Is homework beneficial? Should kids have homework? Or is homework a waste of time? Today, we are going to look at this debate, practice thinking in English, and learn some useful vocabulary at the same time!
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Vocabulary List
Assignment (n) – a piece of work given to someone, typically as part of their studies or job
I have a lot of assignments to complete this week
To cater for someone/something (phrasal v) – to provide what is wanted or needed by someone or something
The club caters for children below the age of 10
To memorize (v) – to learn something so that you will remember it exactly
When I was at school, we were required to memorize vocabulary every week
Perspective (n) – a particular way of considering something
He writes from a Marxist perspective
Achievement (n) – the act of achieving something (finishing something successfully) or of achieving things generally
This school has a history of outstanding achievement
Detrimental (adj) – causing harm or damage
These chemicals have a detrimental impact on the environment
Prevalent (adj) – existing very commonly or happening often
That disease is more prevalent among children
Social inequality (n) – the condition of unequal access to the benefits of society
Universities have been accused of increasing social inequality
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Homework…
What should children do after they finish school? Should they have to finish their schoolwork, or do extra assignments, in the form of homework? Should they join clubs, play sport, learn the piano, or take swimming lessons? Should they go to cram schools, or private classes, to keep on studying or learning? Or should they be allowed to relax and rest after a day of studying at school?
Depending on where you are from, you might have a different perspective on what children should do after school. Let me give you a few examples.
In my case, in the UK we would usually finish classes around 3pm and leave school straight away. I would usually have about an hour of homework, but not too much, and I played rugby in the evening twice a week. Compared to a lot of other countries, it was relatively relaxed – a lot of the time I’d just sit and watch TV or play in the park with my friends for a few hours.
However, I used to be an elementary school and junior high school teacher in Japan. And I was amazed at how different children’s lives were compared to my own experiences. My students would finish school around 4pm and straight away begin their school clubs. We have clubs in the UK, but they don’t take place every day like they do in Japan. After they finished with the clubs, many students would then head to cram school – and continue studying with private tutors. And they also received quite a lot of homework.
I’m sure your own country, culture, and experiences might be different to the UK and Japanese situations I’ve just described. But what students should do after school can be a controversial issue.
In China, they once had a large and thriving afterschool education industry. Students from middle class families would attend extra education in an effort to get the best possible marks in the country’s university entrance exams. This industry was a big business… until earlier this year!
China decided to shut down and ban after school education schools. Rich families can still hire private tutors who come to their houses, but the schools that catered to millions of middle-class children are no longer allowed to operate. Why? Well part of the reason is for children’s health and well-being – the government was concerned that children were studying for far too long.
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History of homework
Homework has a long history – probably as long as formal education has existed. Pliny the Younger, the famous writer from Ancient Rome, demanded that his followers and supporters to practice speeches at home. The word “homework” actually dates from the Roman civilization.
Moving through history, monks and religious scholars in the Middle Ages engaged in memorization exercises. For a long time, education was primarily available only to the people (men) who wanted to study religion. They would spend their free time reciting and memorizing religious texts – a kind of homework.
As formal education became more widespread and common across Europe in the 19th century, the idea of homework also developed. Beginning in German “people’s schools” students were given assignments or tasks to complete at home – other European countries quickly copied the German approach and it spread across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States.
However, the reception to homework wasn’t always positive – did you know homework was actually banned in California for children under 15 between the years 1901 and 1917? Education activists and reformers believed that homework would have a negative effect on the health of children. Homework remained unpopular until the middle of the 20th century – one major argument was that children should spend their free time helping their families and households.
From the 1950s onwards homework became increasingly popular. It was seen as a way of increasing the amount of education a child receives and therefore improving a country’s future economic and technological power. Research in the last 10 years suggests that the average American teenager spends around one hour a day doing homework – and high school students receive on average 3.5 hours of homework a week from each of their teachers.
But is homework actually beneficial? Or do the negatives outweigh the benefits? During the pandemic, when students spent their whole day studying at home, the concept of homework began to be questioned once again.
I thought I’d present two different perspectives on homework – just like in my previous debate episodes. I want you all to listen both sides of the argument, think about the issues in English, and then decide for yourself whether homework is a good thing for children.
