Reasons why homework should be optional: 10 reasons with the research behind each, the 3 strongest for a speech or essay, the reasons it should stay mandatory, and what the evidence actually supports

"Reasons why homework should be optional" is searched mostly by students who have a speech, a debate or a persuasive essay due, and by parents who have just watched a third grader cry over a worksheet at 9 pm. Both deserve better than a list of opinions. Here are ten reasons, each with the evidence behind it, then the case for the other side, because a persuasive piece that ignores the other side loses marks, and a parent who ignores it makes a worse decision.

The 10 reasons

1. In elementary school, homework barely moves results. The largest review of US research, by Harris Cooper, Jorgianne Robinson and Erika Patall (2006), found a positive link between homework and achievement in Grades 7 to 12 and a link close to zero in kindergarten to Grade 6. Compulsory homework for a seven-year-old is a cost with little measured return.

2. Past a point, more homework does nothing. The same research line finds the benefit flattening after about one to two hours a night in high school. The guideline backed by the National PTA and the National Education Association is ten minutes per grade per night. Anything compulsory beyond it is hard to defend.

3. Homework is a leading cause of student stress. Researchers at Stanford (Galloway, Conner and Pope, 2013) surveyed 4,317 students in ten high-performing California high schools. They averaged 3.1 hours of homework a night, and 56 percent named homework a primary source of stress. Students also reported headaches, exhaustion and sleep loss.

4. It takes sleep. Teenagers need eight to ten hours. Three hours of homework after practice and dinner comes out of sleep, and a tired student learns less the next day. Optional homework lets a student choose sleep on the nights it matters.

5. It widens the gap between students. Homework assumes a quiet place, a device, internet and an adult who can help. OECD data from PISA 2012 show advantaged 15-year-olds doing about an hour and a half more homework a week than disadvantaged students. Grading compulsory homework partly grades the home.

6. One assignment cannot fit thirty students. A student who mastered the skill in class gains nothing from twenty more problems. A student who did not understand it practises mistakes alone. Optional homework, chosen with the teacher, sends practice where it is needed.

7. Countries with less homework do not do worse. In PISA 2012, 15-year-olds across OECD countries averaged about five hours of homework a week. Students in Finland and Korea reported under three and scored near the top. Hours of homework do not predict a country's results.

8. It crowds out other things that matter. Sport, music, a job, reading for pleasure, family dinner and unstructured play all build skills that school does not grade. Time is the one thing every student has the same amount of.

9. Compulsory homework invites copying. Work that is graded for completion gets completed, by any means. An answer copied at 7:55 am teaches nothing and tells the teacher something false. Optional practice is done by people who want the practice.

10. Choice builds responsibility. A student who decides which practice they need is learning to manage their own learning, which is exactly what college demands. A student who has only ever done what was assigned meets that demand for the first time at eighteen.

The three strongest, for a speech or essay

If you can use only three, use 1, 3 and 5: the weak evidence in elementary school, the Stanford stress figures, and the fairness argument. Each has a named study and a number, and together they cover the three things a persuasive piece needs: it does not work well (logic), it hurts (emotion), and it is unfair (values).

Quote the numbers exactly and name the source. "A Stanford study of 4,317 students found that 56 percent called homework a primary source of stress" persuades; "studies show homework is stressful" does not.

The other side: reasons homework should stay mandatory

A good essay answers these. A good decision weighs them.

• Practice makes skills automatic, and most people do not choose practice they find hard. Times tables, spelling and algebra need repetition that class time cannot hold.
• In high school the link is real. The same 2006 review that found almost nothing in elementary school found a clear positive link in Grades 7 to 12.
• Optional is skipped by the students who need it most. A confident student does the optional work; the struggling one avoids it. That can widen the gap that reason 5 was worried about.
• It tells the teacher who is lost. Homework that nobody has to hand in gives no signal.
• It prepares for college, where most learning happens outside the lecture.

What the evidence actually supports

Not "no homework" and not "homework as usual". The research points to four things:

That last row is the position that wins debates: optional in amount, not in principle. It keeps the practice and removes most of the ten problems above.

A two-minute speech outline

1. Hook (15 seconds). One number. "Fifty-six percent."
2. Claim (10 seconds). "Homework should be optional, and I will give you three reasons."
3. Reason one (25 seconds). It barely works for younger students: the Cooper review.
4. Reason two (25 seconds). It harms: the Stanford figures on stress and sleep.
5. Reason three (25 seconds). It is unfair: the OECD gap.
6. The other side (15 seconds). "Some say practice needs to be required. But optional does not mean none."
7. Close (15 seconds). Return to the number, and ask for one specific change: the ten-minute rule, or choice within an assignment.

Say each reason in one sentence before you explain it. Listeners remember the sentence.

For parents: when homework is the nightly problem

If homework takes far longer than ten minutes per grade, the cause is usually one of three things: the work is too hard because a skill from an earlier year is missing; the child cannot start without an adult; or there is simply too much. Time it for a week and show the teacher the numbers. Teachers adjust for a parent who brings data. If the cause is a missing skill, more homework will not fix it and finding the skill will; the signs are listed in signs your child needs a tutor, and when to wait.

Where to get help

For the essay or speech itself: a 1-on-1 online class in essay writing or public speaking, where the student brings the draft and the tutor marks the argument, the evidence and the structure line by line. For the homework: one tutor, one child, on the school's own work, finding the missing step so that the nightly hour becomes twenty minutes. The free 30-minute first class is a real lesson.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →