Yesterday, the CBS Nightly News picked up the story of the homework ban at The Oak Knoll Elementary School in Menlo Park, California, and asked whether Oak Knoll is at the forefront of a homework revolution. I hope so. After a short ad, you can watch the story here.
Stop Homework 
Homework stresses me to death; school should be for learning while home should be for mental rejuvenation.
if adults work 8 to 9 hours a day and dont usually bring home work from their job why cant we have the same amount of time to help us cope with the stresses of modern society pressing in on us while we are in our growth stages of our life. Instead of mentaly exhausting us let us be prepared with the mental strength and stability for school the next day.honestly is really that hard to adjust courses to fit an 8 hour day to teach students material in a balanced stress relieving format?
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That’s what we parents are asking for “stressed out student”. We don’t think you should work 12 hour days either.
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I hate my classmates, but I hate homework more! Everyday it’s the same thing! “Homework due today”, “Homework due tomorrow”. Heck it’s even: “Homework over the Summer Holidays!”. It’s driving me crazy, I wish my school in Thailand would Ban homework because it’s giving me a headache!!!
Teachers hardly do anything for us and yet their torturing us everyday with the worst word in the dictionary: HOMEWORK. I’ll do anything to not go to school, heck I’d do anything for homework to be Banned! I can’t take it anymore!!! I mean, I have more important things then this then to be sitting in front of textbooks and finding about Henry the Eight or Finding stupid pictures on the Internet for Art Class!, if it continues I think I might drop out from school!!! And I mean !!!!
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thanks phsych mom for support :),i appreciate any positive comments i can get from anyone.
my sister is in 3rd grade and she is the brightest little girl ive ever seen, i know she has a great future,the issue comes in with homework, my sister averages about 2 to 3 hours of homework a night, my mom helps her all 3 hours until my sister is in tears from the stress.
lets examine this unfair situation
my mom taking time out of her busy life to help my sister
my sister only a third grader having 3 hours of homework a night
(my sister hates reading now ,go figure)
all because material cant be taught in an eight our day
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id like to talk a little about me about me now
I am a Freshman in highschool
i got straight A’s till sixth grade when i began to develope deep stomach pain and an unkown anxiety.I began to hate school to death. their was days i was so anxious that i would have to call my parents to pick me up the minute i got to school.i finally homeschooled but to no avail i started getting behind in my homework on my online homeschooling,my stress level was so high i would punch my self at night and cry my eyes out
till i fell asleep my parents brought me to a doctor and i was diagnosed with O.C.D(obsessive compulsive disorder)
my mind was completely scrambeled with fears that the normal person would find completly unnescessary,NOW YOU MAY WONDER WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HOMEWORK PLEASE KEEP READING.
i finally straitened things out with the help of a phsychyotrist and proceded in to my freshmen year of highschool,things are still not the same as before ,bnut i manage,but homework is immense but after school with my disorder is worse .i need my time to rejuvenate from a day worth of bullies and work .i just cant do homework or i swear ill go insane i need 3 studie halls a day just to get homework done so now i am missing out on full educational potential .i need time especially after school to recharge so to speak my mind so i dont go crazy i am on so much medication i cant even tell you .the point of this story is “AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY THEIR IS SCHOOL SHOOTINGS”NOW DONT WORRY ABOUT ME I AM COMPLETELY SANE AND WOULD NEVER THINK OF DOING SUCH AN AWFUL THING ,I AM JUST MAKEING A POINT ABOUT MY VIEW OF STRESSED OUT STUDENTS AND THE LINK WITH HOMEWORK.
i am trying to get good grades and am doinfg ok but stress and homework are hand in hand
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please no one misquote me
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homework should be banned it is a national revolutoin
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When I got into middle school, I learned how hard homework was. I was spending ALL my time on homework I had to wake up at 5:30 im the morning just to finish it. I feel like a wreck every day, because I can’t get enough sleep on the weekends. My life is becoming a wreck. I am nervous all the time and I feel sick alot. I can’t say the last time I have had a friend over on the weekends because I have been trying to sleep. Homework is unneccarssary. I am sorry for the mispelling, but I am tired. Hopefully over vacation I can relax and see a friend or two.
