ShOULD we bAN hOMewOrk?

Getting inside the brain of a teenager, who by now has spent 450 hours of his life doing homework, while wasted 700 other hours worrying about homework, is not easy. Unfortunately, some hours of worrying about homework in their nightmares can’t be accounted for.

Now if I ask these little wonders, why homework should be banned then I will get a host of reasons, rather I could write a thesis on it, but in the spirit of keeping up with them and doing justice to their reasoning, I list the top three reasons.

The topmost reason why homework should be banned is that it causes stress. When a teenage says something gives them stress, I would be stressed. Stress is a very strong word, and not a word to be used by teenagers. And if they feel stressed about something at this delicate age, I would like to rewind that act of homework for them. So, the real question here is, does it really cause stress? Studies prove that it does. There have been many schools across the world adapting the no-homework policy. It effectively helps students unearth their hidden talent in that time, which is solely for themselves, and not to catch up with leftover schoolwork.

The second reason being, not every child is same. Some can do their homework and still be able to come back alive to finding their mojo. But most bury inside this humongous burden, and then they never get time back to find their inner mojo. This is the time in childhood when you are carefree and adventurous but some fear homework at this moment, the moment they should be embracing with new ideas. Fear shouldn’t be a part of their life; it shouldn’t exist in their dictionary. Unfortunately, it exists, and this time doesn’t come back, it only passes by.

The third and probably an important reason being, not having time to have fun or be bored. Saying fun and bored in one breath, makes it confusing. But in reality, they are two sides of the same coin. Fun evolves from being bored. If a child has time to be bored, they will get innovative, they will think of brilliant ideas to have fun with the limited resources and eventually have fun. It’s the process of being bored to having fun, that journey that creates memories everlasting for them. And memories are ideas, waiting to become business ideas. So maybe, just maybe, homework is crushing the new breed of entrepreneurs that were not allowed to bloom.

Too much of anything is harmful, and maybe homework is too much. After a long day in school, kids must be carefree and given the liberty to fly. If not then why send them to school, if they must lead the same life at home which they lead at school.

Statistically, it has been proven that homework, can lead to health concerns among students. It could lead to lifestyle diseases much earlier in life. Most times, homework is given as punishment to underperforming students which can lead to low self-morale concerns later in their life.

All in all homework leads to imbalance in the life of the child, contrary to the balanced life we should provide them.