

Why am I going public about this cancer that many men are uncomfortable talking about? Because I want to lift the veil and share lifesaving information.

But in my case, things took a turn about a month ago when my PSA rose sharply to 22 — normal at my age is less than 5. An MRI scan showed that the tumor had significantly enlarged and might have even breached the capsule that surrounds the prostate, posing a significant risk that the cancer cells might have spread to other parts of the body.

New biopsies taken from the mass showed transformation into a much more aggressive cancer. When I heard the diagnosis was now a 9 on a cancer-grading scale that goes only to 10, I knew that everything had changed.

Thus, that PET scan, which was ordered to determine if the cancer had spread beyond the prostate, carried high significance. Would a cure still be possible, or would it be time to get my affairs in order? A few hours later, when my doctors showed me the scan results, I felt a rush of profound relief and gratitude. There was no detectable evidence of cancer outside of the primary tumor.

Later this month, I will undergo a radical prostatectomy — a procedure that will remove my entire prostate gland. This will be part of the same NIH research protocol — I want as much information as possible to be learned from my case, to help others in the future.

While there are no guarantees, my doctors believe I have a high likelihood of being cured by the surgery.

My situation is far better than my father’s when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer four decades ago. He was about the same age that I am now, but it wasn’t possible back then to assess how advanced the cancer might be. He was treated with a hormonal therapy that might not have been necessary and had a significant negative impact on his quality of life.

Because of research supported by NIH, along with highly effective collaborations with the private sector, prostate cancer can now be treated with individualized precision and improved outcomes.

As in my case, high-resolution MRI scans can now be used to delineate the precise location of a tumor. When combined with real-time ultrasound, this allows pinpoint targeting of the prostate biopsies. My surgeon will be assisted by a sophisticated robot named for Leonardo da Vinci that employs a less invasive surgical approach than previous techniques, requiring just a few small incisions.

Advances in clinical treatments have been informed by large-scale, rigorously designed trials that have assessed the risks and benefits and were possible because of the willingness of cancer patients to enroll in such trials.

I feel compelled to tell this story openly. I hope it helps someone. I don’t want to waste time.

If my cancer recurs, the DNA analysis that has been carried out on my tumor will guide the precise choice of therapies. As a researcher who had the privilege of leading the Human Genome Project , it is truly gratifying to see how these advances in genomics have transformed the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

I want all men to have the same opportunity that I did. Prostate cancer is still the No. 2 cancer killer among men. I want the goals of the Cancer Moonshot to be met — to end cancer as we know it. Early detection really matters, and when combined with active surveillance can identify the risky cancers like mine, and leave the rest alone. The five-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer is 97 percent, according to the American Cancer Society , but it’s only 34 percent if the cancer has spread to distant areas of the body.

But lack of information and confusion about the best approach to prostate cancer screening have impeded progress. Currently, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that all men age 55 to 69 discuss PSA screening with their primary-care physician, but it recommends against starting PSA screening after age 70.

Other groups, like the American Urological Association , suggest that screening should start earlier, especially for men with a family history — like me — and for African American men, who have a higher risk of prostate cancer. But these recommendations are not consistently being followed.

Our health-care system is afflicted with health inequities. For example, the image-guided biopsies are not available everywhere and to everyone. Finally, many men are fearful of the surgical approach to prostate cancer because of the risk of incontinence and impotence, but advances in surgical techniques have made those outcomes considerably less troublesome than in the past. Similarly, the alternative therapeutic approaches of radiation and hormonal therapy have seen significant advances.

A little over a year ago, while I was praying for a dying friend, I had the experience of receiving a clear and unmistakable message. This has almost never happened to me. It was just this: “Don’t waste your time, you may not have much left.” Gulp.

Having now received a diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer and feeling grateful for all the ways I have benefited from research advances, I feel compelled to tell this story openly. I hope it helps someone. I don’t want to waste time.

Francis S. Collins served as director of the National Institutes of Health from 2009 to 2021 and as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993 to 2008. He is a physician-geneticist and leads a White House initiative to eliminate hepatitis C in the United States, while also continuing to pursue his research interests as a distinguished NIH investigator.

An earlier version of this article said prostate cancer is the No. 2 killer of men. It is the No. 2 cause of cancer death among men. The article has been updated.

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