The Truth About Homework

Nicholas Duncan P1/2

Schools need to hand out homework, because it helps students learn. Homework helps students
develop independence, increase their score on standardized tests or better grades in classes, and also
helps parents know what their son/daughter is having trouble with or excelling at. Some students may not
like homework, but like it or not, homework can help us in everything that school can throw at us. It helps
on tests as a review or study guide and can help us remember and practice what we learn in class.
Homework is just a helpful way for students to practice what they learned in school.

Not only does homework help kids practice what they did in class, but it also helps them develop
independence. A study by the Conseil suprieur de l'ducation shows that homework can develop
independence in students if they do it without help. If students are independent enough, that can also help
with schoolwork, by making them able to do their assignments alone and without anyone yelling over
them or distracting them. Without those interferences, students will get a lot more done during class, and
their grades will escalate.

Homework helps students, but they shouldnt have multiple hours of homework to do. Students
who spend about an hour on homework every night experience the most benefit on standardized tests
and in class. According to University of Oviedo professor Javier Suarez-Alvarez, students who spend
around 60-70 min. on homework experience the most improvement. 60-70 minutes may be what level of
homework students do better with, but that growth halted at around 90 mins, so more can sometimes be
less. Relating back to the last sentences of paragraph two, studies also show that students who do more
homework and require less parental help on it show better test scores than others.

When students receive homework, Its meant to help keep what you learned during the day inside
your head instead of sending it in one ear and out the other. Homework helps us students remember,
practice or memorize what we learn, so we dont end up with a report card full of Fs. If we dont have
homework, how are you supposed to study for your finals in high school? Teachers dont want to re-teach
the same old stuff, and when you get to high school, you have the same knowledge of geometry as a 5th
grader. Homework is made for us to succeed in class, and to practice the skills we learned previously.

Some people may say that homework doesnt actually help students and just takes away free
time with family, like Alfie Kohn who says: We parents need to reach out to others in our communities to
debunk uninformed assumptions ("homework is academically beneficial") in the The Case Against
Homework article. Homework does help students academically and it has many studies to back it. Like
Ive mentioned before, there are many studies to prove Alfie Kohns own uninformed assumptions
wrong. The studies by Javier Surez-lvarez of the University of Oviedo in Spain, the Conseil suprieur
de l'ducation and other studies all prove this statement wrong, and were explained above. If Alfie had
any evidence to support her claim, she didnt include it in her statement, and that evidence sure wasnt a
trustworthy study.