A Fifth Grader’s “Case Against Homework”

Posted bySara BennettPosted inStudents Speak Out

The New York Daily News recently ran an opinion piece by fifth grader Benjamin Berrafato, “Fifth-graders of the nation, unite against homework.”

He wrote:

Homework is assigned to students like me, without our permission. Teachers expect us to do homework, even though we’d rather not. It can be hard sometimes. We get punished if we don’t do it. If we do it, we get no reward; we just don’t get punished.

Simply put, if we don’t, we get punished, and if we do, our reward is … nothing.

Thus, homework is slavery. Slavery was abolished with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Dec. 6, 1865.

So, every school in America has been illegally run for the past 143 YEARS. That’s something to think about.

Homework is cruel, inhumane, stressful and unhealthy. It should be outlawed.

Read the piece in the New York Daily News.

62 thoughts on “A Fifth Grader’s “Case Against Homework””

  5. My name is Logan and I am a freshman in high school. I think this kid is on the right track, but slavery was going a little far. I am assigned about four hours of homework a night on adverage. Trust me, I did the math. By the way; math class takes up about 3 hours of that time. In the first semester, the homework was about 30 min. a night. I thought it was reasonable. Then the second semester came and thus began Algebra 2 and English 1. On the first day of the second semester, we were assigned about 6 hours of homework. I understand this is normal for high school, but the standard is a little high. I’m getting about 6 hours of sleep a night! I resorted to copying. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway. Our math teacher told us that she would find the cheaters come test day. I have gotten A’s on every single test. I didn’t cheat on the tests if that was what you were thinking. I can easily learn a subject with about ten problems and a study guide. Not over 409 problems and a take-home test. This is a little over kill and I have become miserable and depressed because of it. I’m sorry for the horrible placement of sentences by the way. I have heard elderly people telling me to cherish every moment of youth you have, and not to waist it. Homework is a waist. Please don’t think about TV and video games. They are forms of entertainment just like books and music. I hope I have gotten my point across. Even though no one will read this, I just needed to get it off of my mind. To sum it up, there needs to be a law or rules against too much homework. Maby a max of 1 hour of homework. – Logan.

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  6. I would also like to add that I’m a very athletic and academic person. I get home from practice at about 6:00 p.m. Then I do homework and go to bed. That is my life from Monday to Friday every week until breaks. This will be my life for about 3 more years (7 if I choose to do college). Think about that…If all goes as planned, then I will have waisted about 17 years of my life in education. I understand education isn’t a waist, but some things I am taught I will never use again out of high school. School should be all elective classes from 7th grade up. Then if you need to know that stuff, you can learn it as you choose, or learn it when you need too. Let’s have one person tell me one job that requires me to know what a verb is. Leave out teaching and writing. Struggling to find one…this is why English and many other classes should be elective. ???? mind blown

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  9. homework helps you improve on your skills and if you don’t do homework then you will not improve. that is why they give us homework

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  12. Homework shouldn’t be allowed because they should be able to fit all the work in during class time. Most people say it’ll help, but it really won’t. All it’s gonna do is make kids mad and irritated! They honestly shouldn’t be allowed to FORCE us to do work OUTSIDE of school since that is supposed to be our free time to let the brain and the child in general relax from having to take in all the stuff they were taught throughout the time they spent at school that day. It’s ok to make us do work in school, but once we’re off school grounds you can no longer make us do the work, and they shouldn’t even be allowed to make us do work OUTSIDE of school

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