Among the endless stacks of assignments from different classes under a dimly lit desk lamp sits a stressed student. The stress that many students encounter during the school year has sparked an ongoing discussion about homework. In addition to extracurricular activities, hours away from family and time spent at a desk have led many to question the purpose, effectiveness and relevance of homework.
“Homework was started as a punishment,” Alice Wu (12) said. “[With that in mind], it gives that homework a little more stigma as a way [of] punishment rather than a thing to help people. But I think teachers, right now, are trying to make sure that their students are learning … I think that’s just the main point of homework.”
The perception of homework as a form of disciplinary punishment may have led to students procrastinating or avoiding completing the assignment. This avoidance has increased stress for the students because they give themselves less time to complete it.
“[As a teacher,] I wonder how many hours a student spends completing assignments versus looking at their phone,” Montana Young, U.S. History Honors, AP Seminar and AP Research teacher, said. “When I was in high school, I had a flip phone. I wasn’t looking at my phone that much. I think students overestimate how much time they are dedicating to the assignment at hand versus picking up a phone, being distracted, clicking [o]n different tabs, going on the internet … I think students are so distracted that they’re saying they’re spending more time on homework when they are also doing a lot of other things at the same time.”
Regardless of course load, number of classes or extracurricular activities, every student may experience procrastination, which is the delay or postponement of something. They may procrastinate for a variety of reasons, including lack of motivation, environmental factors or relevance.
“I think that one issue is relevance,” Young said. “Students will often [say things like] ‘this is busy work’ which is, I think, not true. When I am assigning you something, I have to grade it, I have to follow up with you if you haven’t done it … I feel like if students see no purpose in the assignment, they are less likely to want to sit down and do it.”
Although some students may struggle to complete or understand the relevance of homework, for instructors, homework is a helpful tool. Teachers can identify overarching themes in student responses and use homework to modify their lesson plan to further their students’ understanding of the subject.
“[Teachers] can’t use homework to see how well the student is doing in terms of comprehension,” Wu said. “For AP Calculus [AB], I do not understand anything that is happening half of the time; but by doing my homework, the teacher can see where I’m falling behind so he can use that [information] to tell me where I need to start improving [and] where I can start studying.”
