Homework Policy In Elementary School: Is It Necessary?

There has been a huge controversy over whether or not elementary school children should have homework. The debate is about whether or not it is necessary in their education and whether or not it is helping the student or just giving them some busy work to help determine grades.

The main reason why teachers ask students to do homework in any grade is to give them some practice problems so that they can complete the work themselves. When a student sees the problem or information presented and hears about it, they only retain about half of that information. It isn’t until they have to apply it that the information turns to knowledge. This is not a debated topic. The debate is between whether the student should be doing the work at home or whether it should be incorporated into their day.

Homework for home

When a student is asked to do the homework at home, they have already been in school for eight hours. They may only have a few hours before their parents expect them to go to bed. They also may not have a support system to show them how to do the problems correctly. It has been several decades since most parents had to do many of the things that their children have to do for homework. If the student is practicing the concepts incorrectly, there is really no good in them doing the problems at home.

There is a “new math” that is taught now. The teachers expect the students to complete the problems using the “new math” concepts however this is hard for the parents who were never taught the concepts to help their children. This makes it really hard for students to really benefit from doing the work at home.

Incorporated into their day

If the homework is incorporated into their day, the students will not only get a break from school when they get home to play and be a kid, but they will get more out of the homework. They will have their teacher there to walk through the problems with them and they can learn the concepts correctly. Overall, this will make sure that the work is serving the purpose. Perfect practice makes perfect performance.

Homework in elementary school is not necessary if it has to be done at home. If it is busy work, then it is not necessary. Incorporate it into their school day so that they are sure to have the proper support to complete the assignment and turn the information into correct knowledge.

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