The topic of whether homework should be given to students or not remains a debate. While some teachers do not believe in giving homework, other teachers assign homework every night. I say homework is a great way to expand the learning horizon of students and, therefore, should be given.
Homework can be beneficial to students, teachers, and even parents. Starting with students, the first thing that homework teaches is time management. Once the final school bell rings, some students go to practices, some go to work, and others go home to begin working on assignments.
Learning how to manage school, a social life, and sometimes a career can be very stressful. Homework can easily be one of the contributing factors to that stress. But stress aside, it gives students the responsibility of setting time out of their busy day to do something that they may not want to do.
Homework gives students the chance to practice setting priorities, time management, problem solving, planning, organizing, taking action, and it gives students another opportunity to go over the class material.
Homework can also be beneficial for parents because it gives them an opportunity to see what their child is working on in school. Parents don’t get to sit in class with their child and see what their student is learning on a daily basis and not all teachers send home daily or weekly updates on what is being taught.
The work that is sent home with students is a good representation of where the class is at in the semester or year. A parent can take a look at the material and have a good understanding of what their child is learning, along with where their child is with understanding the material.
As for teachers, they need to assign homework. Homework may seem cruel and unreasonable to some students but teachers, just like they need tests, need homework so they can assess where a student is in their class.
If a student does not understand the homework from the night before, the teacher knows that they need to focus more of their attention and assistance to that student. The teacher could also look at the class as a unit and see if they need to slow down or move ahead on the subject.
Homework may seem like a waste of time sometimes but, in the end, it does serve a purpose and can be helpful in many ways. Whether students do their homework or not, the ones that do their homework get ahead in the class and gain a better understanding of the material. The students who do not take the time to do their homework, not only are behind in class but they fall behind in learning how to be independent and responsible.
