The Homework Debate: Scrap It or Structure It?

Being someone who works within the school system and gets to interact with students on a daily basis, I must say that I find this topic regarding whether or not homework should be abolished entirely quite interesting. I have once been a student and now work as a teacher. I know it's common to hear students groan at the mention of homework. If I'm being fair, I'd say I understand their frustration because they want to experience life outside school without school intruding, but as much as I would have agreed with them to leave schoolwork at the school gate, still I don't think scrapping homework completely is a good measure.

I understand there are loads of pressures on students already, and I hope you won't get me wrong or think I'm having this opinion because of my natural instinct as a teacher. I know how demanding school schedules can be, from having to leave home at an early hour of the morning and spending hours at the school, only to return home late and still face mountains of assignments from multiple teachers.

Speaking from the perspective of the students, I'd say that this can be both physically and mentally exhausting, and this is because I've once been in their shoes, and that should go on to show that I understand, even though parents like my friend @nkemakonam89 might outrightly kick against homework, since some of them have to monitor and guide their kids through the assignment, which can as well be tasking coupled with other chores they've got.

Children need time outside school to bond with their family and also develop social and creative skills after school hours, but then here is the twist and why I'm for homework staying put: if students were given homework in moderation with proper structure, it usually goes on to play a vital role in learning and also helps them revise what they've been taught, and that's not forgetting how it can help them build valuable traits and skills such as building discipline and developing time management from such a tender age.

But buttressing that, a student who wants to play and have a social life will structure his time so he'll be able to do both assignments and still have time for other things, which goes on to groom both traits I highlighted above, and we can't also forget that students don't always understand every topic they're taught in school, probably due to noise, distraction from other students, and the like, but when faced quietly with an extra push, via an assignment that could be as simple as reading certain part of the note or solving a few questions, it'll go on to aid their understanding and that's what I call reinforcing learning.

So rather than outrightly removing homework from the school system, what I think needs to be done is to change the way homework is assigned. You'll see some teachers give long, repetitive assignments, which just seem like a punishment, especially when such come from multiple subject teachers to one student. If these are brought to a halt and homework is channeled into being purposeful, such as giving a short passage to read, a few questions to solve, or even a fun and reflective activity that can buttress the classroom teaching while they're at home, they'll go on to make homework more effective than endless lists of problems to solve and reading an entire story overnight.

While I've talked about how important homework is and why it shouldn't be scrapped, I think it'll be ideal for us to know what will happen if there's no homework. Based on my perspective, I believe when students don't have homework, then the chances of them forgetting everything they've been taught are very high, especially when it comes to exams. Many of these students don't read. But when you give them an assignment that's more like an area of concentration, it indirectly prepares them for the exam, which they would have struggled with if there weren't an exam. Using public schools as an example, when students tend to get limited teacher-student personal attention due to overpopulation, homework usually gives such students a chance to catch up at their own pace.

So overall, rather than banning homework, I think schools should work on ways to balance homework. Parents and students need to understand that homework isn't aimed at taking students' peace of mind, so parents should try to be involved by trying to encourage and guide students to do their assignments. In a nutshell, we shouldn't take homework off but rethink and redesign it in a way that supports learning and not too much so children can have enough time to do other things.

All photos are mine.