How Much Homework Is Too Much for Our Teens?

Here's what educators and parents can do to help kids find the right balance between school and home.

Does Your Teen Have Too Much Homework?

Today’s teens are under a lot of pressure.

They're under pressure to succeed, to win, to be the best and to get into the top colleges. With so much pressure, is it any wonder today’s youth report being under as much stress as their parents? In fact, during the school year, teens say they experience stress levels higher than those reported by adults, according to a previous American Psychological Association "Stress in America" survey.

Odds are if you ask a teen what's got them so worked up, the subject of school will come up. School can cause a lot of stress, which can lead to other serious problems, like sleep deprivation . According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need between eight and 10 hours of sleep each night, but only 15 percent are even getting close to that amount. During the school week, most teens only get about six hours of zzz’s a night, and some of that sleep deficit may be attributed to homework.

When it comes to school, many adults would rather not trade places with a teen. Think about it. They get up at the crack of dawn and get on the bus when it’s pitch dark outside. They put in a full day sitting in hours of classes (sometimes four to seven different classes daily), only to get more work dumped on them to do at home. To top it off, many kids have after-school obligations, such as extracurricular activities including clubs and sports , and some have to work. After a long day, they finally get home to do even more work – schoolwork.

[Read: What Parents Should Know About Teen Depression .]

Homework is not only a source of stress for students, but it can also be a hassle for parents. If you are the parent of a kid who strives to be “perfect," then you know all too well how much time your child spends making sure every bit of homework is complete, even if it means pulling an all-nighter. On the flip side, if you’re the parent of a child who decided that school ends when the last bell rings, then you know how exhausting that homework tug-of-war can be. And heaven forbid if you’re that parent who is at their wit's end because your child excels on tests and quizzes but fails to turn in assignments. The woes of academics can go well beyond the confines of the school building and right into the home.

This is the time of year when many students and parents feel the burden of the academic load. Following spring break, many schools across the nation head into the final stretch of the year. As a result, some teachers increase the amount of homework they give. The assignments aren’t punishment, although to students and parents who are having to constantly stay on top of their kids' schoolwork, they can sure seem that way.

From a teacher’s perspective, the assignments are meant to help students better understand the course content and prepare for upcoming exams. Some schools have state-mandated end of grade or final tests. In those states these tests can account for 20 percent of a student’s final grade. So teachers want to make sure that they cover the entire curriculum before that exam. Aside from state-mandated tests, some high school students are enrolled in advanced placement or international baccalaureate college-level courses that have final tests given a month or more before the end of the term. In order to cover all of the content, teachers must maintain an accelerated pace. All of this means more out of class assignments.

Given the challenges kids face, there are a few questions parents and educators should consider:

Is homework necessary?

Many teens may give a quick "no" to this question, but the verdict is still out. Research supports both sides of the argument. Personally, I would say, yes, some homework is necessary, but it must be purposeful. If it’s busy work, then it’s a waste of time. Homework should be a supplemental teaching tool. Too often, some youth go home completely lost as they haven’t grasped concepts covered in class and they may become frustrated and overwhelmed.

For a parent who has been in this situation, you know how frustrating this can be, especially if it’s a subject that you haven’t encountered in a while. Homework can serve a purpose such as improving grades, increasing test scores and instilling a good work ethic. Purposeful homework can come in the form of individualizing assignments based on students’ needs or helping students practice newly acquired skills.

Homework should not be used to extend class time to cover more material. If your child is constantly coming home having to learn the material before doing the assignments, then it’s time to contact the teacher and set up a conference. Listen when kids express their concerns (like if they say they're expected to know concepts not taught in class) as they will provide clues about what’s happening or not happening in the classroom. Plus, getting to the root of the problem can help with keeping the peace at home too, as an irritable and grumpy teen can disrupt harmonious family dynamics .

[Read: What Makes Teens 'Most Likely to Succeed?' ]

How much is too much?

According to the National PTA and the National Education Association, students should only be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. But teens are doing a lot more than that, according to a poll of high school students by the organization Statistic Brain . In that poll teens reported spending, on average, more than three hours on homework each school night, with 11th graders spending more time on homework than any other grade level. By contrast, some polls have shown that U.S. high school students report doing about seven hours of homework per week.

Much of a student's workload boils down to the courses they take (such as advanced or college prep classes), the teaching philosophy of educators and the student’s commitment to doing the work. Regardless, research has shown that doing more than two hours of homework per night does not benefit high school students. Having lots of homework to do every day makes it difficult for teens to have any downtime , let alone family time .

How do we respond to students' needs?

As an educator and parent, I can honestly say that oftentimes there is a mismatch in what teachers perceive as only taking 15 minutes and what really takes 45 minutes to complete. If you too find this to be the case, then reach out to your child's teacher and find out why the assignments are taking longer than anticipated for your child to complete.

Also, ask the teacher about whether faculty communicate regularly with one another about large upcoming assignments. Whether it’s setting up a shared school-wide assignment calendar or collaborating across curriculums during faculty meetings, educators need to discuss upcoming tests and projects, so students don’t end up with lots of assignments all competing for their attention and time at once. Inevitably, a student is going to get slammed occasionally, but if they have good rapport with their teachers, they will feel comfortable enough to reach out and see if alternative options are available. And as a parent, you can encourage your kid to have that dialogue with the teacher.

Often teens would rather blend into the class than stand out. That’s unfortunate because research has shown time and time again that positive teacher-student relationships are strong predictors of student engagement and achievement. By and large, most teachers appreciate students advocating for themselves and will go the extra mile to help them out.

Can there be a balance between home and school?

Students can strike a balance between school and home, but parents will have to help them find it. They need your guidance to learn how to better manage their time, get organized and prioritize tasks, which are all important life skills. Equally important is developing good study habits. Some students may need tutoring or coaching to help them learn new material or how to take notes and study. Also, don’t forget the importance of parent-teacher communication. Most educators want nothing more than for their students to succeed in their courses.

Learning should be fun, not mundane and cumbersome. Homework should only be given if its purposeful and in moderation. Equally important to homework is engaging in activities, socializing with friends and spending time with the family.

[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health .]

Most adults don’t work a full-time job and then go home and do three more hours of work, and neither should your child. It's not easy learning to balance everything, especially if you're a teen. If your child is spending several hours on homework each night, don't hesitate to reach out to teachers and, if need be, school officials. Collectively, we can all work together to help our children de-stress and find the right balance between school and home.

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative impacts on student well-being and behavioral engagement (Shutterstock)

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in.

is too much school work bad for you

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas about workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework. 

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold , says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace , says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression. 

And for all the distress homework  can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night. 

"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely but to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggests Kang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic , making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

More: Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.

More: Some parents are slipping young kids in for the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors discourage the move as 'risky'

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study.

Denise Pope

Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

• Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

• Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

• Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

is too much school work bad for you

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Health Hazards of Homework

March 18, 2014 | Julie Greicius Pediatrics .

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A new study by the Stanford Graduate School of Education and colleagues found that students in high-performing schools who did excessive hours of homework “experienced greater behavioral engagement in school but also more academic stress, physical health problems, and lack of balance in their lives.”

Those health problems ranged from stress, headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems, to psycho-social effects like dropping activities, not seeing friends or family, and not pursuing hobbies they enjoy.

In the Stanford Report story about the research, Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of the  study published in the  Journal of Experimental Education , says, “Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good.”

The study was based on survey data from a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in California communities in which median household income exceeded $90,000. Of the students surveyed, homework volume averaged about 3.1 hours each night.

“It is time to re-evaluate how the school environment is preparing our high school student for today’s workplace,” says Neville Golden, MD , chief of adolescent medicine at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and a professor at the School of Medicine. “This landmark study shows that excessive homework is counterproductive, leading to sleep deprivation, school stress and other health problems. Parents can best support their children in these demanding academic environments by advocating for them through direct communication with teachers and school administrators about homework load.”

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Do our kids have too much homework?

by: Marian Wilde | Updated: January 31, 2024

Print article

Are kids getting too much homework?

Many students and their parents are frazzled by the amount of homework being piled on in the schools. Yet many researchers say that American students have just the right amount of homework.

“Kids today are overwhelmed!” a parent recently wrote in an email to GreatSchools.org “My first-grade son was required to research a significant person from history and write a paper of at least two pages about the person, with a bibliography. How can he be expected to do that by himself? He just started to learn to read and write a couple of months ago. Schools are pushing too hard and expecting too much from kids.”

Diane Garfield, a fifth grade teacher in San Francisco, concurs. “I believe that we’re stressing children out,” she says.

But hold on, it’s not just the kids who are stressed out . “Teachers nowadays assign these almost college-level projects with requirements that make my mouth fall open with disbelief,” says another frustrated parent. “It’s not just the kids who suffer!”

“How many people take home an average of two hours or more of work that must be completed for the next day?” asks Tonya Noonan Herring, a New Mexico mother of three, an attorney and a former high school English teacher. “Most of us, even attorneys, do not do this. Bottom line: students have too much homework and most of it is not productive or necessary.”

Research about homework

How do educational researchers weigh in on the issue? According to Brian Gill, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation, there is no evidence that kids are doing more homework than they did before.

“If you look at high school kids in the late ’90s, they’re not doing substantially more homework than kids did in the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s or the ’40s,” he says. “In fact, the trends through most of this time period are pretty flat. And most high school students in this country don’t do a lot of homework. The median appears to be about four hours a week.”

Education researchers like Gill base their conclusions, in part, on data gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests.

“It doesn’t suggest that most kids are doing a tremendous amount,” says Gill. “That’s not to say there aren’t any kids with too much homework. There surely are some. There’s enormous variation across communities. But it’s not a crisis in that it’s a very small proportion of kids who are spending an enormous amount of time on homework.”

Etta Kralovec, author of The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning , disagrees, saying NAEP data is not a reliable source of information. “Students take the NAEP test and one of the questions they have to fill out is, ‘How much homework did you do last night’ Anybody who knows schools knows that teachers by and large do not give homework the night before a national assessment. It just doesn’t happen. Teachers are very clear with kids that they need to get a good night’s sleep and they need to eat well to prepare for a test.

“So asking a kid how much homework they did the night before a national test and claiming that that data tells us anything about the general run of the mill experience of kids and homework over the school year is, I think, really dishonest.”

Further muddying the waters is an AP/AOL poll that suggests that most Americans feel that their children are getting the right amount of homework. It found that 57% of parents felt that their child was assigned about the right amount of homework, 23% thought there was too little and 19% thought there was too much.

One indisputable fact

One homework fact that educators do agree upon is that the young child today is doing more homework than ever before.

“Parents are correct in saying that they didn’t get homework in the early grades and that their kids do,” says Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and director of the education program at Duke University.

Gill quantifies the change this way: “There has been some increase in homework for the kids in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. But it’s been an increase from zero to 20 minutes a day. So that is something that’s fairly new in the last quarter century.”

The history of homework

In his research, Gill found that homework has always been controversial. “Around the turn of the 20th century, the Ladies’ Home Journal carried on a crusade against homework. They thought that kids were better off spending their time outside playing and looking at clouds. The most spectacular success this movement had was in the state of California, where in 1901 the legislature passed a law abolishing homework in grades K-8. That lasted about 15 years and then was quietly repealed. Then there was a lot of activism against homework again in the 1930s.”

The proponents of homework have remained consistent in their reasons for why homework is a beneficial practice, says Gill. “One, it extends the work in the classroom with additional time on task. Second, it develops habits of independent study. Third, it’s a form of communication between the school and the parents. It gives parents an idea of what their kids are doing in school.”

The anti-homework crowd has also been consistent in their reasons for wanting to abolish or reduce homework.

“The first one is children’s health,” says Gill. “A hundred years ago, you had medical doctors testifying that heavy loads of books were causing children’s spines to be bent.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. There were also concerns about excessive amounts of stress .

“Although they didn’t use the term ‘stress,'” says Gill. “They worried about ‘nervous breakdowns.'”

“In the 1930s, there were lots of graduate students in education schools around the country who were doing experiments that claimed to show that homework had no academic value — that kids who got homework didn’t learn any more than kids who didn’t,” Gill continues. Also, a lot of the opposition to homework, in the first half of the 20th century, was motivated by a notion that it was a leftover from a 19th-century model of schooling, which was based on recitation, memorization and drill. Progressive educators were trying to replace that with something more creative, something more interesting to kids.”

The more-is-better movement

Garfield, the San Francisco fifth-grade teacher, says that when she started teaching 30 years ago, she didn’t give any homework. “Then parents started asking for it,” she says. “I got In junior high and high school there’s so much homework, they need to get prepared.” So I bought that one. I said, ‘OK, they need to be prepared.’ But they don’t need two hours.”

Cooper sees the trend toward more homework as symptomatic of high-achieving parents who want the best for their children. “Part of it, I think, is pressure from the parents with regard to their desire to have their kids be competitive for the best universities in the country. The communities in which homework is being piled on are generally affluent communities.”

The less-is-better campaign

Alfie Kohn, a widely-admired progressive writer on education and parenting, published a sharp rebuttal to the more-homework-is-better argument in his 2006 book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing . Kohn criticized the pro-homework studies that Cooper referenced as “inconclusive… they only show an association, not a causal relationship” and he titled his first chapter “Missing Out on Their Childhoods.”

Vera Goodman’s 2020 book, Simply Too Much Homework: What Can We Do? , repeats Kohn’s scrutiny and urges parents to appeal to school and government leaders to revise homework policies. Goodman believes today’s homework load stresses out teachers, parents, and students, deprives children of unstructured time for play, hobbies, and individual pursuits, and inhibits the joy of learning.

Homework guidelines

What’s a parent to do, you ask? Fortunately, there are some sanity-saving homework guidelines.

Cooper points to “The 10-Minute Rule” formulated by the National PTA and the National Education Association, which suggests that kids should be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. In other words, 10 minutes for first-graders, 20 for second-graders and so on.

Too much homework vs. the optimal amount

Cooper has found that the correlation between homework and achievement is generally supportive of these guidelines. “We found that for kids in elementary school there was hardly any relationship between how much homework young children did and how well they were doing in school, but in middle school the relationship is positive and increases until the kids were doing between an hour to two hours a night, which is right where the 10-minute rule says it’s going to be optimal.

“After that it didn’t go up anymore. Kids that reported doing more than two hours of homework a night in middle school weren’t doing any better in school than kids who were doing between an hour to two hours.”

Garfield has a very clear homework policy that she distributes to her parents at the beginning of each school year. “I give one subject a night. It’s what we were studying in class or preparation for the next day. It should be done within half an hour at most. I believe that children have many outside activities now and they also need to live fully as children. To have them work for six hours a day at school and then go home and work for hours at night does not seem right. It doesn’t allow them to have a childhood.”

International comparisons

How do American kids fare when compared to students in other countries? Professors Gerald LeTendre and David Baker of Pennsylvania State University conclude in their 2005 book, National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling, that American middle schoolers do more homework than their peers in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan, but less than their peers in Singapore and Hong Kong.

One of the surprising findings of their research was that more homework does not correlate with higher test scores. LeTendre notes: “That really flummoxes people because they say, ‘Doesn’t doing more homework mean getting better scores?’ The answer quite simply is no.”

Homework is a complicated thing

To be effective, homework must be used in a certain way, he says. “Let me give you an example. Most homework in the fourth grade in the U.S. is worksheets. Fill them out, turn them in, maybe the teacher will check them, maybe not. That is a very ineffective use of homework. An effective use of homework would be the teacher sitting down and thinking ‘Elizabeth has trouble with number placement, so I’m going to give her seven problems on number placement.’ Then the next day the teacher sits down with Elizabeth and she says, ‘Was this hard for you? Where did you have difficulty?’ Then she gives Elizabeth either more or less material. As you can imagine, that kind of homework rarely happens.”

Shotgun homework

“What typically happens is people give what we call ‘shotgun homework’: blanket drills, questions and problems from the book. On a national level that’s associated with less well-functioning school systems,” he says. “In a sense, you could sort of think of it as a sign of weaker teachers or less well-prepared teachers. Over time, we see that in elementary and middle schools more and more homework is being given, and that countries around the world are doing this in an attempt to increase their test scores, and that is basically a failing strategy.”

Quality not quantity?

