essay on homework should be given or not

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: December 7, 2023

Published: January 23, 2020

Homework is a word that most students dread hearing. After hours upon hours of sitting in class , the last thing we want is more schoolwork over our precious weekends. While it’s known to be a staple of traditional schooling, homework has also become a rather divise topic. Some feel as though homework is a necessary part of school, while others believe that the time could be better invested. Should students have homework? Have a closer look into the arguments on both sides to decide for yourself.

Photo by  energepic.com  from  Pexels

Why should students have homework, 1. homework encourages practice.

Many people believe that one of the positive effects of homework is that it encourages the discipline of practice. While it may be time consuming and boring compared to other activities, repetition is needed to get better at skills. Homework helps make concepts more clear, and gives students more opportunities when starting their career .

2. Homework Gets Parents Involved

Homework can be something that gets parents involved in their children’s lives if the environment is a healthy one. A parent helping their child with homework makes them take part in their academic success, and allows for the parent to keep up with what the child is doing in school. It can also be a chance to connect together.

3. Homework Teaches Time Management

Homework is much more than just completing the assigned tasks. Homework can develop time management skills , forcing students to plan their time and make sure that all of their homework assignments are done on time. By learning to manage their time, students also practice their problem-solving skills and independent thinking. One of the positive effects of homework is that it forces decision making and compromises to be made.

4. Homework Opens A Bridge Of Communication

Homework creates a connection between the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents. It allows everyone to get to know each other better, and parents can see where their children are struggling. In the same sense, parents can also see where their children are excelling. Homework in turn can allow for a better, more targeted educational plan for the student.

5. Homework Allows For More Learning Time

Homework allows for more time to complete the learning process. School hours are not always enough time for students to really understand core concepts, and homework can counter the effects of time shortages, benefiting students in the long run, even if they can’t see it in the moment.

6. Homework Reduces Screen Time

Many students in North America spend far too many hours watching TV. If they weren’t in school, these numbers would likely increase even more. Although homework is usually undesired, it encourages better study habits and discourages spending time in front of the TV. Homework can be seen as another extracurricular activity, and many families already invest a lot of time and money in different clubs and lessons to fill up their children’s extra time. Just like extracurricular activities, homework can be fit into one’s schedule.

The Other Side: Why Homework Is Bad

1. homework encourages a sedentary lifestyle.

Should students have homework? Well, that depends on where you stand. There are arguments both for the advantages and the disadvantages of homework.

While classroom time is important, playground time is just as important. If children are given too much homework, they won’t have enough playtime, which can impact their social development and learning. Studies have found that those who get more play get better grades in school , as it can help them pay closer attention in the classroom.

Children are already sitting long hours in the classroom, and homework assignments only add to these hours. Sedentary lifestyles can be dangerous and can cause health problems such as obesity. Homework takes away from time that could be spent investing in physical activity.

2. Homework Isn’t Healthy In Every Home

While many people that think homes are a beneficial environment for children to learn, not all homes provide a healthy environment, and there may be very little investment from parents. Some parents do not provide any kind of support or homework help, and even if they would like to, due to personal barriers, they sometimes cannot. Homework can create friction between children and their parents, which is one of the reasons why homework is bad .

3. Homework Adds To An Already Full-Time Job

School is already a full-time job for students, as they generally spend over 6 hours each day in class. Students also often have extracurricular activities such as sports, music, or art that are just as important as their traditional courses. Adding on extra hours to all of these demands is a lot for children to manage, and prevents students from having extra time to themselves for a variety of creative endeavors. Homework prevents self discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system. This is one of the main disadvantages of homework.

4. Homework Has Not Been Proven To Provide Results

Endless surveys have found that homework creates a negative attitude towards school, and homework has not been found to be linked to a higher level of academic success.

The positive effects of homework have not been backed up enough. While homework may help some students improve in specific subjects, if they have outside help there is no real proof that homework makes for improvements.

It can be a challenge to really enforce the completion of homework, and students can still get decent grades without doing their homework. Extra school time does not necessarily mean better grades — quality must always come before quantity.

Accurate practice when it comes to homework simply isn’t reliable. Homework could even cause opposite effects if misunderstood, especially since the reliance is placed on the student and their parents — one of the major reasons as to why homework is bad. Many students would rather cheat in class to avoid doing their homework at home, and children often just copy off of each other or from what they read on the internet.

5. Homework Assignments Are Overdone

The general agreement is that students should not be given more than 10 minutes a day per grade level. What this means is that a first grader should be given a maximum of 10 minutes of homework, while a second grader receives 20 minutes, etc. Many students are given a lot more homework than the recommended amount, however.

On average, college students spend as much as 3 hours per night on homework . By giving too much homework, it can increase stress levels and lead to burn out. This in turn provides an opposite effect when it comes to academic success.

The pros and cons of homework are both valid, and it seems as though the question of ‘‘should students have homework?’ is not a simple, straightforward one. Parents and teachers often are found to be clashing heads, while the student is left in the middle without much say.

It’s important to understand all the advantages and disadvantages of homework, taking both perspectives into conversation to find a common ground. At the end of the day, everyone’s goal is the success of the student.

Related Articles

Why Homework Is So Important Essay

Education plays an important role in ensuring children are taught career, survival and intellectual skills that will enable them to live comfortably in the future. Learning institutions have been established to ensure everyone goes to school and gets the required knowledge essential for human survival.

These learning institutions have come up with various programs aimed at ensuring that students make good use of their time while attending schools and also when out of classes. Homework and holiday assignments are the most common tasks that students are given when they are not in school to enhance their learning.

However, the debate continues to rage on regarding the importance of homework to students. The discussion below outlines the significance of homework to the development of the learning process of a student. Every human being has a unique ability to grasp various ideas and information depending on their age, exposure to different environments and levels of interests.

This makes it very impossible for every student to grasp all concepts being taught in class by their teachers. Therefore, when students are given homework, they can take time and study the concepts they did not understand during normal class time, and this makes them be at the same level with other students (Bader 12). Homework plays an important role in ensuring that students can learn at the same pace.

The fact that students have different abilities to memorize what they were taught means that their levels of learning differences and when they are given the same homework slow learners can catch up with fast learners, and this ensures they all stand equal chances of competing effectively.

Also, ninety percent of students are in their active stages of life, and therefore they like playing very much. These plays make students forget what they were taught during the day as their minds are occupied with games and other entertainment activities. When these students are given homework, they have limited time to attend to other activities like games and sports.

It is well known that all children and young adults like playing very much and when left idle they can spend the whole day playing at the expense of their education. Homework plays an important role in ensuring they are kept very busy and indulge in games only after they have finished their work.

Furthermore, homework enables students to make their studies and identify areas they did not understand very well. Sometimes students tend to cheat in their examinations and other class assignments by coping from others, and this earns them false grades.

However, when they are given homework they are not able to copy from their friends and in fact, they make all efforts to ensure they put their brains at work to answer all questions assigned (Bader 134). Therefore, teachers can identify areas that their students did not understand well and go over them again by organizing remedial classes.

Students are also able to identify topics that were not understood and seek the necessary assistance from their teachers. Moreover, homework enables students to be busy during their free time and avoid indulging in bad behavior. The fact that an idle mind gives way to irrational thinking should sound an alarm bell to all parents and students who shy away from homework.

When students are kept busy with homework, they will be in a position to avoid indulgence in bad behavior like drug abuse and premarital sex. When students are given homework, they get prepared for future career obligations that involve assignments and duties out of office.

This offers them an opportunity to develop the flexibility to time schedules and roles assigned in the future when they are employed. Also, they will be in a position to schedule their work programs effectively to meet all the demands of their jobs.

Lastly, homework enables students to read widely regarding other topics to be covered by their teachers. Assignments that are designed to give students an insight into their forthcoming topics makes them mentally prepared for other “hard topics,” and this makes them understand the concepts of such topics with ease (Bader 134).

Some homework is meant to break down complicated topics into subtopics that are easily covered and understood by students within the shortest time possible. Therefore, homework enables teachers and students to take the shortest time possible to handle complicated topics.

However, despite the above benefits associated with homework, there are other factors that make them ineffective in performing their intended roles in students’ developments. The first reason that disqualifies the suitability of homework to access student’s intelligence is the fact that in most cases homework assigned to students is not done by them.

Students ask their elder siblings to do their assignments for them as they sit and chat while watching television. When the teachers mark the assignments, they are pleased to note the outstanding performance by their students. However, the same students register low grades when examinations and assignments are done within the school compound.

Therefore, homework does not help teachers in assessing students’ understanding of various concepts. Also, it does not offer reliable criteria to test the students’ ability to remember and present the ideas learned from teachers. Secondly, students are usually very tired after spending the whole day in class and require time to relax and think of other things that may distract their attention from books for a while.

Over concentration on books and academic materials exposes the students to risks like developing obesity due to their inactiveness. It is known the world over that too much work without play or exercise makes an individual very dull and thus ineffective. Most students are usually between the ages of five years and twenty-seven, and they are still growing and developing (Bader 134).

For them to develop their physical fitness, they need time to indulge in sports and games to ensure their bodies get enough exercise. Moreover, the mind needs some time to reflect on other things and enable the brain and the blood vessels to relax as the student reduces pressure from thinking about school assignments and tests.

