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A Roundup of Labor Day Resources for Teachers

August 27, 2024

Posted by: Colleen Smith

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Labor Day , while often signaling an unofficial end to summer and start of a new school year, can also bring an opportunity for students to ask questions about and examine the relationship between workers and society. In this spirit, we’re highlighting a range of resources that teachers might use for teaching and learning about Labor Day and beyond.

Background on Labor Day 

Check out these resources for helpful background about Labor Day and the larger movement for worker’s rights in United States history. These articles and essays can support a teacher’s own understanding of labor issues and give students reputable secondary sources for building knowledge about the scope of labor issues, events, and achievements.

• The First Monday of September
• Today in History: 8-Hour Work Day
• Feb – Flint Michigan Sit Down Strike
• Mar – Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 
• Jun – Fair Labor Standards Act Signed 
• Dec – Formation of the American Federation of Labor

Teacher resources

This selection of teacher resources explores different angles of labor history and its impact on society. Teachers can use these materials to help students examine a range of issues including child labor, unions, Progressive Era reforms, and New Deal programs. Each resource uses primary sources to show how individuals and groups have organized to improve working conditions, fight for protections, and influence labor laws and policies.

• Progressive Era Issues and Reform Strategies 
• Extending the Child Labor Primary Source Set
• Historical Newspapers and an Early Labor Movement 
• Child Labor 
• The Industrial Revolution in the United States
• The New Deal 
• Work in the Late 19th Century 
• Cities During the Progressive Era
• Labor Unions During the Great Depression 

The Library’s collections

Teachers could use items from the Library’s online collections to build and complement their own lessons and units. Students might construct their own questions about an aspect of labor movements in the U.S. and go to these collections to conduct research. Each collection includes an “about” section as well as brief articles and essays. These supports help orient a user to the collection and inspire ways to get started. 

• National Child Labor Committee Collection
• American Life Histories: Manuscripts from Federal Writers Project
• Labor Day Topics in Chronicling America
• American Federation of Labor Collection
• Songs of Unionization, Labor Strikes, Child Labor

We hope you find some of these suggested resources helpful. We’d love to hear how you incorporated these or other items from the Library into your teaching. Drop us a line in the comments!

Do you enjoy these posts? Subscribe ! You’ll receive free teaching ideas and primary sources from the Library of Congress.

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Homework Bound

By Michael Winerip

• Jan. 3, 1999

Heidi Lehman was always an academic achiever. She finished high school a year early, went through college in three and a half years and then earned a law degree. But nothing in those 18 1/2 years of formal education prepared the 36-year-old lawyer for her daughter Carly's first-grade homework.

''The teachers said it should take just 20 minutes,'' Ms. Lehman recalled. ''Right! These are little kids -- they get frustrated, they're tired, they're working hard all day in school. It'd stretch out for an hour, easy. We'd have tears, screaming, kicking the table. Then there'd be lots of hugs and kisses and I'd say, 'Don't do it, Carly. It's not worth it.' I never had homework myself in elementary school. Carly would scream, 'I have to do it, Mom!' ''

And if Carly didn't do it? Shame and scorn. The mother has saved Carly's first spelling test from first grade with the words unable to spell at this time written in large letters at the top by the teacher. First graders in Millburn, N.J., don't just have regular spelling lists for homework; they also get a challenge list and a superchallenge list.

''We're told only the boys and girls who want to do it should do it,'' Ms. Lehman said. ''Is that pressure or what?'' Among the first-grade superchallenge words: ''experiment,'' ''observation,'' ''measuring.''

''First grade!'' Ms. Lehman said. ''And there are kids who can do this. You say to yourself, 'Is that natural or not?' ''

Carly survived first grade, is now a third grader and has grown used to the homework life. One recent day, she came home from school at 3:05, hoisted her backpack onto the kitchen table and by 3:10 was doing her homework. ''You want a snack?'' her Mom asked. ''You want to watch a little TV first?''

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The History of Homework: Why Was it Invented and Who Was Behind It?

• By Emily Summers
• February 14, 2020

Homework is long-standing education staple, one that many students hate with a fiery passion. We can’t really blame them, especially if it’s a primary source of stress that can result in headaches, exhaustion, and lack of sleep.

It’s not uncommon for students, parents, and even some teachers to complain about bringing assignments home. Yet, for millions of children around the world, homework is still a huge part of their daily lives as students — even if it continues to be one of their biggest causes of stress and unrest.

It makes one wonder, who in their right mind would invent such a thing as homework?

Who Invented Homework?

Pliny the younger: when in ancient rome, horace mann: the father of modern homework, the history of homework in america, 1900s: anti-homework sentiment & homework bans, 1930: homework as child labor, early-to-mid 20th century: homework and the progressive era, the cold war: homework starts heating up, 1980s: homework in a nation at risk, early 21 st century, state of homework today: why is it being questioned, should students get homework pros of cons of bringing school work home.

Online, there are many articles that point to Roberto Nevilis as the first educator to give his students homework. He created it as a way to punish his lazy students and ensure that they fully learned their lessons. However, these pieces of information mostly come from obscure educational blogs or forum websites with questionable claims. No credible news source or website has ever mentioned the name Roberto Nevilis as the person who invented homework . In fact, it’s possible that Nevilis never even existed.

As we’re not entirely sure who to credit for creating the bane of students’ existence and the reasons why homework was invented, we can use a few historical trivia to help narrow down our search.

Mentions of the term “homework” date back to as early as ancient Rome. In I century AD, Pliny the Younger , an oratory teacher, supposedly invented homework by asking his followers to practice public speaking at home. It was to help them become more confident and fluent in their speeches. But some would argue that the assignment wasn’t exactly the type of written work that students have to do at home nowadays. Only introverted individuals with a fear of public speaking would find it difficult and stressful.

It’s also safe to argue that since homework is an integral part of education, it’s probable that it has existed since the dawn of learning, like a beacon of light to all those helpless and lost (or to cast darkness on those who despise it). This means that Romans, Enlightenment philosophers, and Middle Age monks all read, memorized, and sang pieces well before homework was given any definition. It’s harder to play the blame game this way unless you want to point your finger at Horace Mann.

In the 19 th century, Horace Mann , a politician and educational reformer had a strong interest in the compulsory public education system of Germany as a newly unified nation-state. Pupils attending the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given mandatory assignments that they needed to complete at home during their own time. This requirement emphasized the state’s power over individuals at a time when nationalists such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte were rallying support for a unified German state. Basically, the state used homework as an element of power play.

Despite its political origins, the system of bringing school assignments home spread across Europe and eventually found their way to Horace Mann, who was in Prussia at that time. He brought the system home with him to America where homework became a daily activity in the lives of students.

Despite homework being a near-universal part of the American educational experience today, it hasn’t always been universally accepted. Take a look at its turbulent history in America.

In 1901, just a few decades after Horace Mann introduced the concept to Americans, homework was banned in the Pacific state of California . The ban affected students younger than 15 years old and stayed in effect until 1917.

Around the same time, prominent publications such as The New York Times and Ladies’ Home Journal published statements from medical professionals and parents who stated that homework was detrimental to children’s health.

In 1930, the American Child Health Association declared homework as a type of child labor . Since laws against child labor had been passed recently during that time, the proclamation painted homework as unacceptable educational practice, making everyone wonder why homework was invented in the first place.

However, it’s keen to note that one of the reasons why homework was so frowned upon was because children were needed to help out with household chores (a.k.a. a less intensive and more socially acceptable form of child labor).

During the progressive education reforms of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, educators started looking for ways to make homework assignments more personal and relevant to the interests of individual students. Maybe this was how immortal essay topics such as “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up” and “What I Did During My Summer Vacation” were born.

After World War II, the Cold War heated up rivalries between the U.S. and Russia. Sputnik 1’s launch in 1957 intensified the competition between Americans and Russians – including their youth.