“ The Case for (Quality) Homework: Why It Improves Learning, and How Parents Can Help ,” a 2019 paper written by Boston University psychologist Janine Bempechat, asks for homework that specifically helps children “confront ever-more-complex tasks” that enable them to gain resilience and embrace challenges.

Similar research from University of Ovideo in Spain titled “ Homework: Facts and Fiction 2021 ” says evidence shows that how homework is applied is more important than how much is required, and it asserts that a moderate amount of homework yields the most academic achievement. The most important aspect of quality homework assignment? The effort required and the emotions prompted by the task.

Robyn Jackson, author of How to Plan Rigorous Instruction and other media about rigor says the key to quality homework is not the time spent, but the rigor — or mental challenge — involved. ( Read more about how to evaluate your child’s homework for rigor here .)

Nightly reading as a homework replacement

Across the country, many elementary schools have replaced homework with a nightly reading requirement. There are many benefits to children reading every night , either out loud with a parent or independently: it increases their vocabulary, imagination, concentration, memory, empathy, academic ability, knowledge of different cultures and perspectives. Plus, it reduces stress, helps kids sleep, and bonds children to their cuddling parents or guardians. Twenty to 30 minutes of reading each day is generally recommended.

But, is this always possible, or even ideal?

No, it’s not.

Alfie Kohn criticizes this added assignment in his blog post, “ How To Create Nonreaders .” He cites an example from a parent (Julie King) who reports, “Our children are now expected to read 20 minutes a night, and record such on their homework sheet. What parents are discovering (surprise) is that those kids who used to sit down and read for pleasure — the kids who would get lost in a book and have to be told to put it down to eat/play/whatever — are now setting the timer… and stopping when the timer dings. … Reading has become a chore, like brushing your teeth.”

The take-away from Kohn? Don’t undermine reading for pleasure by turning it into another task burdening your child’s tired brain.

Additional resources

Books Simply Too Much Homework: What Can We do? by Vera Goodman, Trafford Publishing, 2020

The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, Crown Publishers, 2007

The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn, Hatchett Books, 2006 The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning by Etta Kralovec and John Buell, Beacon Press, 2001.

The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents by Harris M. Cooper, Corwin Press, 2001.

Seven Steps to Homework Success: A Family Guide to Solving Common Homework Problems by Sydney Zentall and Sam Goldstein, Specialty Press, 1998.

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Guy Winch Ph.D.

How Much Homework Is Too Much?

Are schools assigning too much homework.

Posted October 19, 2011

Timothy, a fifth grader, spends up to thirteen hours a day hunched over a desk at school or at home, studying and doing homework. Should his parents feel proud? Now imagine, for comparison's sake, Timothy spending thirteen hours a day hunched over a sewing machine instead of a desk.

Parents have the right to complain when schools assign too much homework but they often don't know how to do so effectively.

Drowning in Homework ( an excerpt from Chapter 8 of The Squeaky Wheel )

I first met Timothy, a quiet, overweight eleven-year-old boy, when his mother brought him to therapy to discuss his slipping grades. A few minutes with Timothy were enough to confirm that his mood, self-esteem , and general happiness were slipping right along with them. Timothy attended one of the top private schools in Manhattan, an environment in which declining grades were no idle matter.

I asked about Timothy's typical day. He awoke every morning at six thirty so he could get to school by eight and arrived home around four thirty each afternoon. He then had a quick snack, followed by either a piano lesson or his math tutor, depending on the day. He had dinner at seven p.m., after which he sat down to do homework for two to three hours a night. Quickly doing the math in my head, I calculated that Timothy spent an average of thirteen hours a day hunched over a writing desk. His situation is not atypical. Spending that many hours studying is the only way Timothy can keep up and stay afloat academically.

But what if, for comparison's sake, we imagined Timothy spending thirteen hours a day hunched over a sewing machine instead of a desk. We would immediately be aghast at the inhumanity because children are horribly mistreated in such "sweatshops." Timothy is far from being mistreated, but the mountain of homework he faces daily results in a similar consequence- he too is being robbed of his childhood.

Timothy's academics leave him virtually no time to do anything he truly enjoys, such as playing video games, movies, or board games with his friends. During the week he never plays outside and never has indoor play dates or opportunities to socialize with friends. On weekends, Timothy's days are often devoted to studying for tests, working on special school projects, or arguing with his mother about studying for tests and working on special school projects.

By the fourth and fifth grade and certainly in middle school, many of our children have hours of homework, test preparation, project writing, or research to do every night, all in addition to the eight hours or more they have to spend in school. Yet study after study has shown that homework has little to do with achievement in elementary school and is only marginally related to achievement in middle school .

Play, however, is a crucial component of healthy child development . It affects children's creativity , their social skills, and even their brain development. The absence of play, physical exercise, and free-form social interaction takes a serious toll on many children. It can also have significant health implications as is evidenced by our current epidemic of childhood obesity, sleep deprivation, low self- esteem, and depression .

A far stronger predictor than homework of academic achievement for kids aged three to twelve is having regular family meals. Family meals allow parents to check in, to demonstrate caring and involvement, to provide supervision, and to offer support. The more family meals can be worked into the schedule, the better, especially for preteens. The frequency of family meals has also been shown to help with disordered eating behaviors in adolescents.

Experts in the field recommend children have no more than ten minutes of homework per day per grade level. As a fifth- grader, Timothy should have no more than fifty minutes a day of homework (instead of three times that amount). Having an extra two hours an evening to play, relax, or see a friend would constitute a huge bump in any child's quality of life.

The 1926 St. Louis Cardinals one their first of 11 World Series titles, defeating the New York Yankees. For most baseball fans, nostalgia tied to this event would be historical nostalgia - an appreciation for a distant-yet-self-referential past.

So what can we do if our child is getting too much homework?

1. Complain to the teachers and the school. Most parents are unaware that excessive homework contributes so little to their child's academic achievement.

2. Educate your child's teacher and principal about the homework research-they are often equally unaware of the facts and teachers of younger children (K-4) often make changes as a result.

3. Create allies within the system by speaking with other parents and banding together to address the issue with the school.

You might also like: Is Excessive Homework in Private Schools a Customer Service Issue?

View my short and quite personal TED talk about Psychological Health here:

Check out my new book, Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt and Other Evreyday Psychological Injuries (Hudson Street Press).

Click here to join my mailing list

Copyright 2011 Guy Winch

Follow me on Twitter @GuyWinch

Guy Winch Ph.D.

Guy Winch, Ph.D. , is a licensed psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts.

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Is Homework Necessary? Education Inequity and Its Impact on Students

is too much school work bad for you

The Problem with Homework: It Highlights Inequalities

How much homework is too much homework, when does homework actually help, negative effects of homework for students, how teachers can help.

Schools are getting rid of homework from Essex, Mass., to Los Angeles, Calif. Although the no-homework trend may sound alarming, especially to parents dreaming of their child’s acceptance to Harvard, Stanford or Yale, there is mounting evidence that eliminating homework in grade school may actually have great benefits , especially with regard to educational equity.

In fact, while the push to eliminate homework may come as a surprise to many adults, the debate is not new . Parents and educators have been talking about this subject for the last century, so that the educational pendulum continues to swing back and forth between the need for homework and the need to eliminate homework.

One of the most pressing talking points around homework is how it disproportionately affects students from less affluent families. The American Psychological Association (APA) explained:

“Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs.”

[RELATED] How to Advance Your Career: A Guide for Educators >> 

While students growing up in more affluent areas are likely playing sports, participating in other recreational activities after school, or receiving additional tutoring, children in disadvantaged areas are more likely headed to work after school, taking care of siblings while their parents work or dealing with an unstable home life. Adding homework into the mix is one more thing to deal with — and if the student is struggling, the task of completing homework can be too much to consider at the end of an already long school day.

While all students may groan at the mention of homework, it may be more than just a nuisance for poor and disadvantaged children, instead becoming another burden to carry and contend with.

Beyond the logistical issues, homework can negatively impact physical health and stress — and once again this may be a more significant problem among economically disadvantaged youth who typically already have a higher stress level than peers from more financially stable families .

Yet, today, it is not just the disadvantaged who suffer from the stressors that homework inflicts. A 2014 CNN article, “Is Homework Making Your Child Sick?” , covered the issue of extreme pressure placed on children of the affluent. The article looked at the results of a study surveying more than 4,300 students from 10 high-performing public and private high schools in upper-middle-class California communities.

