Homework is a standard for most high school classes, including those here at Saint Paul’s. The purpose of homework is to practice concepts taught in class. On one hand, homework can better prepare students for tests because it forces them to spend more time with the material, which increases learning. On the other hand, many students see homework as unnecessary busy work that dulls the subject, and many students simply do not have time to complete homework for every class.

In this column, two Saint Paul’s juniors debate the importance of homework. Saint Paul’s junior Ben Sikes believes that homework should not be required of high school students, while Saint Paul’s junior Ethan Cocus believes it’s vital toward success and learning.

High school students should NOT be required to do homework.
(Saint Paul’s junior Ben Sikes)

Homework should not be required for high school students because it’s a silent stressor that negatively impacts students.

First, homework is harmful to students because it causes stress. According to Stanford.edu, 56 percent of students feel stressed due to homework. Stress is one of many factors that cause students to decline in the classroom.

When stressed, students face many side effects, such as memory loss and decision-making. This is important because if high school students forget and can’t make decisions, they will struggle with all tests and assignments. 

Homework can also cause arguments with family. For example, high school students go to parents or other adults when they need help with their homework, and parents usually fail to recall or understand the information, sparking arguments while trying to relearn the information. Essentially, this makes school even more frustrating for both students and parents.

A common point brought up is that constant exposure to the material can help students get better grades on tests and help them retain information. While this may be true, students already spend 8 hours a day in school and have other after-school activities to do. For example, Saint Paul’s specifically strongly encourages students to get involved in clubs and sports that take place after school.

By the time they get home and settled from a game, practice, or meeting, what ends up happening is students have to end up risking their sleep for extra time to do homework.

“Between school, work, and extracurriculars, I am utterly exhausted when I get home at 8:15 p.m. The last thing I want to do is an hour of calculus homework before going to bed,” said successful Saint Paul’s senior Landon Krebs.

This primarily affects high school students because studies show that teenagers are the group that needs the most sleep. Thus, students can be sleep-deprived and inefficient throughout the day.

Another benefit to not having homework is that students can live a better, well-rounded life. With more free time, students get better sleep and get to find out what they are passionate about, make new friends, and feel like they are not trapped at school all day and night.

No homework would make students feel like there is less weight on their shoulders. “Whenever I have homework and practice the same day, I tend to play worse and get stressed out knowing how much I have to do when I get home,” stated one anonymous Saint Paul’s student athlete.

Although homework shouldn’t be required, teachers should still give optional homework. This could help students who struggle in classes to learn and reapply material, but it shouldn’t stress students who already understand the material.

A better alternative would be for teachers to start by teaching students the material in the first half of the class and then allow students to ask questions and get a better understanding of what they are struggling with. “If teachers give me opportunities to do some homework in class, I can ask questions if I don’t understand something, which helps me learn the material faster,” said one anonymous Saint Paul’s junior.

Time in class will also help because you reapply information as soon as you learn it instead of several hours later. Most students understand and learn the concept better when they get to do work right after they know because it is fresh in their minds, and if they did it later, they would’ve had other classes after, and students might not remember. This is one of the things that makes homework at night so challenging. If it’s homework for a first-period class, students have already had three more classes and an extracurricular activity before they get back to the material.

With no homework, there would be less stress, students would have more time to do things they love, and they would get more sleep, which would allow them to perform better in class.

Homework SHOULD be required in high school 
(Saint Paul’s junior Ethan Cocus)

Despite the fact most students hate homework, homework is a necessary evil that helps the students. Therefore, based on all the benefits that come with homework, all teachers should assign homework. 

The main reason for homework is to help with studying. Many students, if left to their own devices (perhaps literally), choose not to study for classes; reasons may vary from the class being easy, or they will study in the morning, which most of the time, they do not. This leads to grades declining.

With homework, students view material consistently, which according to GCC.edu, is one of the best study habits. In other words, the best way to get better at anything in life is by practicing it. Listening to lectures in class is not enough to grasp difficult concepts; students need to apply what they have learned toward practice problems in order to fully understand the material. The entire objective of school is learning, and homework helps with that.

A study by Duke professor Harris Cooper found that students who were assigned homework attained better grades than those who were not. Furthermore, when talking about smaller studies, she went on to state, “In 35 such studies, about 77 percent find the link between homework and achievement is positive.” In other words, students who were assigned homework were more successful educationally than those who were not. 

Homework helps students outside of school as well. For instance, it helps with time management, which is critical for life after high school. “Homework teaches me to prioritize tasks and manage my time effectively,” said Saint Paul’s sophomore Jackson Short. “The biggest problem I face is excessive homework,” Short said.

As students get older, free time only decreases, and students have to realize that many reasons for the decline in free time are harder classes, jobs, relationships, and sports. Students will have to learn how to plan out their day to where they can complete all of their responsibilities. This means that students have to plan to complete their homework. Time prioritization is essential for succeeding in life, and it starts with prioritizing homework to obtain good grades.

Students have to choose between homework and other activities in the evening. For instance, studying or being with friends is a choice. After making this choice, a student should look back and see if they made the right choice or if they have a regret. Over time, students see how their grade is reflected by their choices, and they become mature and responsible after making these decisions time and time again.

Furthermore, students become more disciplined with homework. While completing homework, students have to stay motivated so they don’t get distracted or become disinterested.

Homework also keeps the material fresh so students do not forget it, and it helps students who aren’t paying attention in class stay on top of the material.

Homework also teaches students how to problem-solve in two ways. First, students sometimes do not know how to complete their homework. Because of that, students will have to either ask for help or figure it out themselves. This helps make students more resourceful, a valuable skill.

Second, homework makes students apply information they recently learned to complete different questions, ones they haven’t seen before, without help from the teacher like they had in class. For instance, in math, students will learn how to solve the basic form of a problem and the formulas with it. However, students will be given a more complex problem to solve for homework. Therefore, students will have to apply what they learned in class in order to solve the problem. 

While it is true that homework may cause more stress, students will develop stress from not understanding the material and making a bad grade.

Many students also argue that students should not have to do more school work after spending 8 hours in school that day. However, many people have work to do outside of their jobs. In fact, teachers have “homework” too because they have to lesson plan and grade papers outside of school.

Many students also say that homework is confusing, but if students research well, they will understand the material. “Sometimes I will see a question on a test that was similar to the homework and will remember how to do the problem,” said Jackson Lorenz, a Saint Paul’s sophomore.

Homework makes students better researchers. There is ample material online to help students if students do not grasp the material in class. Research will eliminate the stress of not understanding the material and the stress from their parents.

Ultimately, homework helps students learn the material so they can do better on tests. It also provides them with new skills that are valuable for life.