Education authorities in the U.S. decided that implementing rigorous homework to American students of all ages was the best way to ensure that they were always one step ahead of their Russian counterparts, especially in the competitive fields of Math and Science.

In 1986, the U.S. Department of Education’s pamphlet, “What Works,” included homework as one of the effective strategies to boost the quality of education. This came three years after the National Commission on Excellence in Education published “ Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform .” The landmark report lambasted the state of America’s schools, calling for reforms to right the alarming direction that public education was headed.

Today, many educators, students, parents, and other concerned citizens have once again started questioning why homework was invented and if it’s still valuable.

Homework now is facing major backlash around the world. With more than 60% of high school and college students seeking counselling for conditions such as clinical depression and anxiety, all of which are brought about by school, it’s safe to say that American students are more stressed out than they should be.

After sitting through hours at school, they leave only to start on a mountain pile of homework. Not only does it take up a large chunk of time that they can otherwise spend on their hobbies and interests, it also stops them from getting enough sleep. This can lead to students experiencing physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives, and alienation from their peers and society in general.

Is homework important and necessary ? Or is it doing more harm than good? Here some key advantages and disadvantages to consider.

• It encourages the discipline of practice

Using the same formula or memorizing the same information over and over can be difficult and boring, but it reinforces the practice of discipline. To master a skill, repetition is often needed. By completing homework every night, specifically with difficult subjects, the concepts become easier to understand, helping students polish their skills and achieve their life goals.

• It teaches students to manage their time

Homework goes beyond just completing tasks. It encourages children to develop their skills in time management as schedules need to be organized to ensure that all tasks can be completed within the day.

• It provides more time for students to complete their learning process

The time allotted for each subject in school is often limited to 1 hour or less per day. That’s not enough time for students to grasp the material and core concepts of each subject. By creating specific homework assignments, it becomes possible for students to make up for the deficiencies in time.

• It discourages creative endeavors

If a student spends 3-5 hours a day on homework, those are 3-5 hours that they can’t use to pursue creative passions. Students might like to read leisurely or take up new hobbies but homework takes away their time from painting, learning an instrument, or developing new skills.

• Homework is typically geared toward benchmarks

Teachers often assign homework to improve students’ test scores. Although this can result in positive outcomes such as better study habits, the fact is that when students feel tired, they won’t likely absorb as much information. Their stress levels will go up and they’ll feel the curriculum burnout.

• No evidence that homework creates improvements

Research shows that homework doesn’t improve academic performance ; it can even make it worse. Homework creates a negative attitude towards schooling and education, making students dread going to their classes. If they don’t like attending their lessons, they will be unmotivated to listen to the discussions.

With all of the struggles that students face each day due to homework, it’s puzzling to understand why it was even invented. However, whether you think it’s helpful or not, just because the concept has survived for centuries doesn’t mean that it has to stay within the educational system.

Not all students care about the history of homework, but they all do care about the future of their educational pursuits. Maybe one day, homework will be fully removed from the curriculum of schools all over the world but until that day comes, students will have to burn the midnight oil to pass their requirements on time and hopefully achieve their own versions of success.

About the Author

Emily summers.

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“The Child Is Made to Study Far, Far Beyond His Physical Strength”

The long history of parents complaining about their kids’ homework..

If you find yourself stressed, annoyed, and furious about your child’s homework this fall, it might help to know that you are participating in a great American tradition. In January 1900, Edward Bok wrote a scathing editorial in Ladies’ Home Journal about homework in America, with the headline “A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents.” “The child is made to study far, far beyond his physical strength, and consequently his mental good,” Bok pronounced. The elementary and junior high school student, Bok wrote, shouldn’t even need to tote books home from school, because he should be outside with his friends between dismissal and dinner—and after that, he should be asleep. “To rob a child of the playtime which belongs to him is a rank injustice,” Bok argued. “No child under fifteen years of age should be given any home study whatever by his teachers.”

In October of 1900, Bok followed up on his polemic, writing that since it had published, the magazine had received “hundreds of letters from teachers and parents” that “conclusively showed that the facts were even much worse than had been stated,” along with letters from “physicians, almost without number” who “urged the elimination of this evil and injury from the lives of our children.” Bok suggested that parents could act. They should send notes to teachers “stating that under no circumstances whatever will the father and mother permit any home study by the child.” And according to the editor, thousands did just that.

We often think of the American past as a time when students labored for hours in candlelit rooms to meet rigorous educational standards. But as the education researcher Brian Gill and the historian Steven Schlossman have reported in a series of articles , ever since the early 20 th century, when American law began to require that all children go to school, many American parents have found homework infuriating. They’ve even complained about helping their kids with math, just like you.

In the 19 th century, school instruction revolved around memorization and recitation. Students rehearsed at home and performed at school, “saying their lessons” for the teacher; instructors might shame or physically punish children for a lack of preparedness. But only a small percentage of students got past the fourth grade, and homework contributed to the high dropout rate. Families often couldn’t afford to lose their children’s help in the afternoon and evening hours; having a child go to high school might mean having to hire an extra farmhand or clerk, and for many, this was prohibitive.

As far as historians can tell, the small group of well-to-do parents who could keep their children in school through junior high and high school in the 19 th century expected their kids to spend the evening studying and didn’t find the prospect too upsetting. There were some exceptions, to be sure. Gen. Francis A. Walker , a Civil War veteran and economist who was the president of the school board in Boston in the 1880s, described his own experience helping his kids with their math homework: “Over and over again, I have had to send my own children, in spite of their tears and remonstrances, to bed, long after the assigned tasks had ceased to have any educational value and had become the means of nervous exhaustion and agitation.” Walker got the school board to restrict the city’s schoolteachers from assigning math homework except in “exceptional cases.” But mostly, the 19 th century consensus was that if a student couldn’t handle the homework, he was free to drop out.

After laws passed in the late 19 th and early 20 th century mandated compulsory school attendance for children and teenagers, anti-homework sentiment grew. More and more parents were experiencing what it was like to have a school make demands on their children’s time, and everyone was trying to figure out what family life would look like in this new world. Parents’ resistance to homework, as articulated in articles like Bok’s, aligned with a lot of other things people believed about childhood starting in the early 20 th century: that children should be outdoors; that they shouldn’t participate in rigorous intellectual activity when they were young; and that their developing bodies were at risk of permanent damage if they were stressed by “overwork.” Anti-homework activists often cited the contemporaneous campaign to restrict child labor , wondering why it made sense for schoolchildren to work more hours in a week than they might have if they had been paid for their labor.

By 1901, the year after Bok’s articles ran in the Journal, “two-thirds of American urban school districts had restricted homework,” Peter Stearns writes in his history of parental anxiety . In testimony he gave before Congress in 1900, William Torrey Harris, the U.S. commissioner of education, said that homework was “a prolific source of abuse” that “ought to be rigidly limited so that the child does not study more than two hours per day out of school after he is 12 years old, and not any out of school before that time.” These anti-homework efforts were most effective in California, where the state legislature mandated in 1901 that no child under 15 should have any homework at all.

In 1937, Parents’ Magazine asked readers to write in with their homework-related opinions—an article that, because of the probable overlap between middle-class readers of Ladies’ Home Journal and Parents’, serves as a good way to check in on the evolution of parents’ attitudes toward home study since the turn of the century. “A majority of the writers of letters received disapproved of home study for school children,” the magazine reported. Isabel Howell Kerr, of Maryland, had moved with her family from a low-homework school to one with a bigger homework burden and reported that in their new school, the children were miserable, “went to bed with it on their minds at night,” and “did not make as good progress as before.” Ominously, Kerr wrote, her children’s new friends, who had been going to the school for longer, “seemed to have very few resources within themselves and used the movies as their regular form of recreation.”