It is estimated that homework and other assignments are responsible for a huge percentage of causes of stress and depressions in many youths. This is due to the pressure to finish their homework in time and deliver quality results that drive most students to concentrate on them and ignore meals and stay awake the whole night.

Human beings have varying degrees of learning and memorizing, and thus homework helps students to ensure they do not forget what they were taught. It enables students and teachers to identify the study areas that need more attention. However, it should not compromise the students’ time to indulge in other equally beneficial activities like sleeping and exercising.

Works Cited

Bader, John. Dean’s List: Eleven Habits of Highly Successful College Students. Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Print.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, October 31). Why Homework Is So Important. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homework-significance/

"Why Homework Is So Important." IvyPanda , 31 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/homework-significance/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Why Homework Is So Important'. 31 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Why Homework Is So Important." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homework-significance/.

1. IvyPanda . "Why Homework Is So Important." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homework-significance/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Why Homework Is So Important." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homework-significance/.

• How to Help Children Study Well and Share Time?
• Students’ Performance and Progress Monitoring Table
• First Grade Behavior Management Plan
• Admission of International Students to the U.S. Universities
• Tone Impact in Distance Education
• The Legal Education of the School Official
• Public vs. Parochial Schools: The Principle Points of Conflict
• Self-Directed Learning Competence

Are You Down With or Done With Homework?

• Posted January 17, 2012
• By Lory Hough

The debate over how much schoolwork students should be doing at home has flared again, with one side saying it's too much, the other side saying in our competitive world, it's just not enough.

It was a move that doesn't happen very often in American public schools: The principal got rid of homework.

This past September, Stephanie Brant, principal of Gaithersburg Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Md., decided that instead of teachers sending kids home with math worksheets and spelling flash cards, students would instead go home and read. Every day for 30 minutes, more if they had time or the inclination, with parents or on their own.

"I knew this would be a big shift for my community," she says. But she also strongly believed it was a necessary one. Twenty-first-century learners, especially those in elementary school, need to think critically and understand their own learning — not spend night after night doing rote homework drills.

Brant's move may not be common, but she isn't alone in her questioning. The value of doing schoolwork at home has gone in and out of fashion in the United States among educators, policymakers, the media, and, more recently, parents. As far back as the late 1800s, with the rise of the Progressive Era, doctors such as Joseph Mayer Rice began pushing for a limit on what he called "mechanical homework," saying it caused childhood nervous conditions and eyestrain. Around that time, the then-influential Ladies Home Journal began publishing a series of anti-homework articles, stating that five hours of brain work a day was "the most we should ask of our children," and that homework was an intrusion on family life. In response, states like California passed laws abolishing homework for students under a certain age.

But, as is often the case with education, the tide eventually turned. After the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, a space race emerged, and, writes Brian Gill in the journal Theory Into Practice, "The homework problem was reconceived as part of a national crisis; the U.S. was losing the Cold War because Russian children were smarter." Many earlier laws limiting homework were abolished, and the longterm trend toward less homework came to an end.

The debate re-emerged a decade later when parents of the late '60s and '70s argued that children should be free to play and explore — similar anti-homework wellness arguments echoed nearly a century earlier. By the early-1980s, however, the pendulum swung again with the publication of A Nation at Risk , which blamed poor education for a "rising tide of mediocrity." Students needed to work harder, the report said, and one way to do this was more homework.

For the most part, this pro-homework sentiment is still going strong today, in part because of mandatory testing and continued economic concerns about the nation's competitiveness. Many believe that today's students are falling behind their peers in places like Korea and Finland and are paying more attention to Angry Birds than to ancient Babylonia.

But there are also a growing number of Stephanie Brants out there, educators and parents who believe that students are stressed and missing out on valuable family time. Students, they say, particularly younger students who have seen a rise in the amount of take-home work and already put in a six- to nine-hour "work" day, need less, not more homework.

Who is right? Are students not working hard enough or is homework not working for them? Here's where the story gets a little tricky: It depends on whom you ask and what research you're looking at. As Cathy Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework , points out, "Homework has generated enough research so that a study can be found to support almost any position, as long as conflicting studies are ignored." Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth and a strong believer in eliminating all homework, writes that, "The fact that there isn't anything close to unanimity among experts belies the widespread assumption that homework helps." At best, he says, homework shows only an association, not a causal relationship, with academic achievement. In other words, it's hard to tease out how homework is really affecting test scores and grades. Did one teacher give better homework than another? Was one teacher more effective in the classroom? Do certain students test better or just try harder?

"It is difficult to separate where the effect of classroom teaching ends," Vatterott writes, "and the effect of homework begins."

Putting research aside, however, much of the current debate over homework is focused less on how homework affects academic achievement and more on time. Parents in particular have been saying that the amount of time children spend in school, especially with afterschool programs, combined with the amount of homework given — as early as kindergarten — is leaving students with little time to run around, eat dinner with their families, or even get enough sleep.

Certainly, for some parents, homework is a way to stay connected to their children's learning. But for others, homework creates a tug-of-war between parents and children, says Liz Goodenough, M.A.T.'71, creator of a documentary called Where Do the Children Play?

"Ideally homework should be about taking something home, spending a few curious and interesting moments in which children might engage with parents, and then getting that project back to school — an organizational triumph," she says. "A nag-free activity could engage family time: Ask a parent about his or her own childhood. Interview siblings."

Instead, as the authors of The Case Against Homework write, "Homework overload is turning many of us into the types of parents we never wanted to be: nags, bribers, and taskmasters."

Leslie Butchko saw it happen a few years ago when her son started sixth grade in the Santa Monica-Malibu (Calif.) United School District. She remembers him getting two to four hours of homework a night, plus weekend and vacation projects. He was overwhelmed and struggled to finish assignments, especially on nights when he also had an extracurricular activity.

"Ultimately, we felt compelled to have Bobby quit karate — he's a black belt — to allow more time for homework," she says. And then, with all of their attention focused on Bobby's homework, she and her husband started sending their youngest to his room so that Bobby could focus. "One day, my younger son gave us 15-minute coupons as a present for us to use to send him to play in the back room. … It was then that we realized there had to be something wrong with the amount of homework we were facing."

Butchko joined forces with another mother who was having similar struggles and ultimately helped get the homework policy in her district changed, limiting homework on weekends and holidays, setting time guidelines for daily homework, and broadening the definition of homework to include projects and studying for tests. As she told the school board at one meeting when the policy was first being discussed, "In closing, I just want to say that I had more free time at Harvard Law School than my son has in middle school, and that is not in the best interests of our children."

One barrier that Butchko had to overcome initially was convincing many teachers and parents that more homework doesn't necessarily equal rigor.

"Most of the parents that were against the homework policy felt that students need a large quantity of homework to prepare them for the rigorous AP classes in high school and to get them into Harvard," she says.

Stephanie Conklin, Ed.M.'06, sees this at Another Course to College, the Boston pilot school where she teaches math. "When a student is not completing [his or her] homework, parents usually are frustrated by this and agree with me that homework is an important part of their child's learning," she says.

As Timothy Jarman, Ed.M.'10, a ninth-grade English teacher at Eugene Ashley High School in Wilmington, N.C., says, "Parents think it is strange when their children are not assigned a substantial amount of homework."

That's because, writes Vatterott, in her chapter, "The Cult(ure) of Homework," the concept of homework "has become so engrained in U.S. culture that the word homework is part of the common vernacular."

These days, nightly homework is a given in American schools, writes Kohn.

"Homework isn't limited to those occasions when it seems appropriate and important. Most teachers and administrators aren't saying, 'It may be useful to do this particular project at home,'" he writes. "Rather, the point of departure seems to be, 'We've decided ahead of time that children will have to do something every night (or several times a week). … This commitment to the idea of homework in the abstract is accepted by the overwhelming majority of schools — public and private, elementary and secondary."

Brant had to confront this when she cut homework at Gaithersburg Elementary.

"A lot of my parents have this idea that homework is part of life. This is what I had to do when I was young," she says, and so, too, will our kids. "So I had to shift their thinking." She did this slowly, first by asking her teachers last year to really think about what they were sending home. And this year, in addition to forming a parent advisory group around the issue, she also holds events to answer questions.

Still, not everyone is convinced that homework as a given is a bad thing. "Any pursuit of excellence, be it in sports, the arts, or academics, requires hard work. That our culture finds it okay for kids to spend hours a day in a sport but not equal time on academics is part of the problem," wrote one pro-homework parent on the blog for the documentary Race to Nowhere , which looks at the stress American students are under. "Homework has always been an issue for parents and children. It is now and it was 20 years ago. I think when people decide to have children that it is their responsibility to educate them," wrote another.

And part of educating them, some believe, is helping them develop skills they will eventually need in adulthood. "Homework can help students develop study skills that will be of value even after they leave school," reads a publication on the U.S. Department of Education website called Homework Tips for Parents. "It can teach them that learning takes place anywhere, not just in the classroom. … It can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility. Homework can teach children how to manage time."