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Homework is gay. I am in all honors classes and I don’t do any homework at home. If I do not finish homework at school I just don’t do it. So now I’m getting pretty much straight c’s. When earlier in life I got straight a’s, but that was when we got about 10 minutes of homework each day. Now though, I am getting about 3 projects a week. My dad starting yelling at me about not turning homework in last year, and im starting to get really stressed about not getting good grades and my dad yelling at me. I wish that teachers had to do all the homework they gave to us, and see how stressed they would be. Homework has taken much away from my life, and I’m done with it. Also when will I use geomotry in my life. Oh nevermind I use it for algebra 2 then algebra 2 for trig then trig for calc, but will I use calc for????? Homework is bs. I get A’s on all my tests, but I get bad grades because homework. If I’m showing I know what I’m doing on a test, then why do I have to do homework? And all you people that are saying we are using bad grammar and spelling stfu it’s the Internet not a fucking formal letter
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im doing a speech about should kids get homework and my answer is NO but only grade 8 and under
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Homework is so much fun! I enjoy coming home after 7 hours of school, laying down my bookbag, and taking all my books out only to do another 7 hours of school! Then, when I’m all done, I go to bed and dream about school for 10 hours! It’s amazing!
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Homework are fucking sucky. It fuck fuck fuck and suck suck suck.
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i say yes,becaues i need my own time for friends & family!
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I used to love going to primary school because we got to learn and everything but then we actually got a break now I go to high school and I bloody hate it cos ur whole day is spent on schoolwork from when you arrive to when u go to bed and I don’t get enough sleep cos I’m stressing about homework and I had to quit some of the sports I was doing because I didn’t have time to do them and my homework and then ppl wonder why so many kids are obese!!! I think that banning homework is a great idea cos even when schools put a time limit on how much u do they get all angry if u don’t get it. Done so u have to spend hours anyway so the time limit’s just a joke!!! Please please please ban homework it would make school and life soooooo much more fun
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Arghhhh who cares about bloody ancient Palestine and Jesus I’m not even freaking religious home work is making me hate school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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i hate doing homework but you can’t just ban it. i don’t really do the homework just study a bit when i need to. i cant be fucked most times but banning homework’s just stupid
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I HAT HOMEWORK!
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I have taken a survey from some of my classmates in my homeroom and the data shows that we spend 11 hours and 30 minutes doing work related things and 2-3 hours doing things not related to work. This does not include studying for tests. We have at least 1 assessment/test/quiz ect. weekly. I have 1/6 of my spanish final on monday and my Math final (which my teacher grades EXTREMELY harsh on) on the same day. We only have 3 days now to study for these huge tests.(we were only notified about the math final today, thursday) Most people in my school agree that we all wouldn’t mind school if there was no homework. It also puts a lot of stress on me. I have been sick since January. It’s June and I haven’t fully recovered yet because of the absurd amount of homework.
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Homework is the downfall of many of my classes. Especially when that class is teached by a bitch who doesn’t help you and instead gives you attitude for no reason, out of the whole class. It kills my grades.
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I hate homework, it is killing me, hurting my head.
ugh tests are borings to.
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homework should be banned
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homework causes great ammounts of stress to students. it also deminishes our social lives… How are we suposed to be sofisticated members of society and getting jobs if we get all this homework i’m thinking of making a potition who would join it?
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Fuck Homework
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although i find homework can be stressful, i think that it also has its benefits. i am a middle school student myself and i beleive that homework is essencial because ussually u dont learn somethng the first tme it has been tought so u need to exercise it over a few times and it’s hard to fit everything we need to know in 6 and a half hours a day.
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homework sucks assssss
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homework is bullshit
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homework can go to HELL!!!
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Right now I don’t even care HOW beneficial homework may or may not be to students, because anything that makes them- and me at this moment- this freaking miserable should not be allowed. And no, it’s not because it’s lazy, its because WE’D LIKE TO ACTUALLY LEAVE SCHOOL ONCE IN A WHILE. I’d even be willing to have a longer day, even have shorter summer break, if we had no or very little homework!! Depression is an epidemic in this country and homework is causing it. Just go read Its Kind of a Funny Story. It’s fictional but it’s accurate.
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The bottom line is that I would be so much more okay with school if there was no homework. Homework is the #1 thing I don’t like about school, and I would be willing to spend more time there if homework wasn’t making the time I had outside of it so tainted!
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Hi i am 13 years old and i know people really dont care what i think but i have actually thought very hard about killing myself because of this i cry at night but dont let anyone know i have tried to kill myself more times than one but it hasnt worked. Tommorow we have 2 projects due on the same day when are we supposed to do them because we have homework always in 5 of the 7 classes everyday and then tests and quizzes to study for and reading logs i cant sleep so i cant concentrate and whenever i think about school i start to regret being born, what do i do?
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Dear Ashley–
What do you do? Please talk to your parents or another caring adult about your feelings. Or please take a look at the suicide hotline website, suicidehotlines.com, and call the number for your state. You shouldn’t have to feel so alone. Or write to me privately and I’ll see if I can help you figure out some other ways of getting help. My email is sara@stophomework.com.
–Sara
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Ashley, please, don’t hurt yourself. Ask someone for help. There are many people who post to this site who care about you, though we’ve never met you. Try to find someone you can talk to, and if you can, post back and let us know how you’re doing.
And you should know that there are many people who are very concerned about the stress that our kids are experiencing and we are working to change the situation.
Please take care of yourself. Your mental health is more important than school, more important than grades, more important than what college you might go to or how much money you might make. Depression is a terrible illness.
I will be thinking of you. Don’t feel alone.
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To Ashley:
Lots of people on this site care about what you think…and writing about what you think can sometimes be really helpful when we don’t know how to solve a situation. Let us know how today went..we want to know.
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I am divided three ways on this:
As a former student, I don’t particularly like homework. I did, however accept it as a reality, and I did it – or I didn’t do it and just braved the consequences. I did not, however, rebel against it.
As a teacher, I see the need for skills to be practiced outside of class – to give the student a chance to do this on their own. To that end I will say that homework is inevitable, and banning ALL of it is unlikely, and even undesirable. However, I agree that there is a problem with excessive homework, given out by teachers for various reasons: Some subjects are just difficult and require a lot of work. But then some teachers have a need to be known as a hard teacher (which people often mistakenly equate with being a good teacher) or, as others have said, they simply want to cover their asses in case admin check in on them.
My own philosophy is “work smarter. not harder” – and I do assign homework myself. It isn’t daily, though, and basically I treat it for what it is – practice. I correct it for errors, but homework is not weighted heavily in the grade. The majority of the grade is based on formal assessments. Does this mean that some students won’t do it? Sure, but then some students don’t need as much practice. In the end, it isn’t a matter of how much ‘work’ they’ve done, it’s a matter of what they know, and what they can do.
Lastly, as a parent of a toddler, I fear what my son is going to experience when he gets to middle school and high school. He will be expected to do far more than I ever was – and I’m not sure he will be the better for it. Yes, I want him to put in a good effort, and yes I want him to fare well academically. I do not want him to sacrifice the benefits of youth for the sake of performance paranoia. Understand that he will do homework, and I plan on being there to monitor that and even help him when necessary – but we will also need family time, and he will need time for himself, his interests and his friends – because the last thing I want is a high-performing robot with a messed-up sense of self because he didn’t get a childhood.
