Essay on Disadvantages of Homework

Students homework is as old as formal schooling. It has been part and parcel of students live for several centuries. As a result, the thought of doing away with homework seems impossible. Those who advocate for homework believe that these academic assignments can help a student enhance his or her academic performance. However, when analyzed critically, homework is not necessary. It has many potential harms to the student than benefits. Some of the disadvantages associated with homework include students mental and physical exhaustion, attention problems, negative impact on students health, and adverse effects students social lives.

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Every day, students spend several hours in school learning. Classes start at eight in the morning and end at five in the evening. The total number of hours spent in teaching and learning equals to the number of hours an adult spend at work. Most of these adults come home exhausted after a days work. Similarly, students get mentally and physical exhausted after learning in school the whole day. Exhaustion, also known as fatigue, is a lack of energy that negatively impacts an individuals ability to perform both mental and physical tasks. Exhaustion lowers students problem-solving abilities and increases irritability. As a result, it contributes towards poor academic performance in school. Because of this, students should not be pushed to do homework. Apart from lowering students grades and marks, exhaustion lowers immunity thus making an individual more susceptible to diseases and infections.

Secondly, it is counterintuitive to force students to spend a lot of hours studying. For instance, if an adult experiences attention problems as a result of too much work, it is expected that children will be more affected. Too much academic work will decrease students attention span, the amount of active time a student spends on an activity without getting distracted. Because of reduced attention in a task, a student will spend many hours doing an activity which could have taken him or her some few minutes to finish. Reduced attention span, lowers students understanding of academic work thus reducing their academic performance. It is, therefore, important to allow students have free time during the after a days work to make them re-energized.

Another disadvantage of homework is its negative consequences on health. In school, students have little time for physical exercises. Therefore, after schools work, a student should engage physical exercises so as to improve his or her health. If a student proceeds with homework after school, he or she will develop poor health. Lack of physical activity has been associated with several chronic diseases e.g. cardiovascular diseases, obesity, stroke, and hypertension. To avoid such diseases, students should do a lot of physical exercise after school rather than do homework.

Fourthly, students have enough time to learn almost everything in school. In a day, a student has about nine hours of studying while in school. If a student cannot comprehend the academic subject content during the school time, the few hours after school cannot make him or her understand what he or she did not understand while in school. A different teaching and learning strategy has to be employed to make such students learn rather than giving them lots of homework after school. For instance, teachers can utilize individualized teaching or remedial teaching to help such students learn at the pace of regular students.

The fifth disadvantage of homework is its negative impact on students social lives. Having social life is essential for all human beings. Social life includes interaction with peers and family. Such interaction helps to reduce loneliness and social isolation and also promote social learning. Moreover, through social activities e.g. game and sports, a student can get time to pursue his or her own hobbies. It is thus important for students to have balanced academic and social lives. School should be a time for learning and home a place to pursue other interests. It is also worth noting that lack of social activities e.g. sports and leisure can result in increased stress, anxiety, and depression. These negative psychological effects negatively impact students academic performance.

Homework also reduces students motivation and increases their negative attitude towards academic work. This is because student always perceives homework as a form of punishment because it takes up most of their free time. Decreased academic motivation is positively correlated with poor academic performance. Furthermore, homework encourages cheating ad copying as teachers are not around to monitor the students. Studies have also reported that children may be misguided by their parents as they do their homework. As a result, it may lead to poor grades.

In conclusion, parents and other educational stakeholders should strive a balance between students school and social lives. Engaging students with academic work throughout the day do more harm than good. Some of the harmful effects associated with homework include students mental and physical exhaustion, attention problems, negative impact on students health, and negative consequences students social lives. Because of these harmful effects, homework should be banned.