16 November 2016

Dear Mr. President,

Anna Hill, a young sixth grader, is the daughter of Isabel Hill, of Brooklyn, New York. According to the article “Excessive Homework Strains Family Life”, Anna spends an exhausting amount of hours during the week doing homework. Anna devotes even her weekends to homework. Her mother says, “Usually, the weekends just go by in a blur of homework”. Anna’s workload becomes more overwhelming on school nights. She only takes a thirty-minute break after school and does not finish her homework until 10:00 or 10:30 p.m. According to Isabel Hill, her daughter has never not had homework. Due to the excessive amount of homework Anna is given, she is beginning to lose her desire to learn. The results of a survey taken in 2002 show that sixty-four percent of students between the ages of six and eight have homework every day. To put things into perspective, this is double what the workload was in 1981. Mr. President, today I write to you in order to convince you that homework should be given in moderation.

While I understand why many believe doing more homework will make students learn more than they could within school hours, there is no research that supports a positive correlation between amounts of homework and academic capability. There are some obvious benefits to homework such as: improving a student’s understanding, improving a student’s study skills, and improving a student’s attitude towards school; however, these benefits are completely lost when the amount of homework assigned is too much for the student to handle. Many teachers are drawn to the idea that repeating a skill over and over again will help the student to remember information, but repetitive homework does not help a student’s love for learning grow and strongly contributes to their disliking of school. Some may even argue that homework can be a great way for parents to see what their children are learning in class and can create a stronger bond between the parent and child. Although this may be true for some, not all parents are able to provide enough time, attention, or a proper environment to do so.

I believe that homework assignments should be given in moderation, because based on facts, it is not necessary for students to be working all day and night on homework. In school districts across the country, actions are being taken to extend the school day, increase homework, accommodate more technology, and require more advanced tests in order to better prepare and educate students. As stated earlier, there is no evidence to support this idea. In fact, students in the United States spend almost double the amount of time at school than those students in higher achieving countries, such as Finland, and score ten to twenty percent lower than these students on international tests of achievement according to “US Schools Can Achieve More by Doing Less”. Why are American students’ scores so low? According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, there are no honor societies, no gifted classes, and because their college is free, no students stressing over college acceptance in Finland. Perhaps the poor scores American students receive on international tests of achievement is due to the amount of stress they experience daily. This may be difficult for many Americans to believe since the “more is better” idea is so common in our country. In your future years as president, I hope you make an effort to lower the stress levels of American students by cutting down the amount of homework teachers are allowed to give their students. Something needs to be changed.

Mr. President, please hear me out when I say that homework should be given in moderation. After spending several hours at school, students should not be spending more than three hours a night working on homework. According to the National Sleep Foundation, children need about eleven hours of sleep and teenagers need about nine hours of sleep. Homework should not be cutting into this time. In addition to this, all students need to be spending time with their families and friends. Homework should not be putting strains on these relationships. Learning needs to be something that is encouraged for the beneficiary of our country. Homework should not be discouraging students to succeed in life. I believe the only way to avoid these issues is to give students a small amount of effective homework to prepare them for the future.

Sincerely,

Anne-Catherine 

Bibliography

Baines, Lawrence. "US Schools Can Achieve More by Doing Less." Do Schools Prepare Students for a Global Economy?, edited by Judeen Bartos, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010830204&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=true&source=Bookmark&u=lafa43079&jsid=2e96f04e30c9cc9e556fb68a9d0eb578. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016. Originally published as "Learning from the World: Achieving More by Doing Less" in Phi Delta Kappan, Oct. 2007.

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Mangione, Lisa. "Homework Has Value When It Reinforces Learning." Do Students Have Too Much Homework?, edited by Judeen Bartos, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010796211&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=true&source=Bookmark&u=lafa43079&jsid=2380fc59441778589f14266f198bafbf. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016. Originally published as "Is Homework Working?" in Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 89, no. 8, Apr. 2008, pp. 614-15.

Ponte, Wendy. "Excessive Homework Strains Family Life." Do Students Have Too Much Homework?, edited by Judeen Bartos, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010796202&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=true&source=Bookmark&u=lafa43079&jsid=af6adbb9d5a816cf22dab2f588ffda0a. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016. Originally published as "No More Homework" in Mothering, 2008, pp. 58-66.

"Students and Homework." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Reference&currPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CPC3010999189&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=true&source=Bookmark&u=lafa43079&jsid=7782bd22a7e955929cf30537f8f8f548. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.