Is Homework Beneficial or Not?

School is every teenager’s responsibility. Our job is to learn and acquire knowledge that will prepare us for the years after college. A big part of our job is to do our homework, but like any other person who has a job, sometimes it just can get to be too much. Even though homework can be beneficial, by helping us learn the material, and teaching responsibility, it can lead to many bad effects on teens, such as emotional and physical exhaustion, headaches, chronic stress, and a lack of social skills; giving to much homework also can lead to drug and alcohol abuse, anxiety, and more; but we can resolve these issues by managing our time better, and limiting homework.

Homework is beneficial for many students; it helps them in many areas. For example, it teaches students how to manage their time. It also teaches organization skills. Students who are doing homework must remain organized, and on top of things. If they are not, they will have many missing assignments, lost papers, and zeros in their final grade.

Get quality help now

Writer Lyla

Verified writer

Proficient in: Homework

5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Homework also benefits students because it gives them a chance to review the material they have learned during the school hours (Canapari).

Having homework prepares students for the years after high school and college. Doing homework keeps students busy, and does not allow them to be lazy. This will help students in the years after college and high school, by teaching them the importance of focusing and doing their work (Kelly).

Homework does not only benefit the students, but also the teachers.

While they are grading homework, it is showing them whether or not students know the information they are trying to teach to them. If students are not learning the information as well as they hoped, normally they will review or reteach the information the following day.

Though there are many good characteristics about homework, they can also have bad effects on teens. One of the bad effects is the physical problems. Homework causes a lot of stress, and normally when teens stress, they turn to sugar, which will lead to weight gain. They also turn to caffeine, and even drugs and alcohol, because they think that it will make the homework load easier and it will make them feel better (Jones).

In the paragraph above, I briefly mentioned how stress can cause teenagers to turn to drugs and alcohol abuse. A study was done, surveying teenagers between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, asking them if they had ever done drugs or alcohol to avoid stress. The results are shocking. 78% of teenagers admit that they have drunk alcohol, thinking it will give them an escape from their stress. The most common age group that drank alcohol was between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. The percentage of teenagers that have done drugs is considerably lower, but is still pretty high. 42.5% of teenagers say they have tried drugs (Castillo).

Not only does homework cause weight gain, and stress, it also can cause physical exhaustion (Canapari). My friends and I have experienced this ourselves. Specifically, one friend of mine had to work one night, he got home really late, and then proceeded to stay up till 3 o’clock in the morning doing homework, only getting three hours of sleep, and continuing this schedule for at least a week. Physical exhaustion will cause drowsiness, and can cause students to fall asleep during class, meaning they will miss important information, and do poorly in their overall grade.

Have you ever heard a teenager complain about a headache and just assumed it was because of the music they were playing or a possible brain tumor? Think again, they’re actually called tension-type headaches. They are very painful, and are caused by eyestrain, uncomfortable seating, caffeine, not enough sleep, etc. (Foundation).

Another problem I think excessive amounts of homework is having on students, is that it is slowly lessening their desire to learn. They view school as an endless cycle of “throw this information into my brain and remember it for the test”. While researching for this paper, I found a quote from a book that I think is fitting. “As for the students, much of their education has become mind-numbing test prep. The arts and play, which foster individual expression, have been pushed aside. Today’s young people have few opportunities to think creatively or independently; instead they are taught to produce the answers that adult experts are correct” (Crain, Homework and the Freedom to Think).

Parents and students both can agree that homework sucks time out of spending quality time with their family. This is bad for various reasons, one of them being, there will be no emotional bond between parents and their teenagers. It is scientifically proven that children and teenagers that communicate with their family members have fewer problems in school, and receive better grades. Many teenagers who do not have the time, due to homework, to spend time with their family, have behavior issues, and tend to get worse grades (University).

Homework does not only cause physical problems, headaches, a loss of want to learn, and less family time, but students who have various amounts of homework have a lack of social skills. Socializing is a very important part of brain development in children and teenagers. When there is not a lot of social interaction, the social development of the brain will not be good. But those who do have many chances to hang out with their friends and family have very well social skills, and impulse control skills (Thompson).

Teenagers in this generation have few opportunities to think creatively. Sure, they may think of a paper topic to write, or a picture to draw for art, but when you really think about it, education has become very standardized. “In school, we listen to lectures, complete homework, study for the exam, and ace the test, which will fingers crossed land us the right credentials to get into the college of our dreams. With any luck, we then find ourselves walking into college with an abundance of choices. For the first time, we are more or less on our own and are expected to pull from our past experiences to help determine the right path. It’s a daunting decision to make when all you have to recall are your structured studies in math, science, history, literature, and the like. It’s overwhelming when you are suddenly expected to exercise critical thinking, creativity, and advanced communication when the majority of your education leading up to that point was rigidly standardized” (Santello).

Believe it or not, but homework can also cause students to suffer mentally. Too much homework can cause a student’s life balance to be thrown out of proportion. When suffering from mental illnesses, it’s proven that a student’s grades will also suffer (Facts).

I think we can agree that sometimes the amount of homework that is given is ridiculous. But there are things that students and teachers can do to make the homework load easier. The first is the “10 minutes per grade standard”. This does not mean that every grade can only have ten minutes; it means that, for example, if you are in second grade, you have twenty minutes of homework, or if you are in tenth grade, you will have one hundred minutes of homework, etc. (Levy).

No one wants to do homework, especially if there is no class time to try to get some of it done. Teachers should not assign homework last minute during class. Instead, they should write the assignment on the board, address it at the beginning of class, discuss the requirements and how to do it, and give some class time for the students to do it (Thompson).

Sometimes, there are nights when a student will have homework in every subject, and it is exhausting. But there are ways to make it easier. One of them is, to create a good study mood. This does not mean to try to be positive about all of the homework and studying one has to do (although that is a good thing to do). Instead, it means to find a quiet place, where it is easier to concentrate and it will be easier to finish the work more quickly.

No student that has any source of technology is going to want to hear this, but a way to make it easier and faster, is to unplug. Shut your phone off, shut the computer down, and distance yourself from the technology. The constant notifications are very distracting, and teenagers often feel that they have to respond right away or that they should check their Instagram and Snapchat constantly (Review).

Personally, I think homework is beneficial, but also very time-consuming, which is why I dislike it. I believe teachers can cut down on the homework and test load a little bit, and allow students to actually learn the information and retain it for a long time, not just short term.

So as everyone can see, homework is beneficial in many ways. It teaches organization, patience, and diligence. But, it also affects children and teenagers in negative ways as well. These negative ways can shape a teenagers life, and it can morph them into an adult they might not want to be. They can morph into an adult that is overweight, severely underweight, an adult that is addicted to drugs and alcohol, or an adult that is suffering mentally, from depression and anxiety.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Students should not take advantage of the education they are receiving. The education they have is going to help them get to where they want to be in life. Whether that is a teacher, lawyer, mechanic, professor, medical examiner, doctor, or a vet, their current education is going to help them get to be, what they want to be.