homework good bad

Is homework a necessary evil?

After decades of debate, researchers are still sorting out the truth about homework’s pros and cons. One point they can agree on: Quality assignments matter.

By Kirsten Weir

March 2016, Vol 47, No. 3

Print version: page 36

• Schools and Classrooms

Homework battles have raged for decades. For as long as kids have been whining about doing their homework, parents and education reformers have complained that homework's benefits are dubious. Meanwhile many teachers argue that take-home lessons are key to helping students learn. Now, as schools are shifting to the new (and hotly debated) Common Core curriculum standards, educators, administrators and researchers are turning a fresh eye toward the question of homework's value.

But when it comes to deciphering the research literature on the subject, homework is anything but an open book.

The 10-minute rule

In many ways, homework seems like common sense. Spend more time practicing multiplication or studying Spanish vocabulary and you should get better at math or Spanish. But it may not be that simple.

Homework can indeed produce academic benefits, such as increased understanding and retention of the material, says Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper, PhD, one of the nation's leading homework researchers. But not all students benefit. In a review of studies published from 1987 to 2003, Cooper and his colleagues found that homework was linked to better test scores in high school and, to a lesser degree, in middle school. Yet they found only faint evidence that homework provided academic benefit in elementary school ( Review of Educational Research , 2006).

Then again, test scores aren't everything. Homework proponents also cite the nonacademic advantages it might confer, such as the development of personal responsibility, good study habits and time-management skills. But as to hard evidence of those benefits, "the jury is still out," says Mollie Galloway, PhD, associate professor of educational leadership at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. "I think there's a focus on assigning homework because [teachers] think it has these positive outcomes for study skills and habits. But we don't know for sure that's the case."

Even when homework is helpful, there can be too much of a good thing. "There is a limit to how much kids can benefit from home study," Cooper says. He agrees with an oft-cited rule of thumb that students should do no more than 10 minutes a night per grade level — from about 10 minutes in first grade up to a maximum of about two hours in high school. Both the National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association support that limit.

Beyond that point, kids don't absorb much useful information, Cooper says. In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

In a recent study of Spanish students, Rubén Fernández-Alonso, PhD, and colleagues found that students who were regularly assigned math and science homework scored higher on standardized tests. But when kids reported having more than 90 to 100 minutes of homework per day, scores declined ( Journal of Educational Psychology , 2015).

"At all grade levels, doing other things after school can have positive effects," Cooper says. "To the extent that homework denies access to other leisure and community activities, it's not serving the child's best interest."

Children of all ages need down time in order to thrive, says Denise Pope, PhD, a professor of education at Stanford University and a co-founder of Challenge Success, a program that partners with secondary schools to implement policies that improve students' academic engagement and well-being.

"Little kids and big kids need unstructured time for play each day," she says. Certainly, time for physical activity is important for kids' health and well-being. But even time spent on social media can help give busy kids' brains a break, she says.

All over the map

But are teachers sticking to the 10-minute rule? Studies attempting to quantify time spent on homework are all over the map, in part because of wide variations in methodology, Pope says.

A 2014 report by the Brookings Institution examined the question of homework, comparing data from a variety of sources. That report cited findings from a 2012 survey of first-year college students in which 38.4 percent reported spending six hours or more per week on homework during their last year of high school. That was down from 49.5 percent in 1986 ( The Brown Center Report on American Education , 2014).

The Brookings report also explored survey data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which asked 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students how much homework they'd done the previous night. They found that between 1984 and 2012, there was a slight increase in homework for 9-year-olds, but homework amounts for 13- and 17-year-olds stayed roughly the same, or even decreased slightly.

Yet other evidence suggests that some kids might be taking home much more work than they can handle. Robert Pressman, PhD, and colleagues recently investigated the 10-minute rule among more than 1,100 students, and found that elementary-school kids were receiving up to three times as much homework as recommended. As homework load increased, so did family stress, the researchers found ( American Journal of Family Therapy , 2015).

Many high school students also seem to be exceeding the recommended amounts of homework. Pope and Galloway recently surveyed more than 4,300 students from 10 high-achieving high schools. Students reported bringing home an average of just over three hours of homework nightly ( Journal of Experiential Education , 2013).

On the positive side, students who spent more time on homework in that study did report being more behaviorally engaged in school — for instance, giving more effort and paying more attention in class, Galloway says. But they were not more invested in the homework itself. They also reported greater academic stress and less time to balance family, friends and extracurricular activities. They experienced more physical health problems as well, such as headaches, stomach troubles and sleep deprivation. "Three hours per night is too much," Galloway says.

In the high-achieving schools Pope and Galloway studied, more than 90 percent of the students go on to college. There's often intense pressure to succeed academically, from both parents and peers. On top of that, kids in these communities are often overloaded with extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs. "They're very busy," Pope says. "Some kids have up to 40 hours a week — a full-time job's worth — of extracurricular activities." And homework is yet one more commitment on top of all the others.

"Homework has perennially acted as a source of stress for students, so that piece of it is not new," Galloway says. "But especially in upper-middle-class communities, where the focus is on getting ahead, I think the pressure on students has been ratcheted up."

Yet homework can be a problem at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum as well. Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, Internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs, says Lea Theodore, PhD, a professor of school psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. They are less likely to have computers or a quiet place to do homework in peace.

"Homework can highlight those inequities," she says.

Quantity vs. quality

One point researchers agree on is that for all students, homework quality matters. But too many kids are feeling a lack of engagement with their take-home assignments, many experts say. In Pope and Galloway's research, only 20 percent to 30 percent of students said they felt their homework was useful or meaningful.

"Students are assigned a lot of busywork. They're naming it as a primary stressor, but they don't feel it's supporting their learning," Galloway says.

"Homework that's busywork is not good for anyone," Cooper agrees. Still, he says, different subjects call for different kinds of assignments. "Things like vocabulary and spelling are learned through practice. Other kinds of courses require more integration of material and drawing on different skills."

But critics say those skills can be developed with many fewer hours of homework each week. Why assign 50 math problems, Pope asks, when 10 would be just as constructive? One Advanced Placement biology teacher she worked with through Challenge Success experimented with cutting his homework assignments by a third, and then by half. "Test scores didn't go down," she says. "You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load."

Still, changing the culture of homework won't be easy. Teachers-to-be get little instruction in homework during their training, Pope says. And despite some vocal parents arguing that kids bring home too much homework, many others get nervous if they think their child doesn't have enough. "Teachers feel pressured to give homework because parents expect it to come home," says Galloway. "When it doesn't, there's this idea that the school might not be doing its job."

Galloway argues teachers and school administrators need to set clear goals when it comes to homework — and parents and students should be in on the discussion, too. "It should be a broader conversation within the community, asking what's the purpose of homework? Why are we giving it? Who is it serving? Who is it not serving?"

Until schools and communities agree to take a hard look at those questions, those backpacks full of take-home assignments will probably keep stirring up more feelings than facts.

Further reading

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1–62. doi: 10.3102/00346543076001001
• Galloway, M., Connor, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81 (4), 490–510. doi: 10.1080/00220973.2012.745469
• Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Letters to the Editor

• Send us a letter

Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates

From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take-home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA

Natalie Leppard Managing Editor [email protected]

© 2023 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved

• Social Media
• Death Penalty
• School Uniforms
• Video Games
• Animal Testing
• Gun Control
• Banned Books
• Teachers’ Corner

Cite This Page

ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order):

[Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]

[Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]

Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > The Pros and Cons of Homework

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: July 16, 2024

Published: January 23, 2020

Remember those nights when you’d find yourself staring at a mountain of homework, eyes drooping, wondering if you’d ever see the light at the end of the tunnel? The debate over homework’s role in education is as old as time. Is it a crucial tool for reinforcing learning or just an unnecessary burden?

For college students, this question takes on new dimensions. Juggling homework with the endless amount of classes, part-time jobs, and social lives can feel like walking on thin ice. The pressure to maintain grades, meet deadlines, and still find time for friends and relaxation can be overwhelming. So, is homework a friend or foe?

Photo by  energepic.com  from  Pexels

The homework dilemma.

A large amount of college students report feeling overwhelmed by their academic workload, leading to high levels of stress and anxiety. According to Research.com , 45% of college students in the U.S. experience “more than average” stress, with 36.5% citing stress as a major impediment to their academic performance. This stress often stems directly from the homework load, leading to symptoms like headaches, exhaustion, and difficulty sleeping. The intense pressure to manage homework alongside other responsibilities makes us question the true impact of homework on students’ overall well-being.

And then there’s the digital twist. A whopping 89% of students confessed to using AI tools like ChatGPT for their assignments. While these tools can be a godsend for quick answers and assistance, they can also undermine the personal effort and critical thinking necessary to truly understand the material.

On the brighter side, homework can be a powerful ally. According to Inside Higher Ed , structured assignments can actually help reduce stress by providing a clear learning roadmap and keeping students engaged with the material. But where’s the balance between helpful and harmful? 

With these perspectives in mind, let’s dive into the pros and cons of homework for college students. By understanding both sides, we can find a middle ground that maximizes learning while keeping stress at bay.

The Pros of Homework

When thoughtfully assigned, homework can be a valuable tool in a student’s educational journey . Let’s explore how homework can be a beneficial companion to your studies:

Enhances Critical Thinking

Homework isn’t just busywork; it’s an opportunity to stretch your mental muscles. Those late-night problem sets and essays can actually encourage deeper understanding and application of concepts. Think of homework as a mental gym; each assignment is a new exercise, pushing you to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in ways that strengthen your critical thinking skills .

Time Management Skills

Do you ever juggle multiple deadlines and wonder how to keep it all together? Regular homework assignments can be a crash course in time management . They teach you to prioritize tasks, manage your schedule, and balance academic responsibilities with personal commitments. The ability to juggle various tasks is a skill that will serve you well beyond your college years.

Reinforcement of Learning

There’s a reason why practice makes perfect. Homework reinforces what you’ve learned in class, helping to cement concepts and theories in your mind. Understanding a concept during a lecture is one thing, but applying it through homework can deepen your comprehension and retention. 

Preparation for Exams

Think of homework as a sound check and warm-up for exams. Regular assignments keep you engaged with the material, making it easier to review and prepare when exam time rolls around. By consistently working through problems and writing essays, you build a solid foundation that can make the difference between cramming and confident exam performance.

Encourages Independent Learning

Homework promotes a sense of responsibility and independence. It pushes you to tackle assignments on your own, encouraging problem-solving and self-discipline. This independence prepares you for the academic challenges ahead and the autonomy required in your professional and personal life.

The Cons of Homework

Despite its potential benefits, homework can also have significant downsides. Let’s examine the challenges and drawbacks of homework:

Impact on Mental Health

Homework can be a double-edged sword when it comes to mental health . While it’s meant to reinforce learning, the sheer volume of assignments can lead to stress and anxiety. The constant pressure to meet deadlines and the fear of falling behind can create a relentless cycle of stress. Many students become overwhelmed, leading to burnout and negatively impacting their overall well-being. 

Limited Time for Other Activities

College isn’t just about hitting the books. It’s also a time for personal growth, exploring new interests, and building social connections. Excessive homework can eat into the time you might otherwise spend on extracurricular activities, hobbies, or simply hanging out with friends. This lack of balance can lead to a less fulfilling college experience. Shouldn’t education be about more than just academics?

Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to homework, more isn’t always better. Piling on assignments can lead to diminished returns on learning. Instead of diving deep into a subject and gaining a thorough understanding, students might rush through tasks just to get them done. This focus on quantity over quality can undermine the educational value of homework. 

Inequity in Education

Homework can sometimes exacerbate educational inequalities. Not all students can access the same resources and support systems at home. While some might have a quiet space and access to the internet, others might struggle with distractions and lack of resources. This disparity can put certain students at a disadvantage, making homework more of a burden than a learning tool. 

Dependence on AI Tools

With the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT , homework has taken on a new dimension. While these tools can provide quick answers and assistance, they also pose the risk of students becoming overly reliant on technology. This dependence can take away from the actual learning process, as students might bypass the critical thinking and effort needed to truly understand the material. Is convenience worth the potential loss in learning?

Finding the Balance

Finding the right balance with homework means tackling assignments that challenge and support you. Instead of drowning in a sea of tasks, focus on quality over quantity. Choose projects that spark your critical thinking and connect to real-world situations. Flexibility is key here. Recognize that your circumstances are unique, and adjusting your approach can help reduce stress and create a more inclusive learning environment. Constructive feedback makes homework more than just a chore; it turns it into a tool for growth and improvement.

It’s also about living a well-rounded college life. Don’t let homework overshadow other important parts of your life, like extracurricular activities or personal downtime. Emphasize independent learning and use technology wisely to prepare for future challenges. By balancing thoughtful assignments with your personal needs, homework can shift from being a burden to becoming a helpful companion on your educational journey, enriching your academic and personal growth.

Homework has its pros and cons, especially for college students. It can enhance critical thinking, time management, and learning, but it also brings stress, impacts mental health, and can become overwhelming. Finding the right balance is key. 

Focus on quality assignments, maintain flexibility, and make sure your homework complements rather than dominates your life. With a thoughtful approach, homework can support your educational journey, fostering both academic success and personal growth.

How can I manage my time effectively to balance homework and other activities?

Create a schedule that allocates specific times for homework, classes, and personal activities. Use planners or digital calendars to keep track of deadlines and prioritize tasks. Don’t forget to include breaks to avoid burnout.

How can I reduce the stress associated with homework?

To manage stress, practice mindfulness techniques like meditation or deep breathing exercises. Break assignments into smaller, manageable tasks and tackle them one at a time. If needed, seek support from classmates, tutors, or mental health professionals.

Is using AI tools for homework cheating?

While AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for quick assistance, relying on them too much can hinder your learning process. Use them as a supplement rather than a replacement for your own effort and critical thinking.

How can teachers make homework more equitable?

Teachers can offer flexible deadlines, provide resources for students who lack them, and design assignments that account for different learning styles and home environments. Open communication between students and teachers can also help address individual challenges.

What are some strategies to make homework more meaningful?

Focus on quality over quantity by designing assignments that encourage deep thinking and application of knowledge. Integrate real-world problems to make homework more relevant and engaging. Provide constructive feedback to help students learn and grow from their assignments.

In this article

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone. Read More

Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

A conversation with a Wheelock researcher, a BU student, and a fourth-grade teacher

“Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives,” says Wheelock’s Janine Bempechat. “It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.” Photo by iStock/Glenn Cook Photography

Do your homework.

If only it were that simple.

Educators have debated the merits of homework since the late 19th century. In recent years, amid concerns of some parents and teachers that children are being stressed out by too much homework, things have only gotten more fraught.

“Homework is complicated,” says developmental psychologist Janine Bempechat, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development clinical professor. The author of the essay “ The Case for (Quality) Homework—Why It Improves Learning and How Parents Can Help ” in the winter 2019 issue of Education Next , Bempechat has studied how the debate about homework is influencing teacher preparation, parent and student beliefs about learning, and school policies.

She worries especially about socioeconomically disadvantaged students from low-performing schools who, according to research by Bempechat and others, get little or no homework.

BU Today  sat down with Bempechat and Erin Bruce (Wheelock’17,’18), a new fourth-grade teacher at a suburban Boston school, and future teacher freshman Emma Ardizzone (Wheelock) to talk about what quality homework looks like, how it can help children learn, and how schools can equip teachers to design it, evaluate it, and facilitate parents’ role in it.

BU Today: Parents and educators who are against homework in elementary school say there is no research definitively linking it to academic performance for kids in the early grades. You’ve said that they’re missing the point.

Bempechat : I think teachers assign homework in elementary school as a way to help kids develop skills they’ll need when they’re older—to begin to instill a sense of responsibility and to learn planning and organizational skills. That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success. If we greatly reduce or eliminate homework in elementary school, we deprive kids and parents of opportunities to instill these important learning habits and skills.

We do know that beginning in late middle school, and continuing through high school, there is a strong and positive correlation between homework completion and academic success.

That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success.

You talk about the importance of quality homework. What is that?

Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives. It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.

What are your concerns about homework and low-income children?

The argument that some people make—that homework “punishes the poor” because lower-income parents may not be as well-equipped as affluent parents to help their children with homework—is very troubling to me. There are no parents who don’t care about their children’s learning. Parents don’t actually have to help with homework completion in order for kids to do well. They can help in other ways—by helping children organize a study space, providing snacks, being there as a support, helping children work in groups with siblings or friends.

