Should We Ditch Homework?

The mere silhouette of this often-posed question never ceases to bring back memories of primary school public speaking and debating.

As a result, I am extremely sorry to have to betray my 10-year-old self (and most others still in school) in explaining my opinion. Homework is something I have personally hated and, being in the second last year of high school, still do hate. The piles of essays, creatives, maths questions and notes to memorise are overwhelming and ridiculously time consuming.

But, in the end, despite the obvious pitfalls of homework and its detrimental impact on my sleep patterns, my social life and mainly my precious time for daydreaming and procrastinating, I have to agree with many professionals in my decision that, sometimes, the best things are indeed those that we hate.

As I have grown older, my hate for homework and completing assignments has not impeded my judgement on its necessity. And although I wish there was no such thing as the HSC, or school, or uni - and that our world was one where we could all live without worrying about ATARs and simply go into the workforce and do what we dreamed of as a child - I do see the benefit and importance of learning and obtaining an education.

Homework, representative of regular revision and studying from home, is an essential aspect of improving our understanding and capabilities. Although sometimes I feel the subjects we are learning in school are not building our 21st century survival skills in teaching us how to pay taxes (which, by the way, I think should become a compulsory component of our curriculum), how to search for houses and how to feed ourselves, the things we learn in school allow us to develop a broader and more sophisticated understanding of the world around us and pave the way for us to develop ways to make life better for the global population.

If we only relied on the six hours spent at school to provide us with knowledge, we would be limited in the amount we could learn. Think of homework, revision and study not simply as a means to pass the next exam, but rather, to simply learn; to broaden our way of thinking and to give ourselves a mature perspective on the world.

Sometimes we have to forgo what we want in the present for what is best for our future. That’s why, all my hatred aside, I think we should keep homework. However, we should focus on exerting controls to limit its quantity so that it does not impede on the ability of students to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle, with extra time to interact with other peers and maintain a level that does not act detrimentally upon the emotional, mental and physical health of students.

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