Annie Brown, Ed.M.'01, feels this is particularly critical at less affluent schools like the ones she has worked at in Boston, Cambridge, Mass., and Los Angeles as a literacy coach.

"It feels important that my students do homework because they will ultimately be competing for college placement and jobs with students who have done homework and have developed a work ethic," she says. "Also it will get them ready for independently taking responsibility for their learning, which will need to happen for them to go to college."

The problem with this thinking, writes Vatterott, is that homework becomes a way to practice being a worker.

"Which begs the question," she writes. "Is our job as educators to produce learners or workers?"

Slate magazine editor Emily Bazelon, in a piece about homework, says this makes no sense for younger kids.

"Why should we think that practicing homework in first grade will make you better at doing it in middle school?" she writes. "Doesn't the opposite seem equally plausible: that it's counterproductive to ask children to sit down and work at night before they're developmentally ready because you'll just make them tired and cross?"

Kohn writes in the American School Board Journal that this "premature exposure" to practices like homework (and sit-and-listen lessons and tests) "are clearly a bad match for younger children and of questionable value at any age." He calls it BGUTI: Better Get Used to It. "The logic here is that we have to prepare you for the bad things that are going to be done to you later … by doing them to you now."

According to a recent University of Michigan study, daily homework for six- to eight-year-olds increased on average from about 8 minutes in 1981 to 22 minutes in 2003. A review of research by Duke University Professor Harris Cooper found that for elementary school students, "the average correlation between time spent on homework and achievement … hovered around zero."

So should homework be eliminated? Of course not, say many Ed School graduates who are teaching. Not only would students not have time for essays and long projects, but also teachers would not be able to get all students to grade level or to cover critical material, says Brett Pangburn, Ed.M.'06, a sixth-grade English teacher at Excel Academy Charter School in Boston. Still, he says, homework has to be relevant.

"Kids need to practice the skills being taught in class, especially where, like the kids I teach at Excel, they are behind and need to catch up," he says. "Our results at Excel have demonstrated that kids can catch up and view themselves as in control of their academic futures, but this requires hard work, and homework is a part of it."

Ed School Professor Howard Gardner basically agrees.

"America and Americans lurch between too little homework in many of our schools to an excess of homework in our most competitive environments — Li'l Abner vs. Tiger Mother," he says. "Neither approach makes sense. Homework should build on what happens in class, consolidating skills and helping students to answer new questions."

So how can schools come to a happy medium, a way that allows teachers to cover everything they need while not overwhelming students? Conklin says she often gives online math assignments that act as labs and students have two or three days to complete them, including some in-class time. Students at Pangburn's school have a 50-minute silent period during regular school hours where homework can be started, and where teachers pull individual or small groups of students aside for tutoring, often on that night's homework. Afterschool homework clubs can help.

Some schools and districts have adapted time limits rather than nix homework completely, with the 10-minute per grade rule being the standard — 10 minutes a night for first-graders, 30 minutes for third-graders, and so on. (This remedy, however, is often met with mixed results since not all students work at the same pace.) Other schools offer an extended day that allows teachers to cover more material in school, in turn requiring fewer take-home assignments. And for others, like Stephanie Brant's elementary school in Maryland, more reading with a few targeted project assignments has been the answer.

"The routine of reading is so much more important than the routine of homework," she says. "Let's have kids reflect. You can still have the routine and you can still have your workspace, but now it's for reading. I often say to parents, if we can put a man on the moon, we can put a man or woman on Mars and that person is now a second-grader. We don't know what skills that person will need. At the end of the day, we have to feel confident that we're giving them something they can use on Mars."

Read a January 2014 update.

Homework Policy Still Going Strong

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Related Articles

Commencement Marshal Sarah Fiarman: The Principal of the Matter

Making Math “Almost Fun”

Alum develops curriculum to entice reluctant math learners

Reshaping Teacher Licensure: Lessons from the Pandemic

Olivia Chi, Ed.M.'17, Ph.D.'20, discusses the ongoing efforts to ensure the quality and stability of the teaching workforce

Persuasive Essay Sample: Homework Should Not Be Required

Seven hours is a long time right? Now imagine you spend seven hours in school, then you have to go home and finish all your homework for the next class. Learning is great and sometimes even fun but homework after school can cause stress, anxiety, homework can prevent sleep, homework can be difficult to complete at home and teenagers need a balance between school and home. These reasons lead me to believe that homework does more harm than good and should not be required to get done.

Homework should not be required because it causes stress and anxiety. In the article  Heavy Homework Load May Be Detrimental to Health it says “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep.” (Moniuszko.) This shows that homework has a negative effect on a teenagers mental health. Some teenagers already struggle with mental health issues and adding the workload of homework could just make it worse for them. Is homework really more important than a person's mental health?

One important reason homework should not be required is because it can cut into teenagers' sleep schedule. “Sleep benefits the brain and promotes attention, memory and analytical thought. It makes thinking sharper, recognizing the most important information to consolidate learning. Sleep also facilitates expansive thinking 2 that can spur creativity3. Whether it’s studying for a test, learning an instrument, or acquiring job skills, sleep is essential for teens4..(Suni.) Sleep is crucial for the human mind to function especially for teenagers as their minds are developing. Homework can cut into a teenagers sleep schedule which can cause them to be tired in class not learning to the best of their ability, some could say that homework helps learn and memorize what you did in class that day but how are you supposed to remember what you did in class that day if you were tired. If homework was not required students wouldn't have to stay up late on an assignment and have a lack of sleep in the morning.

Personally, homework can become very overwhelming and I’m sure other students would agree with me on that. Not all homework is bad but it can cause anxiety. Not only can that be a problem for the student but it can also be hard for their parents.  “Homework anxiety is a condition in which students stress about and fear homework, often causing them to put homework off until later. It is a self-exacerbating condition because the longer the student puts off the homework, the more anxiety they feel about it, and the more pressure they experience to finish the work with less time. Homework anxiety can cripple some kids who are perfectly capable of doing the work, causing unfinished assignments and grades that slip.”(Tips for Minimizing the Homework Battle.) This can be a problem for the students because they may be very good at a subject but if they don't complete the homework it could reflect poorly on their grades. There might be a missing assignment in their grade book but teenagers not wanting to do the assignment isn't always the case, it can also be because of anxiety not requiring homework would just make life easier. 

Homework is a controversial topic should homework be required or should it not? Although homework can be helpful sometimes, there needs to be a balance between school work and home. In the article Pilling Homework on Kids Is a Mistake That Undermines Work/Life balance it says “Even before I realized years ago that my students were not deriving much, if anything, of educational value from homework, I could never grade homework assignments equitably, because each student's homework was being attempted in home environments that could be vastly different.” (Geoff.) For example Teenagers who have activities after school have less time to get their homework done compared to teens who have nothing to do after school. You also have to keep in consideration that Teens also need to sleep, eat and spend time with family and friends. This is why homework shouldnt be required because there should be a healthy balance for it all. 

I would also like to add that after school activities are not the only reason homework can be hard to get done for students.The environment where a student is doing homework has a part ot play “Some parents simply did not have space available at home to set up quiet spaces where students could focus on their work uninterrupted by the distractions common to every household.”(Geoff.) It could be hard for parents to help their kids with homework if they're working or taking care of their younger children. It could also be hard for them to help with homework if they don't know how to do it. Also phones and other electronics can be distracting at home because there's not that expectation to be working the whole time which can cause homework not to get done. There are many more reasons a student's environment could prevent them from finishing homework. Everyone's environment is different and there's a difference between a school environment and  a homes environment. It can be difficult to have that type of learning environment at home which makes homework hard for students. This is why it shouldn't be required. 

After school students should have free time to wind down and give their brains a break “Emer O'Connor says homework for her children will "typically take an hour". "Although teachers say the homework should only take a short amount of time, this is not my experience. The children are tired and distracted.”(Hogan.) The truth of the matter is that homework can take a long time to complete. The homework we have to do may not be too hard but it can be distracting when completing it which could cause the homework to last longer and students could end up putting little effort into. In this case I feel like boundaries should be put in place because homework taking an hour or more is ridiculous when we might not be checking it over in class anyways so we won't get the chance to correct our mistakes.

In conclusion, homework should not be required because homework can affect your mental health badly, everyone has a different home environment and might not be able to complete it at home, homework can take time away from a good night's sleep, and there needs to be a boundary between school and home. These reasons prove that homework does more harm than good and shouldnt be required.

Works Cited

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Publication, Day Month Year. Database Title, URL. Accessed day month year. 

Sleep for Teenagers | Sleep Foundation

https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/homework-anxiety-explained

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2521204097?accountid=9496

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2564234859?accountid=9496

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2578243016?accountid=9496

Related Samples

• Admission Essay: Homestead Sports Medicine
• Masters of Foreign Language Teaching Program: Reflective Essay Example
• Benefits of Reading Every Night Essay Example
• Too Much Homework Research Paper Sample
• Admission Essay Sample: University of Wisconsin-River Falls
• College Costs Essay Sample
• What I learned in the Lab Biology. Informative Essay Example
• EPFL Admission Essay Sample
• Schools Should Start Later Essay Example
• Homework Should Be Limited Essay Example

Didn't find the perfect sample?