Consensus on homework’s worth shifted during the Cold War, when many Americans, looking at the educational practices of other countries, began to opine that American children were snowflakes who needed a good dose of 19 th -century-style drill. Life magazine ran a comparative article about the lives of an American and a Russian teenager in 1958, and the difference between the two students’ activities during after-school hours was particularly stark. Photographers caught the Russian boy doing science experiments in a quiet parlor, while the American, out with his friends, danced, socialized, and smiled. Unacceptable , many who wrote in response to this piece thought; how could we expect to keep up with the Russians if our young men spent the hours between school and bed drinking sodas with girls?

More than one author writing about the history of homework notes that since the ’40s, we’ve swung back and forth on the topic in 15-year cycles: 15 years of homework rejection, 15 years of homework celebration. The late ’60s and early ’70s, a time of youth liberation, brought another anti-homework backlash. Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education and present-day homework reformer , cites a 1968 statement on homework limitation by the American Educational Research Association: “Whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time that should be devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents.”

Just in time, the 1980s ushered in a new commitment to homework. The government’s report “ A Nation at Risk ,” published in 1983, contained the line “History is not kind to idlers.” Not surprisingly, the report held that high schoolers should have far more homework than they did, to prepare them to compete with the Japanese, South Koreans, and Germans. But by the late 1990s the pendulum swung again, and we were back to the idea of homework abolition, with cover stories in Newsweek and Time lamenting homework’s effects on what early-20 th -century writers would have called “home life.” If the 15-year theory of American homework sentiment holds, we’re in a pro-homework period right now, when homework is assigned to younger and younger kids; some parents of kindergarteners are now reporting sitting with tired 5-year-olds at the end of the day to get a packet of worksheets done.

As present-day researchers on the topic have found , the answer to the question “Does homework help children learn?” is “It depends”—on the amount assigned, the age of the students, and the content of the homework. The “it depends” position has some precedent in the past. Gill and Schlossman identified a group of progressive educators who, from the 1920s through the 1950s, advocated homework reform rather than abolition. The idea was to connect home with school by crafting assignments that applied things learned in class to the rest of the world. The superintendent of New York City’s schools, William J. O’Shea, wrote in 1929 that homework could consist of reading, drawing, or visiting museums; others thought field trips to “woods, factories, museums, libraries, art galleries” could be “assigned” as homework. Other teachers thought students might write thank-you notes for their English homework or look at the family budget for their math homework. (Would I rather help my child with a multiplication worksheet or expose her to the horror that is our family budget? Tough call.)

Why can’t we seem to find a happy middle ground on homework? Brian Gill and Steven Schlossman observe that “homework has been one of the most emotionally charged topics in American education. … One side has idealized homework: The more the better. The other side has demonized homework.” The history of homework protest shows how the debate over homework has always been about a much bigger question: What is childhood for ? There’s little wonder we can’t agree.

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How the Cold War Space Race Led to US Students Doing Tons of Homework

By: Dave Roos

Published: August 13, 2019

Middle-schoolers who trudge home each day with a 50-pound backpack and hours of homework would have had an easier time in 1901. That’s when the anti-homework movement was at its peak and the state of California actually banned all homework for grades below high school.

From the late 19th century through the Great Depression , homework was a popular punching bag of the progressive education movement, a “child-centered” approach championed by psychologist and reformer John Dewey . Not only was homework a waste of time, progressive educators believed, but it was detrimental to children’s health. 

By 1948, only 8 percent of American high school students reported studying for two or more hours each night. Homework might have remained in the educational doghouse if not for the arrival of the Cold War , and specifically, the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957.

To the horror of many Americans, the Space Race was being won by communist scientists from the Soviet Union.

“This elicited widespread fear that we were being undone by our schools,” says Steven Schlossman, a historian at Carnegie Mellon University. “How could it be that the Soviets had gotten there faster? They must have better schools that are training their kids to become scientists on a higher level. America now had to integrate schools into our thinking about national defense policy.”

As far as education was concerned, there was plenty of rethinking to do. Around the late 19th century, with the arrival of waves of immigrants, officials had begun shifting public education policies to best serve the rapidly changing face of America.

Until then, Schlossman says most schoolwork revolved around drill, memorization and recitation. Kids were expected to “say their lessons,” which meant memorizing long passages of history texts and poetry, drilling math problems, and reciting it all out loud in class. All of that memorization and recitation meant hours of practice at home every night. But as America and its students became more diverse, the rigidity of rote memorization seemed insufficient.

If schools were going to offer equal education opportunities for all students, they needed to do it scientifically, and the leading educational minds of the day were fascinated with the emerging fields of psychology and child development.

Progressive's Push Against Homework

Popular turn-of-the-century women’s magazines like The Ladies Home Journal published studies showing that drilling of spelling words didn’t improve children’s overall spelling ability, and its editors promoted more “natural” patterns of child learning and growth. These new ideas about what’s best for kids’ education were picked up by organizations like the National Congress of Mothers, a group formed in 1897 that would become the National Parent Teachers Association (PTA).

It didn’t take long for this increasingly vocal movement of child psychologists and concerned moms to identify public enemy number one.

“The first thing that had to be changed in schooling was this old-fashioned way of doing homework, which was antithetical to children’s natural growth qualities,” says Schlossman. “Homework took on a broader symbolic meaning for ‘out with the old and in with the new.’”

That’s why the California legislature voted in 1901 to abolish all homework for students 14 and younger, a move followed by dozens of large cities and school districts across the country.

The anti-homework argument of the progressive education movement further contended that hours of homework robbed children of outdoor play, considered essential to healthy physical and emotional development.

“For the elementary school child and the junior high school child,” concluded a 1930s study , homework was nothing less than “legalized criminality.” The American Child Health Association equated homework with child labor in 1930, claiming that both practices were “chief causes of the high death and morbidity rates from tuberculosis and heart disease among adolescents.”

By the 1940s, nightly homework levels had dropped to all-time lows.

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More Americans Finish High School During Great Depression

But then came World War II and another set of demographic and societal shifts that would again demand changes in American public education. Starting with the Great Depression when jobs were scarce, more American kids started staying in school through high school, and with the post-war baby boom , unprecedented numbers of students entered the nation’s school systems with expectations of reaching high school and beyond.

“High school was now for everybody,” says Schlossman. “This is really important. The idea of a high-school education as a ladder for success really takes root in post-World War II period.”

Even before Cold War anxieties kicked in in the 1950s, there was a growing sentiment among educators that the high-school curriculum needed an upgrade. Standards needed to be raised and teaching methods rethought. If more kids planned on going to college, homework would have to be part of the equation.

But no single event rocketed homework back into the national conversation quite like the launching of Sputnik 1, humankind’s first artificial satellite to reach Earth’s orbit. The response from the U.S. federal government was swift. In 1958, just a year after Sputnik, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), a $1-billion spending package to bolster high-quality teaching and learning in science, mathematics and foreign languages.

A report from the House of Representatives supporting passage of the NDEA read: “It is no exaggeration to say that America’s progress in many fields of endeavor in the years ahead—in fact, the very survival of our free country—may depend in large part upon the education we provide for our young people now.”

Funding from the NDEA helped develop ambitious new high school curriculums, including what became known as the “new math.” Top academics, scientists and educational psychologists teamed up to create a new American public education mandate that would later be called the “academic excellence” movement. And homework was front and center.

Just as the academic excellence movement promoted a deeper and more hands-on approach to math and science in the classroom, homework at all levels had to be more than memorization and mindless drills. It needed to promote creative problem-solving and analytical thinking.

The NDEA investment had immediate effects. By 1962, 23 percent of high-school juniors reported doing two or more hours of homework a night, nearly twice as many as in 1957, the year of Sputnik.

