Homework is a source of stress for many students, some of whom may turn to performance-enhancing drugs. (Courtesy of Flickr)

By Yujin Kim

One thing students of all ages have in common is hatred of homework. At its best, homework is an annoyance that students only begrudgingly admit is helpful, but at its worst, it can be the bane of students’ lives, extending the school day for hours after the final bell has rung.

It is therefore no surprise that many education reform advocates — students, parents and teachers alike — have called for the elimination or decrease of homework assignments. Although students need some homework to supplement their class experience, teachers, parents and educational institutions need to explore creative ways to decrease students’ stress.

Students despise homework mainly because it takes away from their time to have fun and relax. Many of my friends and peers have recounted the times when they had to bow out of family movie nights or excursions into the city, simply because they had papers to write or lab reports to finish.

By the time I was in high school, I felt like I had to choose between having fun with my friends and being a good student. There was no possible way, it seemed, to balance work and fun. Either you chose to stay in and slave away doing homework, or you simply gave up and went out to socialize instead. For many students, juggling academics, family, friends and hobbies seems like a distant, unreachable dream, and those who try to do it all face stress and exhaustion.

Students’ increase in stress and weariness has convinced many that homework is no longer effective and that it is more detrimental to students’ performance than it is supplementary to their education. Brandy Young Elementary School in Godley, Texas made the controversial decision to do away with formally assigned homework for the school year, According to the New York Times. Instead of spending hours helping their children with homework, the school asked parents to play with their children after school and get them to sleep earlier, both of which have been shown to have a positive impact on students’ academic success.

I do not deny how homework can add to students’ stress levels, but I draw the line at the argument that we should get rid of homework entirely. I have complained long and hard about the work my teachers dump on us, but even so, the benefits of homework are undeniable. Homework provides the opportunity to pinpoint which areas of the material they have difficulties with by completing assignments at home. During classroom lectures, it is easy to believe we understand everything. In practice, however, we may discover that we do not fully understand a specific concept and therefore have trouble applying it to the questions posed by our assignments.

Homework also teaches students the responsibility of time management, which allows them to indulge their hobbies or spend time with their friends and family. According to an article in New York Daily News, homework may even be useful for parents, providing them insight into their children’s progress in school and their strengths. Homework is also an essential part of the education system simply because it forces students to practice new material, familiarizing them with concepts they may have trouble remembering or understanding.

As such, I strongly oppose the notion that homework is so entirely detrimental to students’ learning that it must be abolished completely.
But homework does have a negative impact on students as well, especially older ones. Some students, desperate to stay afloat in a sea of assignments, have been driven to drugs like Adderall to sharpen their focus and plow through their work. According to a 2009 study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 6.4 percent of full-time college students abuse Adderall, and that statistic is likely underreported due to the study’s survey design. With limited time, mountains of work to complete and a strict grading policy, students often feel desperate and overwhelmed, so they turn to drugs that supposedly improve mental activity. A casually popped Adderall can even snowball into a full-fledged substance abuse. Students who misused Adderall were three times as likely to use marijuana, eight times as likely to use cocaine and five times as likely to abuse prescription painkillers.

Although there is no easy or universal solution to the problem of homework, there are more options for students burdened with stress from homework. A recent New York Times article introduces a 10-minute guideline, which suggests that homework “should not exceed 10 minutes a grade level a night,” meaning that first graders should only get 10 minutes of homework, while high school seniors should be able to handle two hours. For a more community-specific approach, teachers can speak to each other about their homework plans and cooperate to ensure that students don’t feel overwhelmed by homework from all their classes. In discussing their plans and needs, teachers can stagger homework deadlines so their students can have some time to relax and unwind, working on only a few assignments at a time. This may require more of the professors’ time and effort, but it benefits them as well.

It is important to discuss new ways to make homework more effective and efficient. A less stressed student is a more engaged and excited student, which makes a teacher’s job both easier and more enjoyable.

Yujin Kim, FCRH ’20, is a communication and media studies major from Long Beach, California.