“Their findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives,” according to the CNN story. “That children growing up in poverty are at-risk for a number of ailments is both intuitive and well-supported by research. More difficult to believe is the growing consensus that children on the other end of the spectrum, children raised in affluence, may also be at risk.”

When it comes to health and stress it is clear that excessive homework, for children at both ends of the spectrum, can be damaging. Which begs the question, how much homework is too much?

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association recommend that students spend 10 minutes per grade level per night on homework . That means that first graders should spend 10 minutes on homework, second graders 20 minutes and so on. But a study published by The American Journal of Family Therapy found that students are getting much more than that.

While 10 minutes per day doesn’t sound like much, that quickly adds up to an hour per night by sixth grade. The National Center for Education Statistics found that high school students get an average of 6.8 hours of homework per week, a figure that is much too high according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is also to be noted that this figure does not take into consideration the needs of underprivileged student populations.

In a study conducted by the OECD it was found that “after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a negligible impact on performance .” That means that by asking our children to put in an hour or more per day of dedicated homework time, we are not only not helping them, but — according to the aforementioned studies — we are hurting them, both physically and emotionally.

What’s more is that homework is, as the name implies, to be completed at home, after a full day of learning that is typically six to seven hours long with breaks and lunch included. However, a study by the APA on how people develop expertise found that elite musicians, scientists and athletes do their most productive work for about only four hours per day. Similarly, companies like Tower Paddle Boards are experimenting with a five-hour workday, under the assumption that people are not able to be truly productive for much longer than that. CEO Stephan Aarstol told CNBC that he believes most Americans only get about two to three hours of work done in an eight-hour day.

In the scope of world history, homework is a fairly new construct in the U.S. Students of all ages have been receiving work to complete at home for centuries, but it was educational reformer Horace Mann who first brought the concept to America from Prussia. 

Since then, homework’s popularity has ebbed and flowed in the court of public opinion. In the 1930s, it was considered child labor (as, ironically, it compromised children’s ability to do chores at home). Then, in the 1950s, implementing mandatory homework was hailed as a way to ensure America’s youth were always one step ahead of Soviet children during the Cold War. Homework was formally mandated as a tool for boosting educational quality in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Education, and has remained in common practice ever since.  

School work assigned and completed outside of school hours is not without its benefits. Numerous studies have shown that regular homework has a hand in improving student performance and connecting students to their learning. When reviewing these studies, take them with a grain of salt; there are strong arguments for both sides, and only you will know which solution is best for your students or school. 

Homework improves student achievement.

  • Source: The High School Journal, “ When is Homework Worth the Time?: Evaluating the Association between Homework and Achievement in High School Science and Math ,” 2012. 
  • Source: IZA.org, “ Does High School Homework Increase Academic Achievement? ,” 2014. **Note: Study sample comprised only high school boys. 

Homework helps reinforce classroom learning.

  • Source: “ Debunk This: People Remember 10 Percent of What They Read ,” 2015.

Homework helps students develop good study habits and life skills.

  • Sources: The Repository @ St. Cloud State, “ Types of Homework and Their Effect on Student Achievement ,” 2017; Journal of Advanced Academics, “ Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework ,” 2011.
  • Source: Journal of Advanced Academics, “ Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework ,” 2011.

Homework allows parents to be involved with their children’s learning.

  • Parents can see what their children are learning and working on in school every day. 
  • Parents can participate in their children’s learning by guiding them through homework assignments and reinforcing positive study and research habits.
  • Homework observation and participation can help parents understand their children’s academic strengths and weaknesses, and even identify possible learning difficulties.
  • Source: Phys.org, “ Sociologist Upends Notions about Parental Help with Homework ,” 2018.

While some amount of homework may help students connect to their learning and enhance their in-class performance, too much homework can have damaging effects. 

Students with too much homework have elevated stress levels. 

  • Source: USA Today, “ Is It Time to Get Rid of Homework? Mental Health Experts Weigh In ,” 2021.
  • Source: Stanford University, “ Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework ,” 2014.

Students with too much homework may be tempted to cheat. 

  • Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, “ High-Tech Cheating Abounds, and Professors Bear Some Blame ,” 2010.
  • Source: The American Journal of Family Therapy, “ Homework and Family Stress: With Consideration of Parents’ Self Confidence, Educational Level, and Cultural Background ,” 2015.

Homework highlights digital inequity. 

  • Sources: NEAToday.org, “ The Homework Gap: The ‘Cruelest Part of the Digital Divide’ ,” 2016; CNET.com, “ The Digital Divide Has Left Millions of School Kids Behind ,” 2021.
  • Source: Investopedia, “ Digital Divide ,” 2022; International Journal of Education and Social Science, “ Getting the Homework Done: Social Class and Parents’ Relationship to Homework ,” 2015.
  • Source: World Economic Forum, “ COVID-19 exposed the digital divide. Here’s how we can close it ,” 2021.

Homework does not help younger students.

  • Source: Review of Educational Research, “ Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Researcher, 1987-2003 ,” 2006.

To help students find the right balance and succeed, teachers and educators must start the homework conversation, both internally at their school and with parents. But in order to successfully advocate on behalf of students, teachers must be well educated on the subject, fully understanding the research and the outcomes that can be achieved by eliminating or reducing the homework burden. There is a plethora of research and writing on the subject for those interested in self-study.

For teachers looking for a more in-depth approach or for educators with a keen interest in educational equity, formal education may be the best route. If this latter option sounds appealing, there are now many reputable schools offering online master of education degree programs to help educators balance the demands of work and family life while furthering their education in the quest to help others.

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Increased workload and loss of free time increases student stress

Maggie Kroeger , Opinion Editor | February 28, 2019

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A stack of notebooks and textbooks meant to represent the amount of workload the average AP student has.

   As the number of years one spends in school increases, so does the workload, arguably exponentially. In the sixth grade, the only worries are the bell schedule, learning how to do new math or writing one’s first short story. Jump five years to the beginning of junior year, and suddenly students are facing a mountain of work that wasn’t even fathomable in the sixth grade. While it is obviously expected for school workload to increase as students gain experience, the aspect that is most difficult is the ever-looming self, peer and advisor pressures.

    For junior Addison Gress, her first two years in high school proved to be fairly easy, but during junior year, that feeling changed.

    “Freshman and sophomore year were both really easy for me, and I didn’t have to try very hard to get good grades, but junior year is very stressful because it takes a lot of work and organization to do well in all of the AP classes,” Gress said.

    For students that begin to take college-level AP and honors courses, the pressure is really on. Then, students often increase their load by adding one more AP class than they should to impress college admissions boards. Even though they don’t technically have to start considering college until junior year, the real considerations come as early as eight grade.

    The mindset becomes “I need to take Pre-AP English 9 so that I can get into Pre-AP English 10 sophomore year so that I can do well in AP Language and Composition, which I can get college credit for and prepare to write college papers,” or “I’m going to work extra hard to get into Compact Math so that I can take Pre-Calculus sophomore year so that I can take Calculus 1 and 2, which will look good on college applications.” Then there’s the ACT, the Pre-ACT, ACT Prep, the PSAT, and a whole bunch of other tests with acronyms that are a major part of the golden ticket to college. Even the most perfectly organized and prepared student can’t keep track of all of these things 24/7.

    “One of the most stressful parts of high school for me is Calculus because it’s not only a big workload, but it also really challenges me. Overall, AP classes cause me a lot of stress. I do around two hours of homework every night, and I also work after school, am involved in my church and participate in A&M crew and soccer at De Soto High School,” Gress explained. “I’m also worried about the ACT because I’m not sure how well I’ll do, and I feel like it decides a lot about my future.”

    For junior Chase Culver, the stress and demands of school are at an all-time high.

    “The most stressful part of high school has been staying balanced with everything going on and not falling behind on my work,” Culver explained.

    Even freshman year, students quickly get lost in the rigor of their classes and the adjustment to high school, and the free time slowly begins to melt away like ice cream under the summer sun. Suddenly, they’re playing tennis, doing two hours of homework every night after practice and then studying for finals and going to debate tournaments on the weekends.

    “My workload for classes is pretty full, and I’m involved in 15 extracurricular activities,” Culver said. “My social life consists mainly of study groups and the duties that come with all of those extracurricular activities.”