Is Homework Useful?
Yes – Homework is beneficial!!
First, proponents of homework argue that it improves student achievement – more specifically, research suggests that homework increases the chances of students entering college, improves grades, and increases average test scores!
Let me tell you more details about this research. First, a study in the High School Journal showed that students who spent over 30 minutes on homework a day averaged 40 points higher on tests than students who did no homework at all. Second, two meta-studies on the impact of homework (so research papers collecting and comparing lots of different studies) found that homework was effective in improving academic performance and achievement most of the time.
And third, the Institute for the Study of Labor has demonstrated that homework leads to better grades and higher likelihood to attend college – on average, boys who enter college in the US did over 3 hours extra homework at school.
To really understand something, students need to apply what they learn by themselves. As children usually only remember about 50% of information in a class, homework is often essential to make sure students receive a full education. It allows them to practice and retain more information.
Moreover, homework can teach useful life skills. Homework helps children and students to develop time management, self-reliance, critical thinking, and discipline. All useful things for children to learn!
Homework also allows parents and families to be involved with and keep track of children’s education. Parents can understand the school curriculum as well as their children’s weaknesses and strengths. Evidence suggests that is parents are involved in a child’s education, the child’s grades are likely to increase.
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No – homework is not beneficial!!
On the other hand, there are people who believe that homework is not beneficial or is problematic. Some argue that too much homework can actually be detrimental. Homework, especially when given in large quantities, can lead to stress, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, weight loss, and other health problems. 82% Californians high school students reported that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.”
Interestingly, high levels of homework is also connected to increased levels of cheating. 90% of middle school students in the US report that they have copied someone else’s homework. In fact, I’m sure many of you listening today copied homework when you were young. High levels of high school and college students also report cheating at least once. And in one study, 43% of parents admitted to finishing a child’s homework. What is the point of homework if cheating is so prevalent?
There is also an issue called the “homework gap.” Not all students are able to complete homework to the same level – and this was highlighted during the pandemic. Millions of children in countries like the UK and USA do not have access to a strong internet connection, computers, or other devices to help them complete homework. Some children do not have the right materials at home, an adequate space to complete their homework, or a supportive family.
Some studies have suggested that up to 95% of students need the internet to complete all of their homework. But studies also reveal the up to 30% of American students did not have adequate internet connections. Homework often serves as a way to increase social inequality. The students who struggle to complete homework are often those without the resources to afford internet connections, computers, or desks. Instead, opponents of homework argue that education should take place predominantly in school where all resources are shared equally.
And finally, there is evidence that homework is not always helpful. In fact, there are a lot of studies that show homework is pretty pointless for young children. According to one study on elementary school students, “homework had no association with achievement gains.” Education researchers actually suggest that young children learn a lot more from not doing homework – going outside, playing, and doing other activities is far more beneficial.
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Final Thought
What do you think? Is homework beneficial? Should children be given homework to complete after school? On the one hand, homework has been shown to increase grades, involve parents in education, and teach children important life skills. On the other hand, homework can cause stress, increase cheating, increase social inequality, and might be pointless for younger children.
Personally, I think that the majority of education should take place in schools. Students should be given enough time and space to relax and enjoy themselves – and shouldn’t spend hours and hours doing homework afterschool. But, I want to know your opinions! What do you think?
Is homework beneficial? Can you think of an alternative to homework? Did homework help you at school?
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9 thoughts on “168. Should Kids Have Homework? (English Vocabulary Lesson)”
In my opinión the homework one hour per day is enough. The childs to learn more playing and experimently.
Tom,thanks again for your podcast.I am from Taiwan.Studying at school is really stressful here.It’s very normal to head to cram school after school. In my opinion ,
too much homework can’t inspire students.It just damages the interest of learning.
I really hope my government will take some action to solve this problem in the future.
Hello, Tom. I’m from Brazil and there we used to have classes there in the morning or in the afternoon and we always had some homework. But, I agree with you. Maybe, the kids should do their homework twice a week and the other days should have time to play with some friends and have quality time with their family.
