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Is it really necessary to force kids to do 2 hours of schoolwork after being in school for 7 hours a day?
By Megan Quinn — Written on Apr 09, 2023
It’s tough being a kid. Imagine waking up at the crack of dawn, going to school for seven to eight hours a day, then going to extracurricular activities and sports practices, and then going home hoping to unwind but instead being forced to crack open books again to do two hours of homework.
After a long day of sitting at a desk and leaning, the last thing many kids want to do is more work when they’re supposed to be spending time with family or taking some time to decompress.
According to a study conducted by Healthline, 56% of students blamed homework as their primary stressor when it comes to school, with less than 1% reporting not having any issues with homework.
Students are not the only ones who dislike doing homework. One mother expressed her disapproval of homework to her daughter’s school in an email, declaring that she will no longer be participating in it when it is assigned.
The mom penned a letter to her 10-year-old daughter’s teacher claiming that she was ‘done with homework’ and her kid ‘needs to be a kid.’
The mother, Bunmi Laditan, shared a screenshot of the email she sent to the teacher on her Facebook page. She reveals how homework has negatively affected her 10-year-old daughter Maya and her concerns about how it could lead to the little girl’s downfall.
“Hello Maya’s teachers,” she opens her letter. “Maya will be drastically reducing the amount of homework she does this year. She’s been very stressed and is starting to have physical symptoms such as chest pain and waking up at 4 AM worrying about her school workload.”
“She’s not academically behind and very much enjoys school. We’ve consulted with a tutor and a therapist suggested we lighten her workload.”
“Doing two to three hours of homework after getting home at 4:30 is leaving little time for her to just be a child and enjoy family time and we’d like to avoid her sinking into a depression over this.”
The mother then thanks her daughter’s teachers for understanding. In the caption of her post, she clarifies that when she wrote “drastically reduce” the amount of homework Maya was given, she meant it as a polite way to imply that she was done doing homework entirely.
Laditan claims that her daughter Maya “loves learning” and spends much of her downtime reading books and researching topics that she’s interested in, as well as painting and even taking coding classes!
However, over the last four years, the mother has watched her daughter’s attitude toward school change as she became overwhelmed with the amount of homework she received.
“By stressed I mean chest pains, waking up early, and dreading school in general,” Laditan shared. “She's in school from 8:15 am-4 pm daily so someone please explain to me why she should have two to three hours of homework to do every night?”
The mother worries that spending too much time doing schoolwork at home could lead to her daughter becoming depressed and burnt out.
“Did you know that in Finland homework is banned? And that they have the highest rate of college-bound students in all of Europe,” Laditan points out. She’s right (sort of). While homework in Finland is not entirely forbidden, the number of teachers that assign it is slim.
Educators in Finland believe that there are much more effective activities than homework students can do to maintain their school performance including exercising, spending time with family, and getting a good night’s sleep.
“Children do not need hours of homework time to succeed yet we act like sitting at a kitchen table after a full day at school somehow makes sense. It does not.”
Laditan notes that children need downtime after school like adults need downtime after work and how important it is for children to bond with their parents over something that is not related to homework.
“They need to bond with their parents in a relaxed atmosphere, not one where everyone is stressed about fractions because - SURPRISE- I'm not a teacher,” the mother writes. “Children need time to just enjoy their childhoods or is that just for the weekends (although we do homework on Sundays also).”
Laditan says that her top priority for Maya and her other children is to ensure that they are happy and healthy.
“We all want our children to grow up and succeed in the world. While I believe in education, I don't believe for one second that academics should consume a child's life,” she writes. “I just want her to be intelligent, well-rounded, kind, inspired, charitable, spiritual, and have balance in her life.”
She wants her children to understand that work is an essential part of life, but it is not all life has to offer.
“It will not keep you warm- family, friends, community, giving back, and being a good person do that.”
Other parents praised Laditan’s decision and agreed that homework was becoming unnecessary.
“I refuse, I just send a note that I don't enforce homework in my house period,” one Facebook user commented.
“I've never understood how it could be illegal to make a grown adult work above X number of hours but six-year-olds can go to school for seven or more hours and then have two or more hours of work when they get home,” another user wrote.
Even teachers agreed with her. “I am currently a 4th-grade teacher. I have gone to a no-written homework’ policy. I request students read a book of choice for 30 minutes and practice multiplication facts,” one Facebook user shared.
Moving forward, Laditan knows that she and her daughter’s school will have some important decisions to make, but for now, her household will be homework free so that Maya has the opportunity to be what she won’t be forever: a kid.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.