Isn’t the discussion about getting rid of homework happening mostly in affluent communities?

Yes, and the stories we hear of kids being stressed out from too much homework—four or five hours of homework a night—are real. That’s problematic for physical and mental health and overall well-being. But the research shows that higher-income students get a lot more homework than lower-income kids.

Teachers may not have as high expectations for lower-income children. Schools should bear responsibility for providing supports for kids to be able to get their homework done—after-school clubs, community support, peer group support. It does kids a disservice when our expectations are lower for them.

The conversation around homework is to some extent a social class and social justice issue. If we eliminate homework for all children because affluent children have too much, we’re really doing a disservice to low-income children. They need the challenge, and every student can rise to the challenge with enough supports in place.

What did you learn by studying how education schools are preparing future teachers to handle homework?

My colleague, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, at the University of California, Davis, School of Education, and I interviewed faculty members at education schools, as well as supervising teachers, to find out how students are being prepared. And it seemed that they weren’t. There didn’t seem to be any readings on the research, or conversations on what high-quality homework is and how to design it.

Erin, what kind of training did you get in handling homework?

Bruce : I had phenomenal professors at Wheelock, but homework just didn’t come up. I did lots of student teaching. I’ve been in classrooms where the teachers didn’t assign any homework, and I’ve been in rooms where they assigned hours of homework a night. But I never even considered homework as something that was my decision. I just thought it was something I’d pull out of a book and it’d be done.

I started giving homework on the first night of school this year. My first assignment was to go home and draw a picture of the room where you do your homework. I want to know if it’s at a table and if there are chairs around it and if mom’s cooking dinner while you’re doing homework.

The second night I asked them to talk to a grown-up about how are you going to be able to get your homework done during the week. The kids really enjoyed it. There’s a running joke that I’m teaching life skills.

Friday nights, I read all my kids’ responses to me on their homework from the week and it’s wonderful. They pour their hearts out. It’s like we’re having a conversation on my couch Friday night.

It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Bempechat : I can’t imagine that most new teachers would have the intuition Erin had in designing homework the way she did.

Ardizzone : Conversations with kids about homework, feeling you’re being listened to—that’s such a big part of wanting to do homework….I grew up in Westchester County. It was a pretty demanding school district. My junior year English teacher—I loved her—she would give us feedback, have meetings with all of us. She’d say, “If you have any questions, if you have anything you want to talk about, you can talk to me, here are my office hours.” It felt like she actually cared.

Bempechat : It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Ardizzone : But can’t it lead to parents being overbearing and too involved in their children’s lives as students?

Bempechat : There’s good help and there’s bad help. The bad help is what you’re describing—when parents hover inappropriately, when they micromanage, when they see their children confused and struggling and tell them what to do.

Good help is when parents recognize there’s a struggle going on and instead ask informative questions: “Where do you think you went wrong?” They give hints, or pointers, rather than saying, “You missed this,” or “You didn’t read that.”

Bruce : I hope something comes of this. I hope BU or Wheelock can think of some way to make this a more pressing issue. As a first-year teacher, it was not something I even thought about on the first day of school—until a kid raised his hand and said, “Do we have homework?” It would have been wonderful if I’d had a plan from day one.

Explore Related Topics:

• Share this story

Senior Contributing Editor

Sara Rimer A journalist for more than three decades, Sara Rimer worked at the Miami Herald , Washington Post and, for 26 years, the New York Times , where she was the New England bureau chief, and a national reporter covering education, aging, immigration, and other social justice issues. Her stories on the death penalty’s inequities were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and cited in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision outlawing the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. Her journalism honors include Columbia University’s Meyer Berger award for in-depth human interest reporting. She holds a BA degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan. Profile

She can be reached at [email protected] .

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 81 comments on Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

Insightful! The values about homework in elementary schools are well aligned with my intuition as a parent.

when i finish my work i do my homework and i sometimes forget what to do because i did not get enough sleep

same omg it does not help me it is stressful and if I have it in more than one class I hate it.

Same I think my parent wants to help me but, she doesn’t care if I get bad grades so I just try my best and my grades are great.

I think that last question about Good help from parents is not know to all parents, we do as our parents did or how we best think it can be done, so maybe coaching parents or giving them resources on how to help with homework would be very beneficial for the parent on how to help and for the teacher to have consistency and improve homework results, and of course for the child. I do see how homework helps reaffirm the knowledge obtained in the classroom, I also have the ability to see progress and it is a time I share with my kids

The answer to the headline question is a no-brainer – a more pressing problem is why there is a difference in how students from different cultures succeed. Perfect example is the student population at BU – why is there a majority population of Asian students and only about 3% black students at BU? In fact at some universities there are law suits by Asians to stop discrimination and quotas against admitting Asian students because the real truth is that as a group they are demonstrating better qualifications for admittance, while at the same time there are quotas and reduced requirements for black students to boost their portion of the student population because as a group they do more poorly in meeting admissions standards – and it is not about the Benjamins. The real problem is that in our PC society no one has the gazuntas to explore this issue as it may reveal that all people are not created equal after all. Or is it just environmental cultural differences??????

I get you have a concern about the issue but that is not even what the point of this article is about. If you have an issue please take this to the site we have and only post your opinion about the actual topic

This is not at all what the article is talking about.

This literally has nothing to do with the article brought up. You should really take your opinions somewhere else before you speak about something that doesn’t make sense.

we have the same name

so they have the same name what of it?

lol you tell her

totally agree

What does that have to do with homework, that is not what the article talks about AT ALL.

Yes, I think homework plays an important role in the development of student life. Through homework, students have to face challenges on a daily basis and they try to solve them quickly.I am an intense online tutor at 24x7homeworkhelp and I give homework to my students at that level in which they handle it easily.

More than two-thirds of students said they used alcohol and drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with stress.

You know what’s funny? I got this assignment to write an argument for homework about homework and this article was really helpful and understandable, and I also agree with this article’s point of view.

I also got the same task as you! I was looking for some good resources and I found this! I really found this article useful and easy to understand, just like you! ^^

i think that homework is the best thing that a child can have on the school because it help them with their thinking and memory.

I am a child myself and i think homework is a terrific pass time because i can’t play video games during the week. It also helps me set goals.

Homework is not harmful ,but it will if there is too much

I feel like, from a minors point of view that we shouldn’t get homework. Not only is the homework stressful, but it takes us away from relaxing and being social. For example, me and my friends was supposed to hang at the mall last week but we had to postpone it since we all had some sort of work to do. Our minds shouldn’t be focused on finishing an assignment that in realty, doesn’t matter. I completely understand that we should have homework. I have to write a paper on the unimportance of homework so thanks.

homework isn’t that bad

Are you a student? if not then i don’t really think you know how much and how severe todays homework really is

i am a student and i do not enjoy homework because i practice my sport 4 out of the five days we have school for 4 hours and that’s not even counting the commute time or the fact i still have to shower and eat dinner when i get home. its draining!

i totally agree with you. these people are such boomers

why just why

they do make a really good point, i think that there should be a limit though. hours and hours of homework can be really stressful, and the extra work isn’t making a difference to our learning, but i do believe homework should be optional and extra credit. that would make it for students to not have the leaning stress of a assignment and if you have a low grade you you can catch up.

Studies show that homework improves student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicates that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” On both standardized tests and grades, students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school.

So how are your measuring student achievement? That’s the real question. The argument that doing homework is simply a tool for teaching responsibility isn’t enough for me. We can teach responsibility in a number of ways. Also the poor argument that parents don’t need to help with homework, and that students can do it on their own, is wishful thinking at best. It completely ignores neurodiverse students. Students in poverty aren’t magically going to find a space to do homework, a friend’s or siblings to help them do it, and snacks to eat. I feel like the author of this piece has never set foot in a classroom of students.

THIS. This article is pathetic coming from a university. So intellectually dishonest, refusing to address the havoc of capitalism and poverty plays on academic success in life. How can they in one sentence use poor kids in an argument and never once address that poor children have access to damn near 0 of the resources affluent kids have? Draw me a picture and let’s talk about feelings lmao what a joke is that gonna put food in their belly so they can have the calories to burn in order to use their brain to study? What about quiet their 7 other siblings that they share a single bedroom with for hours? Is it gonna force the single mom to magically be at home and at work at the same time to cook food while you study and be there to throw an encouraging word?

Also the “parents don’t need to be a parent and be able to guide their kid at all academically they just need to exist in the next room” is wild. Its one thing if a parent straight up is not equipped but to say kids can just figured it out is…. wow coming from an educator What’s next the teacher doesn’t need to teach cause the kid can just follow the packet and figure it out?

Well then get a tutor right? Oh wait you are poor only affluent kids can afford a tutor for their hours of homework a day were they on average have none of the worries a poor child does. Does this address that poor children are more likely to also suffer abuse and mental illness? Like mentioned what about kids that can’t learn or comprehend the forced standardized way? Just let em fail? These children regularly are not in “special education”(some of those are a joke in their own and full of neglect and abuse) programs cause most aren’t even acknowledged as having disabilities or disorders.

But yes all and all those pesky poor kids just aren’t being worked hard enough lol pretty sure poor children’s existence just in childhood is more work, stress, and responsibility alone than an affluent child’s entire life cycle. Love they never once talked about the quality of education in the classroom being so bad between the poor and affluent it can qualify as segregation, just basically blamed poor people for being lazy, good job capitalism for failing us once again!

why the hell?

you should feel bad for saying this, this article can be helpful for people who has to write a essay about it

This is more of a political rant than it is about homework

I know a teacher who has told his students their homework is to find something they are interested in, pursue it and then come share what they learn. The student responses are quite compelling. One girl taught herself German so she could talk to her grandfather. One boy did a research project on Nelson Mandela because the teacher had mentioned him in class. Another boy, a both on the autism spectrum, fixed his family’s computer. The list goes on. This is fourth grade. I think students are highly motivated to learn, when we step aside and encourage them.

The whole point of homework is to give the students a chance to use the material that they have been presented with in class. If they never have the opportunity to use that information, and discover that it is actually useful, it will be in one ear and out the other. As a science teacher, it is critical that the students are challenged to use the material they have been presented with, which gives them the opportunity to actually think about it rather than regurgitate “facts”. Well designed homework forces the student to think conceptually, as opposed to regurgitation, which is never a pretty sight

Wonderful discussion. and yes, homework helps in learning and building skills in students.

not true it just causes kids to stress

Homework can be both beneficial and unuseful, if you will. There are students who are gifted in all subjects in school and ones with disabilities. Why should the students who are gifted get the lucky break, whereas the people who have disabilities suffer? The people who were born with this “gift” go through school with ease whereas people with disabilities struggle with the work given to them. I speak from experience because I am one of those students: the ones with disabilities. Homework doesn’t benefit “us”, it only tears us down and put us in an abyss of confusion and stress and hopelessness because we can’t learn as fast as others. Or we can’t handle the amount of work given whereas the gifted students go through it with ease. It just brings us down and makes us feel lost; because no mater what, it feels like we are destined to fail. It feels like we weren’t “cut out” for success.

homework does help

here is the thing though, if a child is shoved in the face with a whole ton of homework that isn’t really even considered homework it is assignments, it’s not helpful. the teacher should make homework more of a fun learning experience rather than something that is dreaded

This article was wonderful, I am going to ask my teachers about extra, or at all giving homework.

I agree. Especially when you have homework before an exam. Which is distasteful as you’ll need that time to study. It doesn’t make any sense, nor does us doing homework really matters as It’s just facts thrown at us.

Homework is too severe and is just too much for students, schools need to decrease the amount of homework. When teachers assign homework they forget that the students have other classes that give them the same amount of homework each day. Students need to work on social skills and life skills.

I disagree.

Beyond achievement, proponents of homework argue that it can have many other beneficial effects. They claim it can help students develop good study habits so they are ready to grow as their cognitive capacities mature. It can help students recognize that learning can occur at home as well as at school. Homework can foster independent learning and responsible character traits. And it can give parents an opportunity to see what’s going on at school and let them express positive attitudes toward achievement.

Homework is helpful because homework helps us by teaching us how to learn a specific topic.

As a student myself, I can say that I have almost never gotten the full 9 hours of recommended sleep time, because of homework. (Now I’m writing an essay on it in the middle of the night D=)

I am a 10 year old kid doing a report about “Is homework good or bad” for homework before i was going to do homework is bad but the sources from this site changed my mind!

Homeowkr is god for stusenrs

I agree with hunter because homework can be so stressful especially with this whole covid thing no one has time for homework and every one just wants to get back to there normal lives it is especially stressful when you go on a 2 week vaca 3 weeks into the new school year and and then less then a week after you come back from the vaca you are out for over a month because of covid and you have no way to get the assignment done and turned in

As great as homework is said to be in the is article, I feel like the viewpoint of the students was left out. Every where I go on the internet researching about this topic it almost always has interviews from teachers, professors, and the like. However isn’t that a little biased? Of course teachers are going to be for homework, they’re not the ones that have to stay up past midnight completing the homework from not just one class, but all of them. I just feel like this site is one-sided and you should include what the students of today think of spending four hours every night completing 6-8 classes worth of work.

Are we talking about homework or practice? Those are two very different things and can result in different outcomes.

Homework is a graded assignment. I do not know of research showing the benefits of graded assignments going home.

Practice; however, can be extremely beneficial, especially if there is some sort of feedback (not a grade but feedback). That feedback can come from the teacher, another student or even an automated grading program.

As a former band director, I assigned daily practice. I never once thought it would be appropriate for me to require the students to turn in a recording of their practice for me to grade. Instead, I had in-class assignments/assessments that were graded and directly related to the practice assigned.

I would really like to read articles on “homework” that truly distinguish between the two.

oof i feel bad good luck!

thank you guys for the artical because I have to finish an assingment. yes i did cite it but just thanks

thx for the article guys.

Homework is good

I think homework is helpful AND harmful. Sometimes u can’t get sleep bc of homework but it helps u practice for school too so idk.

I agree with this Article. And does anyone know when this was published. I would like to know.

It was published FEb 19, 2019.

Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college.

i think homework can help kids but at the same time not help kids

This article is so out of touch with majority of homes it would be laughable if it wasn’t so incredibly sad.

There is no value to homework all it does is add stress to already stressed homes. Parents or adults magically having the time or energy to shepherd kids through homework is dome sort of 1950’s fantasy.

What lala land do these teachers live in?

Homework gives noting to the kid

Homework is Bad

homework is bad.

why do kids even have homework?

Comments are closed.

Latest from Bostonia

Bu alum chompon boonnak runs mahaniyom, one of greater boston’s hottest thai restaurants, champion of indie films, china scholar merle goldman dies, cfa alum jonathan knight is head of games for the new york times, a commitment to early childhood education, reading list: alum bonnie hammer publishes 15 lies women are told at work —plus fiction, poetry, and short stories, one good deed: jason hurdich (cas’97) is uniting the deaf community, one cup at a time, is our democracy at risk americans think so. bu experts talk about why—and the way forward, space force general b. chance saltzman is a bu alum, feedback: readers weigh in on a bu superager, the passing of otto lerbinger, and alum’s book fat church, law alum steven m. wise, who fought for animal rights, dies, pups wearing custom-designed veterinary collars get star treatment in alum’s new coffee-table book, using glamour for good: alum’s nonprofit organization brings clothes and beauty products to those in need, gallery: shea justice (cfa’93), oscar-nominated actor hong chau (com’01) stars in new action-comedy the instigators, alum’s new book recounts the battle for inclusion in boy scouts, opening doors: ellice patterson (questrom’17), an alum’s new memoir recounts six decades of beatlemania, bu alum in paris keeping olympians’ minds sharp and healthy, erika jordan departs bu alumni engagement office to return to california.

Is Homework Good for Kids? Here’s What the Research Says

A s kids return to school, debate is heating up once again over how they should spend their time after they leave the classroom for the day.

The no-homework policy of a second-grade teacher in Texas went viral last week , earning praise from parents across the country who lament the heavy workload often assigned to young students. Brandy Young told parents she would not formally assign any homework this year, asking students instead to eat dinner with their families, play outside and go to bed early.