Still, the Sputnik homework bump didn’t last long. The counterculture movement of the late 1960s encouraged students to question authority, and nothing sticks it to “the man” quite like skipping your homework. By 1972, the percentage of high-schoolers doing two or more hours of homework a day dropped back below 10 percent.

Homework Drive Revived Under Reagan

There was another attempt in the early 1980s to revive homework as part of a second-wave academic excellence movement under the Reagan administration. A report called A Nation at Risk warned in Cold-War terms of the potential fallout from a failed education system.

“...[T]he educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people,” wrote the report’s authors. 

Schlossman says that this second academic excellence push did little to move the needle significantly on homework, flattening out at around 12 percent of high-schoolers clocking two or more hours a day by the mid-1980s.

“The homework movement of the 1980s was cast as a character reform movement, almost like a moral enterprise,” says Schlossman. “It didn’t have the intellectual expectations of the 1950s and 1960s.”

In more recent times, a 2016 analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics found that U.S. high school students spent an average of 7.5 hours on homework each week—averaging about 1.5 hours per day. While that was up from an average of 6.6 hours in 2012, it remained an easier lift that what students took on during the heady days of the Cold War. 

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Pros and Cons of Homework

“Not until you finish your homework.”

“I want you to finish your dinner and get right to work on your homework.”

“Is your homework done? Then, no, you get up those stairs and finish first.”

We’ve all heard something similar from our mom, dad, or caretaker. Homework is a big staple of the American school scene, just like lockers, the school bell, and big yellow buses. Portrayed in media from the Brady Bunch to Cocomelon, homework has been an academic given for decades. 

Despite its popularity, this after-school activity has been under scrutiny for over a century. Britannica explains , “In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores.”

Regardless of opposition, homework persevered, and millions of American students still spend long hours completing bookwork in their bedrooms after school. 

What are the modern objections to homework? What if the opposition is right? Is there merit to the concerns, or is homework a helpful tool for a well-rounded and comprehensive education? If you’d like to find out, now’s the time to keep reading!

How Much Time?

When analysts crunch the numbers, children spend far more time doing homework than many believe necessary. According to One Class, elementary school students spend an average of 42 minutes a day on homework. Some parents and educators argue that five additional hours of schoolwork per week is too much for elementary students. 

High schoolers spend even more time on after-school assignments. Pew Research published a 2019 article in which they explained , “Overall, teens (ages 15 to 17) spend an hour a day, on average, doing homework during the school year, up from 44 minutes a day about a decade ago and 30 minutes in the mid-1990s.”

Globally, the U.S. ranks 15th for the average amount of time spent on homework by high school students. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conducted a worldwide study on 15-year-old students to evaluate the homework load for high schoolers worldwide. 

Among the countries included in the study, China ranked first, with students spending an average of 13.8 hours a week on homework. The Netherlands ranked the lowest, with their students studying after school for an average of 5.8 hours a week. American students spent an average of 6.1 hours per week completing their homework.

What Students Think

Homework has become a point of significant stress for American students. 

One Stanford study found that 56% of students who participated in the survey stated that homework was a primary source of stress. Another study found that the decline in adequate teenage sleep may be partly due to homework. In yet another study, 82% of students interviewed admitted that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” 

It’s not just the students who object to frequent homework. Parents have begun to voice their displeasure as well. One mother in Canada went viral on social media when she announced that she and her husband were done watching their ten-year-old daughter stress over her homework every night. They decided that homework wasn’t a useful educational tool for their child.

Another mother in Kansas expressed how frustrating it is when her daughter has homework that she as a mother is unsure how to help with. “I feel bad for emailing a teacher in the evenings. I’m slightly annoyed at homework in general because I don’t know what the teacher taught.” 

What Teachers Think

Educators debate whether or not homework is a positive educational tool. One Duke University professor recommends homework, believing there is a correlation between homework and academic success for older students. He recommends implementing the “10 Minute Rule.” Essentially, students receive 10 minutes of homework per day for each grade. (For instance, 1st graders would receive 10 minutes of homework, 5th graders 50 minutes, 12th graders 120 minutes.)

A Texas teacher informed the parents of her 2nd-grade students that she would not be assigning homework anymore. Instead, she asked that the children participate in real-life activities that encourage growth and success. These activities included outdoor play, family meals, and reading with parents. As her plan evolved, she acknowledged that some students actually enjoyed homework and missed the challenge. Other students received extra work here and there on an as-needed basis. 

Defining the Need

One question that desperately needs to be asked is, “What’s the purpose of homework?” 

The answer to this question can provide parameters, determine whether or not homework achieves the goal(s), and establish if it should continue to be a staple in the American education system.

Psychology Today wonders the same thing , without any clear-cut resolution. “I started the blog with a question ‘What’s the purpose of homework?’ I’ll end with the same question. If a teacher who is assigning the homework can’t provide a clear rationale behind this question, then maybe the homework shouldn’t be assigned.”

However, Honest Pros and Cons makes a case for homework in more detail. Their reasoning for homework includes :

• Practicing what they learn in the classroom
• Improving study habits
• Developing self-discipline
• Enhancing independent problem-solving skills

McRel International notes that many factors play into whether or not homework is an effective strategy for students. They acknowledge that after-school assignments have pros and cons and state that the research is by no means definitive.

Proponents of homework present several positives: 

• It improves student achievement – “Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades.” – Britannica ProCon

While the data is not conclusive, numerous studies have shown a correlation between academic success and the use of homework. 

• It involves parents – “Homework is also the place where schools and families most frequently intersect.” – US News

Homework encourages parents and children to spend time together problem-solving and working toward a goal. It also gives parents a window into what their child is learning and the progress they are making. 

• It encourages time management – “Homework is an effective tool when teaching your child about time management. This means that time management should extend beyond the classroom and into your home. ” – Edugage

American students spend roughly six hours a day at school. This schedule doesn’t leave much flexibility for sports, a social life, and a healthy amount of free time on top of homework. Kids have to learn time management if they want a life outside of their education. 

• It tracks progress – “Homework allows teachers to track students’ progress, meaning that homework helps to find out the academic strengths and weaknesses of children.” – Honest Pros and Cons

Homework gives teachers a chance to see what the student can achieve independently. Students must put into practice what they learned in the schoolroom in a different environment and without their teacher present.

• It develops working memory – “Revising the key skills learned in the classroom during homework increases the likelihood of a student remembering and being able to use those skills in a variety of situations in the future, contributing to their overall education.” – The Guardian

Environment can play an active part in memory. Biologically, our brains more easily recall memories and facts when we’re immersed in the same surroundings in which we created that memory or learned those facts. Homework removes the environmental factor, forcing students to strengthen their working memory. 

Concerned about the effects of homework on students, opponents note these objections:

• The science isn’t settled – “There is no conclusive evidence that homework increases student achievement across the board.” – Reading Rockets

As we’ve noted before, the data isn’t conclusive despite the numerous studies conducted. To many, the negatives suggested by various studies outweigh the proposed positives.

• It adds stress – “Researchers have found that students who spend too much time on homework experience more levels of stress and physical health problems.” – Psychology Today

Studies have concluded that too much homework creates undue stress on developing minds and bodies. This translates into mental, emotional, and physical issues for many students. This stress also affects their sleep , both the amount of sleep and the quality of that sleep. 

• It impacts other interests/pursuits – “Homework prevents self-discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system.” – University of the People

Critics of homework fear that, in addition to time spent on school grounds, after-school assignments stunt students’ abilities to experience life outside academia. Students who struggle with completing work at home are even more susceptible to a lifestyle void of other interests. 

• It expands the gap – “One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it ‘potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.’” – Britannica ProCon

Homework often involves a computer and/or an internet connection. During the Covid-19 pandemic, 30% of students didn’t have the necessary technology at home to effectively participate in distance learning, raising questions about inequality affecting homework that relies on at-home technology. 

