Students should have lighter workload to promote learning

Homework is a tool that many teachers use to assess a student’s grasp on concepts learned in class. While teachers can use homework to see how much each student has learned, students also gain benefits by doing homework because they get to practice what they’ve learned in school. Homework remains popular to this day because of the mutual benefits that both the giver and receiver get. However, an issue that happens with homework is the workload. How much homework should students receive? How much is too much or too little? These are some problems that each educator must consider when giving homework. However, each person has a different perspective on what is too little and too much, so it is important to define what kind of workload fits each category. A workload that matches the amount of time students spend in class is considered high because it prevents them from having time to do extracurricular activities and pursue other goals. High school students report an average of 5 hours of homework per night, which is almost the amount of time they spend at school. Instructors should collectively agree to lessen workload so that students spend about 2 hours each night instead. This will give students more time to explore other options that could possibly help them later in life. If students had a lighter workload, they could actually learn more about material that isn’t taught at schools.

Homework is something that has been used in the education system for a long time. However, while most aspects of the world have changed, the education system remains one of the few things that hasn’t. While some homework may have converted from paper to online, many instructors continue to believe that homework is one of the only ways for students to learn what they need to be successful. However, too much homework can actually hinder a child’s growth. Cathy Vatterott is a professor in the Department of Educator Preparation, Innovation and Research and is known for her expertise on the topic of homework. In her recent book, she claims that homework had the potential to interfere with students’ health because it prevented children from being able to go outside. Many children have so much homework that they lack the time to build social relationships with others and develop other health issues. Living in a fast-paced world, people value education more and see homework as a means of allowing children to acquire knowledge in a quick way. Homework has become so embedded in the lives of children that change is difficult. Teachers seem to have the right to control students’ lives inside and outside of the classroom and students are forced to comply with their policies. When students have too much homework, they are unable to build friendships and other tasks. Their social interaction is important because it’s a skill that will help them later in life. By being confined by homework, students can’t do what they want, which can seriously damage their mindset. Homework usually increases as students get older but at a certain age, the homework quantity becomes so high that it can start to affect students’ relationships with their families as well. Parents are realizing that their children can’t participate in family events to build up their family connection because they are forced to use that time to complete homework. While students may gain the intellectual benefits from completing homework, many aspects of their daily lives are also harmed by the quantity of homework they have to do.

Homework may be a double-edged sword, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. By decreasing the amount of homework, students can still gain the benefits of learning by practicing and the benefits of having more free time to spend elsewhere. When students have more time, they can spend that time to explore the world and learn about what they will be encountering in the future. Schools are supposed to prepare students to be knowledgeable individuals who can lead society into the future and replace the older generation. While homework may equip students with critical thinking, students do not gain the social skills required for life. Humans are, by nature, social creatures. Survival is dependent on collaborating with others to defeat the obstacles in the world. If students are unable to learn the importance of social skills, they won’t be able to ask for help when they need it. By letting students explore the world however they want, students can experience what their environment is like, enabling them to do activities that shape their charisma. Less homework may even have benefits in school performance because students can concentrate on class more without getting tired. Students with too much homework can become stressed, which can cause many health issues including sleep deprivation. Students who lack sleep do not learn well. Sleeping in class is an experience that many people have had and can be avoided by pushing less work upon students. As students progress to become adults, teachers should be giving less homework and encouraging students to pursue extracurricular activities that can help determine what they wish to do in the future.

Homework may have been the tool that has shaped student’s futures for generations. Whether the outcome was positive or negative, homework has barely changed. While it may be difficult to completely get rid of homework, perhaps lessening the homework amount can allow all the stakeholders to finally compromise on this issue.

College education is worth it if students take responsibility

Frequently viewed as the next step after high school, college can be an important experience in a young person’s life. As more students become eligible to attend college, college education, one of the priorities of this country, has become a common debate topic among students, parents, and other stakeholders. So is college worth the hefty monetary and time investment? That depends on the students who choose to attend college. College is worth the costs as long as these students seek out the valuable opportunities and resources that can help them further down the line. If students do that, they can build strong relationships, learn from experience, and understand how to tackle the goals they have after college.