But the question of how much work children should be doing outside of school remains controversial, and plenty of parents take issue with no-homework policies, worried their kids are losing a potential academic advantage. Here’s what you need to know:

For decades, the homework standard has been a “10-minute rule,” which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 minutes of homework each night. High school seniors should complete about two hours of homework each night. The National PTA and the National Education Association both support that guideline.

But some schools have begun to give their youngest students a break. A Massachusetts elementary school has announced a no-homework pilot program for the coming school year, lengthening the school day by two hours to provide more in-class instruction. “We really want kids to go home at 4 o’clock, tired. We want their brain to be tired,” Kelly Elementary School Principal Jackie Glasheen said in an interview with a local TV station . “We want them to enjoy their families. We want them to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it.”

A New York City public elementary school implemented a similar policy last year, eliminating traditional homework assignments in favor of family time. The change was quickly met with outrage from some parents, though it earned support from other education leaders.

New solutions and approaches to homework differ by community, and these local debates are complicated by the fact that even education experts disagree about what’s best for kids.

The research

The most comprehensive research on homework to date comes from a 2006 meta-analysis by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper, who found evidence of a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, meaning students who did homework performed better in school. The correlation was stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades, for whom there was a weak relationship between homework and performance.

Cooper’s analysis focused on how homework impacts academic achievement—test scores, for example. His report noted that homework is also thought to improve study habits, attitudes toward school, self-discipline, inquisitiveness and independent problem solving skills. On the other hand, some studies he examined showed that homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children. At the end of his analysis, Cooper recommended further study of such potential effects of homework.

Despite the weak correlation between homework and performance for young children, Cooper argues that a small amount of homework is useful for all students. Second-graders should not be doing two hours of homework each night, he said, but they also shouldn’t be doing no homework.

Not all education experts agree entirely with Cooper’s assessment.

Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, supports the “10-minute rule” as a maximum, but she thinks there is not sufficient proof that homework is helpful for students in elementary school.

“Correlation is not causation,” she said. “Does homework cause achievement, or do high achievers do more homework?”

Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs , thinks there should be more emphasis on improving the quality of homework tasks, and she supports efforts to eliminate homework for younger kids.

“I have no concerns about students not starting homework until fourth grade or fifth grade,” she said, noting that while the debate over homework will undoubtedly continue, she has noticed a trend toward limiting, if not eliminating, homework in elementary school.

The issue has been debated for decades. A TIME cover in 1999 read: “Too much homework! How it’s hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.” The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push for better math and science education in the U.S. The ensuing pressure to be competitive on a global scale, plus the increasingly demanding college admissions process, fueled the practice of assigning homework.

“The complaints are cyclical, and we’re in the part of the cycle now where the concern is for too much,” Cooper said. “You can go back to the 1970s, when you’ll find there were concerns that there was too little, when we were concerned about our global competitiveness.”

Cooper acknowledged that some students really are bringing home too much homework, and their parents are right to be concerned.

“A good way to think about homework is the way you think about medications or dietary supplements,” he said. “If you take too little, they’ll have no effect. If you take too much, they can kill you. If you take the right amount, you’ll get better.”

More Must-Reads from TIME

• Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
• Heman Bekele Is TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year
• The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris
• What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
• A Battle Over Fertility Law in China
• The 1 Heart-Health Habit You Should Start When You’re Young
• Cuddling Might Help You Get Better Sleep
• The 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now

Write to Katie Reilly at [email protected]

• Future Students
• Current Students
• Faculty/Staff

News and Media

• News & Media Home
• Research Stories
• School’s In
• In the Media

You are here

More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

More Stories

⟵ Go to all Research Stories

Get the Educator

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Stanford Graduate School of Education

482 Galvez Mall Stanford, CA 94305-3096 Tel: (650) 723-2109

• Contact Admissions
• GSE Leadership
• Site Feedback
• Web Accessibility
• Career Resources
• Faculty Open Positions
• Explore Courses
• Academic Calendar
• Office of the Registrar
• Cubberley Library
• StanfordWho
• StanfordYou

Improving lives through learning

• Stanford Home
• Maps & Directions
• Search Stanford
• Emergency Info
• Terms of Use
• Non-Discrimination
• Accessibility

© Stanford University , Stanford , California 94305 .

20 Pros and Cons of Homework

Homework. It’s a word that sends a shudder down the spine of students and parents alike.

It is also a question that has become divisive. Some people feel that homework is an effective way to reinforce the concepts that were learned at school. Others feel like the time that homework demands would be better spent with a meaningful activity that brings the family together.

Is homework important? Is it necessary? Or is the added stress that homework places on students and parents doing more harm than good? Here are some of the key pros and cons to discuss.

List of the Pros of Homework

1. It encourages the discipline of practice. Repeating the same problems over and over can be boring and difficult, but it also reinforces the practice of discipline. To get better at a skill, repetition is often necessary. You get better with each repetition. By having homework completed every night, especially with a difficult subject, the concepts become easier to understand. That gives the student an advantage later on in life when seeking a vocational career.

2. It gets parents involved with a child’s life. Looking at Common Core math can be somewhat bewildering to parents. If you see the math problem 5×3 expressed as an addition problem, 5+5+5 seems like the right answer. The correct answer, however, would be 3+3+3+3+3. By bringing homework to do, students can engage their learning process with their parents so everyone can be involved. Many parents actually want homework sent so they can see what their children are being taught in the classroom.

3. It teaches time management skills. Homework goes beyond completing a task. It forces children (and parents, to some extent) to develop time management skills. Schedules must be organized to ensure that all tasks can be completed during the day. This creates independent thinking and develops problem-solving skills. It encourages research skills. It also puts parents and children into a position where positive decision-making skills must be developed.

4. Homework creates a communication network. Teachers rarely see into the family lives of their students. Parents rarely see the classroom lives of their children. Homework is a bridge that opens lines of communication between the school, the teacher, and the parent. This allows everyone to get to know one another better. It helps teachers understand the needs of their students better.

It allows parents to find out their child’s strengths and weaknesses. Together, an educational plan can be developed that encourages the best possible learning environment.

5. It allows for a comfortable place to study. Classrooms have evolved over the years to be a warmer and welcoming environment, but there is nothing like the comfort that is felt at home or in a safe space. By encouraging studies where a child feels the most comfortable, it is possible to retain additional information that may get lost within the standard classroom environment.

6. It provides more time to complete the learning process. The time allotted for each area of study in school, especially in K-12, is often limited to 1 hour or less per day. That is not always enough time for students to be able to grasp core concepts of that material. By creating specific homework assignments which address these deficiencies, it becomes possible to counter the effects of the time shortages. That can benefit students greatly over time.

7. It reduces screen time. On the average school night, a student in the US might get 3-4 hours of screen time in per day. When that student isn’t in school, that figure doubles to 7-8 hours of screen time. Homework might be unwanted and disliked, but it does encourage better study habits. It discourages time being spent in front of the television or playing games on a mobile device. That, in turn, may discourage distracting habits from forming that can take away from the learning process in the future.

8. It can be treated like any other extracurricular activity. Some families over-extend themselves on extracurricular activities. Students can easily have more than 40 hours per week, from clubs to sports, that fall outside of regular school hours. Homework can be treated as one of these activities, fitting into the schedule where there is extra time. As an added benefit, some homework can even be completed on the way to or from some activities.

List of the Cons of Homework

1. Children benefit from playing. Being in a classroom can be a good thing, but so can being on a playground. With too much homework, a child doesn’t have enough time to play and that can impact their learning and social development. Low levels of play are associated with lower academic achievement levels, lower safety awareness, less character development, and lower overall health.

2. It encourages a sedentary lifestyle. Long homework assignments require long periods of sitting. A sedentary lifestyle has numerous direct associations with premature death as children age into adults. Obesity levels are already at or near record highs in many communities. Homework may reinforce certain skills and encourage knowledge retention, but it may come at a high price.

3. Not every home is a beneficial environment. There are some homes that are highly invested into their children. Parents may be involved in every stage of homework or there may be access to tutors that can explain difficult concepts. In other homes, there may be little or no education investment into the child. Some parents push the responsibility of teaching off on the teacher and provide no homework support at all.

Sometimes parents may wish to be involved and support their child, but there are barriers in place that prevent this from happening. The bottom line is this: no every home life is equal.

4. School is already a full-time job for kids. An elementary school day might start at 9:00am and end at 3:20pm. That’s more than 6 hours of work that kids as young as 5 are putting into their education every day. Add in the extra-curricular activities that schools encourage, such as sports, musicals, and after-school programming and a student can easily reach 8 hours of education in the average day. Then add homework on top of that? It is asking a lot for any child, but especially young children, to complete extra homework.

5. There is no evidence that homework creates improvements. Survey after survey has found that the only thing that homework does is create a negative attitude toward schooling and education in general. Homework is not associated with a higher level of academic achievement on a national scale. It may help some students who struggle with certain subjects, if they have access to a knowledgeable tutor or parent, but on a community level, there is no evidence that shows improvements are gained.

6. It discourages creative endeavors. If a student is spending 1 hour each day on homework, that’s an hour they are not spending pursuing something that is important to them. Students might like to play video games or watch TV, but homework takes time away from learning an instrument, painting, or developing photography skills as well. Although some homework can involve creative skills, that usually isn’t the case.

7. Homework is difficult to enforce. Some students just don’t care about homework. They can achieve adequate grades without doing it, so they choose not to do it. There is no level of motivation that a parent or teacher can create that inspires some students to get involved with homework. There is no denying the fact that homework requires a certain amount of effort. Sometimes a child just doesn’t want to put in that effort.

8. Extra time in school does not equate to better grades. Students in the US spend more than 100 hours of extra time in school already compared to high-performing countries around the world, but that has not closed the educational gap between those countries and the United States. In some educational areas, the US is even falling in global rankings despite the extra time that students are spending in school. When it comes to homework or any other form of learning, quality is much more important than quantity.

9. Accurate practice may not be possible. If homework is assigned, there is a reliance on the student, their parents, or their guardians to locate resources that can help them understand the content. Homework is often about practice, but if the core concepts of that information are not understood or inaccurately understood, then the results are the opposite of what is intended. If inaccurate practice is performed, it becomes necessary for the teacher to first correct the issue and then reteach it, which prolongs the learning process.

10. It may encourage cheating on multiple levels. Some students may decide that cheating in the classroom to avoid taking homework home is a compromise they’re willing to make. With internet resources, finding the answers to homework instead of figuring out the answers on one’s own is a constant temptation as well. For families with multiple children, they may decide to copy off one another to minimize the time investment.

11. Too much homework is often assigned to students. There is a general agreement that students should be assigned no more than 10 minutes of homework per day, per grade level. That means a first grader should not be assigned more than 10 minutes of homework per night. Yet for the average first grader in US public schools, they come home with 20 minutes of homework and then are asked to complete 20 minutes of reading on top of that. That means some students are completing 4x more homework than recommended every night.

At the same time, the amount of time children spent playing outdoors has decreased by 40% over the past 30 years.

For high school students, it is even worse at high performing schools in the US where 90% of graduates go onto college, the average amount of homework assigned per night was 3 hours per student.

12. Homework is often geared toward benchmarks. Homework is often assigned to improve test scores. Although this can provide positive outcomes, including better study skills or habits, the fact is that when children are tired, they do not absorb much information. When children have more homework than recommended, test scores actually go down. Stress levels go up. Burnout on the curriculum occurs.

The results for many students, according to research from Ruben Fernandez-Alonso in the Journal of Educational Psychology, is a decrease in grades instead of an increase.

The pros and cons of homework are admittedly all over the map. Many parents and teachers follow their personal perspectives and create learning environments around them. When parents and teachers clash on homework, the student is often left in the middle of that tug of war. By discussing these key points, each side can work to find some common ground so our children can benefit for a clear, precise message.

Quantity may be important, but quality must be the priority for homework if a student is going to be successful.

Is Homework Good or Bad for Students?

It's mostly good, especially for the sciences, but it also can be bad

JGI / Jamie Grill / Getty Images

• Homework Tips
• Learning Styles & Skills
• Study Methods
• Time Management
• Private School
• College Admissions
• College Life
• Graduate School
• Business School
• Distance Learning
• Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
• B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College

Homework isn't fun for students to do or for teachers to grade, so why do it? Here are some reasons why homework is good and why it's bad.

Why Homework Is Good

Here are 10 reasons why homework is good, especially for the sciences, such as chemistry:

• Doing homework teaches you how to learn on your own and work independently. You'll learn how to use resources such as texts, libraries, and the internet. No matter how well you thought you understood the material in class, there will be times when you'll get stuck doing homework. When you face the challenge, you learn how to get help, how to deal with frustration, and how to persevere.
• Homework helps you learn beyond the scope of the class. Example problems from teachers and textbooks show you how to do an assignment. The acid test is seeing whether you truly understand the material and can do the work on your own. In science classes, homework problems are critically important. You see concepts in a whole new light, so you'll know how equations work in general, not just how they work for a particular example. In chemistry, physics, and math, homework is truly important and not just busywork.
• It shows you what the teacher thinks is important to learn, so you'll have a better idea of what to expect on a quiz or test .
• It's often a significant part of your grade . If you don't do it, it could cost you , no matter how well you do on exams.
• Homework is a good opportunity to connect parents, classmates, and siblings with your education. The better your support network, the more likely you are to succeed in class.
• Homework, however tedious it might be, teaches responsibility and accountability. For some classes, homework is an essential part of learning the subject matter.
• Homework nips procrastination in the bud. One reason teachers give homework and attach a big part of your grade to it is to motivate you to keep up. If you fall behind, you could fail.
• How will you get all your work done before class? Homework teaches you time management and how to prioritize tasks.
• Homework reinforces the concepts taught in class. The more you work with them, the more likely you are to learn them. 
• Homework can help boost self-esteem . Or, if it's not going well, it helps you identify problems before they get out of control.

Sometimes Homework Is Bad

So, homework is good because it can boost your grades , help you learn the material, and prepare you for tests. It's not always beneficial, however. Sometimes homework hurts more than it helps. Here are five ways homework can be bad:

• You need a break from a subject so you don't burn out or lose interest. Taking a break helps you learn.
• Too much homework can lead to copying and cheating.
• Homework that is pointless busywork can lead to a negative impression of a subject (not to mention a teacher).
• It takes time away from families, friends, jobs, and other ways to spend your time.
• Homework can hurt your grades. It forces you to make time management decisions, sometimes putting you in a no-win situation. Do you take the time to do the homework or spend it studying concepts or doing work for another subject? If you don't have the time for the homework, you could hurt your grades even if you ace the tests and understand the subject.
• How to Change Your Habits and Improve Your Grades
• Common Classroom Etiquette and Rules for Students
• 18 Ways to Practice Spelling Words
• How to Write and Structure a Persuasive Speech
• How Much Damage Do Bad Grades Do?
• Homework Guidelines for Elementary and Middle School Teachers
• 20 Tips for Success in High School
• Study Tips for Middle School Students
• Cheating with Technology
• The Many Definitions of a Glyph
• How to Overcome Math Anxiety
• Signs Your Child's Teacher Is a Bully
• How to Give an Impromptu Speech
• How to Deal With a Bad Report Card
• 5 Bubble Sheet Tips for Test Answers
• External and Internal Motivation

Does homework really work?

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: December 12, 2023

Print article

You know the drill. It’s 10:15 p.m., and the cardboard-and-toothpick Golden Gate Bridge is collapsing. The pages of polynomials have been abandoned. The paper on the Battle of Waterloo seems to have frozen in time with Napoleon lingering eternally over his breakfast at Le Caillou. Then come the tears and tantrums — while we parents wonder, Does the gain merit all this pain? Is this just too much homework?

However the drama unfolds night after night, year after year, most parents hold on to the hope that homework (after soccer games, dinner, flute practice, and, oh yes, that childhood pastime of yore known as playing) advances their children academically.

But what does homework really do for kids? Is the forest’s worth of book reports and math and spelling sheets the average American student completes in their 12 years of primary schooling making a difference? Or is it just busywork?

Homework haterz

Whether or not homework helps, or even hurts, depends on who you ask. If you ask my 12-year-old son, Sam, he’ll say, “Homework doesn’t help anything. It makes kids stressed-out and tired and makes them hate school more.”

Nothing more than common kid bellyaching?

Maybe, but in the fractious field of homework studies, it’s worth noting that Sam’s sentiments nicely synopsize one side of the ivory tower debate. Books like The End of Homework , The Homework Myth , and The Case Against Homework the film Race to Nowhere , and the anguished parent essay “ My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me ” make the case that homework, by taking away precious family time and putting kids under unneeded pressure, is an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers.

