Persuasive Essay Example: Homework Should Be Banned

Imagine this, you come home from a long seven-hour school day and you realize you have another two hours of homework ahead of you. Then you remember you have baseball practice too. By the time you finish practice, eating dinner, and completing your homework it's already 11:45 at night. Now you have to get ready for bed and get some things ready for school for the next day. By the time you go to sleep, it's around midnight and you have to get up the next morning at 6:00. This is a reality for a lot of students around the world. Between hours spent doing homework, school, and extracurricular activities you have worked almost a full workday.  Researches show that students spend on average 7 hours on schoolwork a day. School can be a very stressful place, and homework is only making things worse for some students. A solution to eliminate the stress is to eliminate homework. We already know that homework causes 56% of students to be stressed, and anxious. By eliminating homework students will have more free time and less mental health problems. But not everyone loves the idea of this proposition.  

 Banning homework will provide students with more free time to be with friends and family. In her article Sonya Kulkarni claims that, “When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours.”(Kulkarni). Students often spend up to four to five hours completing homework, even after a seven-hour school day. This limits the amount of free time students have to go to a job or hang out with friends. By eliminating homework students will be provided with several more hours of time to do what they want to do. According to the researchers of University of the people, “School is already a full-time job for students, as they generally spend over 6 hours each day in class. Students also often have extracurricular activities such as sports, music, or art that are just as important as their traditional courses. Adding on extra hours to all of these demands is a lot for children to manage, and prevents students from having extra time to themselves for a variety of creative endeavors. Homework prevents self-discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system.” (university of the people).  Extra homework on top of after-school activities can do more harm than good. This extra work can lead to problems with self-discovery, and a lack of social skills. Homework can take up a lot of necessary time that students could be using to do things that interest them. Banning homework will create more opportunities for students to do what they love and lead to a better social life.  

Banning homework will not only improve mental health but also physical health. Amanda Enayati, a CNN contributor, expressed that “Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high-stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children's lives” Students who are assigned multiple hours of homework can have unbalanced lives and physical health problems from the time spent sitting at a desk doing homework. Valerie Strauss, a writer for the Washington Post, states that,  “Many students wrote that homework causes them to sleep less than they should and leads to headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems”(Strauss ). Listed above are just a handful of the health problems homework can lead to. This is unhealthy for students to experience, and banning homework would help to improve students' health. As you can see by banning homework students would experience better physical health, and it would improve their sleep. No student deserves to experience these help problems because of homework. 

While many believe that banning homework would solve problems, some parents and teachers disagree. Some people think homework can be beneficial to students.  A downside to banning homework is students won’t learn certain time management skills and the teacher can’t check on how well students know the material. Research found from University of the people shows that “Homework is forcing students to plan their time and make sure that all of their homework assignments are done on time. By learning to manage their time, students also practice their problem-solving skills and independent thinking. One of the positive effects of homework is that it forces decision-making and compromises to be made.”(university of the people) Homework allows students to manage their time by themselves and forces them to practice problem-solving. Both of these skills will be useful throughout a student's life. “Homework creates a connection between the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents. It allows everyone to get to know each other better, and parents can see where their children are struggling. In the same sense, parents can also see where their children are excelling. Homework in turn can allow for a better, more targeted educational plan for the student.”(university of the people). By banning homework parents and teachers won't be able to tell as well if students are struggling in class. This is one thing that makes homework important to some people. Teachers want to know where students are having a hard time learning material, and they use homework as a check-up. By eliminating homework teachers can’t track progress as well. 

Although some parents and teachers disagree, banning homework would be very beneficial to students' mental and physical health. Homework can lead to a lack of free time and social development along with a series of physical health problems. Homework is not worth it with all the problems it has caused. Students are already busy enough with school, and after-school activities. “This month two Utah elementary schools gained national recognition for officially banning homework. The results are significant, with psychologist referrals for anxiety decreasing by 50 percent.” (We are Teachers).