Is homework worth it?

Let´s start with this question, who really likes homework? Pretty obvious that most of the students in this case will answer a “NO”. We have to be realistic, nobody doesn´t like to take work at home because home is for rest and to have some peace not to continue working like a robot. However we know that any single thing in this world has its pros and cons, and homework is not the exception.

Despite of all the bad comments that students give about homework, it also has its pros or better its advantages. Homework is important because it keeps us updated from any course that we are taking; it is traditional way that teachers use to make sure that the student is checking the subject on day; otherwise they will come to class without knowing a thing just because they did not want to study. Another relevant fact to concern is that it allows the student to investigate new subjects that they have not seen yet in class and that is important because at the same time they are investigating by themselves and also they are learning.

Now let´s write about some disadvantages of homework. Students complain too much because there are some teachers who like to give a lot of homework and it’s obvious that no one wishes to work that much at home. All of that forces the student to look for some illegal ways and these are: cheating, plagiarism and dealing (selling homework), of course not all the students do this kind of things that I mentioned because there are also the exceptions who are those ones that are responsible and make all the assignments in the legal way, nevertheless I’m sure that the majority are involved in this. Professors should know that sometimes there is not enough time to complete all the tasks that they assign that is why some students look for some non legal ways to get things done, if not, they will not be able to.

Nowadays in all the Schools, institutions, Universities, etc should know that the amount of homework and its difficulty level that they assign must be according to the age of the student and why am I telling this? Back in kinder garden and in

school I remembered that my teachers assign us plenty of work to do at home. Some of the teachers got angry because they found out that some of the assignments were made by someone else (parents or somebody older).Without lying they really got upset because they said that parents must allow their children to be independent ones. The funniest thing of all this and what I have been asking myself until now is how do teachers expect that a kid of five to eight years old can manage to do such as difficult and long homework? If we at that time barely knew how to read and write…

In my personal opinion I think that everything must have a balance. As I explained before homework can be useful and useless in different aspects. Teachers have to understand that excessive work can be fatal because it is actually a heavy burden that students cannot carry everytime and also it can cause them mental illnesses such as stress and depression, practically they do not live in peace. “Study” is not everything in life, we are humans not robots and so we deserve a well-balanced life. “Anything in excess is bad”.

By Javier Rivera