Teachers assigning homework to students is a common practice worldwide and it is an opportunity for them to test students and make them practice the concepts that they have taught them in class. Homework can help teachers assess the progress of their students so that they can inform their parents about their kids’ performance. However, many parents complain that it’s too early for them to give their children homework as it stresses them and their family depriving them time to spend leisurely with their family. Although some argue that homework can be stressful and burdensome for young children, it is necessary. This essay provides the arguments that it is an essential tool for developing independent learning, fostering critical life skills, gauging performance, and reinforcing what they have learned in class, thus preparing for their future.
The first argument that homework is vital in primary school children is that it helps them to develop independent learning. Giving them challenging work to work on helps to push them, and thus, they will work hard to complete the task. Instilling this daily will eventually help them to be self-sufficient and, therefore, master the skill of reading on their own, thus sharpening their academic intelligence (Russell 1). It encourages a good learning culture as they get used to it, they will continue valuing reading and therefore they will grow to love it. It will help expand their knowledge on very many things they were not informed of and, thus, prepare them for adulthood.
Secondly, homework is essential in primary school pupils as it helps foster critical life skills. Apart from the daily academic schedule in schools that teachers have to follow for their syllabus, homework also plays a crucial role in promoting essential life skills. From the homework, there are specific stipulated guidelines that they have to follow to complete it. This, therefore, gives the children an opportunity to develop life skills like responsibility, as they will be responsible for ensuring they complete the assigned task. Submitting their assignment on time is also required, and hence, they learn time management skills. Organizational skills are acquired as they organize their work to suit the set instructions offered to them. Such life skills prepare them for their future as adults, as it will help them manage their daily activities in a more responsible and organized manner.
The other importance of homework in children is that it helps their teachers and parents assess their performance. While learning in classrooms, there are many students with different capabilities and talents in various subjects. When teachers assign them their assignments after they have taught, when they mark them, they will be able to know if they are good at it or what areas they can focus on to help them improve so that they can excel. Others do this by, instead of offering them the standard math or English homework, allowing them to do reading for about 20 minutes. After that, based on what they have read, the teacher assigns them a list of optional activities that they have to pick that are related to their topic (Russell 2). Through this, they will be able to know what areas they are good at and where they have to give more help and also from their parents to help them achieve their goals.
Also, primary school homework aids in reinforcing the knowledge imparted in classrooms. It is often challenging for teachers to exhaust everything they need to teach the students every day because of the limited time they have for individual lessons. Homework, therefore, helps them to revisit what they have been taught, and thus, the repetitive learning cycles allow them to be good at it. Even when they are stuck at home, they can be able to ask their family members for help, and this allows them to expand their knowledge. It also helps them feel capable, practical, appreciated, and rewarded, especially when they succeed in their tests (Negru and Sava 19). Through this repetitive learning, they can gain confidence even when they are faced with tests and exams, and thus, they can excel in academics.
Other teachers assign homework in groups, and through engaging in group work, the students can learn how to collaborate with others. During these discussions, they gain knowledge from one another and this helps them even to grow and develop academically. They are also able to learn life skills such as how to treat others and how to handle arguments when they differ in their opinion in their groups. The opportunity to socialize with the group members also aids in developing their social skills which will enable them to get into the real world and have good communication skills. These groups also encourage a competitive attitude as they will strive to achieve the best scores compared to their peers.
It also helps develop an individualized approach to learning and development of skills. Students all come from different walks of life and they are talented differently and also have different approaches to learning that work for them. Some students like to engage in active listening when the teacher is in class, others like working with teams, others like to read on their own repetitively, and others like rewards or punishment so that they can be willing to learn. These differences can be assessed by assigning them homework under these various circumstances. When the teachers mark their papers, they can develop a tailored approach that is unique to every student, and thus, this helps them to progress individually at their own pace.
Although I encourage issuing homework to primary school children there is also an argument against it that parents and other scholars argue. First, is that many parents say that it is stressful for them and deprives them of their family time. When they are at home, they keep on worrying about their assignments; how hard is it? How will they perform? Will they get a reward? And so on. Such questions create worries, and then they will not freely engage in family activities, which is important at a young age. On the other hand, I can argue in this situation that homework can help improve family life positively. When the children ask for help from their siblings or parents, they work collaboratively, opening dialogues and conversations that are intriguing, thus helping reinforce the partnership between the parents, children, and the school.
The mental well-being of students can also be affected due to stress-related problems that come with the homework given at school. Many of them put too much pressure on themselves to do their homework perfectly so that they can excel. Also, there is an aspect of helicopter parenting (Russell 3), where their parents put too much pressure on them they push them to do more and more work so that they can succeed. Such pressure most likely can cause anxiety and eventually depression as they will be constantly worrying about how they will please their parents and succeed (Scheb 133). Teachers can also damage their mental health by giving them lots and lots of work, as children need to have time to play and work on their talents and hobbies and not constantly worry about their burdensome homework.
As much as many challenges come with homework in children who are in primary school, there are many advantages of these assignments. The parents, teachers, and schools should develop ways that will give the students ample time to work on their homework without giving them much pressure. Through this, they will be able to grow and develop into responsible adults with different life skills that will help them succeed and achieve their goals.
Works Cited
Negru, Iasmina, and Simona McPherson, James. “Impact of Homework on Learning.” (2020). https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1483&context=hse_cp
Russell, K. (2019, October 18). Does homework help primary school children, or is it unnecessary stress? The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education-and-careers/0/does-homework-help-primary-school-children-unnecessary-stress/
Sava. “Homework’s Implications for the Well-Being of Primary School Pupils—Perceptions of Children, Parents, and Teachers.” Education Sciences 13.10 (2023): 996.
Scheb, Ryan. “Does Homework Work or Hurt? A Study on the Effects of Homework on Mental Health and Academic Performance.” Journal of Catholic Education 26.2 (2023): 130-143
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