3 Incredible Reasons Your Family Should Go Barefoot More
Homework, the scourge of every parent's life. The nightly struggles to get it done, the tears, the arguing, the hours spent looking up things we've long forgotten to help our kids get by. It's the stuff of nightmares, but it's all worth it, right? As it turns out, not so much! Homework not only ruins your weeknights; it may also harm your children's mental and physical health. Continue reading to find out why.
How homework is destroying our children
Before we get into the scientific evidence for why homework is harmful to children, I'd like to appeal to your common sense. If we all just stopped and thought about it for a minute instead of going with the "we always had homework, so why shouldn't our kids?" line, I think it would be crystal clear why all of this extra nighttime schoolwork is such a bad idea.
I want you to begin by considering your own job. Whether you punch a time clock in an office or work from home in your pajamas, you probably have a fairly set number of hours for which you are compensated. At the end of the day, you leave your work behind and go home (or away from your computer, if you work from home).
You spend a little extra time at the office on rare occasions, but it's worth it because you get overtime. Sure, you might bring your work home once in a while to catch up, but most of the time, home time is YOUR time. It's family time. Time for peace and relaxation. Relax and prepare for the next day.
I'm sure you'd be irritated if your boss told you, "Take home this pile of paperwork and finish every last scrap of it by tomorrow morning or you'll be fired." Oh, and you won't be paid for it, so don't even ask!" But that's exactly what homework is... multiplied by three, five, or eight, depending on how many classes your child has.
Because school is a full-time job, homework is equivalent to unpaid overtime.
School is, for all intents and purposes, the equivalent of a full-time unpaid job for children. They work about 35 hours per week in their "office" and take fewer breaks than most people do. Lunch is only about 25 minutes long, and recess is almost non-existent in most districts. They get to be kids after a long day of sitting very still, having no actual choices in anything, and not even being allowed to go to the bathroom without permission! Right?
Sure, after they complete their math worksheets, science experiments, social studies papers, and 50 pages of English reading! They have plenty of free time before soccer practice, dinner, bath time, and tooth brushing. There are oodles and oodles of it! By the way, that's sarcasm. If our children are extremely fortunate, they may have half an hour to be happy-go-lucky free-spirited children. If that isn't enough to convince you that we should abolish (or at least reduce) homework, perhaps the following section will. We'll see what objective, fact-based science has to say about it.
What does the scientific community have to say about homework?
Actually, science has a lot to say about homework. While some older studies show that homework can be beneficial, the majority of studies conducted in the last 5-10 years show the exact opposite.
A 2014 study linked too much homework to sleep deprivation in children. Given that only half of children get enough to begin with, this is a major issue!
The same year, a Stanford University study discovered that the more homework children have, the more stressed they are. The more stressed they are, the more frequently they become ill.
Those who believe that homework teaches children the self-control they will need later in life will be disappointed by the findings of a recent study. Children who have chores and homework are no more likely than those who do not to exhibit self-control.
Do you believe that kids who do their homework get better jobs later in life? Not so quickly! This global database discovered that countries with high homework loads have lower levels of income and social equality.
While most experts focus on the impact on elementary school children, excessive math homework (along with standardized testing) can lead to lifelong "math anxiety" in older children as well.
Yes, there are studies that show homework helps kids learn, but you'll have to go back a few years to find them. Today, researchers are discovering that homework, at least in its current form, is causing more harm than good. In fact, many countries are imposing strict limits on homework or outright prohibiting it. Dubai, for example, has simply abandoned it in favor of encouraging children to "have a life." Even in the United States, more and more school districts are reducing or eliminating homework.
We've always had homework, and we're fine!
I'm sure at least one of you is thinking that right now, so let's talk about it. Yes, we had homework, but I don't remember it taking hours and hours to complete every night. Even if it did, I wonder if there is anything else you did as a child that you would never allow your own children to do.
We used to ride around in the front seats of cars as toddlers without even a seat belt, let alone a car seat. Yes, we're still alive, but was it such a good idea? Our parents thought smoking was perfectly acceptable. What about our grandparents? They took cocaine-laced cough medicine on a regular basis!
Just because we all survived our childhoods (in some cases miraculously) and came out "just fine" (which in some cases is questionable) doesn't mean we should keep making the same mistakes. We learn, we grow, and we get better. That is how humanity progresses. Right now, we're discovering that homework isn't as beneficial to our children as we once thought. Isn't it past time to make a change and do better?
Children deserve the opportunity to try new things, participate in sports, and simply be carefree. Eliminating homework would go a long way toward making that a possibility. Even limiting it to special assignments or test reviews would be a significant help.
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