Homework. What is homework? Is it really important? Why do teachers give homework? Why it has become a necessity? Well, all these questions arise in mind as a parent and also as a student. Homework is basically an assignment that teachers give their students to do at home.
Students generally don’t like homework. It forces a foundation on them. Even some parents don’t like homework. Some people believe that homework is a good way to revise what all have learned in school while others believe that time used in doing homework can be utilized productively in some other activity. Everybody has different opinions regarding homework. Moreover, it has become a topic of discussion between parents and school about how much homework is good or no homework at all.
Some people even feel that homework has added stress to the lives of parents and students. They are forced to do so. Also, they feel that it has created a chaotic environment at home because parents are bound to make their kids finish homework. While others believe that it helps in the involvement of parents with the kids. So everybody has different opinions. In this blog, we will discuss the Top 10 pros and cons of homework to the students.
Let’s first discuss the pros-
- Helps in revising
- Involve parents
- Bridge the gap between teachers and parents
- Ideal environment
- Time management
- Teaches discipline of practice
- Reduces screen time
- Makes you confident
- More learning time
Let’s discuss all these in detail
- Helps in revising- yes homework is a great way to revise all the concepts learned in class at school. It consolidates classroom learning. When students revise what they are taught during the day it enhances their level of understanding and they are more likely to remember the key points. They will also be able to find out what they have missed and also be able to rectify their mistakes.
- Involve parents- many people believe that giving home-work increases involvement of parents. Kids get their parents involved when they encounter a problem. It is a great way for parents to connect with their kids if there is a positive environment. It also let them know what they are doing at school. Also it gives parents a feel of getting involved in their academic success.
- Bridge the gap between parents and teachers- teachers and parents hardly interact with each other without any reason. Giving home- work to students helps in bridging the communication gap between the parents and teachers. It lets the teacher see how a child is doing at home and also parents get to know how they are taught at school. A child will only benefit from this. It will help the teacher in knowing the needs of the student better.
- Ideal environment- some people feel that doing home- work is a great way at home. It gives you the ideal and comfortable environment that you are used to finishing the work that you are not able to do in class. Also it is believed that , the place at which the child is more comfortable will help in studying better. also it will help in retaining the information that the student might have missed in the class.
- Time management- Homework is something much more than completing the assignment. It is about completing it in the given time with the parameters given by the teacher. It enforces the time-management skills in the student. These skills are really essential for developing reasoning and problem solving skills.
- Teaches discipline of practice– Practice is the key to success. Practicing the same problems again and again will make you a pro in the subject. Hence it teaches you the discipline of practice.
- Reduces screen time- Although nobody wants home- work but it is actually very helpful in reducing screen time. Homework can easily be replaced as an extracurricular activity. A student busy doing homework will definitely spend less time in front of the screen.
- Makes you confident- revising all what you have learned in school and practicing the concepts will help you in retaining all the information. Hence increasing your confidence levels. Doing home- work at home will help you in clearing your doubts and understanding the concepts more easily.
- More learning time- Usually in school a time given to each subject is limited. What happens is sometimes this time is not sufficient for the student to grasp the concept. Hence giving the specific assignment for home will help students in understanding the concept according to their level. It gives students the extra learning time that they require in order to grasp the concept.
List of cons-
- Reduces the play time
- Encourages the sedentary lifestyle
- Not healthy for every home
- Hectic schedule
- No proven results of improvement
- Too much home-work
- Difficult to enforce
- Enhances cheating
- Discourages creative aspects
Let’s discuss this in detail
- Reduces play time- Doing homework significantly reduces the play time for kids. Play time is also very important for kids while they are growing up. It has lots of positive effects on their health. But due to homework sometimes the kids don’t get the time to play at all.
- Encourages sedentary lifestyle- Doing most of the homework requires sitting which encourages sedentary lifestyle. Due to this obesity rate in kids has gone really high.
- Not healthy for every home- Not every home is beneficial for learning. While some parents invest highly in their child’s learning ; some others are not able to do so because of some personal barriers. This can lead to friction between the parents and kids.
- Hectic schedule- School already is a really long job. Students spend more than 6 hours a day at school. They are left with quite little time to go for their extra- curricular activity. If homework is given on top of that then kids don’t have time for anything else.
- No proven results of improvement- extra studying and homework does not lead to better grades. There are no studies that prove giving home-work improves the performance of students. Though it might help in getting better at a subject by practicing again and again. Studies have shown that it creates a negative attitude towards school and education.
- Too much homework- usually students get the home-work of each subject they study at school which actually is too much home-work to be assigned.
- Difficult to enforce- its really difficult to enforce a child to do home-work who simply just doesn’t want to do it. Many kids are able to get good grades without doing home-work. They really don’t want to put effort in doing home-work.
- Enhances cheating- giving home-work promotes cheating among children. Often with lots of home-work to be done at hand they prefer to simply copy-paste the answers rather than finding them.
- Discourages the creative aspect- doing home-work takes away time from the student that they can devote to learn other creative things like painting, music, dancing.
Conclusion-
Home-work has both advantages and disadvantages. Parents and teachers need to find some common ground for the betterment of students. As the ultimate goal is the benefit of students.