You can order a custom paper by our expert writers

💻 Upcoming Live Webinar With Cofounder John Hollingsworth | Thursday, 5/16 at 1 PM PDT | Learn More

• Staff Portal
• Consultant Portal

Toll Free 1-800-495-1550

Local 559-834-2449

• Articles & Books
• Explicit Direct Instruction
• Student Engagement
• Checking for Understanding
• ELD Instruction
• About Our Company
• DataWORKS as an EMO
• About Our Professional Development
• English Learner PD
• Schedule a Webinar
• Homework or No Homework
• Research Review

TO GIVE OR NOT TO GIVE HOMEWORK…That is the question!

The amount of homework students are given differs greatly across grade levels and states. Some students are given hours of work while other students are assigned little or no work to be done at home.

So what’s appropriate? What is the purpose of homework? What are the advantages and disadvantages of homework? How much homework should be assigned? How important is the quality of the assignments? And most importantly: Does homework increase student achievement?

These questions represent the ongoing debate surrounding homework for the past two decades. According to a survey by the University of Michigan , homework has doubled over the last twenty years, especially in the younger grades, due to the school’s requirement to meet higher-than-ever achievement goals for children. Although homework has academic and non-academic advantages and disadvantages, the majority of studies conducted reveal inconclusive evidence that assigning homework increases student achievement. Most studies show positive effects for certain students, others suggest no effects, and some even suggest negative effects according to research by Alfie Kohn , an independent scholar (2006).

Let’s begin with the purpose of homework…

Educators assign homework for different reasons and purposes. Homework is assigned either as practice , preparation , extension , or integration of grade-level skills and concepts.

PRACTICE HOMEWORK reinforces learning from the skills and concepts already taught in the classroom. Practice homework promotes retention and automaticity of the concept , skill, and content taught. Examples include practicing multiplication facts or writing simple sentences in order to commit theses skills and concepts to long-term memory .

PREPARATION HOMEWORK is assigned to introduce content that will be addressed in future lessons. However, research suggests that homework is less effective if it is used to teach new or complex skills. For these types of assignments, students typically become stressed which can create a negative perspective towards learning and school.

EXTENSION HOMEWORK requires students to use previously taught skills and concepts and apply them to new situations or projects. For instance, students may use the concept of area and perimeter to build a flowerbed.

INTEGRATION HOMEWORK requires the student to apply learned skills and concepts to produce a single project like reading a book and writing a report on it.

Homework also serves other purposes not directly related to instruction. Homework can help establish communication between parents and children; it can be used as a form of discipline; and it can inform parents about school topics and activities.

The Homework Debate

The homework debate often focuses on how and why homework affects student learning and achievement. Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology, and colleagues (2006) found there are both positive and negative consequences of homework.

The Benefits

Homework provides practice with content, concepts, and skills taught at school by the teacher. It can foster retention and understanding of the academic content. Some studies suggest that homework correlates with student achievement. Cooper, Robinson, and Patall (2006) discovered a positive correlation between the amount of the homework students do and their achievement at the secondary level. Some studies also suggest that assigning homework improves the achievement of low-performing students and students in low-performing schools. However, the correlation between student achievement and homework given to elementary students is inconclusive. Most research only supports homework for middle and high school students (Cooper 1989a; Kohn 2006).

There are also non-academic reasons for assigning homework. Corno and Xu (2004) discovered that homework fosters independence, develops time-management skills, and teaches responsibility. Assigning homework to primary age students can establish better study habits and skills for secondary education (Bempechat, 2004). Homework promotes a positive attitude towards school and keeps families informed about their child’s learning.

The Potential Harm

Homework also has negative associations. It can lead to boredom if the student has already mastered the skills, and it can lead to loss of interest in school due to burnout.  Cheating is involved with homework by either copying another student’s work or when help is received from adults in an attempt to finish all the assignments.  Also, assigning excessive amounts of homework may result in unneeded stress and pressure on the child, which affects the student’s emotions, behaviors, thinking ability, and physical health.

The correlation between homework and student achievement is inconsistent. In The Battle Over Homework , Cooper determined that the average correlation between the time primary children spent on homework and achievement was around zero. Not to mention, the amount of homework completed had no effect on test scores.  David Baker and Gerald  LeTendre, professors of education at Penn State , found that countries that assign minimal amounts of homework, like Japan, were the most successful school systems compared to Greece and Iran school systems where students are given a lot of work.

Another concern surrounding homework is its interference with the student’s time to relax and take their minds off work as well as family time. Students are spending too much time completing homework assignments instead of playing outside or enjoying leisure activities, which teach and enhance important life skills.

In addition, homework decreases the time spent with family. As Alfie Kohn states in The Homework Myth , “ Why should children be asked to work a second shift? It’s unconscionable to send children to work for nearly eight hours a day, then have them go home and work for 2-5 more hours. Secondly, it reduces the amount of time that children could be spending with their families. Family time is especially important to a growing child and without it social problems can crop up and a family unit can be compromised by a lack of time being spent together .”

The Amount of Homework

The frequency and duration of each assignment does not necessarily suggest a correlation between homework and student achievement. “ We found that for kids in elementary school there was hardly any relationship between how much homework young children did and how well they were doing in school, but in middle school the relationship is positive and increases until the kids were doing between an hour to two hours a night, which is right where the 10-minute rule says it’s going to be optimal,” stated Harris Cooper. The 10-minute rule was created by the National PTA which suggests 10 minutes per a grade should be assigned (e.g., 70 minutes for 7 th grade). “After that it didn’t go up anymore. Kids that reported doing more than two hours of homework in middle school weren’t doing any better in school than kids who were doing between an hour to two hours ,” said Harris Cooper.

Quantity Versus Quality

Effective homework is homework with a purpose. According to Cooper, some teachers assign ‘shotgun homework’ : blanket drills, questions, and problems. Students are given homework that is not furthering the concepts and skills. The homework is assigned because it has been drilled into our collective mind that homework produces higher performing students. However, homework is most effective when it covers material already taught, is given for review, or is used to reinforce skills previously learned. Students should not be assigned homework on concepts and skills they do not grasp.

DataWORKS Educational Research recommends assigning homework to provide additional repetitions of the content to promote retention and automaticity . The reason for homework is to practice the content, NOT to learn the content.  Students learn the content (skills and concepts) from the lesson taught at school. Students need to be able to complete the work at home without assistance because some students do not have an English-speaking parents or guardians to help them.

In conclusion, research is inconsistent in determining if homework increases student achievement. As educators, the amount, frequency, and the purpose should be considered prior to assigning homework. Homework should be used effectively! Instead of the quantity of homework, educators should improve the quality of the assignments. Homework assignments must be well-designed.  So, when assigning homework, please consider the effectiveness of it, homework should positively impact the student learning. Otherwise, the debate about homework will continue without an answer – to give or not to give !

Kohn, Alfie (2007). Rethinking Homework .

Kohn, Alfie.   The Homework Myth:  Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing  (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2006).

Cooper, H. (1989).  Homework.  White Plains, NY: Longman.

Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research .  1987–2003.  Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1–62.

What is your stance on homework? What do you think is an appropriate amount of homework? Why do you assign homework? Please share your experiences in the comment section below.

Author:  patricia bogdanovich.

Patricia has held various positions with DataWORKS since 2002. She currently works as a Curriculum Specialist. Patricia helped develop and create many of the early resources and workshops designed by DataWORKS, and she is an expert in analysis of standards. Patricia plans to blog about curriculum and assessments for CCSS and NGSS, classroom strategies, and news and research from the world of education.

Related posts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

English Compositions

Short Essay on Importance of Homework [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

Our today’s session is targeted to discuss writing essays on the topic of the ‘Importance of Homework.’ Here, you will have a holistic idea after going through three different sets of essays on this topic covering different word limits.

Table of Contents

Short essay on importance of homework in 100 words, short essay on importance of homework in 200 words, short essay on importance of homework in 400 words.

Homework is the work that students get assigned to do at home. It can often include going through the chapters that have already been taught at school, answering questions related to those chapters as well as writing assignments to increase one’s knowledge. Doing homework is very important because it helps students understand chapters better.

It makes them memorise important details and realise if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. It can also improve their reading and writing skills. If students don’t practice at home, they may forget whatever they have been taught in class. However, it is important to not give students too much homework. Excessive homework can burden young kids, making them lose their interest in learning. When given in the right amount, homework helps a student learn and perform better. 

Students often get a lot of classwork as well as homework to do. Classwork is the work students do in class while homework is the work that students are asked to do at home. Usually, homework includes going through whatever has been taught in class and answering questions related to the same. It can also include making students read a chapter that is meant to be taught in class next.

This helps students understand the chapter better and see if they are able to understand new concepts by themselves. Practising at home also improves their reading and writing skills. It makes them memorise important details and realise if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. 

Sometimes, students complain about getting too much homework. Excessive homework can burden young kids and make them lose interest in learning. Even if they finish all the work, they may do it just for the sake of finishing it instead of trying to learn in the process. It is important to give students the right amount of homework that may help them learn better without burdening them or stressing them out.

Students also must understand that doing homework is important and benefits them. It makes them memorise important details and realise if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. Homework makes students learn and perform better. This in turn helps them secure good grades. 