    By the time junior year rolls around, two hours of homework turns into five, standardized tests dominate the weekends and students have to try to keep up with a varsity sport that has a demanding schedule, on top of clubs, activities, scholarships, volunteering and more. This may bring them to ask themselves, “When is the last time I talked to my mom and dad for more than 20 minutes?” or “When is the last time I saw my friends more than twice a month?”

    The point is that the decimation of free time and the exponential increase of workload creates a high increase of stress within students.  A 2015 study by New York University revealed that “nearly half of high school students reported feeling a great amount of stress on a daily basis,” and that “grades, homework and preparing for college were the greatest sources of stress for both genders.” This stress and workload is only supposed to prepare us for the rigor and demands of college life, and later the real world, but this preparation should not come at the cost of student’s mental health.

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School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

The-Pros-and-Cons-Should-Students-Have-Homework

Homework is a word that most students dread hearing. After hours upon hours of sitting in class , the last thing we want is more schoolwork over our precious weekends. While it’s known to be a staple of traditional schooling, homework has also become a rather divise topic. Some feel as though homework is a necessary part of school, while others believe that the time could be better invested. Should students have homework? Have a closer look into the arguments on both sides to decide for yourself.

A college student completely swamped with homework.

Photo by  energepic.com  from  Pexels

Why should students have homework, 1. homework encourages practice.

Many people believe that one of the positive effects of homework is that it encourages the discipline of practice. While it may be time consuming and boring compared to other activities, repetition is needed to get better at skills. Homework helps make concepts more clear, and gives students more opportunities when starting their career .

2. Homework Gets Parents Involved

Homework can be something that gets parents involved in their children’s lives if the environment is a healthy one. A parent helping their child with homework makes them take part in their academic success, and allows for the parent to keep up with what the child is doing in school. It can also be a chance to connect together.

3. Homework Teaches Time Management

Homework is much more than just completing the assigned tasks. Homework can develop time management skills , forcing students to plan their time and make sure that all of their homework assignments are done on time. By learning to manage their time, students also practice their problem-solving skills and independent thinking. One of the positive effects of homework is that it forces decision making and compromises to be made.

4. Homework Opens A Bridge Of Communication

Homework creates a connection between the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents. It allows everyone to get to know each other better, and parents can see where their children are struggling. In the same sense, parents can also see where their children are excelling. Homework in turn can allow for a better, more targeted educational plan for the student.

5. Homework Allows For More Learning Time

Homework allows for more time to complete the learning process. School hours are not always enough time for students to really understand core concepts, and homework can counter the effects of time shortages, benefiting students in the long run, even if they can’t see it in the moment.

6. Homework Reduces Screen Time

Many students in North America spend far too many hours watching TV. If they weren’t in school, these numbers would likely increase even more. Although homework is usually undesired, it encourages better study habits and discourages spending time in front of the TV. Homework can be seen as another extracurricular activity, and many families already invest a lot of time and money in different clubs and lessons to fill up their children’s extra time. Just like extracurricular activities, homework can be fit into one’s schedule.

A female student who doesn’t want to do homework.

The Other Side: Why Homework Is Bad

1. homework encourages a sedentary lifestyle.

Should students have homework? Well, that depends on where you stand. There are arguments both for the advantages and the disadvantages of homework.

While classroom time is important, playground time is just as important. If children are given too much homework, they won’t have enough playtime, which can impact their social development and learning. Studies have found that those who get more play get better grades in school , as it can help them pay closer attention in the classroom.

Children are already sitting long hours in the classroom, and homework assignments only add to these hours. Sedentary lifestyles can be dangerous and can cause health problems such as obesity. Homework takes away from time that could be spent investing in physical activity.

2. Homework Isn’t Healthy In Every Home

While many people that think homes are a beneficial environment for children to learn, not all homes provide a healthy environment, and there may be very little investment from parents. Some parents do not provide any kind of support or homework help, and even if they would like to, due to personal barriers, they sometimes cannot. Homework can create friction between children and their parents, which is one of the reasons why homework is bad .

3. Homework Adds To An Already Full-Time Job

School is already a full-time job for students, as they generally spend over 6 hours each day in class. Students also often have extracurricular activities such as sports, music, or art that are just as important as their traditional courses. Adding on extra hours to all of these demands is a lot for children to manage, and prevents students from having extra time to themselves for a variety of creative endeavors. Homework prevents self discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system. This is one of the main disadvantages of homework.

4. Homework Has Not Been Proven To Provide Results

Endless surveys have found that homework creates a negative attitude towards school, and homework has not been found to be linked to a higher level of academic success.

The positive effects of homework have not been backed up enough. While homework may help some students improve in specific subjects, if they have outside help there is no real proof that homework makes for improvements.

It can be a challenge to really enforce the completion of homework, and students can still get decent grades without doing their homework. Extra school time does not necessarily mean better grades — quality must always come before quantity.

Accurate practice when it comes to homework simply isn’t reliable. Homework could even cause opposite effects if misunderstood, especially since the reliance is placed on the student and their parents — one of the major reasons as to why homework is bad. Many students would rather cheat in class to avoid doing their homework at home, and children often just copy off of each other or from what they read on the internet.

5. Homework Assignments Are Overdone

The general agreement is that students should not be given more than 10 minutes a day per grade level. What this means is that a first grader should be given a maximum of 10 minutes of homework, while a second grader receives 20 minutes, etc. Many students are given a lot more homework than the recommended amount, however.

On average, college students spend as much as 3 hours per night on homework . By giving too much homework, it can increase stress levels and lead to burn out. This in turn provides an opposite effect when it comes to academic success.

The pros and cons of homework are both valid, and it seems as though the question of ‘‘should students have homework?’ is not a simple, straightforward one. Parents and teachers often are found to be clashing heads, while the student is left in the middle without much say.

It’s important to understand all the advantages and disadvantages of homework, taking both perspectives into conversation to find a common ground. At the end of the day, everyone’s goal is the success of the student.

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What does it mean to be overworked?

Is working too much harmful, how can i know if i'm being overworked, being aware of unhealthy work-life balances, what to do if you’re overworked, taking charge.

To be overworked means that your job has become all-consuming. 

Maintaining a work-life balance is always important but challenging — even during ordinary times. The COVID-19 pandemic has rearranged traditional work schedules, and people have been working too much. Many people have been, and still are, working from home. This blurs the lines between work hours and leisure. 

Establishing boundaries to prevent burnout is more vital than ever.

The average workweek ranges anywhere from 40 to 50 hours. Other factors can contribute to your workload, such as:

  • The length of your commute
  • Your work environment and the people you engage with
  • Your job satisfaction
  • Whether or not you feel appreciated

Do you come home feeling drained and uninspired? Is motivating yourself to do things you enjoy becoming increasingly difficult? Do you or your loved ones think that all you do is work ? If you're nodding along as you read these, your job may be too demanding.

Too much of anything, be it chocolate, exercise, alcohol, or work, to name a few, is bad for your well-being. That includes working excessively.

Too much work can be damaging to your mental and physical health. You're more likely to suffer from adverse health problems, including neck, back, or chest pain, stroke, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and anxiety. One study found that working more than 61 hours a week increased an employee's risk of experiencing high systolic blood pressure and caused issues like fatigue and stress. 

Overworking exacerbates mental health issues, too. Depression and anxiety cost the global economy an estimated $1 trillion dollars each year because of lost productivity. So if you’re wondering if you can get sick from working too much, the answer will always be yes.

Exhausted workers are more common than you may think. In 2016, an estimated 745,194 people died from a stroke or heart disease related to overworking . And in 2021, the U.S. was ranked as the 10th most overworked country in the world . But people continue to put in long hours, even if they feel the effects of overworking.

Unfortunately, the majority of us are guilty of overworking. Endless emails, unanticipated problems, being short-staffed, and lacking traditional boundaries are just a few possible causes. 

We feel bad about saying, "I've done enough. I'll work on this tomorrow," when in fact, that's exactly what we need to do. When your job harms your health, you need to take a step back and remind yourself to prioritize your well-being.

That's what BetterUp is here for: to help you take charge of your own decisions, whether that means seeking out paths that lead to happiness. You have the power to say yes or no, and we're here to help you regain that power and lead a healthy, balanced life.