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To CA Teacher:
Fifty years ago, kids were still subjected to corporal punishment in school. It was an accepted method of handling child behaviour. But it changed. Why did it change? I’m sure that there were teachers back in 1955, who were quite sure that whacking a kid would be an acceptable practice for as long as she was a teacher. But it changed.
That’s why I cannot accept what you said….
As a teacher, I see the need for skills to be practiced
outside of class – to give the student a chance to do
this on their own. To that end I will say that
homework is inevitable, and banning ALL of it is
unlikely, and even undesirable.
There are lots of educators, and parents and millions of students who are saying homework is a useless waste of time. It damages family relationships, it deprives children of sleep, play and free time and has no bearing on how they do in school tomorrow, let alone 5 years down the road. It’s as damaging (see post above) as the strap was in some cases…
It will change…and I hope it does for your toddler.
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Here in Brazil,daily we get about 72 exercises to do from all subjects,now some of them(Phisics and math),take about 2 hours to do 24 exercises and they must be done with the internet on,because they are so hard to do,you would have to take even more classes if ou didn’t use the internet.
I don’t hate homework,i just hate the fact you are given too much that in the end will flood your head and you won’t learn a thing and get stressed.
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ROFL LOL
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There’s a difference between homework and studying, and I’m on board with banning rote homework. I don’t know if it’s the beginning of it, but we sure as hell need a REVOLUTION! We need to dump this antiquated system and rebuild from the ground up, realizing that it will always be in flux as our society, culture, and technology is, and that the system needs to adjust to it accordingly. There is one thing that seems to remain the same though: human development. Yet developmental appropriateness seems to be the last thing to be considered in all of what I’ve seen in my four kids’ public education!
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I am in 8th grade, and my school *forces* us to play sports (never played any sports before, I suck and had to buy gear/etc) at the end of the day for an hour and a half, then they send us home with 3-4 hours worth of homework. Anyone agree that it’s just too much?
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HOMEWORK SUCKS
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HOMEWROK IS STUPID!
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I’m fine with homework. It’s extra practice at home to give teachers more time to teach at school and to reinforce lessons. But if you’re going to assign homework, then at least make it relevant! For goodness’s sake, teachers, please don’t assign more than 20 min. of the same stuff– especially when students have 5+ periods a day. I appreciate the concern teachers have for students, but pulling all-nighters while I’m already half asleep do not help. And if you assign something, then please, please check it. I BS my homework a lot. It makes me lazy.
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yes it shud be abolished
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hmwk is poo
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f….k hmwk
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Honestly, I hate some homework assignments with a passion and I enjoy doing some homework assignments that interest me, its all about if what interests me as a person, ive had huge homework assignments before which did not seem interesting or fun for me to do so i shut down and did the bare minimum and accepted the mediocre grade i received, i know i could have done better but i just didnt like the subject of the assignment and so i rebelled and did as little as possible just to get it done, while other subjects interest me soo much i actually go out of my way to learn more about it, like how i love to watch The Universe on the history channel and read books and articles on this, even though i didnt have to because it wasnt assigned to me from my school.
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homework should be banned because after a long and tiring day at school you need some time by ur self, and around half of ur week is doing school work so ur always tired at school and then being yelled at for being tired, so me personaly think homework should be banned
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For all you people who say that homework is killing you, why don’t you just say “I am tired of doing so much homework, and I can not get sleep!” to your teacher, if that fails and your teacher is mean say “you know what? I hate you AND homework!” and walk home if they just say like “I don’t care…” or something. If you have mean parents, then tell your parents you are under A LOT of stress. Maybe then we can help each other! 🙂
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Homework is soo stressfull it makes you want to give up on school. Im already giving up i dont even do homework anymore just copy of friends it makes me want to be a dropout
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Homework is soo stressfull it makes you want to give up on school. Im already giving up i dont even do homework anymore just copy of friends it makes me want to be a dropout.
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