The debate around holiday homework has raged for years and it’s a topic which divides teachers, parents and pupils alike.
Some teachers might think that holiday homework assignments are a good idea and a way to keep kids' brains sharp over a break, but in reality, kids typically get more than enough homework during the rest of the school year. During holiday breaks from school, it’s time for students to take a break from their studies, spend time with family, and enjoy the true meaning of a holiday.
We are on the homework-free side and we have serious and mature reasons to believe so.
1. Kids need rest!
Everyone needs a mental breather and the holidays are the best time for students to play and take a break from school.
Kids need a full ten hours of sleep and adequate rest. The vacation time is a great time for students to take a mental breather from school.
With many family outings and vacations during the holiday time, they will have less time to complete homework, but they will come back to school feeling re-energized.
2. Spending time with family is important.
Unfortunately, family time today often comes in limited amounts, with work, school, sports, and everything else that life throws our way, it's certainly easy to see why. So when a holiday rolls around, it provides the perfect chance for family members to get together and forget about the hustle and bustle - even if it's just for a couple of days.
If kids are stuck working on homework assignments, it can drastically reduce the valuable time they get to spend with their families.
It would be kind of a bummer if your son or daughter couldn't spend time with family simply because he or she was stuck working on some big homework assignment that was given right before a break.
3. Countries that assign more homework don’t outperform those with less homework.
Around the world, countries that assign more homework don’t see to perform any better.
A Stanford study found that in counties like Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic little homework was assigned and students outperformed students in counties with large amounts of homework such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran.
American and British students seem to have more homework than most counties, and still only score in the international average.
4. Learning comes from different sources
Assuming that learning comes only from doing homework it’s a big error. Holidays are great opportunities for kids to learn new skills maybe more important that math or equally important, from a different environment.
Many families travel during the holidays or the kids join different extracurricular clubs to follow their passions and such activities are essentially components of exploration and knowledge.
Students might learn more from observing the real world.
Learning isn’t just about paper and pencil activities. Teachers should also inspire students to seek ways to learn from real-world experiences.
5. Many families travel during the holidays.
Holiday breaks equal traveling for many families, and traveling does not provide the best atmosphere for completing homework assignments.
If a family is going to be stuck in a plane, train, or automobile for any amount of time, kids will simply not have the time to do their homework. It's really not fair to assign holiday homework assignments when some kids may not even have the opportunity to get them done.
This is actually another time when gadgets might come in handy; they are portable and offer dozens of learning apps that kids can use to their advantage during holiday breaks.