Homework should be banned

Pardon my delayed response, my time has been rather limited lately. Ladies and gentlemen, homework has plagued many a student ever since it arrived on the scene eons ago. It has been the bane of students and an unwanted burden on those that have to endure it's prolonged existence. But as troublesome as it is, is there any benefit to it? I think that the few places where it does help are sadly over shadowed by the problems with it.It denies the child the opportunity to rest.Children, like adults, are prone to stress and collection of stress. But unlike adults who can clear their minds and take on much more pressure children cannot really vent this unneeded stress in any way. The only way that they have to release their inner turmoil is with rest, spending time with family, friends and just playing like children do. The six to eight hours children already spend in school should suffice. The hour that might be wasted on homework each night. The rest they are not getting by doing something they enjoy further add to the stress and further diminish their ability to efficiently work and lowers their test scores and lengthen the time already spent on homework and the cycle starts again. It has no scientific support.Despite it often being praised for locking in the lessons of the day or further assist them on getting a good test score most researchers disagree on the benefits of homework. Some seem to think it solves all the problems of the world while others while others say it in fact diminishes effort and test scores, at least before high school. The children don't need homework at this age and the added stress, fear and general resentment towards school results in lowered test scores. They aren't learning, they're reciting and memorizing because they are told to. The fact that they're experiencing all the downs of homework and still not reaping any benefits is troublesome to say the least. Too much for no reason.But why do we issue homework? Often we try to answer that question with the standardized “It helps kids learn; it enforces the lesson of the day; it gives them the chance to look back and get ahead and it is a necessary part of education.” The problem with these statements is that they are all false. We issue homework because we're raised to the idea that it is something that is important. We issue home work because the teacher said so. We issue homework without really having a need for it. If a child is late on his/her educational path and has been slacking off it may be required of him to use some of his time at home to learn and catch up. That's all right assuming that he actually does it. But most of the times we issue homework because at some point we simply go “Well, I don't actually have a valid reason to assign homework to these kids since they're all doing well, but they still should do something four to five times a week.” This is just the norm, and it isn't helping the children at all. It may lock in a lesson or two, but at the cost of test scores, co-operation in the class room and general spirit and behavioural patterns in the group. It's a bore.There, I said it, perhaps the least scientific and the most biased argument and still it serves the point. Children just do not enjoy homework. At no point will you hear a child sitting trough an hour of homework and say: “Gee, do I have to stop? I'm having so much fun!” Children are people too, and just like you don't like to do what bores you and just like you don't really pick the fruits of that activity children don't really gain anything from doing homework. They complain of stress, boredom, general resentment at their school for placing this unneeded burden on their backs and in turn don't really commit. They slack as much as they can because as unbelievable as it may be they don't need to solve the exact same equation for x 25 times. Homework is extremely repetitive. With the exception of the occasional essay or video assignment that they just might enjoy it almost always boils down to doing the same thing over and over again until they either finish the assignment or snap. If you still have that math folder you where assigned in the fifth or sixth grade you might notice the patterns in it. “Solve for x in the following equations:a) 2x = 5+xb) 5+2x = -xc) x/10 = 3(x*2 + 5)d) 2*x-4*x = x/(4+1) [add the rest of the alphabet with similar looking problems]” none of these problems are hard, not even for a beginner in basic algebra. And yet they take ages because 26 of them take time that the child is wasting on listening to his Ipod, doodling little penguins at the corner of his book or reading something that entertains him. In some subject repetition is good, but in most cases 5 problems do the job just as well to get the general idea. Any more and the child will feel pressured, stressed, bored, angry, depressed and starts to develop a resentment towards school. The common sentence “I hate school” isn't because they're rebelling against the system as a part of a phase; They're just not happy. They don't feel comfortable in school and need a rest from it now and again. But when school starts to follow them home they'll not feel comfortable anywhere and that against cuts into test scores. Ladies and gentlemen, School is a wonderful place. It helps our young grow and blossom and reach the heights of success. But they are spending an awful lot of time in there on a day to day basis, why should the have to invest even more time than they truly require? Why should we force them to deny themselves of rest when they cry out for it? Why should we put pressure on mere children when they state in agony how they cannot handle it? Why should we have homework when we do not need it? I say let school stay where it belongs in school and let home stay at home where it belongs. Homework is a thing of the past, and as all things old it will eventually have to make way for new, better solutions. http://www.alfiekohn.org...http://www.alternet.org...http://www.sundaypost.com...http://www.livescience.com...