Every single day kids come home from a long, stressful day of school and then have up to hours of homework.

And if a kid doesn’t know how to do their homework, they might not have any access for help. And some students have sports or other activities, which gives them very little time to finish homework. “No I wouldn’t give a student extra time on homework if they didn’t finish it the night before. Even if their schedule was filled, there is no excuse.” Says David Osse, a math teacher at Wheat Ridge High School.

Overall, it is a huge stress for students all around the world. And that raises a big question, should homework really be assigned? According to procon.org, ninth to 12th graders have an average of 3.5 hours of homework per night. Student Elsie Morris says, “I have anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 ½ hours of homework per night. It really depends.” Michael Rizzuto says he has “roughly an hour, it depends on what classes I have that day.”

Other students like Weather McElhaney, Ronin McGlothlin, and Nick Goodwin say the same. A poll taken in Colorado showed that 59% of students thought they had too much homework, 43% said homework was their greatest source of stress, and 83% of students agreed that they were often or always stressed by homework. 

In some cases homework can also affect students’ health. It can lead to sleep deprivation, stomach problems, headaches, and weight loss. There is little evidence that homework helps younger children. An article posted on review of educational research on Sage Journals showed that fourth graders who had no homework had almost identical test grades as those with 30+ minutes of homework per night.

In some cases too much homework can be bad for students, but the right amount helps. So this raises a question, what is the right amount of homework? Research published in The High School Journal shows that students who spend between 30 and 90 minutes per night on homework scored about 40 points higher on their SATs, in all areas. Increased homework for teens shows that it increases the probability of attending college, according to The Institute for Study of Labor. The City University of New York says that students who set goals to finish homework tend to be more motivated than other students. 

Homework can also help students in class. “I think that meaningful homework is helpful, it also helps students with understanding classroom                           discussions,” Says Tony Romagna, a Human Geography teacher at Wheat Ridge High School. Michael Rizzuto says that homework does help him in class, “it’s just reinforcing what we do during class.” He says.

In some cases, homework can be very beneficial, and in some it only does harm. It all depends on the subject, teacher, amount, and topic. So do students really need all of the homework they get? Or is it just damaging students’ brains? Either way,  if you asked the students they would say that some sort of change needs to be made in the amount of homework assigned for middle school and high school students.