My Personal Declaration of Independence from Homework

When in the Course of this time in my life it is important that I declare the causes which impel me to
stand up and fight against homework. I believe it has become necessary for me to fight to dissolve
the right of the teachers that allowed them to assign homework. We ask that homework be abolished
or that not more than 10 minutes of review per night per subject should be allowed. I believe that
homework does not help a student achieve higher grades or achievements. Instead, new studies are
showing that homework is causing a negative effects on students family as well as causing negative
effects on the students health along with causing negative emotions, and even a negative effect
academically. It is because of this that we seek our independence from homework to avoid more
damage to our students, the future of America.
The evidence presented by a review conducted in 2001 of more than 120 studies of homework and its
effects by Professor Harris Cooper of Duke University, known as the countrys leading homework
researcher, concluded that too much homework may diminish its effectiveness or even become
counterproductive, as Cooper stated in, The Battle Over Homework, second edition, page 26. I
believe that because we are up so late doing homework the following school day we are in a zombie
like state, which does not allow the student to fully grasp new material being presented, even
students falling asleep in class are made fun of therefore causing a negative emotional effect on the
student.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World that homework does not helps achieve higher
grades but rather cause harm. The average student wakes up at 5 in the morning to be at school by
7:30 to end the school day at 3:00 p.m., however, if the student stays for a sport or after school
activity that student will not get home till 7 p.m. or later. At that time the student is having dinner,
preparing for the next day and starting homework at 9 p.m., usually takes several hours to complete
and off to bed at midnight if not later. Now take the average parent working a 9 to 5 job usually
home by 7 depends on traffic to begin dinner. However, that is assuming the average parents goes
straight home. The truth is the homework is rushed and unable to get done, the material did not get
learned, and now the student has less sleep and therefore not very responsive the next school day.
We therefore request that you honor all with less homework. Many have shared their opinions and
the amount of studies that are now available showing these findings are so easy to find. Writers
David P. Baker and Gerald K. LeTendre, stated in
National Differences, Global Similarities: World
Culture and the Future of Schooling,
Many countries with the highest scoring students on
achievement tests, such as Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, have teachers who assign little
homework, Meanwhile, countries such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran, where students have some of
the worst average scores, have teachers who assign a lot of homework. (Stanford University Press,
2005). Let create a different world where our students have a longer school day so that homework is
done in school and not at home.