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Learn to recognize how much work is too much. This goes beyond simply acknowledging that you're working too many hours. Common overworking symptoms are:

1. You turn to alcohol 

Studies have shown that working long hours leads to excessive alcohol consumption . The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest limiting alcoholic beverages to one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men. Drinking affects your ability to focus and leads to other, more severe health issues. 

Listening to music, reading a book, and avoiding screens, especially if you work with them all day, are healthier ways to decompress. If you commute, use that time as a rest period ; those minutes belong to you and can be a good physical and mental transition from the office to home. If you work remotely, consider improving your work-from-home setup to better emphasize where you work and where you live.

2. You're less productive

Longer working hours decrease an employee's productivity. We're simply not meant to work nonstop. 

One approach to make work more manageable is to make a to-do list. Crossing out finished tasks throughout the day is a good mental boost. Try your best to finish your top two or three things each day; the rest can wait until tomorrow. Organizing your week by priority ensures that your important tasks receive your best energy. 

3. You aren't getting enough sleep 

Tired-woman-taking-a-nap-on-the-couch-at-home-with-his-hand-on-his-cat-working-too-much

Turning your mind off is harder if you're constantly researching, writing proposals, or dealing with clients from morning until night. Less sleep leads to irritability, stress , and the inability to focus and retain information.

A simple way to address this issue is by taking breaks throughout the day. Stretching, walking, getting a snack, or even having a mini dance break to your favorite song can do wonders for your psyche. Your actions during the day and good sleep hygiene  can help you clock more zzzs. 

4. You feel blue 

Depression is more common amongst those who work too much. Although everyone looks forward to the weekends, having an "I just need to make it to Friday" mindset every week isn't healthy. 

Mediation is an excellent self-care practice that gently and gradually resets your mind and body. You can also consider seeing a mental health professional to better care for your mental health.

5. Your relationships are taking a hit

It's easy for work to get in the way of our social and personal lives. And, even if you do have time to see your friends and family, chances are you'll be too drained to enjoy your time with them. 

Planning to do something fun once a week is an excellent motivator and will support your social health . It gives you something to look forward to, and you'll have to stop working to participate in the activity, giving you an all but mandatory break. Carving out time for ourselves isn't selfish but healthy and, yes, definitely, necessary.

6. Your body aches

Longer hours mean you're sitting in the same position for an extended period, which causes muscle tension and soreness. If you already struggle with chronic pain, stress can make it worse — and vice versa.

Plus, feeling stressed leads to the release of a hormone called cortisol. Too much of this stress hormone can increase your risk for stroke, heart disease, headaches, and muscle pains, among other health problems. 

If you're experiencing chronic stress, a great strategy is to talk to a therapist. If you can’t find a solution, sometimes another party more removed from the situation can see solutions.

Getting ahead isn't worth it if you're making yourself sick in the process. That's why a healthy work-life balance is so vital. 

Here are some things to monitor if you feel like you might be feeling the effects of working too much:

Woman-doing-abs-workout-in-the-gym-working-too-much

Sleeping habits

Working all the time impacts how much you sleep. And when you don't get enough sleep , your mental and physical health will take a toll. You need sleep to rest and recharge your mind and body. Without it, your body won't heal as fast and you'll feel even more exhausted.

Eating habits

It's easy to become absorbed in a task and forget to take your lunch, but that doesn't mean you should do that every workday. Food fuels your brain and body and helps give you the energy to take on your day. If you don't eat properly, you won't have enough energy, and you'll feel tired faster. Try to practice mindful eating to give yourself a break.

How frequently do you exercise

Exercising is one of the first things people drop due to working extra hours. After a long, tiring day, you might not feel like going to the gym or going on a run. You want to rest your body because you're exhausted, but exercising has many benefits. Exercise can boost your mental health , build strong muscles, and motivate you.

An-osteopath-treating-a-young-female-with-neck-pain-working-too-much

The amount of time you spend doing activities with others outside of work

The number of hours you spend at work dictates how many hours you have for activities outside work, like hobbies, friends, and downtime. Your work-life balance will suffer if you're too invested in the hustle of work. Neglecting others in your life will contribute to loneliness, and you'll risk experiencing the mental and physical impacts of burnout .

Alcohol and drug consumption

When some people feel overwhelmed, they turn to alcohol and drugs. But that's not an effective or healthy way to recover from burnout or deal with long hours. It's not a healthy habit to adopt and doesn't help your overall wellness. Having a drink after work is OK, but making it an excessive habit isn't healthy.

You always have the power to change your situation. Baby steps are better than no steps at all. 

Try these tips to start regaining balance in your life.

Tip #1: Assess your situation 

You can't make a change if you don't know what's causing you to feel overworked in the first place. Are you putting pressure on yourself ? Don't be afraid to talk to your employer if your boss is overdoing your workload.

Happier, healthy employees equal a more successful company . A good supervisor will help you prioritize your responsibilities and look for solutions if you're overworked.

Tip #2: Think about your dream work-life scenario 

It can be scary, but this may be a great time to step back and think about what you want in life . Ask yourself some work-life balance questions and what your work values are. Maybe a career change is in order. If you're not passionate about what you do anymore, starting anew may be the best thing for you.

Tip #3: Make a plan

Talking only goes so far; only actions will make a difference. Get a calendar and plan out how you'll spend your hours , leaving room for meal breaks and exercise. A self-care plan will help you prioritize time for rest, too.

Tip #4: Stay accountable

If you aren't good at keeping yourself accountable regarding maintaining a proper diet or sleep regimen, ask your spouse, coworkers, family, or friends to help you. For example, set up an event like "family dinners at 5 o'clock" every day, so you'll have to leave work earlier. Time blocking can help you set boundaries, too, and limit distractions or the temptation to multitask.

Tip #5: Take time off 

Vacations give you time to focus on yourself. Sunshine and nature are, after all, natural remedies. And, you deserve it. A break from work is restorative and can also help you think through ways you want to adjust your work routines in the future.

Tip # 6: Release the guilt

Are you leaving the office when a few other team members are still working? Let go of the guilt you feel, and remember that you're prioritizing your health. Think about how good it feels to complete your work for the day; you can go home and relax.

Tip # 7: Create a routine

Maybe you're a little unorganized with your time and think you should work longer than you need. With a routine, you'll know when it's time to go to work, leave for home, and when you can enjoy your personal life. It'll also help with your time management and what you accomplish within the day.

Tip #8: Try mindfulness meditation

Whenever you have the opportunity, whether during your lunch break, before work, or after, work in some micro-moments of mindfulness and meditation . It allows you to pay attention to how you're body feels. Think about if you're getting enough sleep, doing enough exercise, and your work-related stress levels. It's a chance to check in with yourself during the workday and figure out what you need the most.

Tip #9 Set professional boundaries

Setting boundaries doesn't just have to be for others to follow; they can be for yourself, too. Establish some boundaries for what you're going to accomplish and what you're going to avoid. They could be things like staying firm when you take your lunch break to eat or how late you stay at work. It'll remind you of your commitment to your wellness and how you're trying to stop working too much.

Redhead-woman-her-husband-and-little-daughter-enjoying-on-their-vacation-walking-by-sea-working-too-much

Unfortunately, being a workaholic is becoming a staple of contemporary work culture, and people are working too much. But we're humans, not robots. We aren't meant to go nonstop. A company's greatest asset is its workers. And you can't help others if you aren't helping yourself. 

As a human transformation company, BetterUp champions personal and professional development , mental fitness, and social connections, all in the name of helping every individual reach their full potential. It's hard to stop working too much, but if you're willing to put in the effort, we’re here to guide you as you navigate this crazy journey called life and become your best self.

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Maggie Wooll

Thought Leader

How to calm yourself down: 23 ways

Counting the days 5 emotional signs that you're ready to retire, life purpose: the inspiration you need to find your drive, how to change your perspective and change your life, stop comparing yourself to others: do these 10 things instead, i stopped having dead people's goals, happy life or a meaningful life: can you have both, self-care and work-life balance: how to take care of yourself, how to get your life together in 10 simple steps, similar articles, how to have a good work-life balance, being the boss: 10 tips to find work-life balance for managers, feeling overworked spot the symptoms and take charge, work addiction: signs and strategies to overcome it, how to spot and prevent toxic productivity, 11 things to do with your free time to feel happier and healthier, the work-life balance questions to ask to get yours on the right track, the problems with hustle culture — and how it's tied to mental health, workaholic versus working long hours: which one are you, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Too Much Niacin May Be Bad for the Heart

By Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter

is too much school work bad for you

TUESDAY, Feb. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Niacin is an essential B vitamin, but new research reveals that too much of it may harm your heart.

