Is it fair to give a lot of homework to students in schools? My take on this matter is very objective. During the formative years of a child's...

For middle
school students, homework serves to take the skills and concepts covered during class and move
those skills and concepts from short term memory to long term memory. Additionally, homework,
whether actually completed at home or during class, helps to instill the work ethics students
will certainly need in high school and beyond.

I like to use a sportsto
demonstrate this point: parents and students seem to have no problem with practicing the same
play over and over again in a sports environment. Yet, many parents and students lament any
homework that requires more than 10 minutes to complete.

Ultimately, the
assigning of homework needs to pass some kind of sanity check. What's the reason for the
homework assignment? Just busy work? As a way to cement material covered during class?
Punishment?

Remember, many student's do not have a home environment conducive
to homework. Many students must care for siblings, work, or have other duties because of home
life situations.

Ultimately the reason for assigning homework is to ensure
students can remember, use, apply, and synthesis the material covered during class in order to
make connections to the real world. The amount of homework assigned is less important than the
product of that homework. Quality verses quantity is the rule we should all consider following
when it comes to the amount of homework we assign.