“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein 

 As homework grows, so do arguments against it. For the past few years, students have criticized of the bombardment of homework enforced on them. Homework is a task which is assigned by teachers to students to help them with their studies but what if that homework ruins their life? Or spoils their relationship with their parents?

Most of the schools in this world say that ‘Homework develops home/school partnerships’ but what about parent/child relationships? Forcing children to work on after school has finished is detrimental to everyone, harming relationships and causing disruption to family life. While on the other hand teachers say that ‘Homework reinforces skills and knowledge learnt at school’, but children are at school for around six hours a day. The expectations of the curriculum are excessive. Something needs to change in order for effective learning to happen during the school day, without the need for additional work at home. Most children come home from school mentally exhausted, tired and hungry.  They need to relax and use up their contained physical energy in the very short space of time left in the day.

Another advantage of homework might be it helps students to work independently; children want to work well so what happens when they can’t do it? They ask for help, which is not independence. Children should be stimulated by their lessons that they do research at home because they want to.

Homework assists children to build their self-esteem but children might feel distressed when they feel they can’t do their homework and feel that they have failed when they cannot complete it in the given time.

It is correct when we say that ‘Homework prepares a student for their next stage of education’, however they should not develop their critical thinking only but should also know how to use their right brain. Logical thinking is not everything; children should also have a creative approach towards certain problems as sometimes we need to think out of the box.

In short, homework sometimes fails to depict true talent of students. Many students fail to cope up with their burden of homework. In this case, school management as well as teachers should co-operate with students and if elimination is not possible, at least try to give less homework and focus more on class participation of students.

“The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.” John Holt.