One Canadian couple took their homework apostasy all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. After arguing that there was no evidence that it improved academic performance, they won a ruling that exempted their two children from all homework.

So what’s the real relationship between homework and academic achievement?

How much is too much?

To answer this question, researchers have been doing their homework on homework, conducting and examining hundreds of studies. Chris Drew Ph.D., founder and editor at The Helpful Professor recently compiled multiple statistics revealing the folly of today’s after-school busy work. Does any of the data he listed below ring true for you?

• 45 percent of parents think homework is too easy for their child, primarily because it is geared to the lowest standard under the Common Core State Standards .

• 74 percent of students say homework is a source of stress , defined as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

• Students in high-performing high schools spend an average of 3.1 hours a night on homework , even though 1 to 2 hours is the optimal duration, according to a peer-reviewed study .

Not included in the list above is the fact many kids have to abandon activities they love — like sports and clubs — because homework deprives them of the needed time to enjoy themselves with other pursuits.

Conversely, The Helpful Professor does list a few pros of homework, noting it teaches discipline and time management, and helps parents know what’s being taught in the class.

The oft-bandied rule on homework quantity — 10 minutes a night per grade (starting from between 10 to 20 minutes in first grade) — is listed on the National Education Association’s website and the National Parent Teacher Association’s website , but few schools follow this rule.

Do you think your child is doing excessive homework? Harris Cooper Ph.D., author of a meta-study on homework , recommends talking with the teacher. “Often there is a miscommunication about the goals of homework assignments,” he says. “What appears to be problematic for kids, why they are doing an assignment, can be cleared up with a conversation.” Also, Cooper suggests taking a careful look at how your child is doing the assignments. It may seem like they’re taking two hours, but maybe your child is wandering off frequently to get a snack or getting distracted.

Less is often more

If your child is dutifully doing their work but still burning the midnight oil, it’s worth intervening to make sure your child gets enough sleep. A 2012 study of 535 high school students found that proper sleep may be far more essential to brain and body development.

For elementary school-age children, Cooper’s research at Duke University shows there is no measurable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, Cooper found there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, Cooper’s research suggests that two hours per night is optimal. If teens have more than two hours of homework a night, their academic success flatlines. But less is not better. The average high school student doing homework outperformed 69 percent of the students in a class with no homework.

Many schools are starting to act on this research. A Florida superintendent abolished homework in her 42,000 student district, replacing it with 20 minutes of nightly reading. She attributed her decision to “ solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement in students .”

More family time

A 2020 survey by Crayola Experience reports 82 percent of children complain they don’t have enough quality time with their parents. Homework deserves much of the blame. “Kids should have a chance to just be kids and do things they enjoy, particularly after spending six hours a day in school,” says Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth . “It’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.”

By far, the best replacement for homework — for both parents and children — is bonding, relaxing time together.

Homes Nearby

Homes for rent and sale near schools

How families of color can fight for fair discipline in school

Dealing with teacher bias

The most important school data families of color need to consider

Yes! Sign me up for updates relevant to my child's grade.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up!

Server Issue: Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience

• Mental Health , Research
• Written by Cara Goodwin, Ph.D.

Homework: The Good and The Bad

Homework.  A single word that for many brings up memories of childhood stress. Now that you’re a parent, you may be reminded of that feeling every time your child spills their backpack across the table. You also may be questioning how much homework is too much and wondering how you can best help your child with their schoolwork.

Here, Dr. Cara Goodwin of Parenting Translator explains what the research actually says about homework. She outlines specific ways parents can support their kids to maximize the academic benefits and develop lifelong skills in time management and persistence.

In recent years, many parents and educators have raised concerns about homework. Specifically, they have questioned how much it enhances learning and if its benefits outweigh potential costs, such as stress to the family.

So, what does the research say?

Academic benefits vs risks of homework

One of the most important questions when it comes to homework is whether it actually helps kids understand the content better. So does it? Research finds that homework is associated with higher scores on academic standardized tests for middle and high school students, but not for elementary school students (1, 2).

In other words, homework seems to have little impact on learning in elementary school students. 

Additionally, a 2012 study found that while homework is related to higher standardized test scores for high schoolers, it is not related to higher grades.

Not surprisingly, homework is more likely to be associated with improved academic performance when students and teachers find the homework to be meaningful or relevant, according to several studies (1, 3, 4). Students tend to find homework to be most engaging when it involves solving real-world problems (5).  

The impact of homework may also depend on socioeconomic status. Students from higher income families show improved academic skills with more homework and gain more knowledge from homework, according to research. On the other hand, the academic performance of more disadvantaged children seems to be unaffected by homework (6, 7). This may be because homework provides additional stress for disadvantaged children. They are less likely to get help from their parents on homework and more likely to be punished by teachers for not completing it (8).

Non-academic benefits vs risks of homework

Academic outcomes are only part of the picture. It is important to look at how homework affects kids in ways other than grades and test scores.

Homework appears to have benefits beyond improving academic skills, particularly for younger students. These benefits include building responsibility, time management skills, and persistence (1, 9, 10). In addition, homework may also increase parents’ involvement in their children’s schooling (11, 12, 13, 14).

Yet, studies show that too much homework has drawbacks. It can reduce children’s opportunities for free play, which is essential for the development of language, cognitive, self-regulation, and social-emotional skills (15). It may also interfere with physical activity, and too much homework is associated with an increased risk for being overweight (16, 17). 

In addition to homework reducing opportunities for play, it also leads to increased conflicts and stress for families. For example, research finds that children with more hours of homework experience more academic stress, physical health problems, and lack of balance in their lives (18). 

Clearly, more is not better when it comes to homework.

What is the “right” amount of homework? 

Recent reports indicate that elementary school students are assigned three times the recommended amount of homework. Even kindergarten students report an average of 25 minutes of homework per day (19).

Additionally, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that homework has been increasing in recent years for younger students. Specifically, 35% of 9-year-olds reported that they did not do homework the previous night in 1984 versus 22% of 9-years-old in 2012. However, homework levels have stayed relatively stable for 13- and 17-year-olds during this same time period. 

Research suggests that homework should not exceed 1.5 to 2.5 hours per night for high school students and no more than 1 hour per night for middle school students (1). Homework for elementary school students should be minimal and assigned with the aim of building self-regulation and independent work skills. A common rule , supported by both the National Education Association (NEA) and National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), is 10-minutes of homework per grade in elementary school. Any more than this and homework may no longer have a positive impact. Importantly, the NEA and the National PTA do not endorse homework for kindergarteners.

How can parents best help with homework?

Most parents feel that they are expected to be involved in their children’s homework (20). Yet, it is often unclear exactly how to be involved in a way that helps your child to successfully complete the assignment without taking over entirely. Most studies find that parental help is important but that it matters more HOW the parent is helping rather than how OFTEN the parent is helping (21).

While this can all feel very overwhelming for parents, there are some simple guidelines you can follow to ease the homework burden and best support your child’s learning.

1. Help only when needed.

Parents should focus on providing general monitoring, guidance and encouragement. Allow children to generate answers on their own and complete their homework as independently as possible . This is important because research shows that allowing children more independence in completing homework benefits their academic skills (22, 23). In addition, too much parent involvement and being controlling with homework is associated with worse academic performance (21, 24, 25). 

What does this look like?

• Be present when your child is completing homework to help them to understand the directions.
• Be available to answer simple questions and to provide praise for their effort and hard work.
• Only provide help when your child asks for it and step away whenever possible.

2. Have structure and routines.

Help your child create structure and to develop some routines. This helps children become more independent in completing their homework. Research finds that providing this type of structure and responsiveness is related to improved academic skills (25).

This structure may include:

• A regular time and place for homework that is free from distractions.
• Have all of the materials they need within arm’s reach.
• Teach and encourage kids to create a checklist for their homework tasks each day.

Parents can also help their children to find ways to stay motivated. For example, developing their own reward system or creating a homework schedule with breaks for fun activities.

3. Set specific rules around homework.

Research finds that parents setting rules around homework is related to higher academic performance (26). For example, parents may require that children finish homework before screen time or may require children to stop doing homework and go to sleep at a certain hour. 

4. Emphasize learning over outcome.

Encourage your child to persist in challenging assignments and frame difficult assignments as opportunities to grow. Research finds that this attitude is associated with student success (20). Research also indicates that more challenging homework is associated with enhanced school performance (27).

Additionally, help your child to view homework as an opportunity to learn and improve skills. Parents who view homework as a learning opportunity rather than something that they must get “right” or complete successfully to obtain a higher grade are more likely to have children with the same attitudes (28). 

5. Stay calm and positive.

Yes, we know this is easier said than done, but it does have a big impact on how kids persevere when things get hard! Research shows that mothers showing positive emotions while helping with homework may improve children’s motivation in homework (29)

6. Praise hard work and effort. 

Praise focused on effort is likely to increase motivation (30). In addition, research finds that putting more effort into homework may be associated with enhanced development of conscientiousness in children (31).

7. Communicate with your child’s teacher.

Let your child’s teacher know about any problems your child has with homework and the teachers’ learning goals. Research finds that open communication about homework is associated with improved school performance (32). 

In summary, research finds that homework provides some academic benefit for middle- and high-school students but is less beneficial for elementary school students. As a parent, how you are involved in your child’s homework really matters. By following these evidence-based tips, you can help your child to maximize the benefits of homework and make the process less painful for all involved!

For more resources, take a look at our recent posts on natural and logical consequences and simple ways to decrease challenging behaviors .

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003.  Review of educational research ,  76 (1), 1-62.
• Muhlenbruck, L., Cooper, H., Nye, B., & Lindsay, J. J. (1999). Homework and achievement: Explaining the different strengths of relation at the elementary and secondary school levels.  Social Psychology of Education ,  3 (4), 295-317.
• Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (2007). Special topic: The case for and against homework.  Educational leadership ,  64 (6), 74-79.
• Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Schnyder, I., & Niggli, A. (2006). Predicting homework effort: support for a domain-specific, multilevel homework model.  Journal of educational psychology ,  98 (2), 438.
• Shernoff, D. J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Schneider, B., & Shernoff, E. S. (2014). Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. In  Applications of flow in human development and education  (pp. 475-494). Springer, Dordrecht.
• Daw, J. (2012). Parental income and the fruits of labor: Variability in homework efficacy in secondary school.  Research in social stratification and mobility ,  30 (3), 246-264.
• Rønning, M. (2011). Who benefits from homework assignments?.  Economics of Education Review ,  30 (1), 55-64.
• Calarco, J. M. (2020). Avoiding us versus them: How schools’ dependence on privileged “Helicopter” parents influences enforcement of rules.  American Sociological Review ,  85 (2), 223-246.
• Corno, L., & Xu, J. (2004). Homework as the job of childhood.  Theory into practice ,  43 (3), 227-233.
• Göllner, R., Damian, R. I., Rose, N., Spengler, M., Trautwein, U., Nagengast, B., & Roberts, B. W. (2017). Is doing your homework associated with becoming more conscientious?.  Journal of Research in Personality ,  71 , 1-12.
• Balli, S. J., Demo, D. H., & Wedman, J. F. (1998). Family involvement with children’s homework: An intervention in the middle grades.  Family relations , 149-157.
• Balli, S. J., Wedman, J. F., & Demo, D. H. (1997). Family involvement with middle-grades homework: Effects of differential prompting.  The Journal of Experimental Education ,  66 (1), 31-48.
• Epstein, J. L., & Dauber, S. L. (1991). School programs and teacher practices of parent involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools.  The elementary school journal ,  91 (3), 289-305.
• Van Voorhis, F. L. (2003). Interactive homework in middle school: Effects on family involvement and science achievement.  The Journal of Educational Research ,  96 (6), 323-338.
• Yogman, M., Garner, A., Hutchinson, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. (2018). The power of play: A pediatric role in enhancing development in young children.  Pediatrics ,  142 (3).
• Godakanda, I., Abeysena, C., & Lokubalasooriya, A. (2018). Sedentary behavior during leisure time, physical activity and dietary habits as risk factors of overweight among school children aged 14–15 years: case control study.  BMC research notes ,  11 (1), 1-6.
• Hadianfard, A. M., Mozaffari-Khosravi, H., Karandish, M., & Azhdari, M. (2021). Physical activity and sedentary behaviors (screen time and homework) among overweight or obese adolescents: a cross-sectional observational study in Yazd, Iran.  BMC pediatrics ,  21 (1), 1-10.
• Galloway, M., Conner, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools.  The journal of experimental education ,  81 (4), 490-510.
• Pressman, R. M., Sugarman, D. B., Nemon, M. L., Desjarlais, J., Owens, J. A., & Schettini-Evans, A. (2015). Homework and family stress: With consideration of parents’ self confidence, educational level, and cultural background.  The American Journal of Family Therapy ,  43 (4), 297-313.
• Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Battiato, A. C., Walker, J. M., Reed, R. P., DeJong, J. M., & Jones, K. P. (2001). Parental involvement in homework.  Educational psychologist ,  36 (3), 195-209.
• Moroni, S., Dumont, H., Trautwein, U., Niggli, A., & Baeriswyl, F. (2015). The need to distinguish between quantity and quality in research on parental involvement: The example of parental help with homework.  The Journal of Educational Research ,  108 (5), 417-431.
• Cooper, H., Lindsay, J. J., & Nye, B. (2000). Homework in the home: How student, family, and parenting-style differences relate to the homework process.  Contemporary educational psychology ,  25 (4), 464-487.
• Dumont, H., Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Neumann, M., Niggli, A., & Schnyder, I. (2012). Does parental homework involvement mediate the relationship between family background and educational outcomes?.  Contemporary Educational Psychology ,  37 (1), 55-69.
• Barger, M. M., Kim, E. M., Kuncel, N. R., & Pomerantz, E. M. (2019). The relation between parents’ involvement in children’s schooling and children’s adjustment: A meta-analysis.  Psychological bulletin ,  145 (9), 855.
• Dumont, H., Trautwein, U., Nagy, G., & Nagengast, B. (2014). Quality of parental homework involvement: predictors and reciprocal relations with academic functioning in the reading domain.  Journal of Educational Psychology ,  106 (1), 144.
• Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008). The effects of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes: a meta-analysis of research findings.  Psychological bulletin ,  134 (2), 270.Dettmars et al., 2010
• Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2016)
• Pomerantz, E. M., Grolnick, W. S., & Price, C. E. (2005). The Role of Parents in How Children Approach Achievement: A Dynamic Process Perspective.
• Haimovitz, K., Wormington, S. V., & Corpus, J. H. (2011). Dangerous mindsets: How beliefs about intelligence predict motivational change.  Learning and Individual Differences ,  21 (6), 747-752.Gollner et al., 2017
• Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement.  Developmental psychology ,  45 (3), 740.

Share this post

13 Comments

Pingback: nfl|nfl highlights|nfl draft|nfl theme|nfl halftime show|nfl theme song|nfl draft 2023|nfl super bowl 2023|nfl 23|nfl 22|nfl halftime show 2022|nfl news|nfl live|nfl mock draft 2023|NFL player collapse|NFL live coverage|NFL Playoffs 2023|NFL game|NFL pred

Pingback: dutch driver license

Pingback: หวยออนไลน์ LSM99

Pingback: biracial silicone dolls

Pingback: เช่ารถตู้พร้อมคนขับ

Pingback: iTunes gift card

Pingback: fuckgirl

Pingback: go88 tài xỉu

Pingback: เสริมหน้าอก

Pingback: ชอบหีสวย.com

Pingback: gunpowder

Pingback: กระเบื้องยาง SPC ราคา

Pingback: steenslagfolie

Comments are closed.

As psychologists, we were passionate about evidence-based parenting even before having kids ourselves. Once we became parents, we were overwhelmed by the amount of parenting information available, some of which isn’t backed by research. This inspired the Helping Families Thrive mission: to bring parenting science to the real world.  

search the site

Learn With Us

Psychologist created, parent tested workshops and mini-courses to help families thrive.

Our comprehensive Essentials course puts the power of the most studied parenting tools in the palm of your hand.

post categories

Improve Your Child’s Emotion Regulation Skills

A free, 15-page guide filled with practical strategies.

find us elsewhere

find your way around

discover courses

important links

Our 3-Step Strategy

Download our free guide to improve your child’s cooperation.

