In the United States, 45% of children are stressed out due to school (The Young Turks, Should America Ban Homework,2015). The definition of stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Children’s stressors are homework, personal family problems, fear of failure, and fitting in with other students. According to the Young Turks, the leading cause of stress is the amount of homework that students are assigned daily (Should America Ban Homework,2015). Homework can cause stress, exhaustion, and anxiety for many students (Neighmond,1). Some students stress or anxiety is increased if they do not have the resources at home to be able to complete their homework successfully, which leads to their homework assignments being incorrect and incomplete. On the other hand, many students stress and anxiety is increased by their parents pushing them to excel in school. Many kids develop a fear of failure due to being pressured to be perfect in all areas of their academics (Margolies,1). Students would be more successful if they had less or no homework during the middle of the week and during the weekends. Students need a break from all the work and it would allow them to get all their work done by assigning no homework during the week plus the weekends should be homework free. Many students are most stressed during the weekends due to being assigned homework on Fridays. A weekend where students did not have homework would be a weekend where they could relax and do things that they could not do during the week. Also if students did not have homework during certain days of the week, it would allow them to spend time with their family…which many students do not have currently. Schools in the United States should remove the requirement of homework for students in kindergarten through high school because it causes large amounts of stress, anxiety, and it causes students to have less time outside of school.

One of the main reasons that students are so stressed, is due to the amounts of homework assigned each night. According to the American psychological Association, 7,700 students spent on average 1-2 hours on homework every night. That may not seem like a lot to many people but add in the eight-hour school day, extracurricular activities that may take an extra few hours, fit in dinner, and family time. That leaves students with not a lot of time to spend studying or doing their homework. The National Education Association recommends that the homework time should increase by 10 minutes per year in school meaning a 3rd grader has 30 minutes and a high schooler has about an hour but even so, the NEA believes that 30-50 minutes for an elementary school student is way too much (TheAlternativeDaily,1). According to Clifton B. Parker, a social-science writer,56% of student’s primary stress is homework, while 43% was tests (Parker,1). More than half of students are stressed over homework, more so than the tests themselves. With the amounts of homework that students receive each day, that is why more students feel stressed about it. “A little stress is a good thing…it can motivate students to be organized, but too much stress can backfire” (Neighmond,1). Kids of all ages are suffering from high levels of stress that is caused by school from the homework, getting the best grades they can, to tests…students are constantly working. Students stressed out by school are dealing with a wide range of emotions, and frequent mental breakdowns tend to occur when it gets to be too much for that student. Many students have a “what if” mentality. They become stressed and think, “what if I get a bad grade on this homework or test? I might fail the class and never get into college!” Students stress becomes increasingly worse the older they get due to external forces like applying for colleges, applying for scholarships, having jobs, and their home life. Students now more than ever are under large amounts of stress caused by homework and that needs to change!

Students in kindergarten through the twelfth grade have other side effects due to homework besides stress. Students have frequent stomachaches, depression, anxiety, sadness anger, headaches, and have trouble sleeping at night. According to Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, "We found a clear connection between the students' stress and physical impacts -- migraines, ulcers and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss” (Enayati,1). Even though stress is the most common side effect that homework negatively has on students, there are other issues that impact students just as much. These negative effects are detrimental to their attitude about going to school, their mentality, emotions, and the quality of their life. Students dealing with these side effects can become sad and depressed if they do not have any social interactions with their friends or family. Homework tends to not allow students to spend the time with their family or friends which is necessary to developing socially. Over half of high school students get less than seven hours of sleep each night;1/5 students get less than six hours, but even more concerning is that 82% of middle and high schoolers wake up exhausted. This causes students to not be able to concentrate in school (Saminsky,1). Students who are exhausted when they wake up in the morning have a hard time in school and it can affect them negatively if that student falls asleep in class. Homework, when over assigned, really effect students minds because the more stress that students have the more likely headaches or migraines are to occur. A combination of the listed side effects above, their high dislike for school, and if they become hysterical when doing homework that is when you know that a student has too much homework!

Another problem students face because of homework, is the pressure to succeed due to a student’s parents, teachers, and other students. If parents and teachers want their students to not have as much stress than they must shift their perspective of what the definition of success is. Many students are pressured to receive good grades and succeed in all academic area that many fear that they will fail. Dr. Michou from Bilkent University stated that, "First, teachers and parents have to be more sensitive on how they evaluate young children's competence. Very high standards and criticism result in increased levels of fear of failure,” (universityherald,1). Criticizing students and grading homework for accuracy leads to students feeling more stressed because they should get all the answers correct on their homework which leads to high levels of cheating. Cheating has dramatically increased in school in the past 50 years and more than 73% of students cheat on written assignments (Linette Ho,1) Students feel that they have no other choice but to cheat on assignments. Many students feel the pressure to get A’s on their classes so that they will not be criticized by their teachers or parents. If they are criticized in high amounts or pressured by others they begin to feel stressed and frustrated. Homework and other written assignments lead to a student’s being pressured which then leads to stress, anxiety, fatigue, etc.

Homework is not just detrimental to students but it also causes families to become overstressed when children had homework that was over assigned to that student. Families are 200% more likely to fight over homework if children received more than the recommended amount (Wallace,1). Instead of families enjoying their time together they are separated by the homework that takes their children’s time away from the rest of the family. In families that are lower-income the stress and tension is even higher. Children in a low-income household have an even harder time doing their homework because the resources are not there or their parents are not there. Their parents most likely are not there because more times than not they are at work leaving the child with older siblings or another family member. Children in these homes have even less motivation because they do not see why they should do it if no one is there to support them. Those students in poorer homes are more likely to give up on homework because it is too hard and they do not see the point in it. Another issue is that most children in a low-income family do not have access to the internet putting them at a disadvantage because they do not have the resources to complete certain assignments (TheAtlantic,1). As books become digitalized and many assignments require internet more children in poorer families are at a disadvantage because they do not have what they need to succeed. Families are just as affected by homework as students are because if assigned in large amounts it causes much frustration throughout the household but it affects low income families even more due to their lack of resources.

