Nobody likes homework and believe it or not homework has many cons. Homework is harmful to health, takes away important time, causes lots of frustration, and takes away the desire to learn.
Harmful to health
To begin, homework is very harmful to health. Too much homework causes lots of stress, sometimes stress can be good but in this case, it’s harmful to us and our health. If you’re under stress a lot you will start to experience physical and emotional problems. Physical problems include headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure, and chest pain. Emotional problems include anxiety, depression, and even panic attacks.
Homework is the main cause of stress. Getting homework done on time and not understanding it can cause lots of stress and affect students’ health in negative ways.
Another way homework affects health is it causes students to stay up late and not get enough sleep. Students will stay up late trying to get all their homework done and because of this, they don’t get the amount of sleep they need. Sleep is crucial to our health, sleep lets us recharge, keeps us healthy, and helps us stave off diseases. Without sleep your brain can’t function properly, you can’t concentrate, think clearly, or process information and memories. All the homework is hurting us mentally and physically.
Takes away time
Next, homework takes away very important time with family, friends, and time for yourself. Many students take lots of time trying to get homework done, if students had no homework or even less homework they would have lots more time to spend with family and friends. Family and friends are a big part of our lives and homework is taking lots of that time away.
In the article Homework or Personal Lives, it says, “They’re pressured by their parents to do their homework while simultaneously being encouraged to spend time with family, eat, spend time with friends, go outside, participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, and sleep for 7+ hours. Rather than motivating students to master the material and learn efficiently, homework negatively impacts students by taking away from personal time that is necessary for them to lead balanced lives.” This article shows the negative effects of homework and what it takes away from kids. If we didn’t have homework students would have a lot more time for themselves and that would benefit them a lot.
Frustration
In addition, homework causes lots of frustration. Students come home from a long day at school and then have to get all their homework done. Lots of the time students don’t understand their homework and this also causes lots of frustration. Frustration can also lead to other problems like loss of confidence, more stress, anger, aggressive behavior, irritability, and even depression. The more homework students have the more frustration and the more likely they are to have these problems.
Takes away the desire to learn
Last, homework takes away the desire to learn. Normally students don’t like homework and hate doing it and these feelings of hate are associated with learning so students want to avoid learning. For example, the article Fighting a Losing Battle: Too Much Homework Can Interfere with Learning by GoodTherapy states, “The overwhelming majority of homework assignments force children to sit down and memorize facts rather than experience their world.
Not only does this make information more difficult to learn; it can also decrease your child’s motivation to learn. When learning is made miserable, children associate the thing they’re learning with misery and want to avoid it. This is why tactics such as forced silent reading time or flashcards rarely help children learn math and vocabulary.” This shows how homework is doing the opposite of what it’s supposed to do, taking away the desire to learn.
In conclusion, homework has many consequences and shouldn’t exist. Homework is harmful to health and causes lots of stress, takes away valuable time with friends and family, causes lots of frustration, and above all takes away the desire to learn.