Found in many foods that millions of Americans eat, excessive amounts of niacin can trigger inflammation and damage blood vessels, scientists report in the Feb. 19 issue of the journal Nature Medicine .

"The average person should avoid niacin supplements now that we have reason to believe that taking too much niacin can potentially lead to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease,” senior study author Dr. Stanley Hazen , chair of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, told NBC News .

The recommended daily allowance of niacin for men is 16 milligrams per day, while it is 14 milligrams a day for women who are not pregnant, according to the Mayo Clinic .

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is too much school work bad for you

Ever since the 1940s, when grains and cereals began to be fortified with niacin, Americans have gotten plenty of the vitamin in their diet. The move to fortify those foods was prompted by evidence suggesting that very low levels of niacin could trigger the development of a potentially fatal condition called pellagra , said Hazen, who is also co-section head of preventive cardiology at the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute.

Ironically, niacin supplements were once prescribed by doctors to improve cholesterol levels.

Dr. Amanda Doran , an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiovascular medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., was surprised to learn that niacin could drive up the risk of heart disease.

“I don’t think anyone would have predicted that niacin would have been pro-inflammatory,” she told NBC News . “This is a powerful study because it combines a variety of techniques: clinical data, genetic data and mouse data.”

In the new study, Hazen's team first analyzed fasting blood samples from almost 1,200 patients who had come into a cardiology center to be evaluated for heart disease. What did they discover? There was a substance, dubbed 4PY, in some of the blood samples that is only made when there is too much niacin in the body. 

That finding prompted two additional “validation” studies, which included data from a total of just over 3,000 adults who either had heart disease or were suspected of having it. The two studies, one in the United States and one in Europe, showed that 4PY levels predicted the future risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

The final part of the study turned to experiments in mice. When injected with 4PY, inflammation increased in the rodents' blood vessels. 

The results are “fascinating” and “important,” Dr. Robert Rosenson , director of metabolism and lipids for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, told NBC News .

Rosenson said he hopes the food industry will “stop using so much niacin in products like bread. This is a case where too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.”

The new information could also influence dietary recommendations for niacin, Rosenson added.

The discovery may also lead to new ways to lower blood vessel inflammation, Doran noted.

“It’s very exciting and promising,” she said.

More information

Harvard Health has more on niacin and heart disease.

SOURCE: Nature Medicine , Feb 19, 2024; NBC News

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay . All rights reserved.

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Breaking news, you might be eating an artery-damaging amount of protein, new study warns.

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Turns out, there is such a thing as too much protein.

A new study published in the journal Nature Metabolism suggests that eating too much protein is bad for your arteries.

“Our study shows that dialing up your protein intake in pursuit of better metabolic health is not a panacea. You could be doing real damage to your arteries,” senior and co-corresponding author Babak Razani, MD, Ph.D., professor of cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a statement .

Researchers from Pitt’s School of Medicine found that consumption of excessive protein can lead to atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of fats , cholesterol and other substances in and on the artery walls.

The buildup, also called plaque, can cause the arteries to narrow, blocking blood flow, or burst, which can lead to a blood clot.

If more than 22% of dietary calories come from protein, it can lead to increased activation of the immune cells that play a part in blood plaque forming in the arteries.

Data collected from over the past decade found that Americans consume a lot of protein — mostly from animals — and nearly a quarter of the US population gets over 22% of all daily calories from just protein.

Razani proposed that the trend of high consumption of protein is most likely due to the common idea that dietary protein is essential to a healthy lifestyle — but too much could be detrimental in the long term.

According to the National Institutes of Health , to maintain weight, women should eat 2,000 calories per day on average, and men should eat 2,500 calories per day.

Therefore, on average, if women consume more than 440 calories of protein and men consume more than 550 calories of protein, there could be a risk of causing damage to the arteries.

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Foods considered to be high in protein include eggs, meat, fish and lentils.

“Our hope is that this research starts a conversation about ways of modifying diets in a precise manner that can influence body function at a molecular level and dampen disease risks,” Razani shared.

The study looked at a combination of small human trials and experiments in mice and cells in a petri dish.

Razani and Dr. Bettina Mittendorfer, a metabolism expert at the University of Missouri, Columbia, teamed up to examine protein’s relevance to the human body.

Babak Razani, M.D., Ph.D.

Researchers also found that leucine — an essential amino acid and nutrient-based signal to activate protein synthesis — is primarily responsible for abnormal macrophage, which is the activation of white blood cells and a risk of atherosclerosis.

“We have shown in our mechanistic studies that amino acids, which are really the building blocks of the protein, can trigger disease through specific signaling mechanisms and then also alter the metabolism of these cells,” Mittendorfer said. “For instance, small immune cells in the vasculature called macrophages can trigger the development of atherosclerosis.”

The differences in levels of leucine between diets with plant and animal protein could be the reasoning behind the different effects on the heart, blood vessels and metabolic health, the findings show.

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The study findings are particularly important for nutritionists in hospital settings who often recommend that their sickest patients have a protein-rich diet in order to preserve muscle mass and strength.

“Perhaps blindly increasing protein load is wrong,” Razani suggested. “Instead, it’s important to look at the diet as a whole and suggest balanced meals that won’t inadvertently exacerbate cardiovascular conditions, especially in people at risk of heart disease and vessel disorders.

“The potential for this type of mechanistic research to inform future dietary guidelines is quite exciting.”

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How Much Advil Is Too Much?

Ibuprofen can be a blessing for those with aches and pains, but overdoing it poses serious risks.

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By Melinda Wenner Moyer

  • Feb. 13, 2024

Q: I take Advil pretty regularly for pain, but how can I tell if I’m taking more than is safe?

Headaches. Fevers. Period cramps. Back pain.

These are all symptoms that can be treated with ibuprofen, a drug better known by one of its brand names, Advil.

Given the drug’s broad pain-reducing effects, excellent safety profile and availability over the counter, it’s no surprise that some people pop the little brownish-red tablets whenever they feel the slightest twinge of discomfort.

“It’s my go-to when I have pain,” said Candy Tsourounis, a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco.

Still, ibuprofen — which is also sold under brand names like Motrin and Nuprin — can pose certain health risks, especially for those with kidney or stomach issues.

Here’s how to feel well and stay safe.

How to Tell If You’re Overdoing It

Scan the label of over-the-counter ibuprofen and you’ll see that adults and children 12 years and older are advised to take one (or two, if needed) 200-milligram tablets, caplets or gel caplets every four to six hours while symptoms persist. And those taking the drug should not exceed 1,200 milligrams (or six pills) in 24 hours.

But because doctors sometimes prescribe ibuprofen in much higher dosages , up to 3,200 milligrams a day, it can be hard to say how much is too much.

This discrepancy is rooted in safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration sets strict dosage limits for over-the-counter drugs because they may be taken by people with various risk factors, Dr. Tsourounis said. If you’re unlikely to have an adverse reaction, your doctor may prescribe a higher dose.

Even with over-the-counter ibuprofen, doctors will sometimes advise patients to take up to 3,200 milligrams per day for a short period — up to a week or two — because the anti-inflammatory effects are better at higher doses, said Lauren Haggerty, a clinical pharmacist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. This might happen after an injury or a surgery, she said.

If you haven’t consulted a doctor about how much is safe, or if you aren’t certain about your risk factors, it’s best not to exceed the recommended limit of 1,200 milligrams a day, Dr. Tsourounis said.

Since ibuprofen can cause an upset stomach, consider taking it with at least a few bites of food — dairy, or nondairy alternative, products are especially helpful, Dr. Tsourounis said.

Be careful that you don’t accidentally take more than intended. “I have patients who don’t know that Advil and generic ibuprofen are the same, so then they might take both,” said Dr. Sarah Ruff, a physician at UNC Family Medicine in Durham, N.C.

