Is homework harmful or helpful?

“The most common purpose of homework is to have students practice material already presented in class to reinforce learning and facilitate mastery of specific skills.” If homework can fulfill its purpose while not being harmful than it can be considered helpful and not harmful to the student. There are two main factors to consider when determining if homework is helpful or harmful, how much homework is given, and how difficult the homework is.

When too much homework is given it can cause students to have stress, put less effort in, and sometimes cheat. When students put in less effort or cheat than the homework is not able to fulfill its purpose and is not helpful to the student. This is also when homework can be harmful to the students and can even cause problems with the students’ health. Some students have terrible sleep schedules, some eat fast food more frequently to save time, some have large amounts of stress. This is when homework is it’s most harmful. When too little homework is given it is not able to engage the student and help them practice and remember the skills learned during class. When this occurs homework is neither helpful nor harmful it is just pointless.

When homework is too easy it is unable to facilitate mastery of specific skills or help any student reinforce what they have learned. This is also when homework becomes pointless and a common example of this is when homework is given as busywork just too occupy a student’s time. When this occurs it wastes the students' time and if the homework is given like this it may even cause students to not put any effort in and just cheat because they do not see any point in the homework. When homework is too difficult it can cause stress, make the student put less effort in, and possibly cheat. This makes it a waste of time because it does not fulfill the goal of homework. Homework is most helpful when it is given in moderation.

When homework is given in moderation it will be helpful because it can fulfill the purpose of homework by providing the correct difficulty for students to reinforce learning and facilitate mastery while not being too time-consuming by there being too much homework. Overall, homework can be helpful however it must be optimized so that students will not be harmed when trying to learn.

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