Thanks for your episode! I’m from Indonesia and here, we used to get homework almost everyday. It made us stressful and pressured. Moreover, as Muslim, we had a routine activity every night to learn Islamic lesson. We were exhausted!
Hello Tom, I’m from Japan! I think teenager should have some homework but we have another problems. A lot of Japanese go to cram schools after regular schools as you said this episode and they get a lot of homework from cram schools -not from regular schools. That is a problem! They usually don’t care about homework from regular schools because of Japanese education(entrance university? ) system. When we go to a university, we basically don’t care about school’s grade at all. We just need to pass a university’s special exams. This is a normal way to go to a university in Japan. ( recently it is changing little by little ) . I hope regular school’s lesson and homework should be more important and effective for everyone…
Hi tom ,thank again for your interesting podecast .As usual the truth is always in the middle, I explain better myself, If a student attends a school where he study different hours intensely he doesn’t need to make homework at home indeed in this case he would do activity as sport or socialize to complete his own needs, but in the opposite case the homework should be done because it wont’s stress so much the students.
Hi Tom, thanks for your episode. When it comes to me, I don’t have any clear and biased opinion on this matter. I think that schools around the world should keep health balance.I mean that homework is really essential because it allows students to remind and refresh their knowledge gained at school, what have a huge impact on their results.On the other hand the excess of homework has also this negative side,for example when children devotes nearly three hours after school to do these tasks,they are really easily prone to stress and health problems as you recalled.To sum up teachers should take into consideration the advantages as well as disadvantages of this issue and find a sensible solution for their students sake.
I am a father of an elementary school boy. Before covid-19 restrictions, My kid finishes school at 4 pm. Most of his classmates continue to do homework or study by themselves, and some of his classmates will go to cram school. My kid directly comes back home to begin his assignments – homework. From my perspective, our kids should have homework. It is definitely beneficial.
How does homework cater to our children’s education?
In my scenario, covid-19 makes parents to be the heroes in school education. Online classes take much less time than in school. Homework can not only help my kid reinforce his understanding of the curriculums but also help our parents keep track of his education. As parents, we can be coaches or tutors in his homework. Through practice, Of cause, an important outcome of homework is that it can help our children get better test scores and make him be more confident with what he’s capable of from schooling. Besides homework, he reads books about history, Si-Fi fantasy, and children’s novels, that are not related to his curriculums. Except for online classes, homework, and reading, every day, he has another 2-3 hours for his interest, sport, and entertainment, and there is more bonus time on weekends. So that he is motivated. An appropriate amount of homework positively helps the growth of our children.
Why do our children have to achieve better grades?
In 2021, China has about 3000 public colleges and universities, and the number is nearly 6000 in the US. Considering the populations of these 2 countries, we can see that educational resources are not easy, it is a fiercely competitive environment for Chinese students, although, a few of our students will go abroad to study). Better marks in the exams can achieve greater certainty to enter an ideal college or university. Another hand, the Chinese government encourages not all young men need to accept higher education for the first time. A part of our students can go to technical or skill schools to meet society’s needs for human resources in many industries.
Even our English learning needs homework like the preparation for a conversation club, which allows us to write something and memorize more of what we have learned from the events.
I agree that too much homework can be detrimental. Balancing homework and non-homework time could be the key.
In my opinion the quantity of homework should be related to the duration of school during the day or, telling it better, to the complessive organisation and duration of school. If the school lasts up the early morning to the afternoon (3, 4 p.m.), as you said in the UK and in the Anglo-Saxon world, it should be normal to have a light charge of homework which, in that case, has the main aim to make responsible the student (one hour or less). But if the school lasts only the morning, then homework would be able to fill some lack of education.
Speaking about Italian primary school, as that my son has just ended it, we have a strange system. Students (parents for them) can choose between two alternatives, normal time (“tempo normale”) up 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. or full time (“tempo pieno”) up 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. My son attended both of the two kinds of hours, the normal (brief) time for the primary school’s last year. There is homework both in normal and full time and the weirdness is that the quantity of it is, more or less, the same, that is to say approximately two hours a day. As you can imagine my son’s happiness was increased the primary school’s last year.