Students across the United States blink their eyes awake in an effort to stay up, and stay locked in on their school work when struggling with the balance between their stress and their time commitments. Problems, whether socially or physically, remain in the shadows of their consistent effort for the quality and adequacy of their weighted homework assignments. Homework is not meant to be reflected in the grades of students, but to aid students in their journey of learning. 

Students are already barely staying afloat in their battle against their stress levels, and the weight that is set onto these students. Students have to juggle not only periodic quizzes, tests, and presentations, but also are worried about the accuracy of the random Tuesday night assignment on a topic they were barely taught. So what do many students do about this? They create workarounds. Whether they are finding a Quizlet with the answers to their AP College Board progress check, or copying off the answers from one of their friends, they are being academically dishonest, not improving or honing in on their newly learned skills, and not really getting anything out of their homework.

Homework should be additional practice to build on ones’ skills. Students should learn from their mistakes and tweak their approaches, so by the end of the unit they are fully prepared and ready. Instead, students tread on the weight of these assignments and see simple mistakes, not as something to improve on, but as points that will be taken off of their grade. 

While school teaches so much to students about the world around them through specific courses like English, math, and social studies, the main components and takeaways from the grind of school is the importance of a strong work ethic. If students only care about doing well on their homework they won’t look at the big picture and see what the homework really is doing for them. When students step back and look at their homework as a way to improve themselves and their skills, not as a failure when earning a bad grade, they themselves will grow as people, and their work ethics will flourish. An improved work ethic will carry students through future schooling, careers, and even their relationships, proving to students that if they work hard they can achieve their goals. Additionally, when students see the dividends that it pays to complete enough homework and test preparation and succeed in class, they will begin to understand why it is important and take accountability for themselves and their own learning. 

However, homework should be graded as completion, because if teachers gave out homework and nothing was put into the grade book for their effort, some students wouldn’t really see a point in doing it, even if it would benefit them in the long run. So, it is important that teachers still grade for completion as checks on their students to make sure that they are putting enough effort to improve themselves.

At the end of the day, every system has its flaws, but when choosing between students being unfairly stressed over minuscule grades and being academically dishonest or achieving and harboring a positive work ethic, the choice is easy.