When students go to schools or colleges to study, they are often given a lot of classwork and homework. Classwork is the work students do in class while homework is the work that students are assigned to do at home. Teachers usually explain new chapters to students in class and show them how to solve problems. But a class is at most an hour long and one cannot practice a lot in an hour.

For this reason, students are given assignments to do at home. Homework can include going through the chapters that have already been taught at school, answering questions related to those chapters as well as writing assignments to increase one’s knowledge. Sometimes, teachers also ask students to read a chapter at home before it is taught in class. This helps students understand the chapter better and see if they are able to understand new concepts by themselves. 

Practising at home improves the reading and writing skills of students. It also helps them memorise important details and understand if they have any doubts regarding the chapters. At times, students complain about getting a lot of homework and do not want to do it. Too much homework can often burden children and make them lose interest in learning new things.

Even if they finish all the work, they may do it just for the sake of doing it instead of trying to learn something from it. This would then make homework meaningless. Students should have the time to play and engage in other fun activities apart from studying, or else they may feel dull and sad. It is important to give students the right amount of homework so that it doesn’t burden them. 

Students must also understand that doing homework is important for them and benefits them. If they want to understand and learn a chapter better, they must do their homework diligently. If they want to perform well in tests and examinations, homework prepares them for that as well. Since there is no teacher to discipline the student when he does the homework given to him, it also develops a sense of personality responsibility and discipline in the student.

He must control his urges to go play outdoors or get busy on his computer and focus on doing the homework. It also helps him develop time management skills as he needs to finish the work assigned to him in a limited amount of time. All of these things help students develop good habits and skills that help them throughout their lives. 

In this session, I have tried to write the essays in very simple language that all kinds of students can easily understand. If you still have any doubts post them in the comment section below. Keep browsing our website for more such sessions. 

Connect us on Telegram to get all the latest updates on our upcoming sessions. Thank you. 

• Writing Correction
• Online Prep Platform
• Online Course
• Speaking Assessment
• Ace The IELTS
• Target Band 7
• Practice Tests Downloads
• IELTS Success Formula
• Essays Band 9 IELTS Writing Task 2 samples – IELTS Band 9 essays
• Essays Band 8 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS essays of Band 8
• Essays Band 7 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS essays of Band 7
• Essays Band 6 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS essays of Band 6
• Essays Band 5 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS essays of Band 5
• Reports Band 9 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS reports of Band 9 (Academic Writing Task 1)
• Reports Band 8 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS reports of Band 8
• Reports Band 7 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS reports of Band 7
• Letters Band 9 IELTS Writing Task 1 – samples of IELTS letters of Band 9
• Letters Band 8 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS letters of Band 8
• Letters Band 7 IELTS Writing – samples of IELTS letters of Band 7
• Speaking Samples
• Tests Samples
• 2023, 2024 IELTS questions
• 2022 IELTS questions
• 2021 IELTS questions
• 2020 IELTS questions
• High Scorer’s Advice IELTS high achievers share their secrets
• IELTS Results Competition
• IELTS-Blog App

IELTS essay, topic: Should school children be given homework (opinion)?

• IELTS Essays - Band 9

This is a model response to a Writing Task 2 topic from High Scorer’s Choice IELTS Practice Tests book series (reprinted with permission). This answer is close to IELTS Band 9.

Set 5 Academic book, Practice Test 21

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people believe that homework should not be given to school children. Others, however, say that homework is an important requirement for children to be able to develop appropriately. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Sample Band 9 Essay

The benefits of giving or not giving homework to children are often debated. Some people feel that children have enough work to do during one day whilst at school, whereas others feel that the more work set, the better.

It is true that schools today place more and more demands and pressure on children. The competition to do well, to enter a good university and to get a good job is significant. This has led to the ideology that children should do as much schoolwork as possible in order to help their intellectual development. The argument, however, that more is better is not always valid. There comes a point, especially for a child, when more knowledge cannot be absorbed in a day. When a child has possibly 7 or 8 classes a day on different subjects, he or she is processing a lot of information already. To give more work to be done at home, therefore, would be pointless and even counterproductive. In addition to this, although it is important to be educated, childhood should also be a time when there is an opportunity to just play and enjoy unstructured time. Homework can significantly lessen the possibilities of doing this.

On the other hand, it can be argued that there is a place for homework. If study at school is not overdone, the opportunity to look at work again and extend ideas can be an invaluable exercise. It’s easy to forget one thing that has been taught once, but if that concept is revisited a second time, the brain has time to reprocess and likely better understand and remember.

It seems to me that there is a place for homework for today’s children. What must be remembered, though, is that homework needs to be limited to age-appropriate parameters, so that a balance can be struck between study and free time and relaxation.

Go here for more IELTS Band 9 Essays

Related posts:

• IELTS essay, topic: Some parents think that children must do house chores (opinion) This is a model response to a Writing Task 2...
• IELTS essay, topic: Is using physical force to discipline children acceptable (opinion)? This is a model response to a Writing Task 2...
• IELTS essay, topic: Is studying at university better than getting a job straight after school (opinion)? This is a model response to a Writing Task 2...
• IELTS essay, topic: Who should discipline the children, parents or the government? (discuss + opinion) This essay topic was seen in a recent IELTS test...
• IELTS essay, topic: Should boys and girls be educated separately (opinion)? This is a model response to a Writing Task 2...

4 thoughts on “IELTS essay, topic: Should school children be given homework (opinion)?”

Thank you for the sample essays.very educative

You’re welcome, I am glad our essays are useful!

Its an amazig sample answer and help me a lot to gain ideas about this topic and improve my wroting skills also

Keep up the good work, Harshdeep! It’s also a good idea to write down some vocabulary from the model answer and then try and use it in your own essay on this topic. Make sure you know how to use the new words though!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

IELTS Practice.Org

IELTS Practice Tests and Preparation Tips

• Sample Essays

IELTS essay: Should children be given homework?

by Manjusha Nambiar · Published November 22, 2015 · Updated April 23, 2024

Essay topic

Why do you think teachers give homework to students? How important is it for students to have homework? Perhaps homework should be abolished. Give your opinion about this. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge and experience.

Sample essay

Teachers give homework to ensure that students revise their lessons at home. This aids the process of learning. However, if too much homework is given, it will put students under tremendous pressure and affect their performance in school. This, however, does not mean that homework should be abolished. Instead, teachers should be advised to give less homework so that students will have enough time to engage in activities that keep them relaxed and entertained.

A lot of parents support homework but that is not surprising. Students who complete their homework seem to have better grades. This clearly shows that homework helps children assimilate the knowledge they acquired from school. Homework also encourages students to complete their work neatly and correctly within the timeframe allotted. This will definitely help them to grow into disciplined adults who can meet deadlines.

On the flip side, the practice of giving homework has its disadvantages. Now many teachers burden students with excessive homework. They forget that students need time to play with their friends, watch television or go out with their parents. Children spend several hours in the classroom. They need a break from books at least when they reach home. Many students now stay up late to complete their homework. When they reach school the next day they find it difficult to concentrate on their studies. This affects their academic performance.

There is yet another argument against excessive homework. Academic performance cannot be the only yardstick of excellence. Children need to develop well-rounded personalities. This wouldn’t be possible if they do not get time to focus on extra-curricular activities.

To conclude, I don’t think that abolishing homework will help students or teachers. Homework helps children master several skills they need for success in life. However, teachers need to ensure that they are not burdening students with excessive work.

Tags: ielts sample essay

Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.

• Next story  IELTS essay: Are younger employees more valuable than older employees?
• Previous story  IELTS essay about people wearing clothes of the same kind

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Academic Writing Task 1
• Agree Or Disagree
• Band 7 essay samples
• Band 8 Essay Samples
• Band 8 letter samples
• Band 9 IELTS Essays
• Discuss Both Views
• Grammar exercises
• IELTS Writing
• Learn English
• OET Letters
• Sample Letters
• Writing Tips

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

IELTS Practice

Home — Essay Samples — Education — Homework — Discussion On Whether Homework Is Really Necessary For Students

Discussion on Whether Homework is Really Necessary for Students

• Categories: Homework Student

About this sample

Words: 701 |

Published: Oct 11, 2018

Words: 701 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

• Homework contributes to a corporate-style, competitive U. S. culture that overvalues work to the detriment of personal and familial well-being.
• Too much homework harms students’ health and family time.
• Teachers are not well trained in how to assign homework.
• Economically disadvantaged students are unintentionally penalized because their environments make it difficult to complete assignments at home.
• Homework should only be assigned if teachers can justify that the assignments are beneficial. One homework fact that educators do agree upon is that the young child today is doing more homework than ever before.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof. Kifaru

Verified writer

• Expert in: Education

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 552 words

3 pages / 1225 words

1 pages / 591 words

1 pages / 630 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Completing assignments on time transcends the realm of punctuality; it is an embodiment of dedication, accountability, and effective time management. The importance of this practice extends beyond the classroom, influencing [...]

Homework has been a longstanding tradition in education, serving as a tool for reinforcing classroom learning, developing study habits, and promoting independent thinking. However, it has also been a subject of debate, with [...]