Many opportunities are uniquely available to college students that can help students become ready for post-collegiate life. One specific opportunity that college students are able to do is to build networks. While relationships with others may not seem important, they can help a college student tremendously when they enter the workforce. By creating relationships with people who are further along in their careers, students may have an easier time finding a job after graduation. While building professional relationships may help a college student’s job search, forming bonds with peers also has notable benefits. Since most colleges welcome students from diverse backgrounds, students are surrounded by people who can share a multitude of backgrounds, cultures and experiences, which is invaluable because students can learn about what a culturally intertwined society is like. This experience is usually unique to college students because such a mix of different individuals is hard to find elsewhere. Students are not only paying money to get their degrees and find higher paying jobs after, they also get to pursue opportunities that are limited to only college students. A great example of a person who took advantage of networks was Mark Zuckerberg. Although he never completed college, his college experience was not wasteful. He was able to use the vast number of students and their desires to formulate his idea for Facebook, the social networking site that we know today. He used the college environment to find partners to help build his social networking site. The opportunities that Zuckerberg pursued were life changing and gave him the experiences he could not get if he had not gone to college.

Many colleges also provide a vast amount of resources to aid students during and after college. At the University of Texas at Austin, there are resources for almost every academic and nonacademic need. The University Writing Center provides help for any student in writing assignments, personal projects, and more. The Sanger Learning Center allows students to get academic help. Advising departments help students plan out their futures in and outside of college. There are even classes that are dedicated towards helping students build that much needed network because colleges recognize the importance of connections. In the School of Information at UT Austin, the staff stresses the importance of having that network of people to depend on and offer ways to create that. Students are able to connect with experienced individuals and learn about what employers look for. All this is covered by the university at no extra charge, but consulting an adviser outside the university would incur significant costs. There are so many resources available that can allow students to have a worthwhile experience during their time in college. Everything is already located in a single location. They just have to be willing to use them. Students invest a lot in college, so why not make the time and money worth it by using all that colleges provide. The tools for success are there; students just have to realize and take them.

For the high cost, college does offer much more than what most people see. Still, some argue that college may not be worth the money. Some even claim that of every four college programs, one has a negative payoff. However, the reason for that still lies with the students. Several people who are directly involved with college students argue that a reason college graduates may have a difficult time after is because they made poor choices and did not seek the opportunities available to them. Peter Feaver, a professor at Duke University, Sue Wasiolek, the dean of students at Duke, and Anne Crossman, the author of book that received significant national attention, came together for an article that displays the wrong and right methods of approaching college. The authors point out that students should consider how their course choices could influence their journey and what kind of extracurricular will prepare them for their futures. The many students who end up in a bad position after college can be attributed to their lack of determination to really get their money’s worth. They didn’t understand the amount of opportunities that were at their fingertips geared towards helping them lead a successful life. The authors believe that the students who take advantage of all that is offered by colleges will be the ones who will find college worth the cost. The students will be the ones who determine if their investment in college is worth it by the actions they choose to take. In the end, students who seek out the opportunities will find their time and money well used.

Though many educators will agree that college is worth the cost, many recent graduates also share the same opinion. From major to major, the majority of college graduates from the University of Texas at Austin share similar positive experiences. A Linguistics major from the class of 2008 acknowledged the many opportunities that the university provided, especially the extra-curriculars. She says there is “something for everyone either on campus or in the surrounding city of Austin.” A Biology major from the class of 2014 appreciated the campus resources including the various facilities that provide a place for each student. She lists out resources such as “libraries all over campus, available gyms, pools, and sports courts.” A friend of mine who graduated in 2015 found a job immediately afterwards and was thankful of the connections he was able to make during his time in college. While students benefit differently, many were able to find the worth of college once they explored the different opportunities available.

Students get to choose what opportunities they want to pursue in college. Students have to determine what kind of opportunities will help them and what kind of goals they have for the future. By taking advantage of the resources they need in college, they can better themselves in order to increase their chances of reaching their goals.

Jerry’s Blog Post

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