• It creates family tension – “Assigning homework forces a person to take on added disciplinary responsibilities.” – Front Range Christian School  

While homework can bring children and parents together, it can also drive a wedge between them. Students who feel overwhelmed or who need a break from focusing on academics often buck their homework requirements, leaving parents to enforce education standards that the teachers created. Parents and students alike can end up frustrated, with little progress made. 

A World of Unknowns

While the homework debate rages on, researchers continue to work toward a conclusive answer. In the meantime, teachers, parents, schools, and communities can work together to find a solution that meets the needs of their students. 

Without a doubt, homework has positive aspects that encourage students to advance through personal and academic growth. The trick is to nurture this positivity without stunting progress with adverse side effects. 

It’s a double-edged sword that’s well worth considering to ensure the best for our kids.

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Tenement homework. Child labor in homes in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island

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• Title: Tenement homework. Child labor in homes in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island
• Creator(s): Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940 , photographer
• Related Names:    National Child Labor Committee (U.S.) , funder/sponsor
• Date Created/Published: 1910-1924.
• Medium: 1 album (265 photographic prints) ; 27 x 30 cm. (album)
• Summary: Photographs show various homework industries: garment work, embroidery, button stringing, artificial flower making, jewelry work, cigarette making, nut picking, tooth brush making. The images depict tenement interiors with families at work; adults and children carrying large bundles of work through city streets; exteriors emphasizing housing and sanitation conditions. Most photographs were taken in the New York metropolitan area (particulary the Lower East Side), but homework in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is also represented. Also includes a few images of children playing with "Campbell Kid" dolls made by tenement workers, one newspaper want ad for home workers, and exhibit panels protesting home labor.
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
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• Call Number: LOT 7481 (F) (M) (Use Digital Images) [P&P]
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
• Arrangement: Photographs arranged in general chronological sequence by original inventory numbers assigned by Hine. These numbers are printed on album pages next to each image.
• LOT title devised by Library staff.
• "Tenement homework. Photographs by Lewis W. Hine for National Child Labor Committee, New York, New York" typed on verso of album cover.
• No captions on the images. Corresponding Hine caption cards reflected in online records.
• Hine negative numbers (prefixes LC-H5 or LC-H51) appear next to those photographs for which original negatives still exist.
• Forms part of the National Child Labor Committee Collection (Library of Congress).
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• Also available on microfilm in the Prints & Photographs Division reading room; microfilmed in 1983 by the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service.
• Transfer; Manuscript Division; 1954.
• Child labor--United States--1900-1930.
• Home labor--United States--1900-1930.
• Tenement houses--United States--1900-1930.
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• Rights Advisory : No known restrictions on publication.
• Reproduction Number : ---
• Call Number : LOT 7481 (F) (M) (Use Digital Images) [P&P]
• Medium : 1 album (265 photographic prints) ; 27 x 30 cm. (album)

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• v.27(1); Jan-Jun 2018

Challenges and perspectives of child labor

Amir radfar.

College of Graduate Health Studies, A.T. Still University, Mesa, Arizona, USA

Seyed Ahmad Ahmadi Asgharzadeh

1 Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

Fernando Quesada

2 Department of Medicine, Universidad de El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador

Irina Filip

3 Department of Psychiatry, Kaiser Permanente, Fontana, California, USA

Child labor is one of the oldest problems in our society and still an ongoing issue. During the time, child labor evolved from working in agriculture or small handicraft workshops to being forced into work in factories in the urban setting as a result of the industrial revolution. Children were very profitable assets since their pay was very low, were less likely to strike, and were easy to be manipulated. Socioeconomic disparities and lack of access to education are among others contributing to the child labor. Religious and cultural beliefs can be misguiding and concealing in delineating the limits of child labor. Child labor prevents physical, intellectual, and emotional development of children. To date, there is no international agreement to fully enforced child labor. This public health issue demands a multidisciplinary approach from the education of children and their families to development of comprehensive child labor laws and regulations.

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL FACTS

Child labor is an old problem well rooted in human history. Children were exploited to various extents during different periods of time. The problem was common in poor and developing countries. In the 1800's, child labor was part of economic life and industrial growth. Children less than 14 years old worked in agriculture, factories, mining, and as street vendors.[ 1 ] Children from poor families were expected to participate to the family income, and sometimes they worked in dangerous conditions in 12-hour shifts.[ 1 ]

In the 1900's, in England, more than a quarter of poor families lost their children to diseases and death, endangering their extra financial support.[ 1 ] Boys worked in glass factories in high heat in three shifts because the furnaces were kept fired all the time to increase productivity, while girls were forced into prostitution. In 1910, it was estimated that more than two million children in the United States were working.[ 1 ]

With the increase of education, economy, and the emergence of labor laws, child labor decreased. However, child labor is still a widespread problem in many parts of the world in developed and developing countries. With the development of agriculture, children were again forced to be employed mostly by the families rather than factories. The main cause of child labor is the lack of schools and poverty.[ 2 ]

Per International Labor Organization (ILO, 2002), in the world, there are 211 million children laborers, 73 million under 10 years of age, 126 million children work in the worst forms of child labor, and more than 8 million are kept as slaves for domestic work, in trafficking, armed conflict, prostitution, and pornography. More than 20,000 children die yearly due to work-related accidents. Nearly, one-third of the world's children work in Africa.[ 3 ] Countries such as India have made efforts to tackle the worst forms of child labor. Despite this, 56.4% of children aged 5–14 work in agriculture and 33.1% work in industry.[ 4 ] Indian children are forced into labor to pay family debt. They work sometimes in hazardous environments, being forced into commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, or forcibly recruited or kidnapped to be part of terrorist groups.[ 4 ]

Child labor is morally and ethically unacceptable. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was the first international body that signed in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Children. It is for the first time in history when children are seen as humans with rights rather than economic assets of their parents. Child labor was defined as labor that harms the health of the children and deprives them of education rights. This law does not exclude children that work for their families.

ETHICAL FACETS OF CHILD LABOR

Child labor has many facets from the ethical point of view. Autonomy, beneficence, justice, nonmaleficence, privacy, and veracity are endangered during child labor.[ 5 ] Utilitarianists would support the idea of child labor as long as they are the sole providers for the family and without their income, the family would not survive and as long as the labor is voluntarily provided. The ends justify the means. Forced child labor is unethical because it is against the autonomy of the children. The consent of the working child is mostly manipulated by the parents. To give consent, a child needs to understand the situation, the consequences, and voluntarily agree to work. Children of young age, who have a less than fully competent capacity, can assent to an action by getting involved in the decision-making process. Children fall easy victims to unfair job conditions, and they do not have the power to stand-up against mistreatments.[ 6 ] The maleficence of this act has long-term physical, psychological, behavioral, and societal consequences. Even if they are lacking the competency of making informed decisions, they are considered individuals with autonomy that should be protected and safeguarded.[ 6 ]

Child labor is more common in developing countries where more than 90% of children live.[ 3 ] Child labor in developing countries affects 211 million children.[ 3 ] The continent with the highest child employment rate is Asia with 61%, followed by Africa and Latin America. Nearly 41% of the children in Africa are below 14 years old, followed by Asia with 22% and Latin America 17%.[ 3 ] India has made progress in reducing the child labor. However, more than 4 million children in India between 5 and 14 years old work more than 6 hours a day, while about 2 million children aged 5–14 work 3–6 months in a year.[ 4 ]

CULTURAL BELIEFS AND CHILD LABOR

Cultural beliefs have an important role in encouraging child labor. In developing countries, people believe that work has a constructive effect on character building and increases skill development in children. There is a tradition in these families, where children follow the parents' footsteps and learn the job from an early age. Some cultural beliefs may contribute to the misguided concept that a girl's education is not as important as a boy's education, and therefore, girls are pushed into child labor as providers of domestic services.[ 7 ] In India, not putting a child to work means the family would not make enough income to sustain their living. Sociocultural aspects such as the cast system, discrimination, and cultural biases against girls contribute to child labor.[ 4 ]

RELIGION AND CHILD LABOR

It is generally accepted that parents have the fundamental right to educate and raise their children. Parents almost always try to act in the child's best interest at the best of their knowledge and beliefs. In doing so, they are reasonably motivated by their intellectual growth, social development, and at times by spiritual salvation. Oftentimes, parents seek guidance in religion to shape the upbringing of their children and to enhance their progress. Hard work is among others, an important religious value to instill from a young age.