Homework has long been a controversial topic in education, with some arguing that it is essential for reinforcing learning and developing crucial skills, while others believe it can be detrimental to students' well-being and [...]

Homework has long been a contentious topic in education, with opinions divided on its benefits and drawbacks. While some argue that homework is a necessary tool for reinforcing classroom learning and promoting academic success, [...]

Education has been crucial in the formation of our society, and so has homework. Homework has been around since public schooling was invented, and thus, it’s a rarely questioned practice. However, homework has fallen under [...]

No homework policy by our government had a greater help in building stronger student-parents relation because no homework policy is privilege to them it has pleasant impact in each part of family especially for the student. [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

• Writing services
• Proofreading
• Math/Science
• Copywriting
• Dissertation services
• Admission services
• Our Writers

Too Much Homework Persuasive Essay

Table of contents:

• Introduction
• Body paragraphs

Homework can be such a controversial topic. Teachers apparently love to give it, students hate to receive it, and parents are often confused by it. When you sit down to write a persuasive essay, which you were presumably given as homework, it can be very tempting to say that we should just get rid of all homework completely.

However, make sure you’re considering the nuances of the situation. There are both disadvantages and advantages to homework, and your teacher or professor may not love giving you homework as much as you think they do. After all, they presumably have to grade it, taking up valuable hours of their free time. Try considering the case for less or no homework from the teacher’s perspective. What pros or cons would they see homework having?

Start your essay with an attention-grabbing hook. You should also make clear who your audience is from the start. Then move on to lay out your statement of purpose, or thesis, which explains the aim you are trying to achieve. Any titles you are considering should reflect your thesis, as well.

Introduction examples

Introduction: Teachers! Abolish homework and reclaim your evenings for yourselves. Why struggle under the burden of grading thirty students’ excuses for essays when you could be out having fun?

Introduction: Should students have homework? The latest studies into student health say they should have much less. When teachers give too much homework, it’s very stressful for young minds, who should be free to enjoy themselves and grow up naturally without worries and stress.

The body of your essay, then, consists of your persuasive points backed up with your arguments. These can be emotional or evidence-based. When you’re thinking about your audience, it’s important to consider what sort of appeal will work better on them. Is an audience of teachers going to see right through your heartfelt emotional appeal? Perhaps they would respond better to hard evidence showing the disadvantages of homework.

Body paragraphs examples

Body: Parents’ help with homework is another reason to avoid assigning too much. If children are confused, they will simply go to their parents, who frequently end up doing most of the homework for them. It’s far better to thoroughly learn with supervision from a teacher, with most or all of the work done in class. When teachers assign too much to be done every evening, it just stresses students out and makes the situation where parents do the work inevitable.

Your conclusion is pretty much your last chance to persuade your audience, so save your best zinger for the end. Close with a brief summary of your points, followed by calling your audience to action of some kind, even if it’s just to have a different perspective on the topic.

Conclusion examples

Conclusion: Homework should be reduced, although it should not be banned altogether, and children should do the vast majority of their work during school lessons. That’s better for teachers, better for parents, and better for students. So next time you plan your lessons, be sure to consider what’s best.

• Essay samples
• Infographics
• Essay writing
• Crafting a Powerful Essay on Political Polarization
• Oral Health Overview Essay: Preventing Tooth Decay in Australia
• How to Write a Good Expository Essay About Macbeth
• How to Write An Expository Essay About Love
• How to Write a Great Expository Essay About Life

Price per page

Total price:

Limitless Amendments

Bibliography

Plagiarism Report

Get all these features for A$93.12 FREE

If you don't know exactly what type of paper you need or can't find the necessary one on the website - don't worry! Contact us and we'll help you out!

• Terms of Use
• Money Back Guarantee
• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Write My Essay
• Custom Essay
• Essay Writer
• Do My Essay
• Type My Essay
• Pay For Essay
• Cheap Essay
• Write My Paper
• Write My Assignment
• Assignment Writer
• Buy Assignment
• Assignment Help
• Do My Assignment
• Nursing Essay Writing Service
• Management Essay
• Business Essay
• Law Essay Writing Service
• Education Essay Service
• Marketing Essay
• Accounting Essay
• Sociology Essay

Before continuing to use our service please make sure you got acquainted with our Cookie Policy and accepted it by clicking OK

• Taylor Swift announces new album: The Tortured Poets Department
• T2D/IR: Student voices and a final summation
• T2D and IR: Bioethics, pharmaceutical industry corruption
• T2D and IR: SAD, the food pyramid, cafeteria lunches
• T2D and IR: Prevention, reversal, lifestyle changes
• Opinion/Editorial

Pros and Cons of making homework optional

Pro Catherine Gagulashvili  calendar manager Not doing anything is so much easier than doing something. By nature, students would rather avoid doing strenuous amounts of homework, simply because it’s less taxing. When given the option to not do homework on a daily basis, the average student may leap at the opportunity to slack off. They would do that without taking into account the fact that being assigned optional homework is one of the most academically potent opportunities a high school student can be offered. Homework should be made optional because it teaches students to be held accountable for their actions. The daily, mandatory assignment of homework is something that should be enforced and practiced throughout elementary and middle school, but should slowly be phased out once a student graduates to high school. Once a student enters high school, he or she should be prepared to let go of the culture that comforted and guided them through elementary and middle school; it’s time to grow up. Simply put, making homework optional further prepares students on the path of expectations in college and in life. Optional homework should be viewed as an opportunity to pace oneself and to practice what needs to be practiced. If a student excels in a subject without needing extra practice, why force him or her to do that extra homework for the sake of simply going through the motions? If a student has clearly mastered an academic skill or an ability, it is pointless and counterproductive to force him or her to overpractice. By making homework a mandatory assignment, teachers force their students to waste their time on something that might be redundant. Assigning optional homework allows the student to better his or her time management skills. Considering that the average high school student receives 3.5 hours of homework per day , the opportunity to receive optional homework allows students to properly prioritize their work and maximize their time. It allows for flexibility in a student’s life. For students who balance six to seven academic classes and have a sport, having optional homework allows them to spread out their assignments over a longer period of time. If taken advantage of properly , optional homework forces the student to budget his or her time, allocating the right amount of study time for each assignment. In addition, it allows the student to work at his or her own pace. The assignment of optional homework has been used on Beverly’s campus. Geometry and IAT teacher Dustin Mathias assigns optional homework, or as he calls them, “suggested problems” in his classroom. He has found that suggested problems give students more options, teach them how to be responsible and force them to “be honest with themselves and what they need to do.” By no means is one to assume that every student will do his or her homework if it isn’t mandatory. The goal is to have students realize that they have to do the work even if no one is watching. College professors don’t check to see if each student did the reading: they give a final.  High school has a more hands-on approach to learning, but as students transition to being upperclassmen, they need to realize that they are required to dedicate a certain amount of time and energy to a class, regardless if it’s in the form of doing their homework, studying, taking notes or paying attention in class. The average student may view optional homework as an opportunity to slack off, completely disregarding the fact that by doing so, they are setting themselves up for failure. After graduating high school, the student will likely fail to realize that tasks need to be completed not because they need someone else’s approval, but because otherwise failure will await them at every turn. Not doing any homework and failing a test is the equivalent of not doing work at the job and getting fired. No one should have to consistently tell one to do his or her job; one should know one’s responsibility to accomplish goals independently in a satisfactory and timely manner. While both mandatory and optional homework assignments have their pros and cons, some find that mandatory homework does more harm than good. C hild education, parenting and human behavior expert Alfie Kohn finds that “There [is] simply no compelling data to justify the practice of making kids work what amounts to a second shift when they get home from a full day of school.” While Kohn takes it to the extreme opinion by stating “no homework should be the norm,” he brings up the valid point that the assignment of  mandatory homework forces a student to spend his or her entire day focused on academics. Some students will not thrive in an atmosphere that forces them to be held accountable for their actions. But hopefully, if they are forced to deal with the real world consequences for long enough, they will come to realize what their voluntary obligations are. If every class continues to assign homework that is checked on a daily basis, students will not be prepared for college and for life. Assigning optional homework is the stepping-stone through which students learn to be held accountable for their decisions, work and actions. Con Sam Bernstein staff writer Homework needs to be mandatory. It is a fact that students do better after completing homework at home. It’s a fact that students do better when homework is mandatory. There is no reason at all to make homework optional. Not giving credit to those that complete homework nightly is also unfair. With admission into college getting more and more competitive, students need every point they can get. Completing assignments and not getting points for them is absurd and only hurts students chances of getting into the college. Homework points can be the difference between a B and an A for some students, and it hurts students  It’s simply wasting students’ time that they could be spending completing assignments that count for points in other classes. If a kid is willing to put in the work to get an A, teachers should reward them. “The school needs to think about everybody, and if homework was not mandatory, some students who are doing below average would do worse if they had an option to do even less,” sophomore Colin Newberry said. This is school. In real life you’ll lose credibility for not completing tasks. School should be a model of what real life is and what real life will be, as it is a developmental place. Teens need to know responsibility, and having a responsibility to complete homework teaches young minds how to have jobs in the future. Homework is the most basic form of this responsibility. Homework is graded for a reason. Students work hard to complete daily assignments and deserve credit for doing so. Not getting credit for homework is like waiting a table and not getting a tip. If a student is willing to put work into your class, they deserve credit. It’s also a way to give credit for efforts in a class. Students that don’t happen to be good test takers should have another way to make up points lost. “I wouldn’t do the homework without an incentive such as a grade,” freshman Eva Levin said. Other students could attest to that. “If there’s no mandatory studying or homework to be done, then most won’t care about it because is doesn’t affect their grade whether or not they do it,” freshman Nathan Naghi said. Cutting corners is human nature. “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it,” Bill Gates said.  If optional homework has to be cut for students to spend an extra hour on other studying, they’ll do it. By not doing homework, there’s no way to assess how your knowledge of the subject is growing. Sitting in a class for 53 minutes cannot possibly give you enough understanding of a subject to take anything away from it. Homework fundamentally exists to remind students what they learned in class by providing practice problems similar to those on future assessments. By not helping students out in this regard, teachers are setting students up for failure. By encouraging students with points, both students and teachers can spend less time on review and on more time exploring new concepts. “Homework is designed specifically to complement the lessons taught by teachers during class. Sometimes the lessons lack in class, forcing students to essentially teach themselves at home, further reiterating the cruciality of homework,” junior Ethan Manaster said. Not every student has the diligence to sit at a desk and study at their own will. Students do, however, have the diligence to complete homework for points. And by encouraging students through rewards, they’ll learn from the homework they’re forced to do. By teaching students the rewards of being dedicated at getting better  with challenges in life, they’re better prepared to go off into the job force and make a true impact. Students could absolutely be hard working and do their own studying at their own pace. Nobody is getting anywhere by blindly distrusting students. But by giving students guidance in their studying, you’re doing them a solid. Teachers have been to college and are professionally trained to work with young minds. They know what to assign you and how to assign it. They know what’s on their tests and they know how much practice needs to happen outside of class to reach your highest potential on those said tests. Teachers aren’t just there to provide Kahoot codes and to yell at you for sliding into Sarahahs in class. Their purpose is to guide you. By not enabling teachers to guide students, you’re taking away from the purpose of a teacher’s’ job; to teach. By restricting the work teachers can get their students to do, you’re diminishing from the amount of content teachers can teach in a semester. Teachers can go faster when nearly everyone in the class is completing homework. By making homework optional, teachers can not reach their maximum potential with classes. Students, teachers and everyone in between cannot function at their highest potential without assigning mandatory homework.

• beverly hills high school
• Catherine Gagulashvili
• mandatory homework
• optional homework
• sam bernstein

Your donation will support the student journalists of Beverly Hills High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

The Student News Site of Beverly Hills High School

Comments (1)

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Emma • Feb 26, 2023 at 12:02 pm

Five days a week for almost nine months, students spend almost their entire day at school learning concepts and doing tedious work. Even after school, they go home and do even more work. According to College Homework Help, in the year 1905, homework was invented as a punishment for kids. Yet for some reason, it is now assigned almost every night. Homework can be boring, unnecessary, and sometimes just busy work for most students. Therefore, optional homework should be implemented in order to provide the extra practice for those who want it, without penalizing those who do not.

Some people believe that school children should not be given homework....(IELTS Band 9 Sample Essay)

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people believe that school children should not be given homework by their teachers, whereas others argue that homework plays an important role in the education of children.

Discuss both of these views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and experiences.

You should write at least 250 words.

Get your personalised   IELTS Essay Feedback  from a former examiner

Download IELTS eBooks ,   get everything you need to achieve a high band score

Sample Essay 1

The debate surrounding homework in schools polarizes educators, parents, and policymakers. On one hand, some argue that homework is an unnecessary burden on students, stifling their natural curiosity and imposing undue stress. On the other, proponents believe homework is indispensable in reinforcing classroom learning, fostering discipline, and preparing students for the rigors of academic and professional life. This essay will explore both perspectives, ultimately endorsing the nuanced role homework plays in education.

Critics of homework posit that after hours spent in classrooms, requiring students to engage in additional academic tasks is both counterproductive and detrimental to their well-being. They emphasize the importance of leisure time in a child's development, arguing that pursuits such as play, family interaction, and rest are equally vital for holistic growth. For instance, the Finnish education system, renowned for minimal homework yet high student performance, exemplifies this philosophy, suggesting that quality trumps quantity in educational practice.

Conversely, supporters of homework underscore its benefits in consolidating knowledge, promoting self-discipline, and bridging the gap between home and school. Homework assignments provide a platform for revisiting and reinforcing classroom teachings, enabling students to master complex concepts through repetition and practice. Furthermore, tasks assigned for home completion foster time management and independent problem-solving skills, qualities imperative for success beyond school. A notable example is Singapore, where rigorous homework is credited for its students' top rankings in international assessments.

In conclusion, while the debate on homework's efficacy continues, it's clear that its value depends on its application and context. Overburdening students with excessive homework can be counterproductive, yet judiciously assigned tasks that reinforce learning can be immensely beneficial. Therefore, a balanced approach, recognizing the importance of leisure alongside academic rigors, is essential. Schools should strive for homework that enriches students' learning experience without overshadowing the joys and discoveries of childhood.

Sample Essay 2

Debates regarding the necessity of homework in the education system continue to persist. While some individuals opine that homework adds to the stress and strain faced by students, others argue that it plays a pivotal role in their academic development. Although there are compelling arguments against homework, I firmly believe that it is an essential component of education that should not be abolished.

Those in opposition to homework often cite that it fails to improve academic performance. For instance, Finland, a country that has adopted a no-homework policy, consistently outperforms countries where homework is mandatory. Additionally, some parents claim that homework hinders their children's ability to participate in extracurricular activities, spend time with their families, and engage in other essential developmental activities. Furthermore, research has shown that playtime is equally crucial to academic success as study time, as it facilitates creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Despite these claims, I argue that homework is critical to independent learning and problem-solving, both of which are crucial skills for success. By working on homework assignments alone and at their own pace, students are compelled to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom. For example, a student's comprehension of analytical issues is enhanced through practicing exercises at home, consolidating their understanding of the subject. Moreover, homework instills the habit of independent study in children, equipping them with the skills needed to work alone as adults.

In conclusion, while there may be valid arguments against the necessity of homework, its benefits to a student's development and academic performance should not be ignored. Homework allows students to reinforce their understanding of the material, develop essential skills, and prepare for adulthood. As such, I believe that homework is a vital component of the education system that should be retained.

Sample Essay 3

The debate over whether school children should be given homework continues to divide opinions. While some argue that it is a necessary part of education, others believe that it is an unnecessary burden. In my opinion, homework is an important tool for students to improve their academic performance, but it must be implemented in a way that is not overly demanding.

On the one hand, there are those who argue that homework has little to no benefit for children. They argue that children already have a full day of learning at school, and that adding additional work after school is simply too much for them to handle. Furthermore, it is argued that homework can have negative effects on children's mental and emotional well-being, leaving them stressed and overworked. For example, in South Korea, some students have been known to stay up until the early hours of the morning to complete their homework, which has led to a rise in cases of sleep deprivation and mental health issues.

However, I believe that homework is a necessary aspect of education as it provides students with the opportunity to consolidate what they have learned in class and apply it in a real-world context. For instance, if a student is struggling with a particular topic, homework allows them to practice it and get a better understanding of the subject matter. In addition, homework teaches children the valuable skills of time management, self-discipline, and responsibility, which are essential for success in later life. For example, if a child has a project to complete, they will learn how to break it down into manageable tasks and allocate time for each one.

Furthermore, homework can provide a valuable link between teachers, students, and parents. When children bring their homework home, parents can engage with what their children are learning and provide support and guidance where needed. This can help to foster a strong sense of collaboration and teamwork, which can be invaluable in later life.

In conclusion, while there are some valid arguments against homework, I believe that it is an essential part of education. However, it must be implemented in a way that is not overly demanding and takes into account the needs and abilities of individual students.

Sample Essay 4

Some people consider that students should not be required to do homework, while others insist that in order to broaden their ability, homework is an essential factor. Though home assignments might deter students from exploring the extracurricular potentials, in my opinion, it allows them to get into the deeper of the specific knowledge area.

People, who believe that children should not be assigned to do homework, argue that they need to focus on many other tasks these days. For example, some children take part in sports club, enrol in art institutes, engage in cultural and volunteer organizations, and they enthusiastically get involved in these dynamic activities. Hence, these students do not find enough time to spend for the same task that they do in their schools. In other words, for these students, doing homework is almost like wasting time for repetitive tasks that hinder them from expanding the horizon of their talent and interest, because it is too difficult to find spare time after covering all the homework. Whereas, to develop any special attributes, students are supposed to dedicate adequate amount of time and concentration on those fields.

On the other hand, it is a well-recognised notion that homework helps to improve children’s intelligence further. As students’ school stay is a limited time, teachers can only make them familiar with the topic overview and basic knowledge. That means, if the students want to dive deeper in the school subjects, they should spend enough time in their homework. Otherwise, they might forget easily what they were taught in their school. In fact, if the students cannot explore further details of their school specified knowledge areas, they will pass with merely basics and superficial concepts which might not help them to sharpen their subject knowledge for future endeavours.

