The Decline of Homework: Do Kids Actually Need It?
Ah, homework. The beloved tradition of assigning students extra work after they’ve already spent eight hours learning, six hours sleeping (if they’re lucky), and two hours wondering if they have time to breathe. That’s not to mention students who also work to help their families or take care of their siblings.
For decades, homework has been the default, a sacred cow of education. You’re not a real teacher unless you’re assigning worksheets, essays, or a color-coded science poster due at 8:00AM sharp.
But here’s the thing: people are starting to question the whole concept of homework.
More schools are curing back or ditching it entirely, parents are breathing sighs of relief, and kids? Well, they’re not exactly protesting.
In fact, some countries have already led the way. Finland, widely praised for its top-tier education system, assigns little to no homework in elementary school and very little in later grades. The focus? In-school learning, play, and family time. South Korea has also implemented policies to reduce homework loads, emphasizing student well-being and balanced development over relentless academic pressure. And Japan, while still rigorous academically, limits homework during elementary years and prioritizes collaborative learning and group responsibility over endless solo assignments.
These countries have proven that less homework doesn’t mean less achievement, it can actually mean more learning, deeper thinking, and healthier kids.
So let’s dive into it, is homework still necessary, or is it time to rethink the afterschool grind?
Let’s Do The Math (Spoiler: It’s Wild)
Let’s take your average high school student. They:
Go to school for 8 hours
Take 6 classes
Are assigned about 1 hour of homework per class, per night.
That’s 6 additional hours of work. After an 8-hour school day. That’s 14 hours of structured academic time.
And we haven’t even gotten to:
Sports and extracurricular
Volunteering (you know, for that college resume)
Eating dinner (if they’re lucky have food security)
Spending time with family
Socializing like an actual human
Sleeping, which is sort of important
Working part time
Taking care of siblings
At this point, students aren’t living, they’re project managing their childhoods.
The Original Purpose of Homework (And How It Got Out of Hand)
In theory, homework is supposed to:
✔️ Reinforce what was taught in class
✔️ Provide extra practice
✔️ Teach responsibility and time management
All great goals! But somewhere along the way, homework went from “Let’s review a few math problems” to “Please write an MLA-formatted five-page essay on the economic effects of 17th century trade routes by tomorrow.”
Now, instead of helping students, homework often just:
❌ Increases stress
❌ Cuts into rest and down time
❌ Creates inequality (not every kid has time, support, or resources at home)
❌ Turns learning into a chore rather than a curiosity
Spoiler alert: No one gets excited about reading when it’s assigned with a double-entry journal and rubric.
When Are Kids Supposed to Be…Kids?
If students are expected to:
Maintain top grades
Play a sport
Join three clubs
Volunteer regularly
Have a part-time job
Start a nonprofit (???)
Be well-rounded, well-spoken, community-involved future leaders…
…then when exactly are they supposed to do all that and three hours of AP Literacy homework? And let’s not forget that downtime is not laziness, rest is not optional, family time matters, and being a teenager should not feel like a full time job with unpaid overtime.
The Research Is In: More Homework Does Not Mean More Learning
Studies show that:
Elementary students gain little to no academic benefit from homework
High school students benefit only slightly from homework, and only up to a certain point (around 90 minutes per night…TOTAL, NOT PER CLASS).
After that, academic returns plateau or even decline
And guess what? Countries with the least amount of homework (Like Finland) often have the highest academic performance and well-being scores.
Meanwhile, American students are burning out before they even graduate.
We’re not saying kids should never practice skills outside of school. But do they need hours of extra work every night just to prove they’re learning? Probably not.
So What’s the Alternative?
You Can still support learning without assigning homework that eats into kids’ lives. Some schools and teachers are trying:
No-Homework Policies (Yes, It’s a Thing)
Some districts are ditching homework entirely, especially in elementary school, so kids can:
✔️ Read for pleasure
✔️ Spend time with family
✔️ Play outside (remember that?)
✔️ Get enough sleep
And guess what? The sky did not fall. Students learned.
Flipped Classrooms
Instead of assigning practice after class, teachers record mini-lessons for homework and use class time for discussion, projects, or individualized help.
✔️ Students work at their own pace
✔️ Class time becomes more meaningful
✔️ Less pressure to understand everything the first time around
Assigning Homework with Purpose
When Homework is used, it should:
✔️ Be meaningful, not busywork
✔️ Be clearly connected to class content
✔️ Be manageable and age-appropriate
✔️ Respect kids’ time and other commitments
“Do pages 3-27” is not thoughtful.
“Reflect on today’s science lab and come up with one question to explore tomorrow” is.
Final Thoughts: Maybe Less Really Is More
We all want students to succeed, but academic rigor doesn’t have to mean academic overload.
If we want well-rounded, happy, engaged learners, we need to give them:
Time to rest
Space to explore passions
Opportunities to grow outside of academics
A chance to just be kids
So, do kids actually need homework?
Maybe not as much as we thought.
And maybe, just maybe, if we start valuing balance over busyness, they’ll learn more, not less.
