Homework is a Good Thing.

What you speak of is an ideal scenario where children love and respect their teachers. in today's society, children are barely even respectful to their parents. in such a scenario, the bond and cooperation between the children and teachers that you speak off will not exist. Let's tackle your arguments one by one: 1. Students and teachers do not need a medium (homework) in order to work closely. the entire objective of having a classroom is that the student interacts with the teacher on a 1-on-1 basis and addresses his issues. The classroom provides sufficient opportunities to clarify and understand concepts that are being taught. homework is not needed in order to facilitate a close interaction with the teachers. 2. Your point about the familial interaction is fine, but it is flawed to some extent. I do not need homework to talk to my father about my education. a concerned parent will always be involved in his/her child's education and growth thereby nullifying the requirement of homework as a facilitator of such interactions. 3. As far as tests are concerned, studying for the test will help more than doing homework. lets look at a scenario where the teacher gives you a simple MCQ worksheet for homework. the test on the same chapter however, consists of questions requiring long and detailed answers. in this scenario, even if the child has completed his homework assignments, he will struggle in the test due to the mismatched patterns. many times homework tends to take up a lot of valuable study time. this can result in a loss of efficiency in studying. also, closer to the exams, would you rather be studying the text and knowing your syllabus or completing homework that has little or nothing to do with the paper the next day? 4. Responsibility cannot be developed through homework. if I decide to take my education callously by not turning in assignments and not studying, where is my responsibility being developed? there are other ways to make a child responsible. homework cannot develop such attributes in a child. if I decide that I don't like my math teacher (taking an example here) and I refuse to submit homework to her, what responsibility am I demonstrating? you also mentioned that homework is required as it helps parents track their child's development. may I remind you that we have reports that are published every semester to serve exactly this purpose? Now, let me talk you through why homework is unnecessary: Homework in today's education system serves no practical purpose. the intent of homework was to make sure that students reinforce what they learn in school. Nowadays, the attitude towards homework has become rather careless - both on the part of the students and teachers. the teachers use homework as a means to teach the children. let me give you a personal example - my math teacher. when she taught us calculus, she basically gave us the theory in class and told us to attempt the questions as homework. this attitude is why homework is fundamentally wrong. teachers try to take the easy way out by giving in homework what they should be doing in class. when this happens, the child's attitude towards the teacher and the subject deteriorates. as a result he doesn't do the homework. the teachers also take this entire situation lightly. they don't want the homework as it is easier to give the child a zero than actually go through his work and grade his efforts. many times the teachers don't even go through the assignments that are submitted. in certain scenarios, the teachers take a very long period to correct this homework. this proves that homework doesn't bring the student closer to the teacher; it actually distances them. Homework also tends to become a burden on students. Students these days are under immense pressure to perform and do well. this homework only takes away their study time and put an extra burden on their shoulders. moreover, teachers who give homework tend to think about their own subjects rather than the child's capability. they forget that the child will get homework from his other teachers as well and thus overburden him with their own homework. all this puts an unnecessary and unwanted pressure on the child. Homework in its bare definition intends to be a good thing. but then again, in definition, even socialism is a good thing. when it comes to practicality of the topic, homework has failed its purpose and thus is inherently a bad thing. (I think it would be appropriate for me to point out that I have studied in India and all my experience with homework is limited to what I have seen there)