To conclude, doing homework might bother some students as it can occupy their time at the cost of diverse interest and activities. However, I believe that it is worth spending time for homework because its contribution in terms of digging deeper into a subject discipline is simply incredible for honing a student’s in-depth subject knowledge.

Get your personalised   IELTS Essay Feedback   from a former examiner

• Task 2 Essays

Related Posts

Being Able To Communicate With Others Online Is Breaking Down Geographical Barriers - IELTS Essay

Human Activity Has Had A Negative Impact On Plants And Animals Around The World - IELTS Band 9 Essay

With The Increasing Popularity Of Online, TV Will No Longer Be A Household Item In The Future - IELTS Essay

IELTS General Training

A hub for IELTS GT test takers to help them reach their goal.

Essay 294 – Students should not be given homework every day

Gt writing task 2 / essay sample # 294.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people believe that students should not be given homework every day. However, few others think that children of all grades should be given homework on a daily basis.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of giving homework to students every day and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

Regular homework for young learners has sparked off an intense debate among academics. Many think that pupils ought not to be assigned homework daily, whereas others opine that students of all classes should get homework on a regular basis. This essay will first discuss how homework brings advantages and then talk about how it also confers disadvantages, followed by an honest opinion.

To commence with, homework provides students with the opportunity to put what they have learned in the classroom into practice. Very often, the short spell of time they have during class to grasp new concepts is simply not enough. The repetition of classroom concepts at home aids to cement in students’ minds the things they learned. For instance, students have most probably discerned the significance of homework when it comes down to mathematics. A new concept introduced in class might seem difficult at first. With recapitulation through homework, however, pupils can reinforce what they were taught in class and it sticks with them.

On the other hand, homework also brings drawbacks. This is because it is the same as being in class even after students get home. Consequently, homework deprives students of recreation and extra-curricular activities as well and causes stress as a result. However, in my opinion, only older students should receive a small number of assignments twice a week. According to a recent study, for instance, homework is useful for students who have reached the middle level. So daily homework should be given to such students only.

In the light of the above arguments, a handful of homework is advantageous to the older student only. Teachers, however, need to ensure that students are not burdened with an unreasonable amount of assignments.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Privacy Overview

Advertisement

Supported by

News Analysis

Judge’s Decisions in Documents Case Play Into Trump’s Delay Strategy

Judge Aileen Cannon has given sober consideration to arguments that some experts say should have been promptly dispensed with, leaving a backlog of pretrial issues without a trial date in sight.

• Share full article

By Alan Feuer

The decision by Judge Aileen M. Cannon to avoid picking a date yet for former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents trial is the latest indication of how her handling of the case has played into Mr. Trump’s own strategy of delaying the proceeding.

It is not impossible that the trial could still take place before Election Day, but the path is exceedingly narrow. And the question of when — or even whether — the charges against Mr. Trump will go before a jury will now largely hinge on how Judge Cannon handles an array of pretrial matters in the next few months, issues that many legal experts have said she could dispense with much more quickly.

Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in his final days in office, has been on the bench for only four years. She has limited experience overseeing trials of any kind — let alone one involving explosive allegations that a former president and current candidate illegally took highly classified state secrets from the White House after he left office and then obstructed the government’s repeated efforts to retrieve them.

For months now, she has stood in the glare of the spotlight with each of her most minute decisions scrutinized by an often critical gallery of legal scholars and reporters.

Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge who was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, said that rookie jurists handling prominent matters deserve some measure of leeway. But she added that Judge Cannon had put herself outside the normal boundaries with her languid pace and her willingness to grant a sober audience to several of Mr. Trump’s “meshuggeneh motions.”

“For a new judge in a big case, she could just be being careful, but the length of time all of this has taken and things she is allowing seems way beyond that,” Judge Gertner said. “She is treating everything the defense has done as if they all raise substantial and important issues, and that’s just not true.”

Throughout the case, Judge Cannon has shown herself willing to devote significant time to hearing legal motions in person that many federal judges would likely have rejected out of hand or at least decided more quickly on the merits of written filings.

In April, for example, she conducted a hearing to consider giving Mr. Trump’s two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, what is known as a bill of particulars, a detailed recitation of the charges in the case supplementing those laid out in the indictment.

Such documents are almost never granted to criminal defendants. And while Judge Cannon ultimately denied the requests , her decision to open her courtroom to the issue in the first place was unusual.

Even more unusual perhaps was a separate decision, contained in her new scheduling order, to set a hearing in late June to decide what is known as the scope of the prosecution team working under Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to oversee the federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump.

Prosecutors vehemently fought the move in March, telling Judge Cannon that no such proceeding had ever been held in the Southern District of Florida where she sits, and that there was neither case law nor any other legal authority to permit it.

But the hearing will now take place over the course of three full days. Her decision to hold it means Mr. Trump’s lawyers will presumably be able to explore a twisted question of the law: whether they are entitled to learn more from prosecutors about how they went about pulling together the evidence turned over to the defense team as part of the discovery process.

That issue began percolating four months ago when Mr. Trump’s lawyers told Judge Cannon in court papers that they needed more discovery. They asked specifically for information about how Mr. Smith may have worked with officials at the National Archives and with a vast swath of the U.S. national security establishment — including top intelligence, defense and Justice Department personnel — in bringing the case against Mr. Trump.

The lawyers want that information to bolster their claims that Mr. Smith worked hand in glove with the White House and other officials to prosecute Mr. Trump. And if Judge Cannon tells them they can have it, the case will be further delayed as prosecutors make their way through various federal agencies to collect it and turn it over to the defense.

More delays are likely to emerge from another of Judge Cannon’s decisions this week: to postpone until mid-June the deadline for Mr. Trump’s lawyers to submit a critical filing detailing an inventory of the classified materials they intend to use at trial.

The filing of that inventory is enormously important because it will begin a pitched and probably lengthy battle between the defense and prosecution over what sorts of classified materials the jury and the public will ultimately hear about.

Mr. Smith’s team had originally asked Judge Cannon to force the defense to submit the classified filing by mid-March. Mr. Trump’s lawyers, on the other hand, had initially pushed for June 17.

Appearing to split the difference last month, Judge Cannon set the deadline for May 9. But after last-minute pleas by Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta to postpone it, she abruptly changed her mind on Tuesday and granted the defense’s original request.

“The way this is playing out makes it extraordinarily unlikely that there will be a trial before November,” said Brian Greer, a former lawyer for the C.I.A. who specializes in issues involving classified material.

Mr. Greer, who has followed the case closely, noted that Judge Cannon’s new date for the briefing was actually the second time she had changed the deadline, which had initially been set for November.

He also pointed out that the judge’s new calendar did not include all of the necessary filings concerning classified documents. The government will still have to file its own set of papers about what sorts of sensitive materials should be revealed at trial — a process that, of course, will take more time.

Complicating matters even further, Judge Cannon’s calendar said nothing at all about the deadlines to consider — let alone decide — some of Mr. Trump’s most difficult and potentially consequential motions. Two of those motions have been under seal for more than two months and have not even been placed on the public docket yet.

One of the sealed motions revolves around undisclosed claims by Mr. Trump that members of Mr. Smith’s team engaged in prosecutorial misconduct — an accusation that is sure to be hotly contested by the government.

The other sealed motion — also likely to result in a long fight — has challenged the legality of the F.B.I.’s search of Mar-a-Lago , Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida. It also disputes the way in which the government pierced the normal protections of attorney-client privilege and obtained the audio notes of one of Mr. Trump’s former lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran.

Beyond all of that, there are more tough issues looming, which could add further layers of complexity and delay.

Just this week, for instance, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said they might soon file a motion accusing prosecutors of failing to preserve the integrity of the classified documents at the heart of the case. But it remains unclear, if the motion is filed, how seriously Judge Cannon would actually take it.

Mr. Greer said that her record in the case suggests she has been open to whatever the defense has chosen to send her.

“Certainly, her proclivity so far,” he said, “has been to listen to almost anything.”

Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.  More about Alan Feuer

Our Coverage of the Trump Documents Case

The justice department has filed federal criminal charges against former president donald trump over his mishandling of classified documents..

The Indictment: Federal prosecutors said that Trump put national security secrets at risk  by mishandling classified documents and schemed to block the government from reclaiming the material. Here’s a look at the evidence .

The Co-Defendants: While Trump plays the leading role in the case, the narrative as laid out by prosecutors relies heavily on supporting characters  like Carlos De Oliveira  and Walt Nauta .

Obstruction: The Mueller report raised questions about whether Trump had obstructed the inquiry into the ties between the former president’s 2016 campaign and Russia. With prosecutors adding new charges  in the documents case, the subject is back .

The Judge: Judge Aileen Cannon , a Trump appointee who showed favor to the former president earlier in the investigation, has scant experience  running criminal trials. Can she prove her critics wrong ?

A Slow Pace: Cannon has allowed unresolved issues to build up on her docket, and that appears to have kept her from making a prompt decision on the timing of the case. It is one of several factors that have stirred concern about her decision-making .