It's no secret thatkids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleasabout workloads?
Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework.
Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."
For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.
"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work?Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in thevideo that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, youonly got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."
Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.
Emmy Kang, mental health counselorat Humantold,says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."
"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 and exhaustion.
Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace, saysheavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.
And for all the distress homework can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, saysDr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.
"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.
For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night.
"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. Andthese are all very important things fora person's mental and emotional health."
Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with studentsabroad.
"Nothaving homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and)theFrenchschools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.
The answer may not be to eliminate homework completelybut to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggestsKang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.
"I don't think (we) should scrap homework;I think we should scrap meaningless, purposelessbusy work-type homework.That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.
The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial
Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years.Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic, making heavy workloads even harder to balance.
"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardarassays, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease inattention spans among students."School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."
But even if studentstransition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardarassuspects students may stillstruggleafter two school yearsof shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.
"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments.That effect is amplified with children because childrenhave less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.
'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school
In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep,exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."
To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."
"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.
Breaking up assignmentscan also make things easier to tackle.
"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and youbreak down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."
If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages studentstoadvocate for themselves.
"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignmentjust took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers.But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."
More:Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.
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