Essay Sample on Kids' Overburdened with School Homework: Reduce Number of Assignments!

Introduction

Children under the age of seventeen should be given less homework from school. Schools should reduce the number of days students are required to go home with homework per week as well as the amount of work in each assignment (Epstein et al. 2001). As it is right now, every kid in our country goes back with homework every single day with so much assignment, which sometimes requires them to work on from the time they arrive home from school to bedtime. This is exhausting for all the children and denies them the time they need to have a well-balanced life. Children need a balanced life where the academic side and social life are well in tandem and in good harmony. There are several reasons why I think students should be given less work. Too many assignments cause students to be stressed about school, less relaxed, and less focused when in school. Also, too many assignments make students not be well-rounded members of society.

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Firstly, when students are given less work, they are encouraged to learn. When students are given manageable workloads, they are excited about school and the learning activities. Often teachers give students overwhelming assignments to try and cover materials they were not able to cover in-class time, possibly because of time constraints. But instead, the teachers should give out assignments on the work they covered in class so that students can practice after school (Kohn 2007). This way, the tutors will teach students how to learn and also how to love learning. By giving students fewer assignments and assignments on the work covered in the classroom, the teachers will encourage students to love school and the learning activities.

Further, teachers should minimize the size of assignments given to students so that students are better rested and focused while in school. The teacher should try and avoid giving students assignments that would keep them awake all night or ones, which would reduce the number of hours students sleep. When students can sleep for seven to eight hours, they are more focused when in school and well prepared to comprehend during school lessons. With good comprehension, students who are rested enough are in a position to perform better.

Also, free time makes students well-rounded. Most students see school as the room they are trapped in for the better time of their days, and there is nothing they want more than to be outside of that room. When out of the school, students get engaged in a variety of activities, some productive and others none productive, some of the events could include browsing in the social media, socializing in the social media network or even spend that time engaging with close relatives. These activities contribute to molding students in all spheres of life; they contribute to making students be better-integrated members of society. When teachers give students many assignments that consume their time for non-school activities, what happens is that the students become members of the community who are half baked in the other factors of life, which matter.

Moreover, some students have an interest in developing their extra curriculum activities skills such as students gifted in athletic skills and also students gifted with soccer skills. Some of the students with such skills they would want to have a career in the direction of their abilities, skills which are outside the school curriculum activities. If students such as this are given assignments that consume all their time out of school, they would never have time to enhance their extra-curriculum skills, and thus, their dreams outside of the school work would never materialize. Therefore for such students to have time to develop their skills and realize their dreams, teachers should give students fewer assignments.

Furthermore, homework assignments stress students. Too much assignment causes students to have stress while away from school. Stress causes students not to have enough sleep, and also stress causes students to have unhealthy eating behaviors. From lack of sleep, students, grades can start declining because of a lack of concentration in classes. (Mercer et al. 1998).Due to unhealthy eating behaviors coming about because of stress from too much assignment, students' health can start deteriorating, making students miss school some days and thus missing out on some lessons. Further prolonged pressure in the kid's life can bring about depression on the kid's life and mental breakdown. The conditions could hurt children's school performance, and future growth's as well.

Also, homework takes away time when students are supposed to be taught some essential skills by parents, e.g., how to attend to home chores (Rose 1994). Knowledge of skills in attending home chores helps students be able to fit and adapt well to society. Also, understanding of home chores such as home cleanliness and cooking, assist students in their future parental roles. Success in parental roles helps students to become better well-rounded members of society in the future.

Conclusion

In conclusion, students should receive less homework from school. Because homework gives students stress, it deprives them of sleep, reduces students time to develop their co-curricular skills, e.g., athletics, it makes student not to have time to build their social skills, it reduces students time they can learn essential life skills from the parents and from other close relatives, Too many assignments cause students' performance to slip and also too many assignments causes students to hate school.

References

Epstein, J. L., & Van Voorhis, F. L. (2001). More than minutes: Teachers' roles in designing homework. Educational psychologist, 36(3), 181-193.

Kohn, A. (2007). Rethinking homework. Principal-Arlington-, 86(3), 35.

Mercer, P. W., Merritt, S. L., & Cowell, J. M. (1998). Differences in reported sleep need among adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23(5), 259-263.

Rose, A. C. (1994). Homework preferences: Teachers and parents state their opinions. NASSP Bulletin, 78(561), 65-75.