Summer Homework: Waste of Time or a Helpful Advantage?
Photo by Lauren Arenas
July 10, 2013
As summer comes every year, students become excited to spend a couple months away from the stresses of school. It is a time to spend with friends and participate in extracurricular activities. It seems that throughout the years however, free time during summer has decreased due to an increase in the amount of summer homework that students are given. As expected, many students resent the work that they are given over summer. They do not choose to see the benefits that come as a result of putting in a little extra effort over their summer break.
It is a simple generalization that most students do not enjoy homework. It takes up time that they would rather spend doing something else, and a majority of the time students feel like they are only given “busy work.” Students feel like having a break from school should mean that they are given temporary relief from the work that comes along with their classes. It is frustrating for some that they have to spend some of their precious summer hours working on schoolwork.
Although summer homework may seem like a hassle, it is important to understand that the work is being given for a reason. Teachers have been well educated, and would not give students extra homework if they did not believe it would benefit students. Often times, summer homework is given to the students to give them basic knowledge of the topics that they will be learning throughout the year. The homework serves as a small glimpse of what is to come. Without the summer assignments, the students would not have the knowledge necessary to retain the information that will be given over the next school year.
Many things in life may not be enjoyable, but will prove to be beneficial in the end. Summer homework is just one of the things that kids believe teachers come up with to make their students’ lives miserable. In reality, putting time in over summer will only help the students. It is a time to get ahead of the game and gain imperative knowledge that will propel their learning for the remainder of the year. The important thing for students to remember is that what they give during their summers is what they give back. If they work hard on the homework that they may have, they will be given a helpful advantage because they will have perfected their basic knowledge. Summer homework is not a torture device invented by teachers to ruin their students’ summers; it is the teachers’ way of ensuring that their students will be stories of success.
RandomMiddleSchooIStudent • Apr 12, 2018 at 10:36 am
If you look at the average middle or elementary school curriculum, you will notice that ~1/4 of each year is lost relearning what the students learned the previous year. If you were to have, say, an online summer homework program that logged the date, you could have students do one small 15 minute bit each day, and, as a result, they probably will remember more as they continued to practice it throughout the summer.
Jordan Gibson • Aug 5, 2017 at 4:01 pm
I think kids should live there summer life and not have to think about math or science or anthing like that. I think they should read some books an that’s it.
Anonymous • Apr 12, 2018 at 10:38 am
dude how can anyone trust u if u missused the word there. its they’re
Anonymous • Apr 12, 2018 at 10:39 am
sorry its their
TIm • Jun 10, 2015 at 7:48 am
I think kids should not have homework because its time to relax! Kids need time to spend with there family and friends. Kids dont even have time either there at camp having fun! I think they should read there books 20 mins a day thats it. Or dont make them do homework just give them some things to do.
Anonymous • May 1, 2017 at 8:40 pm
i diagree because not only students would get straight A’s the next school year, it would get them prepared. because when college comes around, you don’t get a summer vacation. but if you have been doing summer hw for 12 years, you will aready know what to do.
Adrian • Jul 16, 2017 at 12:01 am
Anonymous I understand where you are coming from but these are children we are speaking of, so instead of increasing it and eliminating it entirely we need to figure out a way to get them at least interested in the assignment because otherwise there will be no one doing the assignment regardless. Also we must limit the amount based on the amount of days we have for Summer break and then also based on the amount of subjects, this way they can be prepared for the next year, won’t be seeing it as labor but instead as a challenge or something that is interesting enough to them that they would want to do it, which means they need options so that they don’t feel forced to do it if they do. Also I have gotten Straight A’s my entire life but never have I ever done the Summer homework, and teachers don’t even check it because of how when you think about a full class is about 20 kids, each kid got 5 interesting assignments for Summer Break that means the teacher has 100 pages of problems to check over before they fall asleep and that means it is really not helping the teachers if it’s helping the students and in order for it to be a counted as a grade we need to limit the amount to 2 or 3 pages. So if we want to make it better we have a lot to change and we should start with the amount of Summer Homework, then the way it is being looked at by students so that we can have more children actually doing it since that is the goal.