Homework

From dioramas and book reports to algebraic word problems and research projects, homework comes in many forms and in many doses. But whether students should be given homework at all has been debated for more than a century. [1]

While we are unsure who invented homework, the concept dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Enlightenment philosophers and Middle Age monks all read, memorized, and studied at home long before the formalization of “schoolwork.” [45]

In the 19th century, students of the Volksschulen (“People’s Schools”) of Prussia 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 educator and politician Horace Mann (1796–1859). Called the “Father of American Education” for his commitment to a free but compulsory public school system, Mann had visited these Prussian schools in 1843.[45]

However, this perspective of homework as a beneficial tool changed in the early 1900s, when 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, and the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [1] [2] [45] [46]

American public opinion swayed back in favor of homework in the 1950s because of concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War. But resistance to homework was still strong, with a May 14, 1960, issue of the Saturday Evening Post bemoaning that “certain schools have answered the challenge of Sputnik with busy work — meaning more history dates to memorize, more arithmetic problems to copy at home. It is homework hysteria. Often it is unplanned and gives students impossible loads of work one night and little the next. Busywork bores the bright student—and overwhelms the average.” However, seven months later, by December 1960, the Saturday Evening Post had reversed course, recommending that the U.S. “lengthen our school year and increase the amount of homework required.”[3] [45] [56]

This renewed emphasis on homework was especially evident two decades later. The 1983 release of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, a report by President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education, warned of a crisis in American education and an urgent need to raise academic standards. The report’s portrayal of an education system that had “lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them” rallied reform advocates to press for stricter accountability measures, including an increase in standardized testing; it also demanded more from students, arguing, in effect, that “homework is good and more of it is better.” These views were echoed in 1986, when the U.S. Department of Education included homework in its pamphlet “What Works,”, showcasing homework as a tool for boosting education. By 1993, a larger homework load was evident in 27 percent of high schools, 30 percent of middle schools, and 32 percent of elementary schools. [56]

Determining the average amount of homework assigned and completed is a difficult task in a country with over 115,000 schools and over 50 million students. A 2014 study found that kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher per week, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher per week. A 2014–19 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. However, a 2020 Washington Post article reported “high-performing schools” were requiring about 2.7 hours of homework per night. [4] [44] [53] [57]

As explained by Education Week, a widely accepted guideline on homework, supported by both the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, is the 10-minute rule: “Children should have no more than 10 minutes of homework each day for each grade reached. In 1st grade, children should have 10 minutes of daily homework; in 2nd grade, 20 minutes; and so on to the 12th grade, when on average they should have 120 minutes of homework each day, which is about 10 hours a week.” [54]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework, as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all schoolwork 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 debate remained over the effectiveness of homework as an educational tool. [47]

Math and reading scores of U.S. students plummeted during the pandemic and have continued to struggle since. Yet, despite the declines and the call to catch up to national standards, reports indicate that students were actually spending less time on homework after returning to school. Tenth graders spent 15 fewer minutes a day from 2021 to 2023 (a 24 percent drop) on homework; eighth graders spent 7 fewer minutes a day (a 17 percent drop); and an increasing number of students do no homework. What is unknown is whether teachers are assigning less homework, students are using artificial intelligence or other technology to complete homework more quickly, or whether students are simply not completing their assignments. [55] [63]

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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 could help students learn classroom lessons? Explain your answer(s).
3. How has homework been helpful or unhelpful to you personally? List reasons for both sides of the question.
4. What questions do you have after reading the debate above? Where might you find answers?
5. What was the most interesting thing you learned from this debate?
6. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? How and why?. If your thoughts have not changed, explain how and why you better understand the other side of the debate.
7. Push for the position and policies you support by writing local officials, U.S. senators and representatives, or other people in a position to make the change you champion.