Many believe that homework is bad for students, especially when it is assigned every day but there are those who believe that homework is beneficial to students and that it has more positives than negatives. It can be argued that homework plays a critical, long-term role in the development of children’s achievement motivation. Homework also provides children an experience to develop positive beliefs about achievement, as well as strategies for coping with mistakes or difficulties. According to a poll conducted by the Associated Press in 2006, 57% of parents felt that their child was assigned the right amount of homework, 23% thought it was too little, and 19% thought it was too much (Cooper, 1). Many argue that academic achievement is positively related to homework completion and a negative attitude towards homework is due to the parents’ attitude toward it. Students given homework have many benefits if the homework is not over-assigned. Setting the right amount of homework allows students to gain a lot of benefits such as time management, personal responsibility, perseverance, and self-esteem(Fuglei,1). Teachers across the country collectively believe that homework is important. Educators support and value homework for its daily reinforcement of learning and the development of study skills. Teachers, psychologists, and many supporters of homework condemned those who criticize homework because there was little research proving homework did not help and the inconsistent findings did not prove that homework had no impact.  There is a strong argument for homework because there is a lot of evidence that homework is useful but there are just as many people who are reluctant when it comes to the usefulness of homework. 

It can be argued that homework is effective but there are also people that will argue that it is not effective whatsoever (Center For Public Education,1). According to those who believe homework is not effective, too much homework does not have any benefit to students. Both sides can agree that there are skills that develop from doing homework. Skills like: time management, good attitude about school, responsibility, and organization can be developed over time when homework is developed. Many surveys that have been conducted have had similar results that say that most parents believe that kids have the right amount of homework. That comes from a variety of parents who may or may not believe in the idea of homework. As kids get older there is an increase in how effective homework is for students. In elementary school, there is not much of a difference, but once you reach middle and high school there is an increase in how homework can impact a student’s grades and achievement in the classroom. If an appropriate amount of homework is assigned than it more than likely will not interfere with any family time and it can strengthen the partnership between parents and teachers. Students need some type of homework so that they can practice what they learned at school that day to be able to fully understand what they are taught so class time is not wasted re-teaching the topic. There are some things that both sides of the argument can agree on, but there are more negatives to homework than positives.

 According to Harris Cooper, the director of the education program at Duke University, the research is consistent and proving that the “10-minute rule” for homework does work for children. The “10-minute rule” is the optimum amount of homework that teachers should assign based on the grade of the student. For example, a first grader would be assigned 10 minutes’ worth of homework, a 3rd grader would be given 30 minutes’ worth of homework, and a 7th grader would have around an hour and 10 minutes’ worth of homework (Duke Today Staff,1). Overall homework for younger children is not as effective because children can tune out the distractions, and they are less effective at building their study habits unlike older kids. Cooper stated, "The bottom line really is all kids should be doing homework, but the amount and type should vary according to their developmental level and home circumstances (Duke Today Staff ,1.) A solution to help both children and teachers be successful in the classroom is to use the “ten-minute rule.” Children are most successful when given the right amount of homework and they are still able to have free time to destress from the day. Another solution to the homework issue is to assign it every other day so that students have more time to work on their assignments. There are ideas that can be agreed upon regarding homework. Homework is not perfect but there are ways to make it useful and stress free for students. Opposing sides of the argument can meet halfway to come up with a solution that will cause homework to be effective for all students. 

Homework in the United States is an issue for many children from a young age all the way through college. It causes stress that leads to anxiety and even physical, mental, and emotional problems. Kids today are under a lot of pressure from standardized testing, having a high GPA, extracurricular activities that take up time, and the need to please their parents. According to Education week’s survey, 80% of teachers say homework is important but most of that homework that the teacher assigns is an attempt to remedy the low-test scores that students received on standardized tests (Costley, 3.) If teachers assigned a moderate amount of homework, students systematically would do better in class assessments. Robert H. Tai, Associate Professor of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia stated, “Homework should be purposeful, and that purpose must be understood by both the teachers and the student…more is not better. (Tai,1.)” Homework should be purposeful so that students know why they are doing it. A solution that would work well to relieve students stress would be to implement homework policies based on the individual’s schools and class needs. If there is a high need for more homework then develop a plan that would create effective homework assignments but they need to be useful not overbearing. Another solution to the homework issue would be to assign class work and whatever is not finished in class would be what would need to be completed from home. This would allow students to get help in class by fellow classmates or the teacher and it would lessen the amount of work they need to take home. A solution that would eliminate all problems would be to remove it from the school’s curriculum all together alleviating much of a student’s stress. It would also allow educators to create better plans for assignments that would allow students to be more creative and have fun while learning. Removing homework would allow students to be more successful and it would improve students emotional/mental health. Students in the United States are under more pressure than any generation before it when it comes to the workload required of them. If we remove homework from schools it would allow children to do extracurriculars, to spend time with their family, or it would allow them to do whatever they want with the time they would gain by not having tons of homework every day! The negatives of assigning homework to students outweighs the positives which is why homework should be removed from all schools in the United States of all ages.
