At first it would seem that homework could actually be beneficial to students. Over time, professionals started to notice that homework is not helpful to students. This topic should not be ignored by professionals or even kids. I am going to inform you now the effect homework has on students.

As an 8th grade student, I believe that homework has a negative effect on me and other students. A study has found that the more homework that is assigned, the worse students do in classes. “Middle school students were assigned 90-100 minutes of homework per day and science and math scores started to decline.” (Terada)  Some people will say that homework helps the students practice the subject more. As a student I know that homework can give us practice, however the more homework I get, the more anxious and stressed I feel about completing it.

  The effect homework has on students is serious and should not be avoided by anyone.  In the United States, 15 year old students are averaging about six hours of homework per week. Countries like Finland and Singapore spend two to three hours of homework per week. Students in both of these countries received high scores on a big test they took.(Terada)  Although the United States was assigned a lot more homework than other countries, they all ended up with the same score. 

People that support homework always say that it leads to more practice. WRONG. There was a study that was done about the homework assigned. “Excessive homework leads to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework,” (ProCon) You can now see how homework affects students. You can never learn if you are cheating because it only teaches you to rely on others rather than working independently. Isn’t this a surprise for the people that support homework? 
 

Homework can be beneficial in many cases but not every case. Homework can have many benefits such as receiving higher grades in classes and improved study skills. It has been shown in some studies that homework does not always benefit higher academic performance. In some pieces of evidence above, I told you that it does not  bring higher academic performance. It can result in a loss of interest in academics for kids because of the amount of homework being assigned and the fatigue and stress it brings to kids. 

Is homework actually beneficial towards students? Some experts would say no and others would say yes. But have we heard the student's mind?  In a survey I made, one of the 16 students that answered my survey said that they are 10/10 stressed by the amount of homework assigned to them. The more homework that is assigned, the stress levels rise. So you may ask what is the point of homework then? It clearly does not  let them practice because as I told you above, the majority of students cheat on homework. Then what is the point of homework if the only thing it can cause is stress.

Professionals are not able to experience what kids are feeling therefore, I interviewed an 8th grade student to see if homework is beneficial. “I think homework can be beneficial to students if it is used to practice the work done in class, but not learning new things because there is no teacher with you to ask questions which makes it difficult.” Learning a new subject without a teacher is very hard for me, this student,  and most likely many other students. It can easily lead to stress when you do not know what you are doing and for me it does lead to stress.