Also keep in mind that ibuprofen is sometimes added to certain cold medications, like Sudafed PE Head Congestion and Pain Relief, so always read the ingredient list on medications before using them.

When to Be Extra Cautious

Ibuprofen belongs to a class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which reduce pain and inflammation by blocking the activity of certain enzymes, Dr. Tsourounis said. This is why tamping them down often makes you feel better.

But these enzymes also help maintain kidney and liver function and regulate the balance of fluids and electrolytes in your body, Dr. Tsourounis said. So taking ibuprofen can be dangerous for patients with kidney disease or failure; those with liver damage or cirrhosis; and people with conditions that put strain on their kidneys, like high blood pressure or heart failure.

Those at high risk for these conditions — as well as for stomach ulcers, heart attacks, strokes or bleeding problems — should talk with their doctors before taking ibuprofen, Dr. Haggerty said. The same goes if you’re pregnant; ibuprofen is not recommended at or after 20 weeks, according to the F.D.A., since it may in rare cases harm the fetus’s kidneys .

People who take medications such as diuretics, anticoagulants, ACE inhibitors or ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers) to manage cardiovascular issues should also be careful, Dr. Tsourounis said, because ibuprofen stresses the kidneys and the heart.

To reduce these health risks, don’t take the maximum recommended dose for more than a week or two at a time, Dr. Ruff warned. “If you are needing it for more than two weeks, that’s a good sign that you need to go see your doctor.”

When taken for long periods, ibuprofen can also increase the risk of stomach ulcers, Dr. Ruff said. The drug inhibits enzymes that, among other things, aid in the production of mucus that lines and protects the stomach lining — so without these enzymes, the stomach becomes vulnerable to irritation and damage.

And ironically, regular ibuprofen use among people with headache disorders (such as migraines) can cause rebound headaches , for reasons doctors don’t completely understand.

“It’s really frustrating for patients — because if they get into that situation, the only way to make it go away is to wean themselves off all of the pain relievers,” Dr. Ruff said. “And that’s a painful process.”

Ask Well: Answers to Your Health Questions

Does Beer Before Liquor Make You Sicker?: We asked alcohol researchers to explain what will — and won’t — prevent a hangover .

What’s the Best Way to Clean Your Ears?: Cotton swabs may feel the most satisfying, but there are safer and more effective alternatives .

How Does Alcohol Affect My Microbiome?: As scientists begin to explore how drinking may influence your gut, they’re learning that overdoing it could have some unhappy consequences .

Is Dyeing Your Hair Bad for Health?: Here’s what the research suggests about the link between hair dye and cancer .

How Much Water Do I Need?: Your water needs change as you age . They can also depend on your exercise habits and even where you live.

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February 23, 2024

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The danger of reading too much into IQ tests, and the crucial cognitive skills they don't measure

by Lawrence Whalley, The Conversation

test

Many people object to intelligence tests. Some say IQ test scores are too often abused. They says it's unfair that when children "fail" these tests it can mean they receive a worse secondary education than their more successful peers—sentencing them to a lifetime of disadvantage.

Some object to IQ tests for quite personal reasons and remember how stressed they were by sitting a test. Many doubt their result was a fair reflection of their future potential. But how useful are IQ tests really—and what skills and qualities do they miss?

More than 30 years ago, I discovered a half-forgotten, unique archive of more than 89,000 IQ-type tests from 1932. This comprised a near-complete national sample of Scottish children born in 1921 who—at the time—would have been about 76 years old.

My aim was simple: to find local people to match with the archive and compare their current mental ability with their test result from 1932. A picture quickly emerged linking lower IQ scores with earlier than expected age at death and earlier onset dementia.

The second world war yielded some strong unexpected anomalies. Young men with higher childhood IQ scores more often died on active service. Girls with higher scores more often moved away from the area.

I cycled around Aberdeen to learn more about its social history, becoming familiar with the primary schools where the children had sat their tests in 1932. Average IQ scores often differed substantially between schools. Those pupils attending schools in overcrowded districts tended to perform less well on the test.

Our later research showed that people with higher IQ were engaging in more intellectually stimulating activities , such as reading complex novels or learning musical instruments. But we can't know whether having a high IQ leads people to seek out such activities or whether intellectually curious people develop higher IQ because they engage in cognitively complex tasks throughout life.

And that's an important question. People from poorer backgrounds, such as the disadvantaged neighborhoods in Aberdeen, may not have the opportunity to pursue intellectual interests due to a lack of time and resources.

To better inform my work, I sought out local residents with long experience of teaching in Aberdeen. Their views were echoed by current workers in public health and psychology.

Teachers warned me not to forget that IQ tests have been used over the years to advance " scientific racism" and that they feared that before too long, right-wing advocates of IQ testing would want to use these rediscovered Scottish data to search for the genetic basis of intelligence. Alarmed and now forewarned, I looked back at the reasons for undertaking the 1932 survey of the mental ability of Scottish schoolchildren.

The survey was funded by the Eugenics Society (eugenics is the science of improving the human race through the selection of "good" hereditary traits) with some help from the Rockefeller Foundation. Their shared priority was to show a link between large family size and below average mental ability.

At the time, this negative relationship between a mothers' IQ and having children was easy to show. But post-1945 educational reforms, which led to more girls completing higher education, produced much more complex relationships between maternal IQ, educational achievements, age at first childbirth and lifetime fertility.

This fed into contemporary public concerns that the average mental ability of the general population was lowered by the loss of so many young men of presumed above average ability during the first world war war. Newspapers argued that schoolboys would need to be assessed and selected to better educate those most likely to benefit.

This only goes to show that while IQ tests can tell us something about academic success or dementia risk, they miss a lot of a nuance. There's no denying they have long been used for murky reasons—often as an excuse to direct less funding to certain types of school, thereby creating a two-tier system.

The majority of children, those who do not take or pass IQ-style entrance exams to private or grammar schools, will have many qualities not measured on an IQ test. They may also just be late developers.

What IQ tests don't measure

So what do IQ tests miss? Research suggests that IQ scores rose by about 3 points per decade over much of the 20th century, but may have dropped over the past 30 years or so.

Some experts argue this reflects changes in the school curriculum or maybe just the complexity of modern life. The acquisition of "content knowledge" (reading and memorizing) once formed a cornerstone of public examinations and is related to IQ test performance.

We know for example that working memory is related to IQ test performance. But research has since uncovered that self-discipline is actually better predictor of exam results than IQ.

Nowadays, children in the west are taught collective scientific problem-solving, combined with interpersonal skills and teamwork, which requires less memorization (rote learning). This may actually make students less likely to score highly on IQ tests, even though these methods are helping humanity as a whole get smarter. Knowledge keeps growing, often as a result of giant research collaborations.

This type of "procedural learning" leads to mature self-awareness, emotional stability, recognition of the thoughts and feelings of others and an understanding of an individual's impact on the performance of a group. Critically, a lack of these skills can hinder rational thinking. Research shows that when we ignore or fail to understand our feelings, we are more easily manipulated by them .

High IQ doesn't necessarily protect against bias or error either. In fact, research shows that people with high IQ can be particularly vulnerable to mistakes such as spotting patterns even when there aren't any, or they are irrelevant.

This may lead to confirmation bias and difficulty giving up on an idea, solution or project even when it is no longer working. This can also get in the way of rational reasoning. But such weaknesses are missed by IQ testing.

Many great leaps in human ingenuity were driven by creativity, collaboration, competition, intuition or curiosity rather than just individual IQ. Take Albert Einstein, who is often hailed as a genius.

He never took an IQ test, but people are constantly speculating about his IQ . Yet he often credited curiosity and intuition ) as the core driving forces of scientific success—and these are not qualities measured by an IQ test.

The ethos of a modern school is rightly not driven by a preference to educate only those children who on selection meet a minimum standard on a mental test. Schools acknowledge that educational outcomes are not determined solely by any innate ability but are equally affected by all prior experiences that affect emotional competences, motivation, intellectual curiosity, insightfulness and intuitive reasoning.

When local participants in the 1932 survey were interviewed in late life, they spoke warmly of their schooldays—particularly about friendships. They rarely mentioned their education though. The learning of content knowledge, with threats of physical punishments, simply weren't well regarded. Some remembered sitting the IQ test in 1932 and were pleased most schools no longer test children that way.

Provided by The Conversation

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