Many researchers claim that the amount of homework given out in the US is the right amount. Many students and even parents do not agree with this claim. Concerns are rising about children and adolescent stress these days.
Many parents think homework is partly to blame. Many parents have been quoted as saying loads of homework overburdened their children. For some others, the parents, as well as the kids, go through the stress of getting the homework done.
A lot of work has been put in to prove the usefulness of homework or otherwise, particularly data gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). As analyzed by social scientist Brian Gill, the data suggests that the workload is what it should be for children in the US.
He also argued that kids are generally not doing as much as their counterparts did in the past. According to Gill, the average of the data collected is 4 hours a week, which is very reasonable. However, he agrees that some outliers exist. Still, the numbers are not large enough to regard the issue as a national problem.
Etta Krovallec, an American author, sees it differently. In his opinion, the data collection is faulty. He explains that the questions asked are rather suggestive and do not capture the real situation.
Despite his views, a recent poll showed 57% of parents claiming that their kids had just the right amount of homework. While 23% believe the task was too little, the remaining 19% claimed it was too much.
All researchers of homework agree to the fact that young children of today do more homework than the children of the past. Gill claims this difference is only about 20 minutes.
Parents also agreed to this fact by saying their kids in kindergarten do more homework than they did when they were in kindergarten.
According to Gill, the history of homework comes with a lot of debates. According to him, homework faced a lot of criticism in the past. Parents in the 1900s felt it took away the playtime of their kids.
Also, some scholars argue that it has no significant benefits to the overall education of children. Some said that it was a mindless copy from teaching in the 19th century. Therefore, it does not have relevance to the children of today.
According to Gill, a majority of those who were against homework usually argue that it could cause health problems like bent backs and nervous breakdowns.
On the other hand, according to Gill, the importance of homework has stayed the same over the years. It helps students study on their own, extends school study time, and allows the parents to see what is going on in school.
Homework is a very complicated subject to discuss. Some research shows that it doesn't affect test scores, even when not done correctly. Some scholars argue that homework is essential to students' academic growth. But when students need some additional programming homework help, they should be able to get it immediately.