If you’re like most teens, you probably have work to do at home, siblings to watch, a sport to practice, a club meeting to attend, or a job.

So, how long do you spend on your homework? Or, maybe more importantly, how much homework do you think you should have?

For most teens, the answer is: none. However, most teens know that being in high school means having homework, oftentimes too much homework. Ultimately, this does not need to be the case.

Before teens get to high school they have to suffer an introduction to homework, usually in elementary school. In her article “To give or not to give homework….That is the question,”

Patricia Bogdanovich quotes Professor Harrison Cooper, who discovered “The average correlation between the time primary children spent on homework and achievement was around zero.” Additionally, Cooper states, “Not to mention, the amount of homework completed had no effect on test scores.”
This makes it clear that homework doesn’t provide any benefit for young kids. It is not beneficial to young students because it does not provide time for a kid to just be a kid. Additionally, the website Thriving Children adds, “Children don’t understand the purpose of homework and what it’s supposed to achieve.” The site quotes education researcher and writer Pamela M. Coutts who says, “Young students mostly said they did their homework to avoid punishment or the anger of their parents and teachers.”

One thing is clear to all researchers, and to students: Teachers should not assign homework just to seem “rigorous.” Cory Turner from National Public Radio (NPR) states, “The research shows that to be effective “Homework should generally be about reinforcing what students learned in class.” A student shouldn’t be doing work that they don’t know how to do it because it causes stress and confusion. “Homework is best if it’s material that requires more practice but they’ve already received initial instruction,” according to Tom Loveless, a researcher at the Brookings Institution. This is important because if a teacher gives a student a homework assignment on something they didn’t learn in class it will be hard for them and it takes a long time complete.

Homework also causes plenty of stress factors reported researchers in a 2013 Stanford University study that surveyed more than 4,300 students at the top 10 highest performing high schools in upper middle-class California communities.

The researchers asked students and their opinions on homework. Survey results showed that 70% of the students said they were often stressed or majority of the time stressed about homework. Additionally, 56% said that homework was the primary cause of stress.
In addition to all of the stress homework brings, it can also make you sick physically. “The effect of excessive homework on high school students creates lack of sleep, migraines, ulcers and even weight loss,” stated Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, who was quoted in the Stanford study.

The researchers also found that spending too much time on homework meant that students were not meeting their developmental needs or their social life. Students were more likely to forgo activities, stop seeing friends or family, and not participate in hobbies. This is extremely important because kids need to be kids, in the future kids benefit from the hobbies and the people they meet.

There shouldn’t be so much homework to a point where you spend more than 1-2 hours on it. Nor should it be so hard that causes stress or you to get sickness. Overall, a good plan for homework would be to eliminate it or elementary school or assign homework that only takes ten minutes.

In high school, grade level teachers should have a meeting and make a schedule as to how much homework they are giving to students every week. Even though in high school you are expecting more homework – especially in an AP class – teachers should still take into consideration the negative impacts homework can have on students. Homework shouldn’t be something that is a huge factor in anyone’s life.