For educational purposes only. Not intended to diagnose or treat any condition, illness or disease.

• About the Hub
• Announcements
• Faculty Experts Guide
• Subscribe to the newsletter

Explore by Topic

• Arts+Culture
• Politics+Society
• Science+Technology
• Student Life
• University News
• Voices+Opinion
• About Hub at Work
• Gazette Archive
• Benefits+Perks
• Health+Well-Being
• Current Issue
• About the Magazine
• Past Issues
• Support Johns Hopkins Magazine
• Subscribe to the Magazine

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

Posted in Voices+Opinion

You might also like

News network.

• Johns Hopkins Magazine
• Get Email Updates
• Submit an Announcement
• Submit an Event
• Privacy Statement
• Accessibility

Discover JHU

• About the University
• Schools & Divisions
• Academic Programs
• Plan a Visit
• my.JohnsHopkins.edu
• © 2024 Johns Hopkins University . All rights reserved.
• University Communications
• 3910 Keswick Rd., Suite N2600, Baltimore, MD
• X Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Instagram

Is Homework Good for Kids?

Research suggests that homework may be most beneficial when it is minimal..

Updated October 3, 2023 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• Why Education Is Important
• Take our ADHD Test
• Find a Child Therapist
• Research finds that homework can academically benefit middle and high schoolers, but not elementary students.
• There are non-academic benefits to homework, but too much work may interfere with other areas of development.
• Research suggests students should be given about 10 minutes of homework per grade level.
• Parents can help with homework by encouraging a growth mindset and supporting their child's autonomy.

In recent years, homework has become a very hot topic. Many parents and educators have raised concerns about homework and questioned how effective it is in enhancing students’ learning. There are also concerns that students may simply be getting too much homework, which ultimately interferes with quality family time and opportunities for physical activity and play.

Research suggests that these concerns may be valid. For example, one study reported that elementary school students, on average, are assigned three times the recommended amount of homework.

What does the research say? What are the potential risks and benefits of homework, and how much is “too much”?

Academic vs. Non-Academic Benefits

First, research finds that homework is associated with higher scores on academic standardized tests for middle and high school students, but not elementary school students . A recent experimental study in Romania found some benefits for a small amount of writing homework in elementary students but not math homework. Yet, interestingly, this positive impact only occurred when students were given a moderate amount of homework (about 20 minutes on average).

Yet the goal of homework is not simply to improve academic skills. Research finds that homework may have some non-academic benefits, such as building responsibility , time management skills, and task persistence . Homework may also increase parents’ involvement in their children’s schooling.

Yet too much homework may also have some negative impacts on non-academic skills by reducing opportunities for free play , which is essential for the development of language, cognitive, self-regulation , and social-emotional skills. Homework may also interfere with physical activity ; indeed, too much homework is associated with an increased risk of being overweight . As with the research on academic benefits, this research also suggests that homework may be beneficial when it is minimal.

What is the “Right” Amount of Homework?

Research suggests that homework should not exceed 1.5 to 2.5 hours per night for high school students and no more than 1 hour per night for middle school students. Homework for elementary school students should be minimal and assigned with the aim of building self-regulation and independent work skills. Any more than this and homework may no longer have a positive impact.

The National Education Association recommends 10 minutes of homework per grade and there is also some experimental evidence that backs this up.

What Can Parents Do?

Research finds that parental help with homework is beneficial but that it matters more how the parent is helping rather than how often the parent is helping.

So how should parents help with homework (according to the research)?

• Focus on providing general monitoring, guidance, and encouragement, but allow children to complete their homework as independently as possible. Research shows that allowing children more autonomy in completing homework may benefit their academic skills.
• Only provide help when your child asks for it and step away whenever possible. Research finds that too much parental involvement or intrusive and controlling involvement with homework is associated with worse academic performance .
• Help your children to create structure and develop some routines that help your child to independently complete their homework. Research finds that providing this type of structure and responsiveness is related to improved academic skills.
• Set specific rules around homework. Research finds an association between parents setting rules around homework and academic performance.
• Help your child to view homework as an opportunity to learn and improve skills. Parents who view homework as a learning opportunity (that is, a “mastery orientation”) rather than something that they must get “right” or complete successfully to obtain a higher grade (that is, a “performance orientation”) are more likely to have children with the same attitudes.
• Encourage your child to persist in challenging assignments and emphasize difficult assignments as opportunities to grow. Research finds that this attitude is associated with student success. Research also indicates that more challenging homework is associated with enhanced academic performance.
• Stay calm and positive during homework. Research shows that mothers’ showing positive emotions while helping with homework may improve children’s motivation in homework.
• Praise your child’s hard work and effort during homework. This type of praise is likely to increase motivation. In addition, research finds that putting more effort into homework may be associated with enhanced development of conscientiousness in children.
• Communicate with your child and the teacher about any problems your child has with homework and the teacher’s learning goals. Research finds that open communication about homework is associated with increased academic performance.

Cara Goodwin, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in translating scientific research into information that is useful, accurate, and relevant for parents.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• Subscribe to BBC Science Focus Magazine
• Previous Issues
• Future tech
• Everyday science
• Planet Earth
• Newsletters

© Getty Images

Should homework be banned?

Social media has sparked into life about whether children should be given homework - should students be freed from this daily chore? Dr Gerald Letendre, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, investigates.

We’ve all done it: pretended to leave an essay at home, or stayed up until 2am to finish a piece of coursework we’ve been ignoring for weeks. Homework, for some people, is seen as a chore that’s ‘wrecking kids’ or ‘killing parents’, while others think it is an essential part of a well-rounded education. The problem is far from new: public debates about homework have been raging since at least the early-1900s, and recently spilled over into a Twitter feud between Gary Lineker and Piers Morgan.

Ironically, the conversation surrounding homework often ignores the scientific ‘homework’ that researchers have carried out. Many detailed studies have been conducted, and can guide parents, teachers and administrators to make sensible decisions about how much work should be completed by students outside of the classroom.

So why does homework stir up such strong emotions? One reason is that, by its very nature, it is an intrusion of schoolwork into family life. I carried out a study in 2005, and found that the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school, from nursery right up to the end of compulsory education, has greatly increased over the last century . This means that more of a child’s time is taken up with education, so family time is reduced. This increases pressure on the boundary between the family and the school.

Plus, the amount of homework that students receive appears to be increasing, especially in the early years when parents are keen for their children to play with friends and spend time with the family.

Finally, success in school has become increasingly important to success in life. Parents can use homework to promote, or exercise control over, their child’s academic trajectory, and hopefully ensure their future educational success. But this often leaves parents conflicted – they want their children to be successful in school, but they don’t want them to be stressed or upset because of an unmanageable workload.

However, the issue isn’t simply down to the opinions of parents, children and their teachers – governments also like to get involved. In the autumn of 2012, French president François Hollande hit world headlines after making a comment about banning homework, ostensibly because it promoted inequality. The Chinese government has also toyed with a ban, because of concerns about excessive academic pressure being put on children.

The problem is, some politicians and national administrators regard regulatory policy in education as a solution for a wide array of social, economic and political issues, perhaps without considering the consequences for students and parents.

Does homework work?

Homework seems to generally have a positive effect for high school students, according to an extensive range of empirical literature. For example, Duke University’s Prof Harris Cooper carried out a meta-analysis using data from US schools, covering a period from 1987 to 2003. He found that homework offered a general beneficial impact on test scores and improvements in attitude, with a greater effect seen in older students. But dig deeper into the issue and a complex set of factors quickly emerges, related to how much homework students do, and exactly how they feel about it.

In 2009, Prof Ulrich Trautwein and his team at the University of Tübingen found that in order to establish whether homework is having any effect, researchers must take into account the differences both between and within classes . For example, a teacher may assign a good deal of homework to a lower-level class, producing an association between more homework and lower levels of achievement. Yet, within the same class, individual students may vary significantly in how much homework improves their baseline performance. Plus, there is the fact that some students are simply more efficient at completing their homework than others, and it becomes quite difficult to pinpoint just what type of homework, and how much of it, will affect overall academic performance.

Over the last century, the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school has greatly increased

Gender is also a major factor. For example, a study of US high school students carried out by Prof Gary Natriello in the 1980s revealed that girls devote more time to homework than boys, while a follow-up study found that US girls tend to spend more time on mathematics homework than boys. Another study, this time of African-American students in the US, found that eighth grade (ages 13-14) girls were more likely to successfully manage both their tasks and emotions around schoolwork, and were more likely to finish homework.

So why do girls seem to respond more positively to homework? One possible answer proposed by Eunsook Hong of the University of Nevada in 2011 is that teachers tend to rate girls’ habits and attitudes towards work more favourably than boys’. This perception could potentially set up a positive feedback loop between teacher expectations and the children’s capacity for academic work based on gender, resulting in girls outperforming boys. All of this makes it particularly difficult to determine the extent to which homework is helping, though it is clear that simply increasing the time spent on assignments does not directly correspond to a universal increase in learning.

Can homework cause damage?

The lack of empirical data supporting homework in the early years of education, along with an emerging trend to assign more work to this age range, appears to be fuelling parental concerns about potential negative effects. But, aside from anecdotes of increased tension in the household, is there any evidence of this? Can doing too much homework actually damage children?

Evidence suggests extreme amounts of homework can indeed have serious effects on students’ health and well-being. A Chinese study carried out in 2010 found a link between excessive homework and sleep disruption: children who had less homework had better routines and more stable sleep schedules. A Canadian study carried out in 2015 by Isabelle Michaud found that high levels of homework were associated with a greater risk of obesity among boys, if they were already feeling stressed about school in general.

For useful revision guides and video clips to assist with learning, visit BBC Bitesize . This is a free online study resource for UK students from early years up to GCSEs and Scottish Highers.

It is also worth noting that too much homework can create negative effects that may undermine any positives. These negative consequences may not only affect the child, but also could also pile on the stress for the whole family, according to a recent study by Robert Pressman of the New England Centre for Pediatric Psychology. Parents were particularly affected when their perception of their own capacity to assist their children decreased.

What then, is the tipping point, and when does homework simply become too much for parents and children? Guidelines typically suggest that children in the first grade (six years old) should have no more that 10 minutes per night, and that this amount should increase by 10 minutes per school year. However, cultural norms may greatly affect what constitutes too much.

A study of children aged between 8 and 10 in Quebec defined high levels of homework as more than 30 minutes a night, but a study in China of children aged 5 to 11 deemed that two or more hours per night was excessive. It is therefore difficult to create a clear standard for what constitutes as too much homework, because cultural differences, school-related stress, and negative emotions within the family all appear to interact with how homework affects children.

Should we stop setting homework?

In my opinion, even though there are potential risks of negative effects, homework should not be banned. Small amounts, assigned with specific learning goals in mind and with proper parental support, can help to improve students’ performance. While some studies have generally found little evidence that homework has a positive effect on young children overall, a 2008 study by Norwegian researcher Marte Rønning found that even some very young children do receive some benefit. So simply banning homework would mean that any particularly gifted or motivated pupils would not be able to benefit from increased study. However, at the earliest ages, very little homework should be assigned. The decisions about how much and what type are best left to teachers and parents.

As a parent, it is important to clarify what goals your child’s teacher has for homework assignments. Teachers can assign work for different reasons – as an academic drill to foster better study habits, and unfortunately, as a punishment. The goals for each assignment should be made clear, and should encourage positive engagement with academic routines.

Parents should inform the teachers of how long the homework is taking, as teachers often incorrectly estimate the amount of time needed to complete an assignment, and how it is affecting household routines. For young children, positive teacher support and feedback is critical in establishing a student’s positive perception of homework and other academic routines. Teachers and parents need to be vigilant and ensure that homework routines do not start to generate patterns of negative interaction that erode students’ motivation.

Likewise, any positive effects of homework are dependent on several complex interactive factors, including the child’s personal motivation, the type of assignment, parental support and teacher goals. Creating an overarching policy to address every single situation is not realistic, and so homework policies tend to be fixated on the time the homework takes to complete. But rather than focusing on this, everyone would be better off if schools worked on fostering stronger communication between parents, teachers and students, allowing them to respond more sensitively to the child’s emotional and academic needs.

• Five brilliant science books for kids
• Will e-learning replace teachers?

Follow Science Focus on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram and Flipboard

Share this article

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy policy
• Cookies policy
• Code of conduct
• Magazine subscriptions
• Manage preferences

Is Homework Good or Bad?

• Post author By admin
• October 13, 2022

Homework is a word that brings up many memories from childhood, it can be good, or it might be not good. From the book reports, projects are continuously given to students to solve some assignments. However, the word homework has been debated for over a century. 

On the other hand, we are unsure who invented homework. We know that the word “Homework” dates back to ancient Rome. In the 19th century, German students from a school were given assignments that they had to complete outside of the school day. After that, this concept of homework spread quickly across Europe and became famous in the United States also. 

In recent years, many parents have raised concerns about homework. Did homework enhance learning, or is it just a waste of time, or did homework load lead to more stress or cause mental issues. 

In this blog, we will cover all the topics regarding is homework good or bad. 

So, let’s get started. 

Table of Contents

Top Takeaways: Is Homework Good or Bad

“Is homework good or bad” has been going around for decades now. Different people have different views, and some think that it is good. On the other hand, some think that it is not good. Both the answers are related to each other in many ways. It primarily depends on the time students need to put in and the difficulty level. Most students think it is an unnecessary burden that eats up their time. On the other hand, teachers feel it is necessary for better learning. 

Is Homework Good or Bad has two sides 

Is Homework Good or Bad: Good Side

Help in learning .

In some situations, students cannot connect with a particular topic, so homework is used as a reinforcement tool. This is especially true for young age students. So, as a result, homework is used to understand the study better. Doing homework will teach you how to learn on your own and make you independent. On the other hand, homework helps you learn beyond the class’s scope and helps you get better marks on quizzes. 

Better Time Management

By doing homework, you get to know the concept of time management. Lessons taught in class mainly focus on conceptual clarity. On the other hand, homework helps the students frame answers to questions in a given time. Time management comes in handy when you take an exam. You can finish your exam much faster because you have already spent your time answering questions. 

Practice make you Perfect

You must have heard the term “ Practice makes the man Perfect “. The only thing that will help you get better academic marks is practice. By doing practice on a daily basis, a student can easily cover all the topics and work on difficult topics so that they can’t face the same problem again in the future. As a result, practice helps students master the difficult topic taught at school and get better or even excellent academic marks. 

It Reduces Screen Time

On average, a student in the US might get 3-4 hours of screen time per day, but when a student isn’t in school, that figure gets to 7-8 hours. Homework might look unwanted, but it encourages better study habits. On the other hand, homework decreases the time spent watching television and playing video games on a mobile device. As a result, it reduces screen time. 

Is Homework Good or Bad: Bad Side

If you look at the above section, you must think that homework has only good sides, but there is a flip side to homework. Let’s take a look at some bad sides of homework.

May lead to Mental illness.

Extra assignments given by schools to students may lead to unhealthy stress levels. I know students need to learn in the class, but they also get some time to explore other things. 

If you get work after work and fail to complete that work, it is obvious that you get stressed, and that gets worse over time if you don’t complete it. The same thing happens with students. 

According to a survey by Stanford University, 56 percent of the students think that homework is the primary cause of stress. At the same time, the remaining students think that tests and getting good marks in tests are the causes of mental illness. Only one percent of the students think that homework does not cause any mental problems, which is notable. 

No time for family

This is the main reason why homework is bad. If students have too much homework, it’s hard to spend any time with their family members. Students start working on their homework when they get back home and never come back from their room.  

Students don’t have time because of extra assignments and homework, even on the weekends. As a result, students miss weekends that they are supposed to spend with their family members. However, without work, students have more time for family. 

Imbalance Student life

Spending too much time on homework has negative results like it prevents students from having an active social life with their friends and family. When students are busy doing homework, it is really difficult to socialize in a healthy manner which may lead to difficulty in communication in their later stages. 

Key Takeaways: Is Homework Good or Bad

To sum up, the ‘is homework good or bad there are a few points one needs to remember-

• Homework has many advantages for students. In short, homework reinforces learning and helps the students learn the art of time management.
• Too much homework is bad for a student’s physical as well as mental health.
• It acts as a stressor tool that can lead to severe headaches, exhaustion, and sleeplessness.
• It is important to balance the homework to get the most out of it.
• Students should receive homework based on their grades. 
• Homework should be on that topic already covered in the class, not a new topic altogether.
• Students have the option of accessing online homework help platforms to get assistance.

