Studies show homework kills kids’ creativity and wreaks havoc on their mental health
Homework does nothing to improve learning and is causing mental, social and even physical health problems. Education experts say we should ban it in elementary schools and keep it to a minimum in middle and high school.
The superintendent of one Florida school district has already implemented the recommended “no-homework” policy for elementary schools.
She told the Washington Post she “made the decision based on solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement.”
That research includes a 2006 meta-analysis of homework studies dating back to 1987. It found there was no association between homework and achievement. In other words, assigning children homework did not help them learn or retain information better or do better on tests.
It also includes a 2014 study by Stanford University showing high school students are suffering “stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society” thanks to too much homework.
The Stanford researchers looked at a survey of 4000 California high school students from upper-middle class neighborhoods.
Over half of the students said homework was their primary source of stress. Many students said their homework load led to “headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.”
“More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive,” wrote Denise Pope, lead researcher and senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
While it’s too soon to determine the results of the Florida school district’s homework ban, teachers say so far grades and test scores have not suffered, and may actually be improving.
Six months into a similar experiment at an elementary school in Vermont, the principal there says students now have “time to be creative thinkers at home and follow their passions.”
“Homework may be the greatest extinguisher of curiosity ever invented.” ~Alfie Kohen, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
RELATED: Texas School Beats ADHD By Tripling Recess Time
Comments
16 responses to “Homework Is Ruining Our Kids. The Research is Clear. Let’s Ban It.”
I have been staring at this picture for an hour. I would like to know how my child’s face has been photo shopped into this picture. Immediately. Not happy here
There’s a neat software program called photoshop. You can amazing things with it.
I believe in to much homework is actually s bad thing . My kids have so much that there is no time to help cooking or to learn another language, there is so many things that kids should be doing like gardening or writing in their journals.
We do FLVS and is consuming the happiness of my kids!!!
They have to much with virtual school also
I’m getting pretty mad. Like contacting our lawyer mad. Why is my 8 year old son in this photo???? A response would be appreciated.
How do we know it’s your child? Or are you just a hater?
Lara. What an unkind and ignorant comment to Heather! I have no reason to doubt her and have no idea why you would call her a ‘hater’.
Which photo are you talking about Heather???
Durrrr! Find something else to do troll. The subject is homework in schools, not profiting off your supposed kids modeling.
Excellent article! One of the reasons I made the decision to homeschool my six kids was that they were actually working overtime – first ones picked up, before 7 am, lasts ones dropped off, around 4:30, then hours of homework. Just normal school hours are the equivalent of a full-time job for an adult. Adding to that is ludicrous.
homework is reacking lives
It might just be a way to break their spirits and prepare them for a life of unthinking slavery…a welcome to the rat race?
jyden writes: “Homework is reaking lives” What a great advertisement for banning homework.
The good news: There is no shortage of minimum wage jobs, begging for people who think education is a part time thing that shouldn’t interrupt gardening (more likely Facebook and Mortal Combat). Good luck with that.
You’ve to enjoy a particular variety of raked fingers one which just withdraw the total amount.
Say what?
The schools also don’t want to teach our kids to write in cursive or how to do math the easier way or even learn the real history that we already know. They want to teach them how to call themselves opposite of what sex they were born as and how to destroy monuments that have to do with our true history. Good or bad it already happened. Now some even act like the holocaust never really happened or at least not as bad as it says it was. They want our kids to learn all about Muslim faith and accept it as theirs. I don’t trust our school system much at all.