School Sucks Essay, Research Paper

Works Cited

Prout Hand Book 1997-1998 pg. 14

North Kingstown School Department Handbook 1993-1994 page 18

The Clearing House March – April 96, Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework

Economist May 6 95 To Your Books: Home work

Johns Hopkins University April 98

Interactive Homework: Effective Strategies To Connect Home and School

Newsweek March 30, 98 Homework Does Not Help

Alfred University April 14, 1998 Timothy Z. Keith Homework In And Out of School

Homework has become a traditional part of a student?s education. It is designed to further educate a student outside the class room and it may mentally reinforce what a student has learned during the day in a particular class. It also forces the student to rely on what he has previously learned. It can give a student the opportunity to be more creative and let the student work independently.

“Homework also gives parents an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the school program and their child?s educational progress”. (Prout Hand Book 1997-1998 pg. 14).

Most schools have a policy for how much homework a student should have. At

The Prout School “a student receives homework in every class every day”. (Mr. Christopher Potter- Freshmen English teacher ). The town of North Kingstown ?s School Department list in their yearly

handbook, a district wide guideline as to how long students should spend on homework for Grades

1 through 12. (North Kingstown School Department Handbook 1993-1994 page 18).

Even though homework has been a traditional part of a student?s education, its

value has become a debatable issue. Educational researchers have been questioning the value of the tradition of homework by researching to see if homework really helps students, harms them, or simply

wastes their time with irrelevant “busy work”. Parents and students certainly debate the worth of homework. When students feel the work is irrelevant they become rebellious and it angers the parents. The ” students argue that they don?t have the time to do busy work and they would rather

do other things. ” ( The Clearing House March – April 96, Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ) . They argue they have too much homework. “If a student has approximately 7 classes a day it is theoretically possible that the student could have homework in all of them each night.” ( The Clearing House, March-April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). ” They argue that it becomes too much if they are involved in after school activities and have jobs. ” ( The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ) “Students who have academic trouble say they may understand so little of the course work that they can?t possibly complete the work independently. Yet it is this group that teachers may feel should be the most conscious about homework.” ( The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ) ” Other students complain that the assignments are too easy, useless and boring.” (The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). “They also argue that the teachers who assign homework don?t seem to value it anyway. The teachers may not collect it, read it, check or grade it, use it in class, or return it.” ( The Clearing House March – April Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). The “students argue that if the teachers are not going to access the homework, acknowledge it, build on it, they should not be surprised when students fail to do the assignments.” (The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). But if the students don?t do it, the are given a zero grade. Their grades go down, and then they hear it from their parents. Are the students points valid or is it just noise? Are they simply being forced to do something they would simply rather not do?

Homework is a widely debated topic. The question is: is homework a valuable tool to be utilized in school? This research indicates a multitude of valid points that suggest that homework does not help. One statement is that homework puts too much pressure on kids. Some pressure from school is healthy and only natural, but how do you know when you have exceeded that imaginary line between healthy and overboard? ” Elementary school students in Hong Kong have 3 hours of home work a day which is one of the causes for frequent suicides among other things “. ( The Economist May 6 95 To Your Books: Home work ). ” In Hong Kong in 94, an 11 year old boy named Wing Ming-Hang jumped 34 stories to his death. He left behind a note saying he was afraid to go back to school because he did not finish his homework”. ( The Economist May 6, 95 To Your Books: Homework ).

If young kids that are 8-11 years of age are under so much pressure that they feel it should be the end of their world because they did not finish a simple homework assignment, something is very wrong!

Some students are put under unnecessary strain from homework simply because of the fact that those

” students say that they understand so little of classwork that they couldn?t possibly complete independent work .” ( The Clearing House March-April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). You still need a strong background for the homework you are doing but sometimes that background is not always there.

Sitting in class wondering how you are going to get your work done puts tremendous pressure on students. When students are under large amounts of pressure they also tend to act out, getting themselves in trouble to distract people from knowing they can?t do the work. In addition ” The average student is involved in after school activities and jobs. ” ( The Clearing House March – April 96, Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). If students are receiving 2 – 3 hours of home work, how do they balance the time for school and work? In many lower economic homes the students? income is used to help support their families. Without that money the families may not eat because they do not have money for food. For some students it then becomes a choice between survival and a education. Most would rather skip a few homework assignments than not eat. In the end no matter what the reason some kids and young adults are put under too much pressure because they have too much

home work.