Krolikowski found that Christian children were the least likely to work, while Muslim children, children with no religion, and children affiliated with a traditional African religion were more likely to work than Christians.[ 8 ] The 40% higher incidence of child labor among Indian Muslims compared with Indian Hindus is due perhaps to the impoverishment of Muslim community.[ 4 ] Amish people's life is also regulated by religious values. They believe that work and faith bring people closer to God.[ 9 ] Amish children are initiated from childhood into apprenticeship to learn the trade, and beyond eighth grade, they have to provide like an adult for the community. Education of children beyond eighth grade is considered a threat to the community values. The U. S. labor laws forbid children less than 16 years of age to work in hazardous places such as sawmill or woodworking. However, in 2004 an exception was made by the United States Department of Labor, who approved an amendment that allows Amish children between 14 and 18 years old to work.[ 10 ]

POLICIES AND CHILD LABOR

Child labor is rooted in poverty, income insecurity, social injustice, lack of public services, and lack of political will.[ 7 ] Working children are deprived from a proper physical and mental development. The millennium development goals (MDGs), issued in 2001 to implement the Millennium Declaration, set up commitments for poverty reduction, education, and women's empowerment. Persistence of poverty is the major cause of labor. However, child labor also causes poverty because it deprives the children from education and from a normal physical and mental development hampering a prosperous life as adults. The first MDG in addressing poverty is the elimination of child labor.[ 11 ]

The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) was created by ILO in 1992 to progressively eliminate child labor. The priority addresses the worst forms of child labor such as slavery, prostitution, drug trafficking, and recruitment of children in armed conflicts.[ 12 ] IPEC is working with stakeholders from many countries to increase strengths and promote the fight against child labor. IPEC engage with multiple organizations, international and governmental bodies, community-based organizations, religious groups, private plural form businesses, children and their families.

Policy reform was promoted through country-based programs. The capacity building of institutions has been increased to better understand the obstacles and increase the ability of obtaining sustainable measures. These measures were meant to decrease child labor and bring children back in schools. In all these processes, statistical data were collected at the worldwide level, methodologies were set in place, and guidelines were created.

The Child Labor Platform was created as a business-led initiative by ILO in 2012, to identify the obstacles of the implementation of ILO conventions at the community level and to come up with solutions. This platform is a win-win situation for all parties involved: stakeholders as well children and their families. This platform offers training, research, and specialized tools to member companies, so they can carry out activities against child labor. Eliminating child labor is part of the corporates' social responsibility in line with their values and is what the society expects from them. This platform provides information how to get involved and how to find businesses that work collaboratively with the communities to solve the problem. Training and knowledge is a real value added for companies.[ 12 ] The Indian Government implemented a national project deemed to assist population to eradicate child labor, and set in place enforcements of criminal and labor law.[ 4 ]

ARGUMENTS FAVORING CHILD LABOR

Despite all these international and national measures against child labor, there are arguments in favor of child labor. Some argue that poor families would be even poorer without the supplemental financial contribution of children. Lack of money will deprive them of the basic needs of food and shelter which will decrease their survival rate. In addition, an increase in poverty would make children even more susceptible to exploitation.

The supporters of these ideas argue that the benefit of creating a safe workplace and allowing children to work is helpful in certain situations. They also emphasize that child work is not child labor as long as it does not interfere with schooling and children have safe workplace conditions with a limited number of hours per day.[ 13 ]

STAKEHOLDERS’ ROLE AND CHILD LABOR

The stakeholders most directly affected are the children and their families. Children are working at the expense of their education and normal mental development. Education is important not only for the intellectual development but also for the empowerment and acquisition of new skills for adult life. The health of children is endangered by work in hazardous conditions, abuse, exhaustion, malnutrition, or exposure to toxic materials. The psychological harm leads to behavioral problems later on in life.[ 14 ]

Despite the implementation of laws and measurements at the international level, child labor still persists, and it is caused by the same factors as 100 years ago. There is a need to address poverty and access to education. To date, there is no international agreement to define child labor. Every country has different laws and regulations regarding the minimum age for starting working based on the type of labor. The lack of international consensus on child labor makes the limits of child labor very unclear.[ 15 ]

Therefore, it is mandatory to create international policies that adopt a holistic approach to free quality education for all children, including labor children from poor families. Education should be continued beyond the primary school level and should be done in a formal setting. Studies show that nonformal education is a necessary but not a sufficient prerequisite for permanently withdrawing children from work.[ 15 ] The public educational system should be expanded to accommodate laborer children who still do not have access to school. More schools should be built, more teachers should be trained, and more educational materials should be available. A special attention should be given to children living in exceptional geographical conditions and mobility should be provided at the cost of the community. Children who dropped out of school should receive adequate guidance and support, and a smooth reentry should be facilitated. The development of schools in the rural areas would decrease the load of children in urban schools. This will allow parents to accommodate children's needs without having to migrate in big cities.

Another phenomenon that should be addressed is the social exclusion. Children engaged in the worst forms of child labor come from the lowest strata of the society. International Labor Organization launched a project on Indigen and tribal people, who are the most targeted by social exclusion. This project promotes their rights and encourages building capacity among their community.[ 15 ] Proper enforcement of child labor policies and the focus on education can break the cycle of poverty that drives the children into labor.

Child labor is a public health issue with negative outcomes that demands special attention. A multidisciplinary approach is needed to tackle child labor issues. Per ILO, poverty is a major single cause behind child labor. Lack of affordable schools and affordable education is another major factor to force children to work. Certain cultural beliefs rationalize this practice and encourage child labor as character building and skill development for children. Some cultural traditions encourage child labor as footsteps to their parents' jobs. Socioeconomic disparities, poor governance, and poor implementation of international agreements are among major causes of child labor. Macroeconomic factors also encourage child labor by the growth of low pay informal economy. Child labor prevents the normal well-being including physical, intellectual, and emotional psychosocial development of children. This public health issue cannot be eliminated by only enforcement of child labor laws and regulations. Any comprehensive policies should engulf a holistic approach on the education of children and their families, investment in early childhood development programs, establishing public education task forces in rural areas, implementing policies with focus on increasing adult wages, and discouraging consumers to buy products made by forced child labor. As such, ethical practice requires protection of all rights of children and protective policies and procedures which support the provisions of ILO's standards.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank the University Writing Center at A.T. Still University for assistance with this manuscript.

Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates

From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take-home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

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Farm work could be hard, but working conditions were not dangerous and at least allowed kids to breath the fresh air. The use of child labor, and the risks and working conditions of children, underwent a enormous change in the 1800's.  Industry developed on an extensive scale and the mechanization of industry resulted in the abuse of children who were forced to work in terrible conditions in factories, mines and mills. This article provides the history of child labor in America during the 1800's, the following links provide facts and information about events that were particularly relevant to the subject of child labor. This article provides facts and information about child labor in America during the 1800's. This was the time when the Industrial Revolution and the process of Industrialization transformed America from a rural, agricultural to a city based industrial society that resulted in a massive increase in child labor during the 1800's. Child Labor Causes in America: Inventions and new technology of the Industrial Revolution Child Labor Causes in America: The Process of Industrialization and the mechanization of industry that led to the building of factories and the factory system Child Labor Causes in America: The Rise of Big Business and Corporations and the emergence of the ruthless Robber Barons whose unethical, uncaring working practices led to mass production and the depersonalization of workers Child Labor Causes in America: The need for cheap labor - the power driven machines could be operated by children Child Labor Causes in America: Urbanization, the movement of millions of people from rural locations to the cities  made possible by new transportation systems Child Labor Causes in America: Poverty - children were forced to work to help their families Child Labor Causes in America: Labor Shortages - the massive influx of immigration in the 1800's fed the demand for labor including the extensive employment of immigrant children Child Labor Causes in America: Lack of government regulation to enforce safety standards, working conditions and working hours. A variety of laws differed from state to state Child Labor Causes in America: The opposition to Labor Unions prevented workers from protecting children and making it more difficult to improve labor standards and living standards in order to eliminate child labor. Child Labor Causes in America: Reform movements, who worked to abolish child labor, did not emerge until the 1890's with the start of the Progressive Movement and Progressive Reforms . ● How long did children work and what were they paid? The typical hours of work lasted from sunrise to sunset, 11 or 12 hours per day, six days a week. They had less than one hour break in their working day. ● How much did they earn? They earned an average weekly wage of one dollar. ● How old were the children? Some were employed in child labor as young as five years old and were paid low wages until they reached the age of sixteen ● According to the 1900 US Census, a total of 1,752,187 (about 1 in every 6) children between the ages of 5 and 10 were engaged in "gainful occupations" in the United States of America. Child Labor jobs and work: Agricultural Industry - Jobs included chasing away birds, sewing and harvesting the crops. Child Labor jobs and work: Textile Industry - Children worked spinning and weaving cotton and woolen goods in the mills. Bobbin boys were employed in the textile mills bringing bobbins to the women at the looms and collecting the full bobbins. Child Labor jobs and work: Mining Industry - The mining industry was an extremely dangerous, unpleasant and filthy occupation. Young boys called "Breaker Boys" processed raw coal by breaking it into various sizes for different types of furnaces. Other children were employed as coal bearers, carrying coal in baskets on their shoulders. The smaller children worked as "trappers" who opened trap doors in the mines to move the coal. Child Labor jobs and work: Manufacturing Industry - The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty with few toilet facilities. The machines and sharp tools used performing various jobs caused many injuries. Glass factories were notorious and boys under 12 where expected to carry loads of hot glass Child Labor jobs and work: Laboring work - Children were also employed to help the laborers engaged in construction and transportation projects including the railroads and canals. Water Boys were employed to carry water to workers who dug canal beds and railroads Child Labor jobs and work: Domestic Work - Children performed domestic work in large houses up to 16 hours per day, seven days per week. The hall boys, scullery maids, kitchen girls or drudges performed the worst jobs such as emptying chamber pots. . Child Labor jobs and work: Sweatshops - Children worked in the dirty tenement sweatshops making clothes and other small items Child Labor jobs and work: Street Work - Children performed a variety of jobs on the streets and sewers. Ragpickers made a living by rummaging through refuse in the streets collecting items and scraps for salvage including cloth, paper, broken glass and even dead cats and dogs could be skinned to make clothes. Other street jobs included delivery boys and shoeshine boys ● Children had higher rates of injury and death at work than adults and over 50% of child labor was involved in hazardous and dangerous work. ● Many worked in confined spaces and underground in unhealthy environments. ● They were exposed to extreme heat and cold. ● There was no government regulations for health and safety and no state safety regulations existed. ● There were some safety instructions on factory machines but as most workers were completely illiterate these were as good as useless. ● The causes of the most deaths were fires, explosions, cave-ins and train wrecks. ● The main causes of injuries were the factory machines and sharp tools. Children lost fingers, hands were mangled and some were scalped when hair that got caught in the machinery. ● Some children were killed when they fell asleep and fell into factory machines. ● Carrying heavy loads caused lifelong deformities and handicaps. ● Children not only suffered from physical stress they were also subjected to mental stress due to appalling working conditions. ● The health of children suffered working in back-breaking jobs in dark, gloomy environments with poor ventilation. They suffered from lung, ear and eye infections and unsanitary conditions led to terrible diseases and illnesses such as cholera, bronchitis and tuberculosis 1800's Child Labor in America for kids: United States History for Kids - Video of US Presidents The article on Child Labor in America provides detailed facts and a summary of the most important inventions and innovations during the history of the United States - a crash course in American History. The following video will give you additional important facts, history and dates about the personal and political lives of all the US Presidents. 1800's Child Labor in America Fundamentals NEW Biographies Compare Countries World Atlas Introduction Most people have to work to get food, clothing, housing, and other things. Their work is called labor. Even people who do not work depend on the labor of others. Types of Labor There are many different types of labor, but they are all important. Some jobs require a lot of physical effort, while others require a high level of education. Anyone who works is helping society function. History of Labor In the simplest societies people work in small groups of family members or tribal members. Not everyone does the same work, however. For example, in some societies men hunt animals and fight enemies while women gather plants and care for children. This is called a division of labor. In the past, many societies divided labor between free workers and slaves . Slaves got the worst jobs and could not leave them. They did not receive pay. Their owners punished them if they did not obey orders. People throughout history and in many different societies have owned slaves. Between the 1500s and the 1800s, Europeans made many Africans into slaves and took them to work in the Americas. In the towns of Europe in the Middle Ages, some products required special skills to make. The people who made and sold them were called craftsmen. A group called a guild controlled each craft. There were guilds for weavers, blacksmiths, bakers, painters, and many other types of craftsmen. A young person learned a craft as an unpaid helper called an apprentice. Adult workers, called journeymen, got pay. A business owner was called a master. Labor Movements United States In the United States, skilled craft workers formed the first labor unions. Several nationwide labor groups started after the American Civil War. For example, trade unions founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in the 1880s. In the 1930s the U.S. government finally gave workers real help. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 gave workers the right to join a union. Other laws stopped child labor, helped unemployed workers, made wages higher, and shortened working hours. In 1936 several unions formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The CIO supported workers in big industries like steel, automobiles, and rubber. By the end of the 1930s, unions represented almost 30 percent of U.S. workers. The AFL and the CIO joined together in 1955. The new organization, called the AFL-CIO, was a leading force in U.S. politics. The AFL-CIO worked for job safety, equal rights for women and minorities, and bigger pensions (payments to retired people). In the last part of the 20th century, union membership decreased in the United States. This was partly because companies were moving factory jobs outside the United States. Early in the 21st century, only 8 percent of workers for private companies belonged to unions. However, more than 35 percent of government workers were in unions. European workers also had a long struggle for better pay and better working conditions. In Europe, however, labor unions usually combined with political parties, or groups, that supported socialism . Socialism is a political system in which the government owns certain kinds of businesses. In many countries, these parties got governments to provide generous benefits to workers. Union membership was higher in Europe than in the United States. After World War II (1939–45), many countries in eastern Europe had Communist governments. Communism is a political system in which the workers are meant to share all property equally. Labor unions actually had little power in these Communist countries. The governments controlled the unions completely. However, in the early 1980s workers in Poland formed a union that became very powerful. The union was named Solidarnosc (Solidarity). At first