Harmful Homework
Homework can cause harm to students under certain conditions:
Excessive Time Spent
For students of all ages, when time spend on homework becomes excessive or stressful it can contribute to:
Disruptions in sleep
Lower abilities to practice protective mental health
Increased depression symptoms
Increased anxiety symptoms
Triggering emotional breakdowns that can include crying and panic
Inability to relax
Rigid Judgement
When homework includes rigid guidelines and the promise of a graded evaluation, it can to parents feeling incapable of helping. This in turn can lead to children feeling ashamed or isolated.
Both parents and students feel stress when homework is graded on something that can often reflect family resources more than actual academic understanding.
High Expectations
Students who attend school with high academic expectations and matching high amounts of homework workload can often reach a burnout point.
This can result in mental health issues as well as a withdrawal of engagement in school in general.
Family Conflict
Homework is a significant source of family conflicts in the home.
Parents describe homework at a major source of nightly stress. Homework can also disrupt the precious little family time that families get during their work week.