Homework is Ruining Our Kids Mental and Physical Health
- gracehunter199898
- Oct 14, 2021
- 4 min read
Homework, the scourge of every parents' existence. The tears, the arguments, the hours spent digging up things we'd forgotten in an effort to help our kids get through the night. It's the stuff of nightmares, but it'll all be worth it in the end, right? Not so much, as it turns out! Homework isn't just wreaking havoc on your weeknights; it's also wreaking havoc on your children's emotional and physical health. Continue reading to learn why.
How homework is destroying our children
I'd like to appeal to your common sense before we go into the scientific data on why homework is detrimental for kids. Instead of going with the "we always had homework, so why shouldn't our kids?" line of reasoning, I believe it would become very evident why all of this extra evening schoolwork is such a bad idea.
I'd like you to begin by considering your own job. Whether you work in an office or at home in your pyjamas, you almost certainly have a defined number of hours for which you are compensated. You leave your work behind and return home at the end of the day (or away from your computer, at least).
You spend a little additional time at work on rare occasions, but it's worth it since you get overtime. Sure, you might bring your work home once in a while to catch up, but most of the time, your time at home is YOUR time. Time with the family. Time for peace and relaxation. Relax and prepare for the following day.
If your supervisor told you, "Take home this mound of papers and finish every last shred by tomorrow morning or you'll be fired," I'm sure you'd be irritated. Oh, and you won't be compensated for it, so don't even ask!" Yet, depending on how many classes your child has, homework is three, five, or even eight times as much.
Because school is a full-time job, homework is like unpaid overtime.
School is, for all means and purposes, a full-time unpaid employment for children. They work roughly 35 hours a week in their "office" and take fewer breaks than the majority of individuals. Lunch is just about 25 minutes long, and recess is almost non-existent in most districts. They get to come home and be kids after a long day of sitting very still, having no genuine choices in anything, and not even being permitted to go to the restroom without permission! Right?
Sure, after they finish their math workbooks, science experiment, social studies paper, and English reading assignment of 50 pages!
If we're lucky, our kids might get a half-hour to just be happy-go-lucky free-spirited kids. If that isn't enough to persuade you that homework should be banned (or at the very least reduced), perhaps the next piece will. We'll examine what science has to say about it, based on facts rather than emotions.
What is science's take on homework?
Homework is a subject about which science has a lot to say. While some older studies suggest that homework is useful, the majority of studies conducted in the last 5-10 years suggest the exact opposite.
In a 2014 study, too much homework was connected to sleep deprivation in children. Given that barely half of children receive adequate nutrition to begin with, this is a huge issue!
A Stanford University research published the same year indicated that the more homework youngsters have, the higher their overall stress levels are. The more stressed they are, the more unwell they become.
Those who believe that homework teaches children self-control that they will need later in life may be disappointed by the findings of a recent study. Kids who have chores and schoolwork are no more likely than those who don't to display self-control.
Do you believe that kids who do their homework have better employment later in life? Not so quickly! According to this global database, countries with high homework loads have worse income and social equality.
While most experts focus on the effects on elementary school students, too much arithmetic homework (combined with standardized testing) can cause lifelong "math anxiety" in older children.
Yes, studies show that homework helps children learn, but you'll have to travel back a few years to find them. Researchers are now discovering that homework—at least in its current form—does more harm than benefit. In fact, many countries have imposed stringent limits or outright bans on homework. For example, Dubai has recently abandoned it in favor of pushing children to "have a life." Even in the United States, more and more school districts are reducing or eliminating homework.
We've always had homework and we've always done well!
I'm sure at least one of you is thinking something similar right now, so let's talk about it. Yes, we had homework, but I don't recall it taking hours and hours every night to complete. Even if it did, I'm curious whether there's anything else you did as a youngster that you wouldn't allow your own children to do.
We used to ride in the front seats of cars as toddlers without even wearing a seatbelt, let alone being in a car seat. Yes, we're still alive, but was that such a wise decision? Our parents thought it was perfectly acceptable to smoke. What about our forefathers and mothers? They consumed cocaine-laced cough medication on a regular basis!
It only gets worse as you go back a few generations, making it a miracle we haven't gone extinct yet.
Just because we all made it through our childhoods (in some cases miraculously) and came out "just fine" (which in other situations is debatable) doesn't mean we should keep repeating the same mistakes. We grow, change, and improve. That is how humanity progresses. Right now, we’re realizing that homework isn’t really as good for our kids as we assumed. Isn’t it time to change and do better?
Children deserve the opportunity to try new things, participate in sports, and simply be carefree. Eliminating homework from the equation would go a long way toward making that a reality.
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