Homework+Essay

Many people claim that the amount of hours children and teenagers spend on homework is putting a negative effect on their lives. While they should be outside playing, they’re busy working on homework that takes up too much of their free time during childhood. In the article, “I Hate Homework. I Assign it Anyway”, the author says, “Children need time to be quiet, play, read and imagine.” The argument of whether or not kids should have homework wanders the mind of teachers, students and parents everywhere. Is homework really getting out of hand? In the article “Reconsider Attitudes About Success”, the author Alfie Kohn says, “Absurd quantities of mostly pointless homework force students to work a shift after having spent all day in school.” Some teachers say that assigning homework rarely or never, has had great impacts. In Galloway, New Jersey, Donna Cushlani’s son kept bursting into tears midway through his elementary school math problems. The problem is, this is beginning to happen to children everywhere. Parents are saying that they want their kids back! “By expecting kids to work a ‘second shift’ in what should be their downtime, the presence of schoolwork at home is negatively affecting the health of our young people and the quality of family time,” mother Vicki Abeles mentions. If homework is really putting this much stress on children and teenagers, why would you want to assign it and make them miserable? This is the argument that adults all over the world are debating. Although some people believe that homework has a negative impact, there are many others who believe it’s a good thing to put on kids. Recent studies have said, homework in small doses can reinforce basic skills and help young children develop study habits. It also teaches kids responsibility and time management. A former Galloway student, William Parker says, “This is so stupid, part of growing up is having a lot of homework every day.” A lot of parents are even benefitted from homework, feeling more connected to the classroom. So, maybe homework isn’t as bad as people are portraying it to be. People think that homework is very important in order to stay competitive with other countries. Places like China are constantly pushing children to excel as much as they can. In order to succeed in life, you have to push yourself as much as possible. If we don’t try our hardest and sacrifice our childhood for homework, it could be true that we actually don’t succeed in life and we end up flipping burgers for a living.