3 Reasons to Do Away with Homework in College

I remember it like it was yesterday…perhaps you do, too…

*cue flashback music*

The lights are low in my dorm room. Midnight is fast approaching. 

Unfinished homework is piled as high as the unwashed laundry. (Or is that laundry clean? Better wash it again just to be sure.)

“How could they do this to me???”  I ask no one in particular.

“Don’t they know I have other classes?”

“Don’t they know I have to work to afford to come here?”

“Don’t they understand how many rehearsals I have this week? Not to mention having to practice for applied lessons!”

“Why? Why is homework even a thing?”

The Origins and the End of Homework

Homework has been around since the invention of homework.  Since then students have had to bear the unbearable burden of homework. 

I propose we do away with all homework and teach everything that is necessary during class time and require nothing extra of our students.

I have 3 excellent reasons to support my proposal.

1. Homework is brain altering.

When you sit down to work on an assignment and have to remember what was taught in class AND apply it to the homework, your brain starts to change!  New pathways are formed as new skills are developed. 

I’m sorry, but I did not sign up for involuntary brain transformation! 

And to make it worse, the more homework you do the more your brain changes to adapt to the new skills!  

This is dangerous stuff that we are exposing our students to on a regular basis!

2. Homework is a waste of time.

There is way too much going on during college to waste so many hours of the day doing homework.  This is not helping students prepare for real life. 

They certainly won’t need any of these ridiculous organizational skills that come with having to balance class, homework, rehearsals, work, social life, spiritual life, their health, and everything else.  

When students graduate, they will have plenty of time and not have to manage their time carefully to get everything done.  

All they will have to worry about upon graduation is finding a job, finding a place to live, buying their own groceries, taking care of themselves, going to work, going to church, making time for friends and family, getting married, having kids, continuing to practice their craft, continuing to educate themselves in their field, and a few other things. 

Who seriously needs time management skills to handle that kind of stuff?

3. Homework is soul crushing.

When students receive a graded assignment, marked with corrections and instruction on how to do better the next time, their weaknesses are revealed to both them and their instructor.  

No one likes to have their weaknesses exposed like that.  It is devastating!

When students realize what they’re doing wrong, they are faced with the choice to keep doing it wrong or make a change and do better.  If we never give them any homework, then they never have to face this uncomfortable choice.

Once they graduate, they will always do everything right the first time and never have to handle corrections and figure out how to do something better the next time. 

We really should stop exposing our students to such negativity.

My Proposal

I propose that going forward, we should teach our hearts out in class and expect that every student understand what we say the first time.  

There’s no reason to waste their time and crush their souls and alter their brains with assignments that cause them to practice and grow the skills that they are paying thousands upon thousands of dollars to learn.  As long as they get passing grades on their transcript, what does it matter if they actually learn anything?

It’s not our jobs to give them every opportunity to grow and not only learn skills related to our class but also skills that will benefit them through the rest of their lives – like how to manage their time or how to handle making mistakes. 

And don’t even get me started on requiring students to practice 30-60 minutes per day 5 times a week.  

I mean, how is that fair? 

The teacher only teaches for 30 minutes and the student has to go practice 5 times that much.  

All this practicing does the same thing homework does – alters their brains, consumes their time, and reveals room for improvement.

I’m so ashamed of us teachers for exposing our poor, sweet, innocent students to such terrible things. 

*Endnote - In case you weren’t sure, this article was in fact satirical…which means I don’t actually believe anything that I am proposing. Also, I am not critiquing any teachers' policies concerning whether or not they choose to assign homework.  One of my students asked "Why homework??" so this is my response.