Does homework make kids smarter or not?

According to the research held in 2000 by a Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper researcher, the result shows a general correlation between homework and academic achievement. Moreover, students who do homework daily develop good study habits and a desire to learn something new. 

These are some aspects that make students smarter, and it’s one of the key objectives of studying. Of course, when students face an enormous amount of homework, they may become dumb.

How much homework are students doing?

We are not entirely sure how much homework students are doing. But many schools follow a “Rule of thumb”, which means students should get 10 minutes of homework for each grade level. As a result, first graders should get just 10 minutes of work to do at home. On the other hand, higher graders should be cracking the books for a couple of hours. 

Is homework a necessary evil, and should it be banned?

A public school in Marion Country, Florida, decided on a no-homework policy for all the students. This decision was based on Cooper’s research. This research shows that students gain a little by doing homework but a lot from reading. 

After that, Orchard Elementary School in Burlington, Vermont, followed the same path. Well, if you are wondering, the homework policy has four parts:

• Read Nightly
• Go outside and Play
• Have dinner with family
• Get a good Sleep

On the other hand, many schools are totally against this rule. Schools say that parents should also support homework because teachers know that it can be helpful for many reasons, like practice solving problems. Still, for no reason, if teachers assign 30 problems instead of 5, then it will create some problems. 

Not all students have the same time or space to complete their homework. 

Conclusion (Is homework good or bad)

Homework is a controversial topic. It’s often considered a valuable form of practice or a tool to help students learn at home. In support of the first argument, it is clear that homework does help students practice what they have learned in school to get better marks in academics. On the other hand, some argue that homework has no benefits and only detracts from free time.

In my opinion, excessive amounts of anything are bad if a student gets a lot of homework. As a result, they do not get any time to play or chill, so homework is bad. Otherwise, it’s good. 

I hope you like this blog. Is homework good or bad?

Also, Read: Why Homework Is Bad For Students

Q1. 10 reasons why homework is good for students?

Ans. Ten reasons why homework is good for students. Children benefit from playing Not every home is a beneficial environment School is already a full-time job for students It encourages a sedentary lifestyle There is no evidence that homework creates improvements Extra time in school does not equate to better grades Too much homework for students Homework is often geared toward benchmarks The accurate practice may not be possible It may encourage cheating on multiple levels

Q2. 10 reasons why homework is bad for students?

Ans. Ten reasons why homework is bad for students. No Life Outside of School Homework Is Busywork Homework Can’t Replace In-Class Education Because Students Can’t or Don’t Ask for Help Because Sometimes Parents Can’t Help Because It Can Hurt Grades Because It Hurts Students With Problems Learning Should Be Fun Chronic Daily Headaches Lack of Socialisation

• australia (2)
• duolingo (13)
• Education (284)
• General (78)
• How To (18)
• IELTS (127)
• Latest Updates (162)
• Malta Visa (6)
• Permanent residency (1)
• Programming (31)
• Scholarship (1)
• Sponsored (4)
• Study Abroad (187)
• Technology (12)
• work permit (8)

Recent Posts

Too Much Homework Is Bad for Kids

Piling on the homework doesn't help kids do better in school. In fact, it can lower their test scores.

That's the conclusion of a group of Australian researchers, who have taken the aggregate results of several recent studies investigating the relationship between time spent on homework and students' academic performance.

According to Richard Walker, an educational psychologist at Sydney University, data shows that in countries where more time is spent on homework, students score lower on a standardized test called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. The same correlation is also seen when comparing homework time and test performance at schools within countries. Past studies have also demonstrated this basic trend.

Inundating children with hours of homework each night is detrimental, the research suggests, while an hour or two per week usually doesn't impact test scores one way or the other. However, homework only bolsters students' academic performance during their last three years of grade school. "There is little benefit for most students until senior high school (grades 10-12)," Walker told  Life's Little Mysteries .

The research is detailed in his new book, "Reforming Homework: Practices, Learning and Policies" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

The same basic finding holds true across the globe, including in the U.S., according to Gerald LeTendre of Pennsylvania State University. He and his colleagues have found that teachers typically give take-home assignments that are unhelpful busy work. Assigning homework "appeared to be a remedial strategy (a consequence of not covering topics in class, exercises for students struggling, a way to supplement poor quality educational settings), and not an advancement strategy (work designed to accelerate, improve or get students to excel)," LeTendre wrote in an email. [ Kids Believe Literally Everything They Read Online, Even Tree Octopuses ]

This type of remedial homework tends to produce marginally lower test scores compared with children who are not given the work. Even the helpful, advancing kind of assignments ought to be limited; Harris Cooper, a professor of education at Duke University, has recommended that students be given no more than 10 to 15 minutes of homework per night in second grade, with an increase of no more than 10 to 15 minutes in each successive year.

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

Most homework's neutral or negative impact on students' academic performance implies there are better ways for them to spend their after school hours than completing worksheets. So, what should they be doing? According to LeTendre, learning to play a musical instrument or participating in clubs and sports all seem beneficial , but there's no one answer that applies to everyone.

"These after-school activities have much more diffuse goals than single subject test scores," he wrote.  "When I talk to parents … they want their kids to be well-rounded, creative, happy individuals — not just kids who ace the tests."

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @ nattyover . Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries , then join us on  Facebook .

Natalie Wolchover was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012 and is currently a senior physics writer and editor for Quanta Magazine. She holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Tufts University and has studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with the staff of Quanta, Wolchover won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing for her work on the building of the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work has also appeared in the The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Writing on Mathematics, Nature, The New Yorker and Popular Science. She was the 2016 winner of the  Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, as well as the winner of the 2017 Science Communication Award for the American Institute of Physics. 

'Doomsday glacier' won't collapse the way we thought, new study suggests

32 truly bizarre deep-sea creatures

MIT scientists build hair-size batteries that can power cell-sized robots

Most Popular

• 2 32 truly bizarre deep-sea creatures
• 3 MIT scientists build hair-size batteries that can power cell-sized robots
• 4 Evolution: Facts about the processes that shape the diversity of life on Earth
• 5 What is the 'tree of life'?

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Homework – Good or Bad?

by Cherie McCord

Do learners need homework? Will homework help improve grades and master the material? The debate about the appropriateness of homework has been going on for years. We are immersed in this topic and now share statistics, research results, and practical advice.

Table of Contents

Homework In Different Countries

How many hours do learners from all over the world spend on homework? In 2014, the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published data from countries participating in the international PISA test.

It turned out that most of the time for homework is spent in Shanghai (China) – an average of 14 hours a week. Russia is followed by Kazakhstan, Singapore, and Italy – on average, 7 hours of homework per week. Finnish and Korean children have the lowest workload – a little more than two hours a week. Unfortunately, there are no such statistics about Ukraine, because at that time it did not take part in the test.

The amount of homework is influenced not only by the workload at school. OECD statistics show that parents’ education and family security also play a role.

In particular, children from families with a high index of economic, social, and cultural status (ISEI) spend more time on homework. After all, such children usually have optimal conditions for learning at home, and parents emphasize that doing homework is important.

However, over the years, the workload of homework decreases. In 2003, Russian children spent almost 14 hours a week on assignments, and in 2012 only 10. And, seeing how students benefit from employing paper writing service MasterPapers , maybe, it’s a good general trend.

According to OECD statistics, the number of homework hours in 2012 was less than in 2003 (excluding Australia, Austria, and the United States).

How Many Hours Of Homework Is Optimal?

The same OECD statistics state that 4 hours of homework per week is the optimal workload. And increasing the number of tasks over 4 hours will not give significant improvements in learning. However, one should pay attention to the average data for different countries.

In Hong Kong, one extra hour of homework increased the PISA score by 17 points. In Switzerland, on the other hand, an increase in load led to a deterioration in test results. So how much do you still need to do homework? And is it necessary at all? Let’s turn to scientific research.

Do you need homework?

In 2016, teacher Brandy Young from Texas decided to give up homework. The parents of one of her learners posted a letter from the teacher on Facebook. He later scored more than 68,000 reposts and attracted the attention of TIME and USA Today. This implicitly confirms just how many young students delegate their homework to services like MasterPapers because they don’t see the point of most homework.

In the letter, Brandy Young notes, “Science has not been able to prove that homework improves performance.” So, she canceled them, and the learners only had to finish at home what they did not have time to finish in class. Brandy Young advised spending free time in classes that really, according to research, improve the results of learners. For example, having dinner with the family, reading, playing in the fresh air, and going to bed early.

But can homework really be neglected? In 2006, researchers from Duke University published a review of research for 1987-2003. The results of these studies show that homework improves learners’ academic performance. Positive changes are more noticeable in learners in grades 7-12 of American schools and less noticeable in children in grades 1-6. However, the authors of the review note that all studies had shortcomings in the design of the experiment.

A recent meta-analysis for 1986-2015 confirmed the previous findings. However, in contrast to the previous analysis, learning outcomes improved significantly in elementary and middle school learners, and less in secondary school learners. In 2007, the scientific journal Educational Leadership published The Case For and Against Homework . It talks about the positive and negative effects of homework. Of course, according to the results of scientific research. In particular, the authors cite the study of H. Cooper – Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, who studies the impact of homework on children over 25 years.

Cooper supports the “rule of a 10-minute period”, common in American schools. According to this rule, the optimal amount of time for homework is a 10-minute period multiplied by the class. That is a 10-minute period for the first class, 20 minutes for the second, and so on. If the homework involves reading, the 10-minute period can be increased to 15. By the way, this is the time for all homework in all subjects.

Thus, homework is still needed for more effective learning, and its scope varies depending on the age of the children. According to the same OECD recommendations, up to 4 hours of homework, a week is enough. According to the practice of American schools – 10-minute period * class – a convenient way to calculate the load.

In fact, the number of homework hours is not the only factor influencing learner achievement. The quality of teaching and the creation of conditions for schooling also play an important role. What matters is not how much time the learner has spent on textbooks at home, but how many tasks he has actually completed.

After all, if homework is difficult to understand, if it contains errors or shortcomings in the structure – the learner will spend more time on it. Will the rule “More time – better results” apply in this case? Probably not. That’s why there is a big incentive for students to search for articles like the 2021 Trusted Academic Essay Writing Services Review and get academic help. Doing this allows them to focus specifically on learning and not doing repetitive tasks.

Everyone knows that Stan Wright is the man! You’ll find no better expert across the subject matters Stan specializes in. Helping students succeed in college since 2015, Mr. Wright is someone you can trust with writing your essay 110%. “What a fantastic writer and an affable lad!” – says one of Stan’s customers, pretty much summing up his whole professional attitude and a positive, yes-can-do demeanor.

• SI SWIMSUIT
• SI SPORTSBOOK
• BEARDIGEST+

HBO's Bears on Hard Knocks: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Gene chamberlain | aug 21, 2024.

• Chicago Bears

When Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was taking some of the blame for three consecutive three-and-outs, it turns out he didn't deserve it either.

An old Bears nemesis reared its ugly head in the very first home game for Caleb Williams in the preseason opener, and it was brought out in this week's third episode of Hard Knocks,

Yes, it's faulty helmet mic, back for another Bears season.

During the first few drives in Saturday, the headsets were cutting out on Caleb Williams. #DaBears #HardKnocks pic.twitter.com/QkQzo1n3pL — Ben Devine (@Chicago_NFL) August 21, 2024

Justin Fields, Mitchell Trubisky, Jay Cutler and even Nick Foles all complained of this thing happening one time or more during their time in Chicago.

HBO announcer Liev Schreiber pointed out at the start of the show how Johnny Lujack was the last All-Pro quarterback they Bears had. If they had quarterback mics back in 1950, Lujack would have had a faulty one too. They didn't even have facemasks on their helmets then so that would have been interesting to see how long a Bears helmet mic would actually last then.

Johnny Lujack, a Star Quarterback at Notre Dame #obitpix #johnnylujack #notredame #collegefootball #quarterback #heismantrophy #chicagobears #artofinstagram #penandink #drawing #illustration #portraitdrawing pic.twitter.com/RXwlSOnv2r — PeterLandau (@PeterLandau) August 1, 2023

It appears Caleb Williams was baptized into the Bears quarterback tradition of standing in the huddle waiting for the play from the offensive coordinator, only to get the play call from Waldron cutting out in his helmet.

Can't the Bears get some type of actual functioning equipment? They can pay out $110 million contracts to receivers and can't get functioning helmet mics.

Amazon might have something on it. Best Buy. Somebody. Radio Shack is long gone but the Bears' tradition of faulty helmet mics lives on.

THE NEW MATT EBERFLUS MAKEOVER IS FOR HIS DEFENSIVE SCHEME

ONLY KEVIN BYARD REMAINS OUT AMONG BEARS STARTERS

SWEATING OUT THE NEED FOR A COMPLEMENTARY BEARS EDGE RUSHER

RUST NOT PERCEIVED AS PROBLEM AS BEARS SAY STARTERS WiLL SIT

This was by far the ugliest moment of the week on Hard Knocks, even uglier than QB Austin Reed's rendition of Keyshia Cole's song "Love," which rated only a bad.

So this was the ugly part of this week's Bears Hard Knocks: Good, Bad and Ugly.

Here's the Good and the Bad.

Caleb Williams to the ref after his deep ball to Rome Odunze: "You like that?" Love this energy lol pic.twitter.com/TbktKtKLri — Dave (@dave_bfr) August 21, 2024

Trading Places: The behind the scenes look at the Matthew Judon negotiation from the Bears' end with Ryan Poles was an excellent study.

So, too, was the draft day film footage from their trade when senior director of player personnel Jeff King gets a deal finalized on the phone to get the Bears back into Round 5 to pick Austin Booker.

The interesting aspect of the Judon negotiation is it sounds a bit different than the narrative being reported about how Judon simply chose the Falcons over the Bears. Maybe the Patriots sent him to the Falcons because he wanted to go there, but Poles didn't want to bring in a player who wasn't going to be signed to an extension.

"I don't want to get the club stuck in a position where we have a player that's here, we've given up a draft pick and we haven't had a resolution on a contract," Poles said, adding he didn't want to be "losing all flexibility."

So the story out of New England is false. That story said Judon “chose” ATL but reality is if he had agreed to contract Bears offered he’d be a Bear. Bears weren’t doing the trade unless there was a new contract that came with it. Smart — Greg Gabriel (@ggabefootball) August 21, 2024

If that's the case, then no one needs to worry about them trying to trade for Jets edge rusher Haason Reddick. He's already holding out and has no contract.

Even more fun with this part of the show is the revelation when Poles says Montez Sweat was their 14th ranked edge. Judon is only 50th.

We need more Tyson Bagent on hard knocks. I feel like HBO is overlooking one of the best personalities and a truly awesome story. https://t.co/J9MovruY8x — Kevin Sundell (@Kevin_Sundell) August 17, 2024

He's No Chump: Backup QB Tyson Bagent gets mentioned prominently in this episode, along with his arm-wrestling father, Tavis. Bagent has been having an excellent training camp and preseason and he makes it clear he doesn't think of himself as a lifetime backup despite being a Division II product.

He said he wants to "keep it fresh on everybody's mind that I'm not just some chump in the quarterback room."

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: The part dealing with Australian punter Tory Taylor and how he was basically had no serious career prospect and more or less stumbled into the Aussie Rules Football conversion program that helped him become an NFL punter.

The film footage from practice Taylor dropping punts down inside the 10 and then out of bounds doesn't do justice to what he's actually done throughout training camp. Sometimes he has three or four coffin corner punt spin out of bounds inside the 5 in a single practice.

Caleb Williams watching Tory Taylor punt the football is the same way I watch Tory Taylor punt the football. 😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/Qt9UGDxTtL — Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) August 21, 2024

The most fun part of this section is when Brazilian kicker Cairo Santos tell the Aussie to drive on the right side of the road, even though he has been in the U.S. living for over four years.

A very revealing part of the film is from the game and HBO caught something that may have slipped past the attention of most. Backup long snapper Cameron Lyons had at least two bad snaps in that game. One was so high it took every bit of Taylor's reach to snare it and get it down for Santos.