Homework is directly related to the creation of bad attitudes toward school. It can easily be see how students and other people either indirectly or directly involved in a students education arrived at this conclusion.

Teachers ” failing to provide relevant work creates rebellious students and angry parents.” ( The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Don?t Do Homework ). This is especially apparent

” In lower grades were there was a significant negative relationship between the amount of homework assigned and student attitudes. ” ( News Week March 30 98 pg.50 Homework Does Not Help ).

If you sit back and take a look at what we have done we can see that people that are involved in important decision making in education are setting kids up for a bad situation during schooling.

In fact ” too much homework apparently is a bad thing .” ( The Economist May 6 95 To Your Books: Homework ). It creates bad attitudes toward school and using the example of the 11 year old boy from Hong Kong , kids could be being set up to commit suicide.

In school it is also not an uncommon thing to hear ” students complain that assignments are too easy, useless, and boring. (The Clearing House March — April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework). That in fact is very true. ” Teachers are still assigning useless, even counterproductive homework that duplicates without reinforcing material covered in class. “Homework that frustrates or angers a child or otherwise makes learning unpleasant is a quick rout to academic dread .” ( News Week March 30 98 ).

” Homework is a serious problem in elementary, middle, and high school in the United States of America and other countries because it lacks design “. ( John Hopkins University April 98 Interactive Homework: Effective Strategies To Connect Home and School). ” Doing the same assignments week after week, year after year, contributes to beliefs and attitudes of some students and families that homework is neither important nor beneficial for student learning .” ( John Hopkins University April 1998 Interactive Homework: Effective Strategies To Connect Home To School ).

” Homework requires that teachers understand the different purposes of homework. Homework should account for students levels of ability neither too difficult, nor too boring, but challenging and important. There is no reason to call for more homework before we call for better home work. “( Johns Hopkins University April 1998 Interactive Homework: Effective Strategies To Connect Home To School ). Hopefully by creating better homework we could create better attitudes, better learning environment then ultimately a better student.

Another opinion describes homework as being “busy work” . For most elementary school students the effect of homework on achievement is trivial if it exists at all. ” ( Newsweek March 30, 98 Homework Does Not Help ) . The homework that these young kids would be doing were sometimes not related to school at all. ” Students argue that there is no point in doing homework. ” ( The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). If students are constantly doing homework that is a repetitive type of homework it is easy to see why they would feel that there is no point. This is mostly because of a lack of ” homework design “. Homework by itself is unlikely to improve students achievement by very much in any subject ” ( Johns Hopkins University April, 1998 Interactive Homework: Effective Strategies To Connect Home And School ).

Teachers have often stacked kids with a lot of homework to keep their students occupied if they need to keep the class period full. ” Homework begun at the end of a class period does not improve learning ” (Homework Does Not Help ) . The homework that these young kids would be doing were sometimes School ). ” That time would be better spent with the teacher delivering direct instruction to the student more so if they are having difficulty academically. ” (Alfred University April 14, 1998 Timothy Z. Keith Homework In And Out of School ) . ” Not only is homework considered to be burdensome to a growing child it is also seems to indicate the presence of an inefficient school which is not able to accomplish its job in the hours allotted to it ” ( The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ) .

” The idea seems to be that school should be run like a defense plant . Who ever heard of a Boeing employee taking a B-29 home for night time work ” ( The Clearing House March – April 96 Why Kids Say They Don?t Do Homework ). Why should we do homework if work should be done in school?

1. In conclusion homework is a tool but the way the tool is used can determine if it is doing more harm than good. Until the tool of homework is not utilized by teachers appropriately, students will struggle every night to complete their homework assignments. ” Homework would have real value if it helped kids learn, gave them good study habits and a life long love for learning ” ( Newsweek March 30,98 ). But if it does not, it can be harmful.