the government banned the union. But the workers continued to hold protests and strikes. They asked for a role in the government in addition to better working conditions. Eventually the government allowed Solidarity members to participate in elections. This led to the end of Communist rule in Poland. Other Regions In Asia and Africa, workers often started labor movements during the time their countries were fighting for independence from European powers. In South America, labor unions sometimes joined with governments to protect workers. Several countries formed the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1919. It is now an agency of the United Nations. The ILO protects the rights of workers and unions. It also helps countries to create fair labor laws. It’s here: the NEW Britannica Kids website! We’ve been busy, working hard to bring you new features and an updated design. We hope you and your family enjoy the NEW Britannica Kids. Take a minute to check out all the enhancements! The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages. Accessible across all of today's devices: phones, tablets, and desktops. Improved homework resources designed to support a variety of curriculum subjects and standards. A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. And so much more! Want to see it in action? Start a free trial To share with more than one person, separate addresses with a comma Choose a language from the menu above to view a computer-translated version of this page. Please note: Text within images is not translated, some features may not work properly after translation, and the translation may not accurately convey the intended meaning. Britannica does not review the converted text. 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Russia InfoCentre - Korolev, Moscow oblast, Russia Korolyov , city, Moscow oblast (region), Central federal district, western Russia . It lies just northeast of the city of Moscow . The area, known as Kalininsky, developed after 1928 as an industrial satellite, particularly for weapons manufacture, and dormitory town of the capital. It achieved city status and was renamed Kaliningrad in 1938. In 1996 the city was renamed in honour of the scientist Sergey Korolyov . The community was traditionally known for its fine textiles, notably silk. After World War II , scientific research institutes were established in the city, which is a centre of Russia’s space industry. Other high-technology and science-related industries also contribute to the local economy. Korolyov has many parks and a city museum; the former estate of the poet Marina Ivanovna Tsvetayeva is maintained as a museum. Pop. (2006 est.) 172,781. Discover this place 222 IMAGES child labor SOLUTION: Child labour ppt Two Preschool Child Working for Homework Received from Kindergarten Child Labor Infographic Homework in America: From Child Labor to Modern Learning 6 Tips for helping kids with homework VIDEO Child Labor Homework=child abuse Conclusion of Child Labor Using Child Labor to Build Gokarts COMMENTS KY child labor isn't a thing of the past. Keep jobs for kids safe Here in Kentucky, a recent U.S. Department of Labor investigation found Win.IT America Inc. violated child labor laws when the company employed two children, an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old, for ... A Roundup of Labor Day Resources for Teachers Dec - Formation of the American Federation of Labor; Teacher resources. This selection of teacher resources explores different angles of labor history and its impact on society. Teachers can use these materials to help students examine a range of issues including child labor, unions, Progressive Era reforms, and New Deal programs. Homework in America: From Child Labor to Modern Learning In fact, homework was outlawed — banned entirely — in the State of California until 1917. In 1930, homework was classified as a form of child labor. As modern thinking about education ... Homework Bound Newspapers like The New York Times editorialized against homework, and in 1930, the American Child Health Association classified homework as a form of child labor. During the 1920's and 30's, New ... child labor Putting young children to work is called child labor. The work is usually considered unsafe or unhealthy for children to do. The worst forms of child labor can resemble slavery . In the past child labor was common. Today most societies consider child labor to be wrong. However, child labor remains a major problem in many parts of the world. Pro and Con: Homework In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union's technological advances during the Cold War. And, in 1986, the US ... Who Invented Homework? The History of a School Staple 1930: Homework as Child Labor. In 1930, an organization known as the American Child Health Association declared that homework was a type of child labor.Since laws against child labor had recently ... child labor The earliest efforts of the British government to curb child labor were unsuccessful. The first law that was effective, the Factory Act of 1833, forbade the employment of children under the age of 9. It also limited the number of hours older children could work: between ages 9 and 13 the limit was nine hours per day; between ages 13 and 18 the ... Lesson Plan Child Labor in America Children have always worked, often exploited and under less than healthy conditions. Industrialization, the Great Depression and the vast influx of poor immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, made it easy to justify the work of young children. To gain a true understanding of child labor, both as an historical and social issue, students ... Tenement homework. Child labor in homes in New York, Massachusetts, and Title Tenement homework. Child labor in homes in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island; Summary Photographs show various homework industries: garment work, embroidery, button stringing, artificial flower making, jewelry work, cigarette making, nut picking, tooth brush making. Who Invented Homework and Why Was It Invented? 1930: Homework as Child Labor. In 1930, the American Child Health Association declared homework as a type of child labor. Since laws against child labor had been passed recently during that time, the proclamation painted homework as unacceptable educational practice, making everyone wonder why homework was invented in the first place. ... The Long History of Parents Complaining About Their Kids' Homework Anti-homework activists often cited the contemporaneous campaign to restrict child labor, wondering why it made sense for schoolchildren to work more hours in a week than they might have if they ... PDF In the Playtime of Others: Child Labor in the Early 20th Century Agriculture (Photograph 2) In the early decades of the 20th century almost three quarters of all 'child laborers worked in agriculture. Yet reforms tended to focus on industrial child work ers. This was in part because most people thought of work in the fields as less harmful to children than work in factories. How the Cold War Space Race Led to US Students Doing Tons of Homework The American Child Health Association equated homework with child labor in 1930, claiming that both practices were "chief causes of the high death and morbidity rates from tuberculosis and heart ... Pros and Cons of Homework In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores." Regardless of opposition, homework persevered, and millions of American students still spend long hours completing bookwork in their bedrooms after school. PDF Child Labor and Learning which child labor can impact learning as participants in the labor market are more likely to report that they miss school days, turn homework in late and complete homework while in school rather than at home. In recent years, a large body of theoretical and empirical research has emerged that has Tenement homework. Child labor in homes in New York, Massachusetts, and Child labor in homes in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Date Created/Published: 1910-1924. Summary: Photographs show various homework industries: garment work, embroidery, button stringing, artificial flower making, jewelry work, cigarette making, nut picking, tooth brush making. The images depict tenement interiors with families at ... Challenges and perspectives of child labor Child labor is an old problem well rooted in human history. Children were exploited to various extents during different periods of time. The problem was common in poor and developing countries. In the 1800's, child labor was part of economic life and industrial growth. Children less than 14 years old worked in agriculture, factories, mining ... Homework Pros and Cons In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union's technological advances during the Cold War. And, in 1986, the US ... 1800's Child Labor in America: Causes and Facts for kids 1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Types of Jobs and Work. Child Labor jobs and work: Agricultural Industry - Jobs included chasing away birds, sewing and harvesting the crops. Child Labor jobs and work: Textile Industry - Children worked spinning and weaving cotton and woolen goods in the mills.. Bobbin boys were employed in the textile mills bringing bobbins to the women at the looms ... labor Most people have to work to get food, clothing, housing, and other things. Their work is called labor. Even people who do not work depend on the labor of others. Korolyov, Moscow Oblast Korolyov or Korolev (Russian: Королёв, IPA: [kərɐˈlʲɵf]) is an industrial city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, well known as the cradle of Soviet and Russian space exploration.As of the 2010 Census, its population was 183,402, the largest as a science city. [4] As of 2018, the population was more than 222,000 people. It was known as Kaliningrad (Калинингра́д) from 1938 to ... Korolyov Korolyov, city, Moscow oblast (region), Central federal district, western Russia. It lies just northeast of the city of Moscow. The area, known as Kalininsky, developed after 1928 as an industrial satellite, particularly for weapons manufacture, and dormitory town of the capital. It achieved city. Korolyov Korolyov or Korolev is an industrial city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, well known as the cradle of Soviet and Russian space exploration. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 183,402, the largest as a science city. As of 2018, the population is more than 220,000 people. It was known as Kaliningrad from 1938 to 1996 and served as the leading ... Korolyov, Moscow Oblast Korolyov or Korolev (Russian: Королёв, IPA: [kərɐˈlʲɵf]) is an industrial city in Moscow Oblast, Russia.It is well known as the cradle of Soviet and Russian space exploration.As of the 2010 Census, its population was 183,402, the largest as a science city. As of 2018, the population is more than 222,000 people. It was known as Kaliningrad (Калинингра́д) from 1938 to 1996. essay homework paper phd project resume review study thesis