Nerves of Steel: One of the best cuts from the entire show so far is Caleb Williams on the sidelines telling QB coach Kerry Joseph that he never gets nervous. At least not since his very first game in high school, when, as he recalls, he fumbled two snaps from center.

When your quarterback doesn't get nervous the battle is already won. It's questionable whether Justin Fields could have said this after the 10-28 record he posted and his trouble making plays in the fourth quarter of  games.

Proof Positive: Somehow the narrative gained strength that Keenan Allen has slowed down. doesn't do much at practice and is out of shape. This episode provided proof positive whoever came up with this idea needs better glasses.

Mr. Nickname: Matt Eberflus has been the nickname minister since arriving and he goes through warmups with a mic on, giving out the nicknames as he walks through players stretching.

The HBO mic obviously works better than helmet mic.

Cart Ahead of the Horse: Kevin Warren and his crew of administrators are busy meeting and discussing what kind of seats are needed in a particular section of the new stadium.

Hel-lo? Guys, you need to decide on the place to put the stadium and build it before worrying about seats.

Cover-Up: The HBO camera work of the wet practice in the downpour was fine, although they failed to capture the wet media standing out in it, huddled under umbrellas. Regardless, the really bad part of this was while they focused on the Bears slip-sliding on the wet grass, they didn't show the two Bengals players who suffered knee injuries practicing in this when they had a dry Payton Center with a roof a few hundred feet away.

Camp Visitor: Rapper Lil Durk was a guest on the sideline and they devoted more time to him at practice than they did to another guest at Halas Hall, Ryan Poles' college teammate Matt Ryan, a former MVP with the Falcons.

No one cares about the rapper on the sidelines at practice. Someone is always at Halas Hall during camp or at practice. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was there earlier in camp and they didn't have a segment devoted to him.

Simone Biles' Jacket: Speaking of sideline visitors, Simone Biles drew the wrath of Bears fans on social media for the Packers coat she wore on the sidelines with the image of husband Jonatha Owens, now with Chicago. Except the coat is a Packers coat.

The ironic part of all this is a judge in 2018 threw out a Packers fan's lawsuit against the Bears because they wouldn't allow him on the sidelines at a Bears game even though he was supposed to be there and the reason he wasn't allowed was he was wearing a Packers jersey. The Bears had a policy of not letting opposing team apparel on the sidelines. Apparently this has changed?

Who's ready for Hard Knocks?!?! pic.twitter.com/k6yd2ZIMsb — CHGO Bears (@CHGO_Bears) August 21, 2024

Someone get her a new jacket please, and somewhere to sit. The poor girl had her foot in a cast from the Olympics and was standing.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

Follow BearsOnMaven

Along with Stanford news and stories, show me:

• Student information
• Faculty/Staff information

We want to provide announcements, events, leadership messages and resources that are relevant to you. Your selection is stored in a browser cookie which you can remove at any time using “Clear all personalization” below.

Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

Soccer's wildest warmup kits: The good, the bad and the ugly

Mark Ogden and Rob Dawson discuss Manchester United's decision to sign Matthijs de Ligt from Bayern Munich. (2:37)

Alongside all the standard array of playing jerseys (home, away, third alternates for outfield players and a whole other set for goalkeepers), clubs also kit out their players and staff in a whole range of pre-match apparel.

Whereas most match-worn shirts are gradually becoming more abstract and experimental, most tend to stick rather conservatively to variations of traditional club colours.

When it comes to the kits worn by players during the warmup, however, all bets are off. Designers have been given freedom to express themselves, give life to their wildest creative visions and make a statement that commands the world sits up and takes notice.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are all artistic triumphs. With free rein, there is always the danger that things can go off the rails -- and we're here for it.

Here is a selection of the warmup kits worn by star players in leagues across Europe this season -- including the Premier League , LaLiga , the Bundesliga , Serie A and Ligue 1 -- that range from the sublime to the ridiculous. And if you disagree with the verdicts, then that's fine. It's art, after all.

AC Milan (Puma)

Milan have got it spot on with their kits this season and the prematch jersey is no exception. The base colour is an off-white tone (putty, bordering on ecru) which has been overlaid with a sumptuously textured golden pattern that -- if you care to imagine -- resembles a freshly raked golf bunker.

Ajax (Adidas)

Ajax's warmup top features an intricate pattern made up of hundreds of tiny scrolls, all of which bear the three X's found on the official flag of Amsterdam. To save you a potentially hazardous internet search, we can tell you that the symbols actually represent the crosses of Saint Andrew and are said to protect the Dutch capital from fire, floods and plague. Sadly, they couldn't protect last season's Ajax team from the club's worst Eredivisie finish this century.

Arsenal (Adidas)

Arsenal have picked up the theme of African heritage which was deployed so well on their 2024-25 away kit and then leapt right off the deep end. The Gunners have a great track record in recent years for pre-match wear with truly over-the-top designs that somehow really hit the mark, and this one is no exception. Expect to see this attain cult status.

Barcelona (Nike)

Barça bring us a pleasing shade of dark and dusky blue, which is set off by gold trim and a club crest graphic printed in the fabric. Perhaps the odd "envelope" neckline would be our only cause for concern, mainly as it looks like something you tend to dress babies in.

Chelsea (Nike)

It's not to everybody's taste, but we're slowly coming round to the weirdness that is Chelsea's "molten metal" kit concept this season. Much like the Blues' 2024-25 home shirt, the pre-match kit is covered in a scattergun graphic that will surely produce a mesmeric effect if you watched were to see all 43 players currently listed in the club's first-team squad all warming up together.

Fenerbahçe (Puma)

A lively reimagining of the Turkish club's familiar yellow and blue club colours, this pre-match shirt comes with an eye-catching striped pattern that consists of skewed, comb-like lozenges.

Juventus (Adidas)

For reasons that still aren't entirely clear, Juventus have run with a celestial theme for all their kits this season and the pre-match effort follows suit. What looks like a polka-dot design from a distance is actually a cool "lunar eclipse" pattern that sees lots of moons being silhouetted by the neon pink and yellow glow of outer space.

Liverpool (Nike)

A minimalist shirt that could easily pass for a home jersey. The red fabric is printed with an all-over crest graphic, while Liverpool's traditional colours always pair well with vibrant yellow trim. Using the same template as Barça means this shirt has that same, confusing babygro neckline, but overall it's a nice jersey.

Lyon (Adidas)

Les Gones have laid a graphic over their warmup shirt that is reminiscent of traditional Japanese wood block art. The wavy print gives off a stirring maritime vibe which is flecked here and there with wisps of red foam. It remains just on the right side of tasteful and avoids tipping over into being overly busy.

Newcastle United (Adidas)

Having leaned heavily into nostalgia with this season's batch of kits, Newcastle have taken a more modern direction with their pre-match shirt. Taking direct inspiration from their nickname, the Magpies have covered the jersey with feathers to create a unique black-and-white wallpaper effect that really is rather striking.

Real Madrid (Adidas)

Nobody quite does plain white with as much panache as Real Madrid, whose pre-match shirt is basically a stripped-down interpretation of their standard home colours, but with a nifty star-shaped graphic plastered all over it.

AS Roma (Adidas)

Looking like it could easily pass for an away kit from the mid-2000s, there's a faint retro tinge to this one. A pristine white field adorned with just a light smattering of tonal red trim on the shoulders and flanks. Buonissimo .

Sevilla (Castore)

The Spanish side have used a luscious violet base that at first glance looks as though it has rose petals scattered across the torso, like in the film "American Beauty." In fact, it is a geometric pattern made up of tessellating triangular tiles.

Atletico Madrid (Nike)

Concrete grey is the new black for Atlético this season, as they have followed up their paving slab-inspired away kit with a matching pre-match jersey.

Borussia Dortmund (Puma)

Dortmund have used their famous home colours to create an accompanying warmup shirt that is covered front and back in a cracked, fractal diamond pattern. The effect brims with kinetic energy, right up until the point it induces a migraine.

Manchester City (Puma)

Despite being one of the least inspirational themes ever devised for a football shirt, City have taken the Manchester area telephone dialling code concept from their home jersey one step further with their warmup kit. The digits of the "0161" prefix appear in a jumbled pattern woven into the fabric. Excuse us if we don't take this call.

Manchester United (Adidas)

A rare miss for United this season, who have delivered a batch of incredibly sharp retro-infused match apparel for 2024-25. The warmup shirt bears the same "M" pattern as their new away jersey, but the execution is much clunkier. Dial "M" for "maybe not."

Southampton (Puma)

Using the same "dazzle camouflage" design as their new outfield kits, Saints have created a headache-inducing barrage of intersecting lines, angles and checkers in order to baffle their opponents before kick-off.

Sporting CP (Puma)

Sporting have come up with essentially a black base that has been speckled with a blast of grainy, bright green pixels. It looks like what you would see on the screen when a game crashes on an Atari 800 console (ask your parents.)

Bayern Munich (Adidas)

An absolute rotter of a shirt from every angle and viewpoint. Bayern have been decidedly hit and miss with their kit designs for 2024-25, and this jagged mess is firmly in the latter camp.

Benfica (Adidas)

Benfica have proved beyond doubt that sometimes less is more. The Portuguese club's warmup top contains so many clashing graphics that the result is a near-instant sense of motion sickness. The shapes are meant to represent the talon marks of an eagle, the club's emblematic bird of prey, but it looks more like a pile of old discarded hubcaps to us.

Internazionale (Nike)

Nike are playing fast and loose with Inter's traditional club colours this year, and the poor Nerazzurri are really being put through the wringer as a result. It's dour, blotchy and gruesome, three words you would never expect to be associated with Inter when it comes to kits.

Paris Saint-Germain (Jordan)

Using their traditional club colours, PSG's warmup shirt faux-paint splatter pattern looks like it has been worn by a painter and decorator during a particularly haphazard house renovation. It's very messy and there's just too much going on at once.

Tottenham Hotspur (Nike)

Spurs have been foisted with a suspiciously similar "identikit" design to Inter's. Covered in a speckled, vaguely abstract pattern that appears to involve various random stencils, scribbles and splurges, the design resembles something you'd find upholstering train seats. Dreary stuff.

West Ham United (Umbro)

A pretty dire design from the Hammers here, who have gone for a kind of bleach dye effect but ended up with a shirt that looks like the results of a horrendous night in A&E.

Try AI-powered search

• Trumponomics would not be as bad as most expect

Opposition would come from all angles

Your browser does not support the <audio> element.

I n markets it is known as the “Trump trade”, a bet that Donald Trump’s return to the White House would herald more inflation and higher interest rates. Many of Mr Trump’s core policies push in this direction: tariffs would add to import costs, deportations of immigrants could push up wages and deficit-financed tax cuts would juice the economy. Amid mounting inflation, the Federal Reserve would have little choice but to opt for higher rates.

In the wake of Joe Biden’s calamitous debate on June 27th, a preview of the trade played out. As investors grappled with the likelihood that Mr Trump would romp to the presidency, they sold off Treasuries, which led to a brief surge in yields. The big fear is that much worse would come to pass. If Mr Trump fought the Fed on rates, he might sow doubts about the central bank’s independence, undermining confidence in America’s markets and the dollar. That is the economic nightmare scenario for a second Trump administration.

But as with any nightmare, the bogeyman of Trumponomics may be more terrible than its reality. Mr Trump and his advisers have many rotten ideas. They also have some decent ones. And their ability to implement damaging policies will be constrained, with Congress, America’s institutions and markets all serving as checks.

Mr Trump has honed his agenda in speeches and interviews, and on July 8th it was enshrined by Republicans as the party’s election platform. Three elements stand out. The first is deregulation, a staple for Republicans. In contrast to 2017, when he and his advisers were ill prepared for the presidency, this time they have lined up personnel and policies. Mr Trump will waste little time in rescinding many of the Biden administration’s environmental rules, easing drilling restrictions for oil companies and putting pressure on federal agencies to cut spending. He has promised, as in his first presidency, to eliminate two regulations for each one issued.

But much of this is marketing buzz. The number of restrictions in the Code of Federal Regulations, a proxy for the intensity of regulation in America, was basically unchanged under Mr Trump. What is more, his administration was stymied by the courts. It was unsuccessful in nearly 80% of litigation over its use of federal agencies, according to the Institute for Policy Integrity, a research group. Goldman Sachs, a bank, reckons that the impact of all Mr Trump’s deregulation was ultimately insignificant for the wider economy—a result likely to be repeated.

On tax, Mr Trump can, in some sense, be seen as a continuity candidate. Action will focus on the looming expiration of much of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Mr Trump’s package from 2017. The TCJA ’s reduction in corporate taxes was permanent, but much of the rest of the law, including cuts to personal income taxes, will expire at the end of 2025. Mr Trump’s main objective is to make these cuts permanent.

That will not be simple because to get the bill through Congress, Republicans will need to pay the cost of extending the cuts, about $4.5trn over the next decade. But Mr Trump has options. One slug of revenue may come from tariffs, which could bring in $3trn over the decade. There is also money in reversing some of Mr Biden’s policies. The cost of the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr Biden’s climate-subsidy package, is expected to reach about $1trn. Republicans can eliminate some tax credits, starting with discounts for electric vehicles. Mr Trump has also suggested he may unwind Mr Biden’s student-debt cancellations, on track to cost $1trn.

Mr Trump’s other tax ideas are more modest. He has talked about shaving a percentage point off the corporate tax rate, to cut it to 20% (he likes a round number). His zaniest proposal is to make tipping exempt from taxes. Legislators would have to craft that exemption carefully, otherwise everyone might demand pay as gratuities. Without offsetting revenue or spending cuts, every tax cut will make America’s deficit worse, a risk under Mr Trump. But it is not as if Mr Biden has been a paragon of fiscal rectitude: the federal deficit is on track to hit a hefty 7% of GDP this year.

Tariff man, part two

The economic strategy for which Mr Trump is most infamous, especially outside America, is his protectionism. He has been clear about where he wants to go next, aiming for a 10% universal tariff on all imports into America and a 60% levy on Chinese-made goods. He also wants a more concerted decoupling from China.

There is no doubting the global fallout if Mr Trump were to deliver on his panoply of America-first trade policies. Would he be able to do so? In the traditional wing of the Republican Party, there is still resistance to tariffs. If Mr Trump decides to cut Congress out of the picture, he may declare a national-security emergency, which would give him special powers. That, however, may be struck down in court.

Higher tariffs on China would be more achievable, since the White House could piggyback them on existing measures. It could, for instance, conclude that China has not lived up to a deal signed with Mr Trump in 2020, which would be easy to demonstrate. Cracking down on the rerouting of Chinese exports via other countries would be harder without co-operation from foreign governments, which Mr Trump has struggled to elicit in the past.

Moreover, even within Mr Trump’s White House, there may well be opposition to his most aggressive trade policies. Hawks such as Peter Navarro, an economic adviser, have been the most voluble, but Mr Trump likes to assemble a team of rivals, letting him adjudicate between contrasting opinions. He may once again appoint a Wall Street veteran as his treasury secretary and such a figure would be a counterweight to fire-breathing protectionists.

Mr Trump’s agenda will face other hurdles. He wants to hit the ground running but his first year in office features a dense legislative calendar. The debt ceiling will be reinstated on January 2nd, forcing the White House to enter talks with Congress. Another deadline looms at the end of April when Congress will have to make swingeing cuts if it has not worked out a new budget. All the while, the clock will be ticking on Mr Trump’s tax cuts. If the Democrats manage to win the House, all of these negotiations will be that much thornier.

Mr Trump will make even less headway on reshaping the Fed. Investors worry that he wants to influence the central bank’s rate decisions. Putting that desire into practice, though, is difficult. His first chance to appoint a new governor will come in 2026, after which he can also nominate a chair to replace Jerome Powell. But the Fed’s board is seven-strong and all nominations must go through the Senate, which previously blocked two of Mr Trump’s four nominees. If Mr Trump tried to fire Mr Powell, insiders at the Fed think that he would have another unwinnable legal fight on his hands.

Perhaps the biggest short-term damage that Mr Trump can inflict on America’s economy is through his immigration policy. Stopping “the invasion”, as he calls it, will consume his administration. The millions who have entered the country in the past few years have been vital to sustaining economic growth while taming inflation. A halt to migration would be a shock to the labour market. Nevertheless, as with other Trumpian policies, there will be resistance every step of the way, with courts striking down deportation orders, Democrat states refusing to co-operate and businesses lobbying for a lighter touch.

