Many institutions view students who don’t perform their homework as being lazy, unmotivated and lacking self-discipline. However, taking an inward look at the external factors of students can make teachers understand why these students don’t perform their assignments. Let us discuss, How is homework bad for low-income students?
The dedication to homework by students can be affected by several reasons, ranging from intellectual problems to external issues. Hence, this will show you how homework affects low-income students.
What is regarded as homework?
According to Wikipedia, “Homework is defined as a task to be completed outside the classroom by students in a specific subject area”. This task tends to increase the ability of students to learn on their terms without their teachers. However, homework has been debated to have both pros and cons on students’ academic performance.
Pros
- Strengthening student’s skills:
Homework has been known to strengthen the minds of students, by ensuring that more time is being spent on knowing a particular subject or skill.
- Increases student achievement
According to Procon, “analyses show that grades, results, and achievements are higher in students who perform well in completing their assignments”.
- Improving students learnability
Homework tends to increase the resilience of students to learn without supervision, this helps to increase self-discipline.
- Promoting independence in students
It helps students achieve a level of self-esteem from trials and errors that occur during the process of solving assignments.
- Assessment improvement
Most educational institutions use homework as a way to increase students’ grades cumulatively. And with awesome results in homework, students usually perform above average at the end of each session.
Cons
- Reduces parent/child time
Students who have more homework usually have less time to spend time and discuss personal problems and excitement with their parents, which usually makes the relationship between them decline.
- Affects student’s mental health
Excessive mental workload has been associated with many negative health effects, ranging from migraine to even mental health issues.
- Self-esteem reduction
Some students usually have lesser ability to study and learn on their own, this makes them frustrated when having difficulties doing their homework and hence makes them feel bad about themselves in the long run if without a great mentor.
- Affects creativity in younger students
Homework sometimes prevents teenagers from exploring their existence, going out of their comfort zone to try out other things aside from school.
Types of students
Over time, there has been categorization of students based on certain qualities from how sound they are academic to their monetary class.
Below will show the types of students based on their social status and the effect it has on them.
Elite students
Elite students are considered as those from high-earning families or with influence, these types of students usually go to elite schools where they meet peers of the same social standards.
Most of these students tend to have everything they need to make education fun and great for them. They usually come from the top 20% of Americans and attend schools like Ivy-league and other elite colleges. These schools usually make low-income students feel different.
Middle-class students
These types of students usually have access to great schools and private schools right from kindergarten. They fall into a family that earns $40,000 above a year. This enables them to conveniently take School loans for colleges without having difficulties paying them back.
Middle-class students usually can go to schools or colleges without necessarily having to have an extra job to support their financial life.
Low-income students
Students in this category have a hard time in classes due to other tasks to be done, and when home, they always have an extra job to support their family.
According to studentcaffe, “these categories of students are those with income less than $40,000 per year in family’s income”. They usually can afford primary and secondary education, but most usually don’t go to college due to high costs.
Most Low-income families usually work hard on making sure to get a scholarship through sports, academic achievement, and lots more which can be stressful.
How homework affects low-income students
As said earlier, low-income students are those with limited resources to carry out their day-to-day activities. However, education has been a culture and part of life for most people in the world, making it a must for everyone in the world to acquire basic education regardless of race, class, or religion.
“Homework” however, has been a part of the educational system since the early 90s to aid the overall performance of students. Although it’s been an excellent approach, most low-income students barely have time for themselves due to family stress. Hence, making homework a negative approach for these types of students.
It affects them by taking away their time to do extra work to earn money, having time with their family to talk about personal issues and how to improve on them, and also learn other skills that could be a pathway out of poverty for them e.g sports, music and lots more.
According to Healthline, “Too much workload from assignments can cause excessive stress and decline in the health of children and parents”. Hence, it’s better to have a better teaching/learning experience than having to take assignments back home to struggling parents that have been under stress from work and most likely didn’t go to college.
This experience often leads to bad assessments from low-income students and reduces their overall performance at school. All of these circumstances lead to a lack of motivation for these categories of students and lead to a high rate of dropouts by these groups of students.
Conclusion
Homework has been an important part of education, however, some schools have made the workload of assignments so much that it induces stress on students. Low-income students with extra stress from family matters and financial issues tend to be under more stress from homework than elite students that can afford after-school coaching.
Take-home assignment is bad for low-income students because it increases their stress and reduces time to explore other self talents and skills that can help improve their wellbeing.
Frequently asked questions
Is homework great for low-income students?
Yes, homework is amazing if the workload isn’t too much and if it allows a school/home balanced lifestyle.
What if I am unable to do my homework due to a lack of time?
It’s best to have a group with some issues where you all can support each other mentally and physically, this will reduce the workload on students and aid easy learning.
Can I get financial support as a low-income student to aid my education?
Yes, organizations like FAFSA help low-income families in the United States of America, by providing several programs to help relieve them.
