Essay On The Effects Of Homework

Students today feel that homework and school in general is very overwhelming. It is creating stress, depression, and increasing drug abuse. According a study done by Jean M. Twenge, a PhD of Case Western Reserve University, “The results of the study suggest that cases of depression will continue to increase in the coming decades, as anxiety tends to predispose people to depression” (Thakur). She also says that that alcohol and drug abuse will continue to be an increasing problem because anxiety usually anticipates the onset of substance abuse. Schools today are focusing too much on the academics, and not on the students’ personal lives. Schools expect students to finish all their homework and do well on standardized tests, but we are also expected to be active, have hobbies, …show more content…
Students get up early, get ready for school, then are at school for seven hours; they then have after school sports, jobs, and homework. Homework overload is one of the bigger problems with the system. When I was in ninth and tenth grade, I would come home with 2-3 hours of homework. I struggled with keeping up my grades and staying focused on my homework. I would get distracted because it was hard to stay focused on something for so long, especially when it was something I didn’t enjoy. It is a fact that homework is not helping students. According to Richard Walker, an educational psychologist at Sydney University, “kids who have more homework actually perform worse on standardized tests and suffer with mental and physical health” (Binns). The overwhelming amounts of homework lead to not being able to focus on the students themselves. How can we be creative and have lives outside of school, like we are told, when school is our only focus? To be honest, we can’t. There is just no time! Andy Shaw, an academic dean at a school in San Francisco, has taken a healthier approach in his