Through all of this, the financial world would also rein in Mr Trump. He is sensitive to the stockmarket, even ascribing its good run earlier this year to expectations of his victory. Were equities to fall or yields to soar when Mr Trump attacks his latest target—whether the Fed, migrants or foreign trade—it would catch his attention.

This is not to be sanguine about Mr Trump’s hold over American politics. There is a risk that his second term would spiral out of control. Checks on his excesses are not automatic, and would need people to go against him in the Republican Party, the courts and society at large. But that ought to happen, which would keep the worst of Trumponomics at bay. ■

For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, finance and markets, sign up to  Money Talks , our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Halting his charge”

Finance & economics July 13th 2024

• Betting markets are useful when politics is chaotic
• Europe prepares for a mighty trade war
• The dangerous rise of pension nationalism
• How strongmen abuse tools for fighting financial crime
• Xi Jinping really is unshakeably committed to the private sector

From the July 13th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

More from Finance & economics

Jerome Powell (almost) declares victory over inflation

The Federal Reserve chairman strikes a notably doveish tone

Investors should avoid a new generation of rip-off ETFs

Some proposals may even be a risk to financial stability

Why investors are not buying Europe’s revival

Even though the continent’s stocks are in a “sweet spot”

America’s recession signals are flashing red. Don’t believe them

We assess a range of measures

America’s anti-price-gouging laws are too minor to be communist

No matter what critics of Kamala Harris allege

Why don’t women use artificial intelligence?

Even when in the same jobs, men are much more likely to turn to the tech

Can Harris win on good vibes alone?: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of  From the Politics Desk , an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, Washington correspondent. Yamiche Alcindor previews Vice President Kamala Harris' history-making convention speech. Plus, senior national political reporter Jonathan Allen examines whether Democrats can ride good vibes all the way to victory this fall.

Programming note: Stay tuned for a special edition of the From the Politics Desk newsletter after the Democratic National Convention tonight, bringing you all the latest news and analysis from our team in Chicago.

Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.

Can Harris win on good vibes alone?

By jonathan allen.

CHICAGO — For now, Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is running on vibes, and many Democrats hope she can ride them to victory on Election Day. 

That may mean she will try to avoid laying out a comprehensive policy plan for the country. Whether she can do that and still win remains an open question.

In the month since President Joe Biden stepped aside, Harris has offered a ton of talk about joy, vision and values, but very little in the way of detailed plans. The Democratic Party’s platform , released Sunday, didn’t change as a result of the switch at the top of the ticket. 

On the campaign trail, Harris has unveiled a handful of proposals that are largely retreads or souped-up versions of items on Biden’s wish list — among them, a 28% corporate tax rate , a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers, an expanded tax credit of up to $6,000 for the first year of a child’s life. The latter two could create inflationary pressures at a time when Harris is promising to keep prices low.

But Harris and her campaign team aren’t saying anything about a broader plan to bolster the economy or national security.

At a roundtable with reporters this week, hosted by Bloomberg News, Harris policy adviser Brian Nelson repeatedly said he didn’t want to “get ahead of the vice president” when pressed for details of her agenda.

“I think, you know, fundamentally she’s going to continue to do sort of more specific policy initiatives with a lot of detail behind them as she builds out this picture for her vision of the future both in the economy and domestic policy,” Nelson said.

At the same event, longtime Harris policy adviser Rohini Kosoglu suggested that the Harris campaign would rather draw contrasts with former President Donald Trump and the “ Project 2025 ” agenda he has disavowed than put down its own map of her plans.

“The questions about even what voters want to hear in terms of her work over her career, her time as vice president and then moving forward may sound a little bit different than our traditional sort of longer-term campaigns that have had, you know, these huge apparatuses,” Kosoglu said. “On the opposing side, there’s a Project 2025 out there, and people also need to understand what’s in those 900 pages. What does it mean for their everyday life?”

Harris campaign aides have said that she will not propose a single-payer, universal health insurance program — “Medicare for All” — as she once did and that she now opposes a fracking ban she once supported. 

Harris has yet to sit down for a major interview since she became the Democratic standard-bearer, so it may be some time before she is pushed to fill in her vision with more specifics — and do so in her own words, rather than through statements issued by campaign aides. 

There are risks to offering too few details and to offering too many of them. Democrats have tried to make Project 2025 an anchor on Trump. But given a short window to get to know Harris better, voters may not be willing to hold their breaths and hope that she will deliver what they want if she’s not willing to make hard promises on policy.

Only time will tell whether she feels compelled to do that — and whether she will be rewarded or rejected if she doesn’t.

Harris prepares for history-making convention speech

By yamiche alcindor.

CHICAGO — Harris is set to deliver what is arguably the biggest speech of her life Thursday night, when she will make history as the first Black woman and first Asian American person to accept a major party’s nomination for president. 

Harris intends to focus her speech on three areas: sharing her personal and professional background, contrasting her vision for America with the one offered by former President Donald Trump and rooting her vision in “a deep and abiding sense of patriotism,” according to a campaign official, who requested anonymity to share details about the remarks.

The speech will be one of her most significant opportunities to define herself since she took over the top of the ticket from Biden last month. She has been crafting the speech over the past two weeks, making trips to Howard University in Washington, D.C. — her alma mater — for both debate preparation and speechwriting sessions, two sources familiar with her preparations said. 

One person familiar with the speech preparations said Harris plans to dedicate the early part of her speech to praising Biden.

Harris also plans to connect her policy proposals with her middle-class upbringing, including talking about plans for issues like taking on price gouging, lowering rent and helping first-time homebuyers, the two sources familiar with the speech said.

A former aide familiar with the speech preparations said Harris’ team has also been cautious about how they will incorporate talking about race and gender while understanding that it will be important to acknowledge the history-making position Harris is in. The speech will focus on why Harris is qualified to be president, detailing, among other areas, her time as a lawyer and the types of cases she handled.

Read more from Yamiche →

🎙️ The lineup: Prior to Harris, several other prominent Democrats are slated to speak on the fourth and final night of the convention.

They include: Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords; Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Roy Cooper of North Carolina; Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Rep. Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida; former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; and state Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, also known as the “ Tennessee Three .”

In addition, Democratic candidates in key Senate races are on the schedule: Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania; and Reps. Colin Allred of Texas, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. 

But as Henry J. Gomez and Bridget Bowman note , the party’s two most vulnerable Senate Democrats — Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio — are skipping the convention.

Alex Seitz-Wald also reports that a number of progressive lawmakers and officials, as well the United Auto Workers, have called on Democrats to reverse their decision not to give a Palestinian American a speaking slot.

🎶 Musical guests: Pop singer Pink and country trio The Chicks are expected to perform, per Monica Alba, Jonathan Allen and Summer Concepcion . 

📱 Trump’s plans: Trump said that he will do a “ live play by play ” of Harris’ speech on Truth Social.

Follow along with tonight’s speeches on our live blog →

Trump says he will make ‘provisions’ for mixed-status families but doesn’t rule out separations with mass deportations

By garrett haake, jake traylor and alexandra marquez.

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — Trump on Thursday said the cost to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is justified and would not rule out separating families that are compromised of citizens and immigrants. 

“It’ll cost trillions of dollars to keep these people, and I’m talking about in particular, starting with the criminals,” Trump told NBC News in an interview during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. “That’s costing us a lot more than deporting. But we have no choice, regardless, we have no choice, we’re going to have to deport.”

When pressed, Trump provided no details on how he would pay for his plan, which could cost billions of dollars to implement at scale. Trump spent much of his first term fighting with Congress to give him money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, an expensive undertaking that the legislative branch never agreed to fund. Ultimately, he took the money from other parts of the Pentagon budget.

Asked whether he would deport undocumented immigrants who are part of mixed-status families, like those married to American citizens or those who are parents to American citizens, Trump said: “Provisions will be made, but we have to get the criminals out.”

Read more →

🗞️ Today’s other top stories

• 🩺 Mr. Secretary? With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. planning to drop out and endorse Trump, Brandy Zadrozny takes a look at what the independent candidate might want to do if he were to serve in a future administration as health secretary. Read more →
• 🪙 DonChain: Trump is teasing a cryptocurrency project on his social media platforms. Read more →
• 🗳️ Vote watch: The Supreme Court partly granted a request from the Republican National Committee to make Arizona enforce measures requiring people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. Read more →
• 🚫 No dice: The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a decision from the secretary of state blocking a constitutional amendment to protect abortion access from the November ballot. Read more →
• 🤳 How do you do, fellow kids? A flood of politicians have joined TikTok in recent months in an effort to court young voters, even after Biden signed a bill passed by Congress that could ban the app. Read more →

That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at [email protected]

And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here .

More From Forbes

Five ways to use ‘bad’ emotions to grow your emotional intelligence.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

The true test of emotional intelligence isn’t to avoid difficult emotions; it’s to learn to channel ... [+] them in a productive way.

One of the greatest myths of emotional intelligence is the notion that certain emotions are inherently “good” while others are “bad.” This misconception leads people to think they should ignore or suppress “bad” emotions and only embrace “good” ones.

But, the research shows that trying to stop yourself from feeling certain emotions is impossible. Emotions are instinctive, arising before our brain processes them. The true test of emotional intelligence then isn’t to avoid difficult emotions; it’s to learn to channel them in a productive way.

This article will explore five real-world examples of how people have successfully used what might be considered “bad” emotions—anger, spite, and anxiety—to enhance their drive, focus and performance.

Channel Your Anger to Heighten Your Focus: From Professional Baseball Player Max Scherzer

Anger is often labeled as a "bad" emotion—one to be suppressed or controlled. But what if anger, when channeled correctly, could actually fuel your performance? Max Scherzer, one of baseball’s most intense and successful pitchers, offers a compelling example.

Nicknamed “Mad Max,” Scherzer is known for his fierce, almost feral intensity. He does things like:

• grunt & howl at hitters
• scream into his glove so no one can lip-read his obscenities
• yell “no” at his coach when trying to take him out of the game

Will Beyoncé Perform At DNC’s Final Night? Conflicting Reports After TMZ Says She’ll Appear.

Nyt ‘strands’ hints, spangram and answers for friday, august 23rd, will beyoncé perform at dnc tonight here’s what we know as rumors swirl..

As an 8-time All Star and 3-time Cy Young award winner, Scherzer is also known for being one of the best pitchers of his generation. When asked if he uses emotion as fuel, he responded, “You definitely can. [Anger] hits that adrenaline, so once that adrenaline hits, it almost feeds itself.” Scherzer attributes much of his success to his ability to channel his anger for focus.

Outside of baseball, a manager might use anger to signal to her team that an important boundary has been crossed (helps foster psychological safety) or to fuel her own performance (motivation). Or an activist might harness anger to express the urgency and gravity of his cause. Research supports these examples, multiple studies showing that angry participants outperform others on challenging tasks.

However, Scherzer cautions against letting your anger go unchecked. “[Anger] can also be a negative. It has been in the past, where you almost get too much adrenaline, too much emotion and you aren’t thinking clearly,” he said. The key is intent. Scherzer doesn’t just dial in anger to see what happens; he channels it for energy and focus.

Use Spite to Fuel Motivation: From Flow Researcher and Author Steven Kotler

Flow researcher and author Steven Kotler writes about how spite can be that extra nudge you need to increase your grit. Kotler’s idea here is simple. You “bulletin board” all the critics, doubters, and rejections. Then, the next time you’re feeling tired or feeling like giving up, you can turn to that board for a burst of inspiration. Author Stephen King offers an example of this strategy in action. He collected every rejection he received for his stories and nailed them to the wall. “By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it,” King recalled. “I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.”

Access Your Anxiety to Increase Your Drive: From Ira Glass Host of “This American Life”

Ira Glass, the Host and Producer of "This American Life," relies on anxiety to propel his work. "I'm anxious about my work being good. Like all the time...I'm anxious about getting it done, and I'm anxious about it being good. I'm anxious in general," he said in an interview with journalist Adam Moss.

But, Glass doesn't see his anxiety as a demon. He sees it as a much-needed ally. A driver, a motivator, and an accelerator. He intentionally sets a harsh deadline for each episode (knowing this will produce anxiety), and then forces himself to stick to it. "Without [deadlines] I can really float," Glass said. "There are stories where much of the time I'm wondering, are we gonna have to kill them? And only at the 11th hour do they get to be good enough. It's only through an act of will that these things are not mediocre."

Research confirms that Glass’s approach is a good one. A medium level of anxiety has been shown to improve performance (though performance does decline when anxiety grows too intense). Psychologist Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary wrote the book Future Tense on exactly this topic—using anxiety as a tool.

Understand Your Boredom to Unlock Productivity: From Author Haruki Murakami

In 1987, Japanese author Haruki Murakami finished the first draft of his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing . “When I read the result, I was far from impressed. My book was rather boring,” he writes in his book Novelist As A Vocation.

Murakami considered giving up—both on his book and on himself as a writer. But, as he thought about his book more, he realized what was holding him back. He was trying too hard to “write something novelistic” and to “create something sophisticated.”

So, he did something interesting. He re-wrote his book in English (his first language is Japanese). With a more limited vocabulary, he wrote shorter, simpler sentences. He thrived on the challenge and found himself falling into a steady rhythm with his writing. “It was tremendously exciting,” he writes, “When I sat down at the kitchen table each night and went back to work on my novel…I felt like I was holding a new, cutting-edge tool in my hands.”

Murakami would have never tried something playful if he hadn’t spent time thinking about and understanding why he felt bored by his work. We can imagine that his thought process went something like this:

• He thought that his book was boring.
• He asked “why?” And he realized it was because his process itself was boring. He was trying to force his writing to be “novelistic” and “sophisticated.”
• He thought about how he could break that mindset. He arrived at the idea to be more playful, to mess around with language.

By taking a close look at his boredom and where it really came from, Murakami was able to foil it.

Treat Your Fear As A Sign You Should Act: From Author Steven Pressfield

In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes about the show “Inside the Actors Studio.” When the show’s host James Lipton asks actors why they chose to play a certain role, Pressfield points out how they always answer the same way: “Because I was afraid of it.” In other words, they saw their fear of a role as a signal that it offered real opportunity for growth. “The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. So if you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do,” Pressfield writes .

Grow Your Self-Awareness to Grow Your EQ

Each of these examples is situational and personalized to the person using it. For this reason, you shouldn’t treat these examples as copy-and-paste strategies to apply to your own life. Instead, you should treat them as a model for how to reframe your own negative emotions in a way that works for you.

Kevin Kruse is the Founder + CEO of LEADx , a leadership development company that specializes in emotional intelligence. Kevin is also a New York Times bestselling author of Great Leaders Have No Rules , 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management , and Employee Engagement 2.0 .

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

Advertisement

Supported by

What Voters Outside the Democratic Bubble Thought of Harris’s Speech

They are not leaping onto the Democratic Party bandwagon. But one undecided voter said, “Maybe it’s not as hard to vote for her.”

• Share full article

By Richard Fausset Campbell Robertson J. David Goodman Eduardo Medina and Isabelle Taft

On Thursday night, it was up to Kamala Harris to make the closing argument for why Democrats deserved another four years in the White House. In her headlining speech of the Democratic National Convention, which had been as festive, and at times as frivolous, as a giant block party, Ms. Harris spoke of standing up to global tyranny, and of lessons she learned from her single mother. She blasted the former President Donald J. Trump as an “unserious man” and spoke of the “awesome responsibility” that comes with the privilege of being an American.

It all left Democrats on the convention floor feeling euphoric and focused, confident that her speech would spur the Democratic base to turn out in November.

But outside the arena, and outside the bubble of ride-or-die Democratic voters, some voters, particularly Republicans, said they did not even bother to watch the speech. And among some still on the fence — those who could make a difference in a tight contest — Ms. Harris’s words did not make immediate converts. They said they needed more specifics.

Bob and Sharon Reed watched Ms. Harris’s speech on their farm in the hills of central Pennsylvania. Both of them voted for Mr. Trump in past elections and both of them liked some of his policies, if not his personality. They came away from Ms. Harris’s speech feeling a little conflicted.

The problem? They liked it.

“I really wasn’t happy with the Biden administration,” said Ms. Reed, who like her husband is 77 and a retired schoolteacher. “But listening to her tonight, maybe it’s not as hard to vote for her. And, you know, I’m a little scared of what Trump will do when he gets back in power.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .