origin of school homework

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.

Guy stressed with homework

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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Who Really Invented Homework

The Surprising History of Homework Reform

Really, kids, there was a time when lots of grownups thought homework was bad for you.

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Homework causes a lot of fights. Between parents and kids, sure. But also, as education scholar Brian Gill and historian Steven Schlossman write, among U.S. educators. For more than a century, they’ve been debating how, and whether, kids should do schoolwork at home .

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At the dawn of the twentieth century, homework meant memorizing lists of facts which could then be recited to the teacher the next day. The rising progressive education movement despised that approach. These educators advocated classrooms free from recitation. Instead, they wanted students to learn by doing. To most, homework had no place in this sort of system.

Through the middle of the century, Gill and Schlossman write, this seemed like common sense to most progressives. And they got their way in many schools—at least at the elementary level. Many districts abolished homework for K–6 classes, and almost all of them eliminated it for students below fourth grade.

By the 1950s, many educators roundly condemned drills, like practicing spelling words and arithmetic problems. In 1963, Helen Heffernan, chief of California’s Bureau of Elementary Education, definitively stated that “No teacher aware of recent theories could advocate such meaningless homework assignments as pages of repetitive computation in arithmetic. Such an assignment not only kills time but kills the child’s creative urge to intellectual activity.”

But, the authors note, not all reformers wanted to eliminate homework entirely. Some educators reconfigured the concept, suggesting supplemental reading or having students do projects based in their own interests. One teacher proposed “homework” consisting of after-school “field trips to the woods, factories, museums, libraries, art galleries.” In 1937, Carleton Washburne, an influential educator who was the superintendent of the Winnetka, Illinois, schools, proposed a homework regimen of “cooking and sewing…meal planning…budgeting, home repairs, interior decorating, and family relationships.”

Another reformer explained that “at first homework had as its purpose one thing—to prepare the next day’s lessons. Its purpose now is to prepare the children for fuller living through a new type of creative and recreational homework.”

That idea didn’t necessarily appeal to all educators. But moderation in the use of traditional homework became the norm.

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“Virtually all commentators on homework in the postwar years would have agreed with the sentiment expressed in the NEA Journal in 1952 that ‘it would be absurd to demand homework in the first grade or to denounce it as useless in the eighth grade and in high school,’” Gill and Schlossman write.

That remained more or less true until 1983, when publication of the landmark government report A Nation at Risk helped jump-start a conservative “back to basics” agenda, including an emphasis on drill-style homework. In the decades since, continuing “reforms” like high-stakes testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Common Core standards have kept pressure on schools. Which is why twenty-first-century first graders get spelling words and pages of arithmetic.

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Who Invented School Homework? [When, Where & How]

You can remember just sitting down and doing homework—no worries, no stress, and getting an A on your paper. School was the best time of your life. Ok, maybe that’s not true, but the point is you would always wonder who invented school homework.

The very first homework assignment can be traced all the way back to 1905 when an Italian teacher named Roberto Nevilis first invented the idea. He wanted his students to get used to thinking for themselves, so he gave them assignments that would require them to look up information and use it in their work.

Whether you’re a student trying to get ahead, or a parent wondering about homework for your own children, this article will help you to get a better understanding of the whole story about homework.

Interested in who invented school tests? Let’s find out here.

What Was the Original Purpose of Homework?

Who invented math homework, who invented holiday homework, who invented summer homework, who invented homework meme, the invention of homework, why homework is bad for high school students, who was roberto novelis, why does homework exist, when was school homework first invented, was homework invented as a punishment, ·        performance of creative works (essay writing, etc.), ·        performance of written exercises, ·        mastering material under study according to the textbook, ·        performance of oral exercises, ·        the 1900s (anti-homework), ·        the 1930s (homework as child labor), ·        the 1980s, ·        early 21st century, school homework today, why does homework exist, is homework illegal in california, why do students dislike homework, why should homework be banned from schools, who invented school homework and why.

who invented school homework

The person who invented school homework in 1905 is a man named Roberto Nevilis. He created this new way of learning to help students who were struggling with their lessons.

Nevills was passionate about education and had a special interest in how children learn best. He believed that children should be treated as individuals with unique abilities and needs.

He also believed that children should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning.

Nevilis realized that some of his students were not getting enough practice at home, so he decided to make a plan that would give them extra practice without them even knowing it.

He made up a booklet of questions for the students to answer about their lessons and gave it to them at the end of each day.

The next morning, he collected the booklets from his students and returned them with corrections and new questions for them to answer during recess.

This system became very popular with teachers all over Europe because it made learning more interesting for both students and teachers alike!

Homework is meant to reinforce what we have already learned during the day.

This can be seen through taking notes in class and then reviewing them after class by doing homework assignments.

This is the reason why many parents are against the idea of giving their children homework.

They believe that if their children did not do their homework, then they should not be punished for it.

The invention of math homework is credited to a man named Roberto Nevilis.

He was born in 1881, and he studied at the University of Rome.

While there, he became interested in mathematics and decided to pursue a career in teaching.

Math homework is a type of assignment that students are required to complete at home.

The purpose of this assignment is to help students learn the material they learn in class, and also to reinforce it.

Math homework can be completed on a variety of subjects, but one of the most common types is algebra and geometry.

The tradition of giving children holiday homework goes back to the 1920s.

It was thought to be a good way to keep children occupied over Christmas and New Year.

The practice became popular amongst schools in America and spread to Britain during World War II when many schools were evacuated to the countryside.

The practice continued after the war ended, but has since declined in popularity.

However, some schools still use it as a way of helping pupils keep up their grades during long periods away from school.

Read about the inventor of school uniforms .

In the 20th century, summer homework was invented to ensure that students did not forget what they learned during the school year.

Homework was a way for parents and teachers to ensure that students retained their knowledge.

Summer homework has been around for decades, but some parents don’t think it’s necessary. In fact, some argue that it’s harmful.

The debate over whether or not summer homework for school is good for children continues today.

Students may have different opinions about whether or not summer homework is necessary.

Some students enjoy being able to relax during the summer months and have time to do other activities.

Homework memes have become an internet sensation and the inventor is nowhere to be found.

The fact that the inventor of the homework meme is unknown adds to the mystery, making it more popular than ever.

The original source of the meme is unknown. It could be a high school student or even a college student.

Whoever it was, they definitely did not expect homework memes to become so popular.

The invention of homework is a bit complicated. Some say that Roberto Nevilis invented homework in the 20th century.

Others claim that it existed in Ancient Greece. However, most people agree that the Russians did make homework assignments first.

Homework was used as a way to teach children moral values and ethics .

Nevilis’ homework is said to be one of the most important inventions of all time.

It was an invention that revolutionized education and changed the way people think about learning.

It is said that he came up with this idea while working as a teacher in a local school in Greece.

One day after class, he found himself sitting alone in his room wondering if there was anything else he could do to help his students learn more effectively.

Who Invented Homework for Students?

when was school homework invented

The first person who invented school homework for students was Roberto Nevilis, an Italian teacher.

The idea behind homework was to improve students’ knowledge and, at the same time, to punish lazy students

He believed that if students were allowed to practice skills and concepts at home, their understanding of those things would be greater.

He also felt that homework could help teach responsibility and independence by giving students an opportunity to apply what they had learned in new situations outside of school.

Nevilis’ idea spread quickly throughout Europe and later to North America.

Today, homework is still used as a tool for teaching students important skills related to math, a science tutoring business, language arts, and more!

High school students are under a lot of pressure. Between preparing for college and dealing with the stress of being in high school, homework can be a huge burden for many students. Here are some reasons why homework is bad for high school students:

  • It takes time away from other activities that are more important to them, like spending time with friends or practicing sports.
  • Homework can cause stress, which can lead to mental health issues like depression or anxiety.
  • Homework can lead to poor grades because it takes away from the time students have to study for tests and quizzes in class, which leads to lower grades on those tests and quizzes (and possibly even failure).

Many people wonder did Roberto Novelis invent homework. The answer is: YES.

Roberto Novelis was an Italian teacher who invented school homework. He was born in 1877 and died in 1957 at the age of 80.

Roberto was a teacher at the University of Padua in Italy, where he worked for 52 years.

One day, while he was teaching his students about algebraic equations, he realized that they did not understand what he was saying.

So instead of repeating himself and giving them more examples, he decided to give them homework instead.

Roberto wanted to see if it would help his students understand better if they practiced on their own time instead of during class time.

It worked! His students were able to practice at home until they understood what the lesson was about and could answer questions correctly when he gave them back their assignments later in class.

Why Was Homework Invented?

If you’re curious about why homework was invented you should know that initially homework was invented because of the need to strengthen students’ understanding of the lessons they were taught in class.

While some teachers used it as a punishment, others used it as a way to ensure that their students understood and embraced the lessons fully.

Homework was invented because of the need to strengthen students’ understanding of the lessons they were taught in class.

It was used to punish students who were not paying attention in class, or who could not pay attention due to other responsibilities.

Homework was also used as an extension of classroom learning, where the students are given an assignment that requires them to apply what they have learned by creating something new based on their knowledge base.

Homework exists because it’s a good way to practice what you’ve learned in class.

It also helps you learn how to study and manage your time, so when you go into the real world, you’ll be able to keep up with all the things you need to do.

It can help you identify gaps in your understanding of concepts, which can then be filled by another activity or lesson at home or in class.

Homework is a great way for teachers to see how well students are grasping their lessons, and it allows them to adjust their teaching methods as needed.

When Was School Homework Invented?

You might wonder when was homework invented. Well, the answer is that it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century. 

In fact, it’s hard to imagine a world without schoolwork at all!

But before then, children were expected to spend their time doing things that were more useful for their families or communities.

But in the early 1900s, more and more people started going to school for longer periods.

And as more children went to school for longer periods, they needed additional assignments that would help them learn new concepts—and this was when homework became popularized! 

In many schools homework was a part of the punishment for lazy and naughty students.

Nowadays, we don’t think twice about handing our kids assignments or asking them to do extra work at home. But remember: It wasn’t always like that!

To be even more precise, school homework was first invented in 1905 by an Italian teacher named Roberto Nevilis.

This practice spread to other countries and gained popularity.

 Years after it was first invented, giving students homework every day became standard in most schools around the world.

The reason why this practice became so popular around the world was that it helped students learn more about the subjects they were studying and improve their grades, which in turn made them more likely to succeed in life.

Did you know that homework was originally invented as a form of punishment?

It’s true! The practice of assigning students homework began in the late 19th century when educators believed that children needed to be taught how to spend their free time productively.

It wasn’t until the late 20th century that researchers discovered the benefits of homework, and it became an essential part of classroom learning.

However, some experts believe that homework is counterproductive and harmful to students’ health.

According to them, take-home assignments are stressful and overburden students.

Types Of Homework

There are many types of homework you can do, and they all serve different purposes. Here are just a few of them:

Writing essays is one of the most effective ways for students to learn how to express themselves in writing style

Students should use their imagination and creativity when doing this type of homework. This type of homework helps students develop their imagination and creativity skills.

Students are given specific tasks, which they have to solve as part of their homework. Their task is to master the material under study according to the textbook and perform it in an exam or a test. 

A student has an opportunity to perform oral exercises during his/her free time outside school.

If a student wants to participate in any kind of competition, he/she must practice his/her presentation skills as much as possible before participating in competitions. 

History of Homework in Schools in America

Although homework is a mainstay of American education today, it hasn’t always been.

Take a look at the history of school homework in America.

Horace Mann introduced homework to the American education system in 1848.

In 1901, just a few decades after his introduction, homework was banned in the Pacific state of California.

In 1930, the American Child Health Association declared homework a form of child labor and said that it should be abolished because recent laws prohibiting such activities were passed at around the same time.

In its pamphlet, “What Works,” the Department of Education recommended homework as an effective strategy to boost the quality of education.

The report lambasted the state of American public education and called for reforms to right the alarming direction it was headed.

In America, education has changed dramatically since the 1800s.

Nowadays, many educators, students, parents, and other concerned citizens are asking why homework was invented and if it’s still valuable.

These days, looking at school homework is all about making sure that students can do the work they need to do to be college-ready.

Teachers want their students to think critically, resolve problems, and work collaboratively to prepare them for life after high school.

To accomplish this, teachers are shifting away from traditional methods of learning and grading and towards more modern methods of showing students what they need to improve upon.

This means that teachers are often looking at things like group projects, group discussions, and mini-lessons instead of individual tests or essays as ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of concepts.

If you have any questions you can first check this section. Here you can find some of the most common questions when it comes to this topic.

Homework exists to help you take control of your workload, increase your time management skills, and learn how to problem solve independently.

There are no laws against homework in California. In fact, many teachers and schools require students to do homework as part of their learning process.

Students dislike homework because they feel it takes too much time, is boring and pointless, and/or interferes with their social lives.

Research suggests a link between homework and mental health issues in young people, as well as poor academic performance. In middle schoolers, more than 90 minutes of homework per night is associated with lower test scores in math tutoring science.

In conclusion, Roberto Novelis, a man who invented school homework, improved the education system.

He created homework and it made teachers more accountable for what they teach their students.

What are your thoughts on homework? Do you believe that it is helping students or hurting them? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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The Homework Dilemma: Who Invented Homework?

The inventor of homework may be unknown, but its evolution reflects contributions from educators, philosophers, and students. Homework reinforces learning, fosters discipline, and prepares students for the future, spanning from ancient civilizations to modern education. Ongoing debates probe its balance, efficacy, equity, and accessibility, prompting innovative alternatives like project-based and personalized learning. As education evolves, the enigma of homework endures.

Table of Contents

Who Invented Homework?

While historical records don’t provide a definitive answer regarding the inventor of homework in the modern sense, two prominent figures, Roberto Nevelis of Venice and Horace Mann, are often linked to the concept’s early development.

Roberto Nevelis of Venice: A Mythical Innovator?

Roberto Nevelis, a Venetian educator from the 16th century, is frequently credited with the invention of homework. The story goes that Nevelis assigned tasks to his students outside regular classroom hours to reinforce their learning—a practice that aligns with the essence of homework. However, the historical evidence supporting Nevelis as the inventor of homework is rather elusive, leaving room for skepticism.

While Nevelis’s role remains somewhat mythical, his association with homework highlights the early recognition of the concept’s educational value.

Horace Mann: Shaping the American Educational Landscape

Horace Mann, often regarded as the “Father of American Education,” made significant contributions to the American public school system in the 19th century. Though he may not have single-handedly invented homework, his educational reforms played a crucial role in its widespread adoption.

Mann’s vision for education emphasized discipline and rigor, which included assigning tasks to be completed outside of the classroom. While he did not create homework in the traditional sense, his influence on the American education system paved the way for its integration.

The invention of homework was driven by several educational objectives. It aimed to reinforce classroom learning, ensuring knowledge retention and skill development. Homework also served as a means to promote self-discipline and responsibility among students, fostering valuable study habits and time management skills.

Why Was Homework Invented?

The invention of homework was not a random educational practice but rather a deliberate strategy with several essential objectives in mind.

Reinforcing Classroom Learning

Foremost among these objectives was the need to reinforce classroom learning. When students leave the classroom, the goal is for them to retain and apply the knowledge they have acquired during their lessons. Homework emerged as a powerful tool for achieving this goal. It provided students with a structured platform to revisit the day’s lessons, practice what they had learned, and solidify their understanding.

Homework assignments often mirrored classroom activities, allowing students to extend their learning beyond the confines of school hours. Through the repetition of exercises and tasks related to the curriculum, students could deepen their comprehension and mastery of various subjects.

Fostering Self-Discipline and Responsibility

Another significant objective behind the creation of homework was the promotion of self-discipline and responsibility among students. Education has always been about more than just the acquisition of knowledge; it also involves the development of life skills and habits that prepare individuals for future challenges.

By assigning tasks to be completed independently at home, educators aimed to instill valuable study habits and time management skills. Students were expected to take ownership of their learning, manage their time effectively, and meet deadlines—a set of skills that have enduring relevance in contemporary education and beyond.

Homework encouraged students to become proactive in their educational journey. It taught them the importance of accountability and the satisfaction of completing tasks on their own. These life skills would prove invaluable in their future endeavors, both academically and in the broader context of their lives.

When Was Homework Invented?

The roots of homework stretch deep into the annals of history, tracing its origins to ancient civilizations and early educational practices. While it has undergone significant evolution over the centuries, the concept of extending learning beyond the classroom has always been an integral part of education.

Earliest Origins of Homework and Early Educational Practices

The idea of homework, in its most rudimentary form, can be traced back to the earliest human civilizations. In ancient Egypt , for instance, students were tasked with hieroglyphic writing exercises. These exercises served as a precursor to modern homework, as they required students to practice and reinforce their understanding of written language—an essential skill for communication and record-keeping in that era.

In ancient Greece , luminaries like Plato and Aristotle advocated for the use of written exercises as a tool for intellectual development. They recognized the value of practice in enhancing one’s knowledge and skills, laying the foundation for a more systematic approach to homework.

The ancient Romans also played a pivotal role in the early development of homework. Young Roman students were expected to complete assignments at home, with a particular focus on subjects like mathematics and literature. These assignments were designed to consolidate their classroom learning, emphasizing the importance of practice in mastering various disciplines.

READ MORE: Who Invented Math? The History of Mathematics

The practice of assigning work to be done outside of regular school hours continued to evolve through various historical periods. As societies advanced, so did the complexity and diversity of homework tasks, reflecting the changing needs and priorities of education.

The Influence of Educational Philosophers

While the roots of homework extend to ancient times, the ideas of renowned educational philosophers in later centuries further contributed to its development. John Locke, an influential thinker of the Enlightenment era, believed in a gradual and cumulative approach to learning. He emphasized the importance of students revisiting topics through repetition and practice, a concept that aligns with the principles of homework.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another prominent philosopher, stressed the significance of self-directed learning. Rousseau’s ideas encouraged the development of independent study habits and a personalized approach to education—a philosophy that resonates with modern concepts of homework.

Homework in the American Public School System

The American public school system has played a pivotal role in the widespread adoption and popularization of homework. To understand the significance of homework in modern education, it’s essential to delve into its history and evolution within the United States.

History and Evolution of Homework in the United States

The late 19th century marked a significant turning point for homework in the United States. During this period, influenced by educational reforms and the growing need for standardized curricula, homework assignments began to gain prominence in American schools.

Educational reformers and policymakers recognized the value of homework as a tool for reinforcing classroom learning. They believed that assigning tasks for students to complete outside of regular school hours would help ensure that knowledge was retained and skills were honed. This approach aligned with the broader trends in education at the time, which aimed to provide a more structured and systematic approach to learning.

As the American public school system continued to evolve, homework assignments became a common practice in classrooms across the nation. The standardization of curricula and the formalization of education contributed to the integration of homework into the learning process. This marked a significant departure from earlier educational practices, reflecting a shift toward more structured and comprehensive learning experiences.

The incorporation of homework into the American education system not only reinforced classroom learning but also fostered self-discipline and responsibility among students. It encouraged them to take ownership of their educational journey and develop valuable study habits and time management skills—a legacy that continues to influence modern pedagogy.

Controversies Around Homework

Despite its longstanding presence in education, homework has not been immune to controversy and debate. While many view it as a valuable educational tool, others question its effectiveness and impact on students’ well-being.

The Homework Debate

One of the central controversies revolves around the amount of homework assigned to students. Critics argue that excessive homework loads can lead to stress, sleep deprivation, and a lack of free time for students. The debate often centers on striking the right balance between homework and other aspects of a student’s life, including extracurricular activities, family time, and rest.

Homework’s Efficacy

Another contentious issue pertains to the efficacy of homework in enhancing learning outcomes. Some studies suggest that moderate amounts of homework can reinforce classroom learning and improve academic performance. However, others question whether all homework assignments contribute equally to learning or whether some may be more beneficial than others. The effectiveness of homework can vary depending on factors such as the student’s grade level, the subject matter, and the quality of the assignment.

Equity and Accessibility

Homework can also raise concerns related to equity and accessibility. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds may have limited access to resources and support at home, potentially putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to completing homework assignments. This disparity has prompted discussions about the role of homework in perpetuating educational inequalities and how schools can address these disparities.

Alternative Approaches to Learning

In response to the controversies surrounding homework, educators and researchers have explored alternative approaches to learning. These approaches aim to strike a balance between reinforcing classroom learning and promoting holistic student well-being. Some alternatives include:

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning emphasizes hands-on, collaborative projects that allow students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems. This approach shifts the focus from traditional homework assignments to engaging, practical learning experiences.

Flipped Classrooms

Flipped classrooms reverse the traditional teaching model. Students learn new material at home through video lectures or readings and then use class time for interactive discussions and activities. This approach reduces the need for traditional homework while promoting active learning.

Personalized Learning

Personalized learning tailors instruction to individual students’ needs, allowing them to progress at their own pace. This approach minimizes the need for one-size-fits-all homework assignments and instead focuses on targeted learning experiences.

The Ongoing Conversation

The controversies surrounding homework highlight the need for an ongoing conversation about its role in education. Striking the right balance between reinforcing learning and addressing students’ well-being remains a complex challenge. As educators, parents, and researchers continue to explore innovative approaches to learning, the role of homework in the modern educational landscape continues to evolve. Ultimately, the goal is to provide students with the most effective and equitable learning experiences possible.

Unpacking the Homework Enigma

Homework, without a single inventor, has evolved through educators, philosophers, and students. It reinforces learning, fosters discipline and prepares students. From ancient times to modern education, it upholds timeless values. Yet, controversies arise—debates on balance, efficacy, equity, and accessibility persist. Innovative alternatives like project-based and personalized learning emerge. Homework’s role evolves with education.

How to Cite this Article

There are three different ways you can cite this article.

1. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper , use:

<a href=" https://historycooperative.org/who-invented-homework/ ">The Homework Dilemma: Who Invented Homework?</a>

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origin of school homework

Homework is a part of life for children, parents, and educators. But who came up with the concept of homework? What happened to make it a standard in education? Here’s a quick rundown of homework’s history in the United States .

Homework’s Origins: Myth vs. History

Who was the first person to invent homework? We may never know for sure. Its history has been shaped by a variety of persons and events. Let’s start with two of its key influencers.

The Dubious Roberto Nevelis of Venice

Homework is typically credited to Roberto Nevelis of Venice, Italy, who invented it in 1095—or 1905, depending on your sources. However, upon closer examination, he appears to be more of an internet legend than a genuine figure.

Horace Mann

Horace Mann, a 19th-century politician and educational reformer, was a pivotal figure in the development of homework. Mann, like his contemporaries Henry Barnard and Calvin Ellis Stowe, was passionate about the newly unified nation-state of Germany’s obligatory public education system.

Mandatory tasks were assigned to Volksschulen (“People’s Schools”) students to complete at home on their own time. When liberals like Johann Gottlieb Fichte were striving to organize support for a unified German state, this demand highlighted the state’s authority over the individual. While homework had been established before Fichte’s participation with the Volksschulen, his political goals can be considered a catalyst for its adoption as an educational requirement.

Horace Mann was a driving force behind creating government-run, tax-funded public education in America. During a journey to Germany in 1843, he witnessed the Volkschule system at work and brought back several of its ideals, including homework.

The American Public School System’s Homework

Homework has not always been generally embraced, despite being a near-universal element of the American educational experience. Parents and educators continue to dispute its benefits and drawbacks, as they have for more than a century.

The 1900s: Anti-homework sentiment and homework bans

A homework prohibition was enacted in the Pacific state of California in 1901, barely a few decades after the idea of homework crossed the Atlantic. The restriction, which applied to all students under the age of 15, lasted until 1917.

Around the same period, renowned magazines such as the Ladies’ Home Journal and The New York Times published remarks from parents and medical professionals portraying homework as harmful to children’s health.1930: Homework as Child Labor

A group called the American Child Health Association deemed homework a form of child labor in 1930. This statement represented a less-than-favorable view of homework as an appropriate educational method, given that laws barring child labor had recently been implemented.

Early-to-Mid 20th Century: Homework and the Progressive Era

Teachers began looking for ways to make homework more personal and meaningful to individual students throughout the second half of the 19th and 20th-century modern educational changes. Could this be the origin of the enduring essay topic, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation?”

The Cold War: Homework Heats Up

Following WWII, the Cold War heightened tensions between the United States and Russia in the 1950s. The flight of Sputnik 1 in 1957 increased Russian-American enmity, particularly among their youngsters.

The best way to ensure that American students did not fall behind their Russian counterparts, especially in the extremely competitive fields of science and mathematics, was for education officials in the United States to assign demanding homework.

The 1980s: A Nation at Risk’s Homework

What Works, a 1986 publication from the US Department of Education, listed homework as one of the most effective instructional tactics. This followed three years after the groundbreaking study 

Early 21st Century: Homework Bans Return

Many educators and other concerned individuals are questioning the value of homework once again. On the subject, several publications have been published.

These include:

  • The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It  by Sarah Bennett and Nancy Kalish (2006)
  • The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents  (Third Edition) by Duke University psychologist Dr. Harris Cooper (2007)
  • The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning  by education professor Dr. Etta Kralovec and journalist John Buell (2000)

Homework is still a contentious topic nowadays. Some schools are enacting homework bans similar to those enacted at the start of the century. Teachers have varying opinions on the bans, while parents attempt to cope with the disruption to their daily routine that such bans cause.

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Homework in America

  • 2014 Brown Center Report on American Education

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Tom loveless tom loveless former brookings expert @tomloveless99.

March 18, 2014

  • 18 min read

Part II of the 2014 Brown Center Report on American Education

part two cover

Homework!  The topic, no, just the word itself, sparks controversy.  It has for a long time. In 1900, Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies Home Journal , published an impassioned article, “A National Crime at the Feet of Parents,” accusing homework of destroying American youth.  Drawing on the theories of his fellow educational progressive, psychologist G. Stanley Hall (who has since been largely discredited), Bok argued that study at home interfered with children’s natural inclination towards play and free movement, threatened children’s physical and mental health, and usurped the right of parents to decide activities in the home.

The Journal was an influential magazine, especially with parents.  An anti-homework campaign burst forth that grew into a national crusade. [i]   School districts across the land passed restrictions on homework, culminating in a 1901 statewide prohibition of homework in California for any student under the age of 15.  The crusade would remain powerful through 1913, before a world war and other concerns bumped it from the spotlight.  Nevertheless, anti-homework sentiment would remain a touchstone of progressive education throughout the twentieth century.  As a political force, it would lie dormant for years before bubbling up to mobilize proponents of free play and “the whole child.” Advocates would, if educators did not comply, seek to impose homework restrictions through policy making.

Our own century dawned during a surge of anti-homework sentiment. From 1998 to 2003, Newsweek , TIME , and People , all major national publications at the time, ran cover stories on the evils of homework.  TIME ’s 1999 story had the most provocative title, “The Homework Ate My Family: Kids Are Dazed, Parents Are Stressed, Why Piling On Is Hurting Students.” People ’s 2003 article offered a call to arms: “Overbooked: Four Hours of Homework for a Third Grader? Exhausted Kids (and Parents) Fight Back.” Feature stories about students laboring under an onerous homework burden ran in newspapers from coast to coast. Photos of angst ridden children became a journalistic staple.

The 2003 Brown Center Report on American Education included a study investigating the homework controversy.  Examining the most reliable empirical evidence at the time, the study concluded that the dramatic claims about homework were unfounded.  An overwhelming majority of students, at least two-thirds, depending on age, had an hour or less of homework each night.  Surprisingly, even the homework burden of college-bound high school seniors was discovered to be rather light, less than an hour per night or six hours per week. Public opinion polls also contradicted the prevailing story.  Parents were not up in arms about homework.  Most said their children’s homework load was about right.  Parents wanting more homework out-numbered those who wanted less.

Now homework is in the news again.  Several popular anti-homework books fill store shelves (whether virtual or brick and mortar). [ii]   The documentary Race to Nowhere depicts homework as one aspect of an overwrought, pressure-cooker school system that constantly pushes students to perform and destroys their love of learning.  The film’s website claims over 6,000 screenings in more than 30 countries.  In 2011, the New York Times ran a front page article about the homework restrictions adopted by schools in Galloway, NJ, describing “a wave of districts across the nation trying to remake homework amid concerns that high stakes testing and competition for college have fueled a nightly grind that is stressing out children and depriving them of play and rest, yet doing little to raise achievement, especially in elementary grades.”   In the article, Vicki Abeles, the director of Race to Nowhere , invokes the indictment of homework lodged a century ago, declaring, “The presence of homework is negatively affecting the health of our young people and the quality of family time.” [iii] 

A petition for the National PTA to adopt “healthy homework guidelines” on change.org currently has 19,000 signatures.  In September 2013, Atlantic featured an article, “My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me,” by a Manhattan writer who joined his middle school daughter in doing her homework for a week.  Most nights the homework took more than three hours to complete.

The Current Study

A decade has passed since the last Brown Center Report study of homework, and it’s time for an update.  How much homework do American students have today?  Has the homework burden increased, gone down, or remained about the same?  What do parents think about the homework load?

A word on why such a study is important.  It’s not because the popular press is creating a fiction.  The press accounts are built on the testimony of real students and real parents, people who are very unhappy with the amount of homework coming home from school.  These unhappy people are real—but they also may be atypical.  Their experiences, as dramatic as they are, may not represent the common experience of American households with school-age children.  In the analysis below, data are analyzed from surveys that are methodologically designed to produce reliable information about the experiences of all Americans.  Some of the surveys have existed long enough to illustrate meaningful trends.  The question is whether strong empirical evidence confirms the anecdotes about overworked kids and outraged parents.

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provide a good look at trends in homework for nearly the past three decades.  Table 2-1 displays NAEP data from 1984-2012.  The data are from the long-term trend NAEP assessment’s student questionnaire, a survey of homework practices featuring both consistently-worded questions and stable response categories.  The question asks: “How much time did you spend on homework yesterday?”  Responses are shown for NAEP’s three age groups: 9, 13, and 17. [iv]

Table 21

Today’s youngest students seem to have more homework than in the past.  The first three rows of data for age 9 reveal a shift away from students having no homework, declining from 35% in 1984 to 22% in 2012.  A slight uptick occurred from the low of 18% in 2008, however, so the trend may be abating.  The decline of the “no homework” group is matched by growth in the percentage of students with less than an hour’s worth, from 41% in 1984 to 57% in 2012. The share of students with one to two hours of homework changed very little over the entire 28 years, comprising 12% of students in 2012.  The group with the heaviest load, more than two hours of homework, registered at 5% in 2012.  It was 6% in 1984.

The amount of homework for 13-year-olds appears to have lightened slightly. Students with one to two hours of homework declined from 29% to 23%.  The next category down (in terms of homework load), students with less than an hour, increased from 36% to 44%.  One can see, by combining the bottom two rows, that students with an hour or more of homework declined steadily from 1984 to 2008 (falling from 38% to 27%) and then ticked up to 30% in 2012.  The proportion of students with the heaviest load, more than two hours, slipped from 9% in 1984 to 7% in 2012 and ranged between 7-10% for the entire period.

For 17-year-olds, the homework burden has not varied much.  The percentage of students with no homework has increased from 22% to 27%.  Most of that gain occurred in the 1990s. Also note that the percentage of 17-year-olds who had homework but did not do it was 11% in 2012, the highest for the three NAEP age groups.  Adding that number in with the students who didn’t have homework in the first place means that more than one-third of seventeen year olds (38%) did no homework on the night in question in 2012.  That compares with 33% in 1984.  The segment of the 17-year-old population with more than two hours of homework, from which legitimate complaints of being overworked might arise, has been stuck in the 10%-13% range.

The NAEP data point to four main conclusions:

  • With one exception, the homework load has remained remarkably stable since 1984.
  • The exception is nine-year-olds.  They have experienced an increase in homework, primarily because many students who once did not have any now have some.  The percentage of nine-year-olds with no homework fell by 13 percentage points, and the percentage with less than an hour grew by 16 percentage points.
  • Of the three age groups, 17-year-olds have the most bifurcated distribution of the homework burden.   They have the largest percentage of kids with no homework (especially when the homework shirkers are added in) and the largest percentage with more than two hours.
  • NAEP data do not support the idea that a large and growing number of students have an onerous amount of homework.  For all three age groups, only a small percentage of students report more than two hours of homework.  For 1984-2012, the size of the two hours or more groups ranged from 5-6% for age 9, 6-10% for age 13, and 10-13% for age 17.

Note that the item asks students how much time they spent on homework “yesterday.”  That phrasing has the benefit of immediacy, asking for an estimate of precise, recent behavior rather than an estimate of general behavior for an extended, unspecified period.  But misleading responses could be generated if teachers lighten the homework of NAEP participants on the night before the NAEP test is given.  That’s possible. [v] Such skewing would not affect trends if it stayed about the same over time and in the same direction (teachers assigning less homework than usual on the day before NAEP).  Put another way, it would affect estimates of the amount of homework at any single point in time but not changes in the amount of homework between two points in time.

A check for possible skewing is to compare the responses above with those to another homework question on the NAEP questionnaire from 1986-2004 but no longer in use. [vi]   It asked students, “How much time do you usually spend on homework each day?” Most of the response categories have different boundaries from the “last night” question, making the data incomparable.  But the categories asking about no homework are comparable.  Responses indicating no homework on the “usual” question in 2004 were: 2% for age 9-year-olds, 5% for 13 year olds, and 12% for 17-year-olds.  These figures are much less than the ones reported in Table 2-1 above.  The “yesterday” data appear to overstate the proportion of students typically receiving no homework.

The story is different for the “heavy homework load” response categories.  The “usual” question reported similar percentages as the “yesterday” question.  The categories representing the most amount of homework were “more than one hour” for age 9 and “more than two hours” for ages 13 and 17.   In 2004, 12% of 9-year-olds said they had more than one hour of daily homework, while 8% of 13-year-olds and 12% of 17-year-olds said they had more than two hours.  For all three age groups, those figures declined from1986 to 2004. The decline for age 17 was quite large, falling from 17% in 1986 to 12% in 2004.  

The bottom line: regardless of how the question is posed, NAEP data do not support the view that the homework burden is growing, nor do they support the belief that the proportion of students with a lot of homework has increased in recent years.  The proportion of students with no homework is probably under-reported on the long-term trend NAEP.  But the upper bound of students with more than two hours of daily homework appears to be about 15%–and that is for students in their final years of high school.

College Freshmen Look Back  

There is another good source of information on high school students’ homework over several decades.  The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA conducts an annual survey of college freshmen that began in 1966.  In 1986, the survey started asking a series of questions regarding how students spent time in the final year of high school.  Figure 2-1 shows the 2012 percentages for the dominant activities.  More than half of college freshmen say they spent at least six hours per week socializing with friends (66.2%) and exercising/sports (53.0%).  About 40% devoted that much weekly time to paid employment.

Figure 21

Homework comes in fourth pace. Only 38.4% of students said they spent at least six hours per week studying or doing homework. When these students were high school seniors, it was not an activity central to their out of school lives.  That is quite surprising.  Think about it.  The survey is confined to the nation’s best students, those attending college.  Gone are high school dropouts.  Also not included are students who go into the military or attain full time employment immediately after high school.  And yet only a little more than one-third of the sampled students, devoted more than six hours per week to homework and studying when they were on the verge of attending college.

Another notable finding from the UCLA survey is how the statistic is trending (see Figure 2-2).  In 1986, 49.5% reported spending six or more hours per week studying and doing homework.  By 2002, the proportion had dropped to 33.4%.  In 2012, as noted in Figure 2-1, the statistic had bounced off the historical lows to reach 38.4%.  It is slowly rising but still sits sharply below where it was in 1987.

Figure 22

What Do Parents Think?

Met Life has published an annual survey of teachers since 1984.  In 1987 and 2007, the survey included questions focusing on homework and expanded to sample both parents and students on the topic. Data are broken out for secondary and elementary parents and for students in grades 3-6 and grades 7-12 (the latter not being an exact match with secondary parents because of K-8 schools).

Table 2-2 shows estimates of homework from the 2007 survey.  Respondents were asked to estimate the amount of homework on a typical school day (Monday-Friday).  The median estimate of each group of respondents is shaded.  As displayed in the first column, the median estimate for parents of an elementary student is that their child devotes about 30 minutes to homework on the typical weekday.  Slightly more than half (52%) estimate 30 minutes or less; 48% estimate 45 minutes or more.  Students in grades 3-6 (third column) give a median estimate that is a bit higher than their parents’ (45 minutes), with almost two-thirds (63%) saying 45 minutes or less is the typical weekday homework load.

Table 22

One hour of homework is the median estimate for both secondary parents and students in grade 7-12, with 55% of parents reporting an hour or less and about two-thirds (67%) of students reporting the same.  As for the prevalence of the heaviest homework loads, 11% of secondary parents say their children spend more than two hours on weekday homework, and 12% is the corresponding figure for students in grades 7-12.

The Met Life surveys in 1987 and 2007 asked parents to evaluate the amount and quality of homework.  Table 2-3 displays the results.  There was little change over the two decades separating the two surveys.  More than 60% of parents rate the amount of homework as good or excellent, and about two-thirds give such high ratings to the quality of the homework their children are receiving.  The proportion giving poor ratings to either the quantity or quality of homework did not exceed 10% on either survey.

Table23

Parental dissatisfaction with homework comes in two forms: those who feel schools give too much homework and those who feel schools do not give enough.  The current wave of journalism about unhappy parents is dominated by those who feel schools give too much homework.  How big is this group?  Not very big (see Figure 2-3). On the Met Life survey, 60% of parents felt schools were giving the right amount of homework, 25% wanted more homework, and only 15% wanted less.

Figure 23

National surveys on homework are infrequent, but the 2006-2007 period had more than one.  A poll conducted by Public Agenda in 2006 reported similar numbers as the Met Life survey: 68% of parents describing the homework load as “about right,” 20% saying there is “too little homework,” and 11% saying there is “too much homework.”  A 2006 AP-AOL poll found the highest percentage of parents reporting too much homework, 19%.  But even in that poll, they were outnumbered by parents believing there is too little homework (23%), and a clear majority (57%) described the load as “about right.”  A 2010 local survey of Chicago parents conducted by the Chicago Tribune reported figures similar to those reported above: approximately two-thirds of parents saying their children’s homework load is “about right,” 21% saying it’s not enough, and 12% responding that the homework load is too much.

Summary and Discussion

In recent years, the press has been filled with reports of kids over-burdened with homework and parents rebelling against their children’s oppressive workload. The data assembled above call into question whether that portrait is accurate for the typical American family.  Homework typically takes an hour per night.  The homework burden of students rarely exceeds two hours a night.  The upper limit of students with two or more hours per night is about 15% nationally—and that is for juniors or seniors in high school.  For younger children, the upper boundary is about 10% who have such a heavy load.  Polls show that parents who want less homework range from 10%-20%, and that they are outnumbered—in every national poll on the homework question—by parents who want more homework, not less.  The majority of parents describe their children’s homework burden as about right.

So what’s going on?  Where are the homework horror stories coming from?

The Met Life survey of parents is able to give a few hints, mainly because of several questions that extend beyond homework to other aspects of schooling.  The belief that homework is burdensome is more likely held by parents with a larger set of complaints and concerns.  They are alienated from their child’s school.  About two in five parents (19%) don’t believe homework is important.  Compared to other parents, these parents are more likely to say too much homework is assigned (39% vs. 9%), that what is assigned is just busywork (57% vs. 36%), and that homework gets in the way of their family spending time together (51% vs. 15%).  They are less likely to rate the quality of homework as excellent (3% vs. 23%) or to rate the availability and responsiveness of teachers as excellent (18% vs. 38%). [vii]

They can also convince themselves that their numbers are larger than they really are.  Karl Taro Greenfeld, the author of the Atlantic article mentioned above, seems to fit that description.  “Every parent I know in New York City comments on how much homework their children have,” Mr. Greenfeld writes.  As for those parents who do not share this view? “There is always a clique of parents who are happy with the amount of homework. In fact, they would prefer more .  I tend not to get along with that type of parent.” [viii] 

Mr. Greenfeld’s daughter attends a selective exam school in Manhattan, known for its rigorous expectations and, yes, heavy homework load.  He had also complained about homework in his daughter’s previous school in Brentwood, CA.  That school was a charter school.  After Mr. Greenfeld emailed several parents expressing his complaints about homework in that school, the school’s vice-principal accused Mr. Greenfeld of cyberbullying.  The lesson here is that even schools of choice are not immune from complaints about homework.

The homework horror stories need to be read in a proper perspective.  They seem to originate from the very personal discontents of a small group of parents.  They do not reflect the experience of the average family with a school-age child.  That does not diminish these stories’ power to command the attention of school officials or even the public at large. But it also suggests a limited role for policy making in settling such disputes.  Policy is a blunt instrument.  Educators, parents, and kids are in the best position to resolve complaints about homework on a case by case basis.  Complaints about homework have existed for more than a century, and they show no signs of going away.

Part II Notes:

[i]Brian Gill and Steven Schlossman, “A Sin Against Childhood: Progressive Education and the Crusade to Abolish Homework, 1897-1941,” American Journal of Education , vol. 105, no. 1 (Nov., 1996), 27-66.  Also see Brian P. Gill and Steven L. Schlossman, “Villain or Savior? The American Discourse on Homework, 1850-2003,” Theory into Practice , 43, 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 174-181.

[ii] Bennett, Sara, and Nancy Kalish.  The Case Against Homework:  How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It   (New York:  Crown, 2006).  Buell, John.  Closing the Book on Homework: Enhancing Public Education and Freeing Family Time . (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004). Kohn, Alfie.    The Homework Myth:  Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing  (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2006).  Kralovec, Etta, and John Buell.  The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning  (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000).

[iii] Hu, Winnie, “ New Recruit in Homework Revolt: The Principal ,” New York Times , June 15, 2011, page a1.

[iv] Data for other years are available on the NAEP Data Explorer.  For Table 1, the starting point of 1984 was chosen because it is the first year all three ages were asked the homework question.  The two most recent dates (2012 and 2008) were chosen to show recent changes, and the two years in the 1990s to show developments during that decade.

[v] NAEP’s sampling design lessens the probability of skewing the homework figure.  Students are randomly drawn from a school population, meaning that an entire class is not tested.  Teachers would have to either single out NAEP students for special homework treatment or change their established homework routine for the whole class just to shelter NAEP participants from homework.  Sampling designs that draw entact classrooms for testing (such as TIMSS) would be more vulnerable to this effect.  Moreover, students in middle and high school usually have several different teachers during the day, meaning that prior knowledge of a particular student’s participation in NAEP would probably be limited to one or two teachers.

[vi] NAEP Question B003801 for 9 year olds and B003901 for 13- and 17-year olds.

[vii] Met Life, Met Life Survey of the American Teacher: The Homework Experience , November 13, 2007, pp. 21-22.

[viii] Greenfeld, Karl Taro, “ My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me ,” The Atlantic , September 18, 2013.

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origin of school homework

Who Created Homework?

Italian pedagog, Roberto Nevilis, was believed to have invented homework back in 1905 to help his students foster productive studying habits outside of school. However, we'll sound find out that the concept of homework has been around for much longer.                                                                                                                                                              

Homework, which most likely didn't have a specific term back then, already existed even in ancient civilizations. Think Greece, Rome, and even ancient Egypt. Over time, homework became standardized in our educational systems. This happened naturally over time, as the development of the formal education system continued.                                                        

In this article, we're going to attempt to find out who invented homework, and when was homework invented, and we're going to uncover if the creator of homework is a single person or a group of them. Read this article through to the end to find out.

Who Invented Homework and When?

It is commonly believed that Roberto Nevelis from Venice, Italy, is the originator of homework. Depending on various sources, this invention is dated either in the year 1095 or 1905.

It might be impossible to answer when was homework invented. A simpler question to ask is ‘what exactly is homework?’.

If you define it as work assigned to do outside of a formal educational setup, then homework might be as old as humanity itself. When most of what people studied were crafts and skills, practicing them outside of dedicated learning times may as well have been considered homework.

Let’s look at a few people who have been credited with formalizing homework over the past few thousand years. 

Roberto Nevilis

Stories and speculations on the internet claim Roberto Nevilis is the one who invented school homework, or at least was the first person to assign homework back in 1905.

Who was he? He was an Italian educator who lived in Venice. He wanted to discipline and motivate his class of lackluster students. Unfortunately, claims online lack factual basis and strong proof that Roberto did invent homework.                                                                                                        

Homework, as a concept, predates Roberto, and can't truly be assigned to a sole inventor. Moreover, it's hard to quantify where an idea truly emerges, because many ideas emerge from different parts of the world simultaneously or at similar times, therefore it's hard to truly pinpoint who invented this idea.

Pliny the Younger

Another culprit according to the internet lived a thousand years before Roberto Nevilis. Pliny the Younger was an oratory teacher in the first century AD in the Roman Empire.

He apparently asked his students to practice their oratory skills at home, which some people consider one of the first official versions of homework.

It is difficult to say with any certainty if this is the first time homework was assigned though because the idea of asking students to practice something outside classes probably existed in every human civilization for millennia. 

Horace Mann

To answer the question of who invented homework and why, at least in the modern sense, we have to talk about Horace Mann. Horace Mann was an American educator and politician in the 19th century who was heavily influenced by movements in the newly-formed German state.

He is credited for bringing massive educational reform to America, and can definitely be considered the father of modern homework in the United States. However, his ideas were heavily influenced by the founding father of German nationalism Johann Gottlieb Fichte. 

After the defeat of Napoleon and the liberation of Prussia in 1814, citizens went back to their own lives, there was no sense of national pride or German identity. Johann Gottlieb Fichte came up with the idea of Volkschule, a mandatory 9-year educational system provided by the government to combat this.

Homework already existed in Germany at this point in time but it became a requirement in Volkschule. Fichte wasn't motivated purely by educational reform, he wanted to demonstrate the positive impact and power of a centralized government, and assigning homework was a way of showing the state's power to influence personal and public life.

This effort to make citizens more patriotic worked and the system of education and homework slowly spread through Europe.

Horace Mann saw the system at work during a trip to Prussia in the 1840s and brought many of the concepts to America, including homework.   

Who Invented Homework and Why?

Homework's history and objectives have evolved significantly over time, reflecting changing educational goals. Now, that we've gone through its history a bit, let's try to understand the "why". The people or people who made homework understood the advantages of it. Let's consider the following:                                                  

  • Repetition, a key factor in long-term memory retention, is a primary goal of homework. It helps students solidify class-learned information. This is especially true in complex subjects like physics, where physics homework help can prove invaluable to learning effectively.
  • Homework bridges classroom learning with real-world applications, enhancing memory and understanding.
  • It identifies individual student weaknesses, allowing focused efforts to address them.
  • Working independently at their own pace, students can overcome the distractions and constraints of a classroom setting through homework.
  • By creating a continuous learning flow, homework shifts the perspective from viewing each school day as isolated to seeing education as an ongoing process.
  • Homework is crucial for subjects like mathematics and sciences, where repetition is necessary to internalize complex processes.
  • It's a tool for teachers to maximize classroom time, focusing on expanding understanding rather than just drilling fundamentals.
  • Responsibility is a key lesson from homework. Students learn to manage time and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines.
  • Research skills get honed through homework as students gather information from various sources.
  • Students' creative potential is unleashed in homework, free from classroom constraints.

The person or people who made school and homework understood the plethora of advantages homework had and the positive effect it had on students' cognitive functions over time.

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Who Invented Homework: Development in the 1900s

Thanks to Horace Mann, homework had become widespread in the American schooling system by 1900, but it wasn't universally popular amongst either students or parents. 

The early 1900s homework bans

In 1901, California became the first state to ban homework. Since homework had made its way into the American educational system there had always been people who were against it for some surprising reasons.

Back then, children were expected to help on farms and family businesses, so homework was unpopular amongst parents who expected their children to help out at home. Many students also dropped out of school early because they found homework tedious and difficult.

Publications like Ladies' Home Journal and The New York Times printed statements and articles about the detrimental effects of homework on children's health. 

The 1930 child labor laws

Homework became more common in the U.S. around the early 1900s. As to who made homework mandatory, the question remains open, but its emergence in the mainstream sure proved beneficial. Why is this?

Well, in 1930, child labor laws were created. It aimed to protect children from being exploited for labor and it made sure to enable children to have access to education and schooling. The timing was just right.

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Progressive reforms of the 1940s and 50s

With more research into education, psychology and memory, the importance of education became clear. Homework was understood as an important part of education and it evolved to become more useful and interesting to students. 

Homework during the Cold War

Competition with the Soviet Union fueled many aspects of American life and politics. In a post-nuclear world, the importance of Science and Technology was evident.

The government believed that students had to be well-educated to compete with Soviet education systems. This is the time when homework became formalized, accepted, and a fundamental part of the American educational system. 

1980s Nation at Risk

In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education published Nation at Risk:

The Imperative for Educational Reform, a report about the poor condition of education in America.  Still in the Cold War, this motivated the government in 1986 to talk about the benefits of homework in a pamphlet called “What Works” which highlighted the importance of homework. 

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Who Invented Homework: The Modern Homework Debate

Like it or not, homework has stuck through the times, remaining a central aspect in education since the end of the Cold War in 1991. So, who invented homework 😡 and when was homework invented?

We’ve tried to pinpoint different sources, and we’ve understood that many historical figures have contributed to its conception.

Horace Mann, in particular, was the man who apparently introduced homework in the U.S. But let’s reframe our perspective a bit. Instead of focusing on who invented homework, let’s ask ourselves why homework is beneficial in the first place. Let’s consider the pros and cons:

  • Homework potentially enhances memory.
  • Homework helps cultivate time management, self-learning, discipline, and cognitive skills.
  • An excessive amount of work can cause mental health issues and burnout.
  • Rigid homework tasks can take away time for productive and leisurely activities like arts and sports.

Meaningful homework tasks can challenge us and enrich our knowledge on certain topics, but too much homework can actually be detrimental. This is where Studyfy can be invaluable. Studyfy offers homework help.

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Frequently asked questions

Who made homework.

As stated throughout the article, there was no sole "inventor of homework." We've established that homework has already existed in ancient civilizations, where people were assigned educational tasks to be done at home. 

Let's look at ancient Greece; for example, students at the Academy of Athens were expected to recite and remember epic poems outside of their institutions. Similar practices were going on in ancient Egypt, China and Rome. 

This is why we can't ascertain the sole inventor of homework. While history can give us hints that homework was practiced in different civilizations, it's not far-fetched to believe that there have been many undocumented events all across the globe that happened simultaneously where homework emerged. 

Why was homework invented? 

We've answered the question of "who invented homework 😡" and we've recognized that we cannot pinpoint it to one sole inventor. So, let's get back to the question of why homework was invented. 

Homework arose from educational institutions, remained, and probably was invented because teachers and educators wanted to help students reinforce what they learned during class. They also believed that homework could improve memory and cognitive skills over time, as well as instill a sense of discipline. 

In other words, homework's origins can be linked to academic performance and regular students practice. Academic life has replaced the anti-homework sentiment as homework bans proved to cause partial learning and a struggle to achieve conceptual clarity.

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Is homework important for my learning journey?

Now that we've answered questions on who made school and homework and why it was invented, we can ask ourselves if homework is crucial in our learning journey. 

At the end of the day, homework can be a crucial step to becoming more knowledgeable and disciplined over time. 

Exercising our memory skills, learning independently without a teacher obliging us, and processing new information are all beneficial to our growth and evolution. However, whether a homework task is enriching or simply a filler depends on the quality of education you're getting. 

The Cult of Homework

America’s devotion to the practice stems in part from the fact that it’s what today’s parents and teachers grew up with themselves.

origin of school homework

America has long had a fickle relationship with homework. A century or so ago, progressive reformers argued that it made kids unduly stressed , which later led in some cases to district-level bans on it for all grades under seventh. This anti-homework sentiment faded, though, amid mid-century fears that the U.S. was falling behind the Soviet Union (which led to more homework), only to resurface in the 1960s and ’70s, when a more open culture came to see homework as stifling play and creativity (which led to less). But this didn’t last either: In the ’80s, government researchers blamed America’s schools for its economic troubles and recommended ramping homework up once more.

The 21st century has so far been a homework-heavy era, with American teenagers now averaging about twice as much time spent on homework each day as their predecessors did in the 1990s . Even little kids are asked to bring school home with them. A 2015 study , for instance, found that kindergarteners, who researchers tend to agree shouldn’t have any take-home work, were spending about 25 minutes a night on it.

But not without pushback. As many children, not to mention their parents and teachers, are drained by their daily workload, some schools and districts are rethinking how homework should work—and some teachers are doing away with it entirely. They’re reviewing the research on homework (which, it should be noted, is contested) and concluding that it’s time to revisit the subject.

Read: My daughter’s homework is killing me

Hillsborough, California, an affluent suburb of San Francisco, is one district that has changed its ways. The district, which includes three elementary schools and a middle school, worked with teachers and convened panels of parents in order to come up with a homework policy that would allow students more unscheduled time to spend with their families or to play. In August 2017, it rolled out an updated policy, which emphasized that homework should be “meaningful” and banned due dates that fell on the day after a weekend or a break.

“The first year was a bit bumpy,” says Louann Carlomagno, the district’s superintendent. She says the adjustment was at times hard for the teachers, some of whom had been doing their job in a similar fashion for a quarter of a century. Parents’ expectations were also an issue. Carlomagno says they took some time to “realize that it was okay not to have an hour of homework for a second grader—that was new.”

Most of the way through year two, though, the policy appears to be working more smoothly. “The students do seem to be less stressed based on conversations I’ve had with parents,” Carlomagno says. It also helps that the students performed just as well on the state standardized test last year as they have in the past.

Earlier this year, the district of Somerville, Massachusetts, also rewrote its homework policy, reducing the amount of homework its elementary and middle schoolers may receive. In grades six through eight, for example, homework is capped at an hour a night and can only be assigned two to three nights a week.

Jack Schneider, an education professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell whose daughter attends school in Somerville, is generally pleased with the new policy. But, he says, it’s part of a bigger, worrisome pattern. “The origin for this was general parental dissatisfaction, which not surprisingly was coming from a particular demographic,” Schneider says. “Middle-class white parents tend to be more vocal about concerns about homework … They feel entitled enough to voice their opinions.”

Schneider is all for revisiting taken-for-granted practices like homework, but thinks districts need to take care to be inclusive in that process. “I hear approximately zero middle-class white parents talking about how homework done best in grades K through two actually strengthens the connection between home and school for young people and their families,” he says. Because many of these parents already feel connected to their school community, this benefit of homework can seem redundant. “They don’t need it,” Schneider says, “so they’re not advocating for it.”

That doesn’t mean, necessarily, that homework is more vital in low-income districts. In fact, there are different, but just as compelling, reasons it can be burdensome in these communities as well. Allison Wienhold, who teaches high-school Spanish in the small town of Dunkerton, Iowa, has phased out homework assignments over the past three years. Her thinking: Some of her students, she says, have little time for homework because they’re working 30 hours a week or responsible for looking after younger siblings.

As educators reduce or eliminate the homework they assign, it’s worth asking what amount and what kind of homework is best for students. It turns out that there’s some disagreement about this among researchers, who tend to fall in one of two camps.

In the first camp is Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. Cooper conducted a review of the existing research on homework in the mid-2000s , and found that, up to a point, the amount of homework students reported doing correlates with their performance on in-class tests. This correlation, the review found, was stronger for older students than for younger ones.

This conclusion is generally accepted among educators, in part because it’s compatible with “the 10-minute rule,” a rule of thumb popular among teachers suggesting that the proper amount of homework is approximately 10 minutes per night, per grade level—that is, 10 minutes a night for first graders, 20 minutes a night for second graders, and so on, up to two hours a night for high schoolers.

In Cooper’s eyes, homework isn’t overly burdensome for the typical American kid. He points to a 2014 Brookings Institution report that found “little evidence that the homework load has increased for the average student”; onerous amounts of homework, it determined, are indeed out there, but relatively rare. Moreover, the report noted that most parents think their children get the right amount of homework, and that parents who are worried about under-assigning outnumber those who are worried about over-assigning. Cooper says that those latter worries tend to come from a small number of communities with “concerns about being competitive for the most selective colleges and universities.”

According to Alfie Kohn, squarely in camp two, most of the conclusions listed in the previous three paragraphs are questionable. Kohn, the author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing , considers homework to be a “reliable extinguisher of curiosity,” and has several complaints with the evidence that Cooper and others cite in favor of it. Kohn notes, among other things, that Cooper’s 2006 meta-analysis doesn’t establish causation, and that its central correlation is based on children’s (potentially unreliable) self-reporting of how much time they spend doing homework. (Kohn’s prolific writing on the subject alleges numerous other methodological faults.)

In fact, other correlations make a compelling case that homework doesn’t help. Some countries whose students regularly outperform American kids on standardized tests, such as Japan and Denmark, send their kids home with less schoolwork , while students from some countries with higher homework loads than the U.S., such as Thailand and Greece, fare worse on tests. (Of course, international comparisons can be fraught because so many factors, in education systems and in societies at large, might shape students’ success.)

Kohn also takes issue with the way achievement is commonly assessed. “If all you want is to cram kids’ heads with facts for tomorrow’s tests that they’re going to forget by next week, yeah, if you give them more time and make them do the cramming at night, that could raise the scores,” he says. “But if you’re interested in kids who know how to think or enjoy learning, then homework isn’t merely ineffective, but counterproductive.”

His concern is, in a way, a philosophical one. “The practice of homework assumes that only academic growth matters, to the point that having kids work on that most of the school day isn’t enough,” Kohn says. What about homework’s effect on quality time spent with family? On long-term information retention? On critical-thinking skills? On social development? On success later in life? On happiness? The research is quiet on these questions.

Another problem is that research tends to focus on homework’s quantity rather than its quality, because the former is much easier to measure than the latter. While experts generally agree that the substance of an assignment matters greatly (and that a lot of homework is uninspiring busywork), there isn’t a catchall rule for what’s best—the answer is often specific to a certain curriculum or even an individual student.

Given that homework’s benefits are so narrowly defined (and even then, contested), it’s a bit surprising that assigning so much of it is often a classroom default, and that more isn’t done to make the homework that is assigned more enriching. A number of things are preserving this state of affairs—things that have little to do with whether homework helps students learn.

Jack Schneider, the Massachusetts parent and professor, thinks it’s important to consider the generational inertia of the practice. “The vast majority of parents of public-school students themselves are graduates of the public education system,” he says. “Therefore, their views of what is legitimate have been shaped already by the system that they would ostensibly be critiquing.” In other words, many parents’ own history with homework might lead them to expect the same for their children, and anything less is often taken as an indicator that a school or a teacher isn’t rigorous enough. (This dovetails with—and complicates—the finding that most parents think their children have the right amount of homework.)

Barbara Stengel, an education professor at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, brought up two developments in the educational system that might be keeping homework rote and unexciting. The first is the importance placed in the past few decades on standardized testing, which looms over many public-school classroom decisions and frequently discourages teachers from trying out more creative homework assignments. “They could do it, but they’re afraid to do it, because they’re getting pressure every day about test scores,” Stengel says.

Second, she notes that the profession of teaching, with its relatively low wages and lack of autonomy, struggles to attract and support some of the people who might reimagine homework, as well as other aspects of education. “Part of why we get less interesting homework is because some of the people who would really have pushed the limits of that are no longer in teaching,” she says.

“In general, we have no imagination when it comes to homework,” Stengel says. She wishes teachers had the time and resources to remake homework into something that actually engages students. “If we had kids reading—anything, the sports page, anything that they’re able to read—that’s the best single thing. If we had kids going to the zoo, if we had kids going to parks after school, if we had them doing all of those things, their test scores would improve. But they’re not. They’re going home and doing homework that is not expanding what they think about.”

“Exploratory” is one word Mike Simpson used when describing the types of homework he’d like his students to undertake. Simpson is the head of the Stone Independent School, a tiny private high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that opened in 2017. “We were lucky to start a school a year and a half ago,” Simpson says, “so it’s been easy to say we aren’t going to assign worksheets, we aren’t going assign regurgitative problem sets.” For instance, a half-dozen students recently built a 25-foot trebuchet on campus.

Simpson says he thinks it’s a shame that the things students have to do at home are often the least fulfilling parts of schooling: “When our students can’t make the connection between the work they’re doing at 11 o’clock at night on a Tuesday to the way they want their lives to be, I think we begin to lose the plot.”

When I talked with other teachers who did homework makeovers in their classrooms, I heard few regrets. Brandy Young, a second-grade teacher in Joshua, Texas, stopped assigning take-home packets of worksheets three years ago, and instead started asking her students to do 20 minutes of pleasure reading a night. She says she’s pleased with the results, but she’s noticed something funny. “Some kids,” she says, “really do like homework.” She’s started putting out a bucket of it for students to draw from voluntarily—whether because they want an additional challenge or something to pass the time at home.

Chris Bronke, a high-school English teacher in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, told me something similar. This school year, he eliminated homework for his class of freshmen, and now mostly lets students study on their own or in small groups during class time. It’s usually up to them what they work on each day, and Bronke has been impressed by how they’ve managed their time.

In fact, some of them willingly spend time on assignments at home, whether because they’re particularly engaged, because they prefer to do some deeper thinking outside school, or because they needed to spend time in class that day preparing for, say, a biology test the following period. “They’re making meaningful decisions about their time that I don’t think education really ever gives students the experience, nor the practice, of doing,” Bronke said.

The typical prescription offered by those overwhelmed with homework is to assign less of it—to subtract. But perhaps a more useful approach, for many classrooms, would be to create homework only when teachers and students believe it’s actually needed to further the learning that takes place in class—to start with nothing, and add as necessary.

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Who Created Homework?

In the realm of education, the age-old question of who created homework has sparked curiosity and debate for generations. As students diligently complete assignments, parents assist with algebra, and teachers grade stacks of papers, it’s worth delving into the fascinating history of this academic tradition.

Who Created Homework

The Early Days Of Education

To understand the origins of homework, we must first step back in time to the early days of formal education. Throughout history, educational practices have evolved significantly, shaped by cultural, societal, and pedagogical changes. In ancient civilizations, scholars and mentors imparted knowledge orally, emphasizing the importance of verbal communication and direct interaction.

However, as educational institutions began to formalize, a shift occurred. The concept of homework started to emerge as a tool for reinforcing lessons outside the classroom. This marked the beginning of a practice that would later become deeply ingrained in the fabric of education.

The Birth Of The Homework Tradition

The origin of homework is a nuanced topic, and attributing its creation to a single individual is challenging. Nevertheless, the roots of this practice can be traced back to influential educational figures who recognized the value of extending learning beyond the classroom walls.

One prominent advocate for homework was Roberto Nevilis, an Italian educator. In the early 20th century, Nevilis is said to have introduced the concept of assigning tasks to students outside regular class hours. While he may not be the sole “inventor” of homework, his contributions played a role in shaping the modern educational landscape.

Homework’s Evolution Over Time

As the educational system continued to evolve, so did the nature and purpose of homework. The practice became deeply entrenched in pedagogy, adapting to reflect the changing needs of students and the educational objectives of each era.

Throughout the mid-20th century, homework underwent a significant transformation. The emphasis shifted from mere rote learning to fostering critical thinking and independent problem-solving skills. This evolution was a response to the changing demands of a rapidly advancing world and the need to prepare students for a more complex and interconnected future.

The Pedagogical Rationale

The origin of homework can be better understood by examining its pedagogical rationale. The fundamental idea behind assigning tasks outside of class is to reinforce and apply concepts learned during the day. This repetitive practice serves as a mechanism for solidifying knowledge and enhancing retention.

origin of 8 hour work day

Moreover, homework provides an opportunity for students to develop essential skills such as time management, responsibility, and self-discipline. It acts as a bridge between classroom learning and real-world application, preparing students for the challenges they will face beyond their academic journeys.

Cultural Variances In Homework Practices

The origin of homework is not a one-size-fits-all narrative. Different cultures and educational systems have adopted varying approaches to assigning tasks outside of school hours. While some societies place a strong emphasis on rigorous homework schedules, others prioritize alternative methods of reinforcing learning, such as project-based assessments or collaborative activities.

Understanding these cultural nuances allows us to appreciate the diversity of educational practices worldwide and challenges the notion of a universal origin of homework. It is a dynamic concept shaped by the unique needs and values of each educational environment.

Navigating Controversies And Criticisms

Despite its long-standing presence in education, homework has not been without its share of controversies and criticisms. The debate surrounding the quantity and purpose of homework has led educators, parents, and researchers to question its efficacy and impact on students’ well-being.

Critics argue that excessive homework can contribute to stress and burnout, while proponents assert that it is a crucial tool for reinforcing learning. Striking a balance between the benefits and potential drawbacks of homework remains an ongoing challenge for educators worldwide.

Homework In The Digital Age

In the 21st century, the origin of homework has taken on new dimensions with the advent of digital technology. Online platforms, interactive assignments, and virtual classrooms have reshaped the landscape of homework, offering students and teachers innovative ways to engage with learning materials.

The integration of technology into homework practices has opened up new possibilities for personalized learning experiences. It has also sparked discussions about the role of traditional assignments in a rapidly changing educational landscape.

Unraveling The Tapestry Of Homework’s Origins

In conclusion, the origin of homework is a multifaceted and evolving story deeply intertwined with the history of education. While Roberto Nevilis is often associated with its early formalization, the practice of extending learning beyond the classroom has roots that reach far back in time.

history of computers homework answers

Understanding the origin of homework involves appreciating its pedagogical purpose, acknowledging cultural variations, and navigating the ongoing debates surrounding its efficacy. As education continues to evolve, so too will the nature and role of homework, shaping the experiences of students for generations to come.

In this exploration of the origin of homework, we have glimpsed into the rich tapestry of educational history, where the threads of tradition and innovation converge to weave the story of learning outside the classroom walls. The origin of homework may be elusive, but its impact on education is undeniable, shaping the minds and habits of students around the globe.

In essence, the origin of homework is not merely a historical curiosity but a reflection of the ever-changing landscape of education—a landscape where the quest for knowledge extends far beyond the boundaries of the classroom, into the realms of independent exploration and lifelong learning.

Also Read: Who Invented Ice Cream?

History of Homework

The institution of homework is deeply embedded in the American culture. How many times as a child have you heard your parents say that you can’t go outside, play games, or get dessert until you have finished your homework? Or how many times have you uttered that phrase to your own children? Although the concept of a homework assignment has been questioned throughout history, and probably will be, time and time again, it is still viewed as something normal, and as a part of every student’s life. Even outside the school, phrases like “you haven’t done your homework on that pitch/project” are used to suggest that a person hasn’t done all they could have done to prepare for a certain challenge.

Now, over time, the public’s attitude toward homework has changed numerous times, keeping in line with then active social trends and philosophies, and that battle is still raging on today. But before we take a look at what the future holds for the concept of homework, let’s take a trip down memory lane first. You will find that the arguments in favor or against homework were almost exactly the same as they are today.

Homework through History

Seeing as primary education at the end of 19th century was not mandatory, student attendance couldn’t be described as regular. The classrooms were a lot different, as well, with students of different ages sitting together in the same class. Moreover, a very small percentage of children would choose to pursue education past the 4th grade. Once they have learned to read, write, and do some basic arithmetic, they would leave school in order to find work or to help around the house. Homework was rare occurrence, because setting aside a few hours for learning each night interfered with their chores and daily obligations.

As education became more available and more progressive at the turn of the 20th century, there was a strong rebellion against homework taking place in academic circles. Even pediatricians got in on the debate, stating that children should not be made to do homework, as it robs them of all the benefits provided by physical activities and time spent outside the house. Seeing as conditions such as the attention deficit disorder were not diagnosed back then, homework was to blame.

This anti-homework movement reached its peak in the 1930s, with a Society for the Abolition of Homework being formed in order to prevent schools from giving students homework, with numerous school districts following their lead. Even in those schools where homework was not abolished, very few homework assignments were given. This continued all the way until the end of the 1950s, which marked a sharp turn in country’s attitude towards homework.

The reason for this was the launch of the Sputnik I satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957. Seeing as the entire Cold War era was marked by the constant competition between USA and the Soviet Union, U.S. educators, teachers, and even parents were afraid that their children, and the entire nation, would be left behind by their Soviet counterparts, who would lead the way into the future, which meant that homework was once again back on the map, and more important than ever.

Things changed again in the late 60s and early 70s. Vietnam War was still raging on, giving birth to civil rights movement and counterculture, which were looking to shake up all of the previously established norms. Homework was yet again under the microscope. It was argued that homework got in the way of kids socializing, and even their sleep, which meant that homework had yet again fallen from grace, just like it had at the beginning of the century.

In the 1980s, the climate changed again, spurred on by the study called A Nation at Risk which blamed the shaky U.S. economy on schools which weren’t challenging their students enough. As a result, the entire school system was labeled as mediocre in an age where the entire country was striving toward excellence, as saw the bright young minds of tomorrow as its way out. There was more of everything: classes, grades, tests, and more homework. This trend spilled over into the 90s, as well.

At the end of the 90s, homework was yet again under the attack. It was cited that children are overworked and stressed out. The increasing demand for tutors was the key argument. If students needed homework assignment help, there was too much of it. But, besides homework help, homework was also viewed as an obstacle for families with two working parents. The only time parents would get to spend time with their children was being usurped, as kids were forced to work on their homework for hours.

Present Day

While few will argue the role homework plays in reinforcing the information taught in class, there is still talk about how much homework is too much. According to certain studies, the effectiveness of homework starts to decline if the students are given more than 90 minutes of homework every day, which is evident by their test results. Current trends are not concerned with whether or not homework has its merits. It does, there is no question about it, but the main goal right now find the right balance between quantity and quality.

Also, homework in a traditional sense might be susceptible to change, because of the increasingly important role modern technology plays in our lives, and it affects the students, as well. We don’t know what the future holds, but one thing is for sure: we should always do our homework and be prepared.

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History of Homework

The History Of Homework: How It All Started And When?

Homework tasks are an important part of academic life, as they facilitate the entire learning process. They are assigned to the students to help them clarify their concepts by indulging in deep analysis with self-study. But, the thought of working on the history of homework assignments overwhelms many students out there. They experience an instant fear and start seeing these assignments as a burden. The homework tasks have become quite complex due to the increasing competition. Nowadays, people prefer hiring professional homework help  to ensure high scores in their subjects.

Table of Contents I liked the piano. I always liked playing. And I just hated homework. What Is The Concept Of Homework? Here, homework is not a punishment. They really like coming to homework club. We want it to feel like home. History Of Homework: The Origins 1. Pliny The Younger:  2. Roberto Nevilis Of Venice: 3. Horace Mann:  My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man The Anti-Homework Wave Homework: A Form Of Child Labor 1. Homework In The Progressive Early & Mid 20th Century 2. The Cold War & Homework 3. Homework As A National Risk 4. Early 21st Century & The Homework Ban 5. Homework In The 21st Century We’ve done our homework and we think we’re going to be good with the Charger. Why Is Home Teaching An Essential Requirement? Conclusion I liked the piano. I always liked playing. And I just hated homework. — Mike Shinoda

But, do you ever wonder how did homework come into the picture? Who even invented homework, and for what purpose? In this blog, we will dig deep and reveal all these interesting facts for you.

What Is The Concept Of Homework?

Homework is a task or assignment work given to students by their teachers in school, college, or University. It has to be managed in the home premises and then submitted to the assigners. It usually includes the subjects and topics concerning the concepts that taught in the classroom .

The purpose behind the allotment of homework is to motivate the students to revise their concepts and ensure they have a fair understanding of the topics. This way, they have a better idea about their subjects, and there is a good scope for exploring further.

Homework remains an integral part of academics throughout the educational span. It empowers them by adding to their knowledge and allowing scope for the constant practice of the subjects. Working on a pile of homework assignments could be cumbersome for many. A professional  homework help  specialist could be a good option to unburden yourself.

Here, homework is not a punishment. They really like coming to homework club. We want it to feel like home. — Amy Campbell  

History Of Homework: The Origins

History of Homework: The Origin

Homework is an age-old concept, and there are many speculations about its origination. As per the researches, various events and personalities are often believed to influence the origins of homework.

Here, let us introduce you to two of the most popular, and accredited personalities in the history of homework.

1. Pliny The Younger: 

The earliest traces of the existence of homework can be traced back to ancient Rome, when a Roman educator and teacher on oratory, Pliny the Younger , gave birth to this concept. He instructed the students to indulge in at-home activities. It all happened in Quintilian. The goal of these practice exercises was to encourage people to develop their public speaking skills, in a rather casual environment.

2. Roberto Nevilis Of Venice:

In 1905, an Italian educator, Roberto Nevilis is credited to start the practice of assigning homework to students, as per various sources. There are rumors that Nevilis often used homework to punish his students. Later on, homework exercises started impacting the performance positively. It made homework a regular task all over the globe. But, as per further inspection this claim seems like a myth.

3. Horace Mann: 

In the 19 th  century , an educationist reformer and politician, Horace Mann came forward with his revolutionary idea to implement homework as a regular task all around the world. He possessed a deep interest in transforming the German education system by making public education mandatory. Needless to say, it was a part of his political goals, which possibly facilitated the concept of homework becoming a necessary task nationwide.

But, how did Horace Mann came forward with this life-changing idea?

It all started when Horace Mann visited Volksschulen, a people’s school during his trip to Germany somewhere around 1843. In Volksschulen, mandatory assignment work was a part of their academic essential. Students were allotted specified tasks to do at home. They have to be complete within a particular time frame with homework help  from their friends and family. Keeping his political enthusiasm in mind, Horace Mann brought the idea to America.

My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man — Nancy Cartwright

The Anti-Homework Wave

Back in 1901 when the concept of homework was gaining popularity across various geographical locations, the Pacific State of California banned homework. As per the reports published in several prominent newspapers of that time, including The New York Times, parents and medical experts declared homework to be extremely dangerous for children’s health.

Homework: A Form Of Child Labor

Homework: A Form of Child Labor

Yes, homework was indeed proclaimed as a form of child labor by American Child Health Association in 1930.

1. Homework In The Progressive Early & Mid 20 th  Century

The late 19 th  and early 20 th  centuries shaped a positive image of homework. This was the rise of the progressive era, where teachers started working on ways to transform homework into more personalized assignments that fit the requirements to meet the needs of individual students. Maybe this is when students started indulging their peers and family in their at-home tasks for  homework help .

2. The Cold War & Homework

After World War II , the Cold War started between Russia and America. The heating competition to outperform one another made U.S. authorities introduce meticulous homework in their education system to make sure that the American students achieve a higher success ratio in science and mathematics than the Russians.

3. Homework As A National Risk

In the 1980s, the U.S National Commission on Excellence in Education published a landmark report where it declared homework as an element that puts the nation at risk.

4. Early 21 st  Century & The Homework Ban

Due to the rising concerns of citizens and educators, the importance of homework was questioned again. Several published books from that era on this subject are the evidence.

5. Homework In The 21 st  Century

In the 21 st century, homework has become a vital aspect of the education system. It is constantly supported by the teachers, parents, as well as experts. Today, homework is consider as a crucial element to encourage the development of skills and critical thinking in the learners. The internet-driven modern era even has introduced the unique concept of professional assignment help . Various online services provide expert guidance to students who find it difficult to manage their complicated homework assignments daunting.

We’ve done our homework and we think we’re going to be good with the Charger. — John Fernandez

Why Is Home Teaching An Essential Requirement?

It is needless to say that the education system has evolved significantly since the early era. However, the educators prefer adhering to the traditional concepts as they perceive the home learning experience to be quite efficient. The assignments for  homework help  in the development of creativity, independence, and individual thoughts process.

Here are some of the significant points to support the fact that home learning experience is highly useful:

  • Scientific concepts demand constant practice and repeated revisions.
  • One can only achieve great results in the subjects that taught in class, with thorough learning. Else, the students may forget the material.
  • At-home learning is an excellent approach for enhancing students’ skills and talents.
  • The memorization of subjects is a practical way to gain expertise.
  • The efforts of teachers may go in vain if the assimilated study material is not revise by the students, on time. Back in time, educationists understood this well which resulted in at-home learning and made the educational process a lot easier.

Working on the homework tasks, or home learning involves some major stages:

  • Comprehension
  • Accelerating the process
  • Development of new skills
  • Applying the gained knowledge and skills practically

This is a promising way to empower the development skills in the learners which pushes them to go ahead and open the doors of success with a new perspective.

Homework is a form of home learning experience that has been through several ups and downs ever since its introduction in the education system. Despite being an integral part of the academic culture, homework remains a controversial concept. However, nobody can deny the exceptional benefits that homework offers. Recently there has been a spike in the services that offer custom  homework help to students. This makes it a lot easier for them to manage both, their studies and assignments.

1: Learn To Create Expert Notes in College

2: Summer Homework: Is It Really Beneficial?

3: Should Parents Permit Children To Use Assignment Help Services?

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Wonderopolis

Wonder of the Day #1268

Why Was School Created?

Wonderopolis

SOCIAL STUDIES — History

Have You Ever Wondered...

  • Why was school created?
  • Who invented the first school?
  • Have kids in the United States always had to go to school?
  • American Revolution ,
  • attendance ,
  • Boston Latin School ,
  • curriculum ,
  • education ,
  • elementary ,
  • Father of the Common School Movement ,
  • Horace Mann ,
  • invention ,
  • knowledge ,
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony ,
  • mathematics ,
  • New England ,
  • schoolhouse ,
  • Secretary of Education ,
  • tradition ,
  • United States ,
  • Attendance ,
  • Curriculum ,
  • Education ,
  • Elementary ,
  • Father Of The Common School Movement ,
  • Invention ,
  • Knowledge ,
  • Mathematics ,
  • Schoolhouse ,
  • Secretary Of Education ,
  • Tradition ,

Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Rebecca from AL. Rebecca Wonders , “ who created school? ” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Rebecca!

Why was school created? We're sure that's a question that every student asks from time to time. Especially on tough test days, many students WONDER exactly why they're being subjected to such cruel and unusual punishment!

If you're honest with yourself, though, you know what a great place school is. You have fun, learn all sorts of interesting things, and get to spend quality time with your friends. Sure, tests can be stressful, but think of how boring life would be if you didn't get to learn new things and see other people so often!

Schools are not a new invention. You may have seen some old one-room schoolhouses that have been around for a couple hundred years or more. The earliest schools, though, date back thousands of years!

In fact, education dates back to the very first humans ever to inhabit Earth. Why? To survive , every generation has found it necessary to pass on its accumulated knowledge , skills, values, and traditions to the next generation . How can they do this? Education ! Each subsequent generation must be taught these things.

The earliest human beings didn't need schools to pass along information. They educated youngsters on an individual basis within the family unit. Over time, however, populations grew and societies formed.

Rather than every family being individually responsible for education , people soon figured out that it would be easier and more efficient to have a small group of adults teach a larger group of children. In this way, the concept of the school was born.

Ancient schools weren't like the schools we know today, though. The earliest schools often focused more on teaching skills and passing along religious values, rather than teaching specific subject areas like is common today.

In the United States, the first schools began in the 13 original colonies in the 17 th century. For example, Boston Latin School , which was founded in 1635, was the first public school and the oldest existing school in the country.

The earliest schools focused on reading, writing, and mathematics . The New England colonies led the way in requiring towns to set up schools. The Massachusetts Bay Colony made basic education a requirement in 1642. However, many of the earliest schools were only for boys, and there were usually few, if any, options for girls.

After the American Revolution , education became a higher priority . States quickly began to establish public schools. School systems were not uniform , however, and would often vary greatly from state to state.

Credit for our modern version of the school system usually goes to Horace Mann. When he became Secretary of Education in Massachusetts in 1837, he set forth his vision for a system of professional teachers who would teach students an organized curriculum of basic content . For this reason, Mann is often called the “Father of the Common School Movement."

Many other states quickly followed Mann's system he instituted in Massachusetts. More and more states began to require school attendance . By 1918, every state required students to complete elementary school . Educational improvements grew by leaps and bounds during the 20 th century, leading to the advanced systems we enjoy today.

Wonder What's Next?

We wouldn’t TRADE tomorrow's Wonder of the Day for anything!

School is in session and it's time to grab some friends and family members to help you explore the following fun activities:

  • Field trip time! Ask an adult friend or family member to take you on a driving tour of local schools. Sure, you're familiar with your current school, but what will your next school look like? What do the schools in other nearby towns look like? Have fun driving around and comparing the different schools in your area.
  • How much do you love your school? Make a list of the top five things you love the most about your school. Share your thoughts with a teacher or administrator. Then make a list of five areas where your school could improve. Instead of sharing those ideas, brainstorm some things that YOU could do to make things better. When you have some solid ideas for improvements, ask a teacher or administrator for help implementing one or more of your ideas. Have fun being the change you want to see in your school!
  • Up for a challenge? You're in charge of public education in your city. You don't have to do anything like the way things have always been done. You just have to make sure that children receive the education they need to succeed in today's society. What system would you put in place? Would you create schools? Or would you do something completely different? Give it some thought and write a short description of what system you would create and why you would make the decisions you'd make. Have fun thinking about education from a new perspective!

Did you get it?

Wonder contributors.

We’d like to thank:

kamea , Claire , Caleb , Katherine and perise for contributing questions about today’s Wonder topic!

Keep WONDERing with us!

Wonder Words

Wonderopolis

You might find in the future that you will appreciate the education you received! Thanks to your education, you can explore Wonderopolis and learn new things.

Wonderopolis

You is a boy

You are wrong girl I’m biggest brain ??????‍???‍?

Wonderopolis

What a positive way of looking at things, Kay! There are a lot of things in life that many people around the world would be happy to do, and we see them as something we have to do. 

Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing. We're sorry you're struggling with school. We urge you to talk with a trusted adult.

Wonderopolis

Hi ronahe! 

The author is Wonderopolis. We don't publish the date, so you can use the day you accessed this website. 

Wonderopolis

WS Inspection

Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing your opinion, madicyn! 

Wonderopolis

Conner Blumkin

Hi Conner. Thanks for sharing your experience. We suggest talking with your parents about this, and then possibly approaching your teachers. They should be able to make your work a challenge for you. 

Wonderopolis

Cones Are VERY Cool

Wonderopolis

maybe its time you move up a grade ask about testing out of your grade level start with your parents and have them figure out your next move

Thanks for the WONDERful advice, teresa. 

Hey, Cones! 

1. We suggest making sure you have your work all turned in and done correctly. 

2. Ask your teacher for an extra project to work on when you have your other work done. 

3. Learn more about the topics you're studying in school to 'extend your learning'. 

4. Learn other stuff at home with your parents. 

Keep Wondering!!!!

Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing your opinion, kaylaT! We agree that there is a lot of pressure from high-stakes testing. 

Wonderopolis

This is very true.

Wonderopolis

this is so true!

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Danny. It seems you don't like school much. We're sorry to hear that.

Wonderopolis

We thank him--and your family--for his service. We also understand why spending time with your dad would be important, Rohnen. 

Wonderopolis

you're right, Homer.  Are you a great philosopher?

Wonderopolis

chuu’s slave

Thanks for sharing your opinion, chuu's slave.

Wonderopolis

school is slvery

Wonderopolis

Jade Mcclenin

Wonderopolis

We're sorry to hear that, Lucas. 

Wonderopolis

He can teach you what he does, but there are other things you need to learn in school. 

Wonderopolis

I hate wonderopilis

We're sorry to hear that. Everyone that visits Wonderopolis is our Wonder Friend!

Wonderopolis

This is a lie lots of people have written mean and bad comments are you sure EVERYONE is your friend?

Hi Cheez! 

We prefer to be positive. Have a WONDERful day! 

Wonderopolis

Bruh I not trying be rude but ur phone or iPad can teach u

Wonderopolis

Tyler Sieger

Collage is school my guy

That's a great way to look at it, Jacob! What are some of the things you like about school?

Wonderopolis

You're welcome, Zack.

Wonderopolis

If u didn’t have WiFi u wouldn’t be able to go on here and I don’t like school NOT BECAUSE FORTNITE FORTNITE IS A GOOD GAME BUT I DONT LIKE SCHOOL BECASUE I CANT TALK I NEEED TO Use the bathroom and I can’t sleep and can’t play with my friends

Hey, Zack! 

We don't really have an opinion, but thanks for sharing yours!

Wonderopolis

Eh.. Okay. but can you make a wonder about monopoly?

That would be a great suggestion for our Wonder Bank --where we get inspiration for our Wonders! 

Wonderopolis

? But...school is such a WONDERful place to WONDER!

Wonderopolis

School is not a wonderplace. The world is, but not School. School is just somewhere your forced to go, and accept things you dont really care for

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Joniel. 

Wonderopolis

Kendra Beeson

Hi, Kendra! You might also like  Wonder 1765: How Does a Train Work? Let us know what you think!

I like trains is a meme.. no affence

WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SPOIL EVERYTHING GOD

There, there, WHY. It's okay. You're only required to go to school for 13 years. 

? We had no idea. Thanks for having our back, Zack!

Wonderopolis

Hi wonderopolis!

I Love school but at the time time I don't. I hate having to get up in the mornings and I hate we are at school longer than we are at home home. It will be that way until I am 18 years old.

Thanks for sharing - and we agree that sleep is very important! Check out  Wonder 1775: Do Kids Need More Sleep Than Adults? to learn more about why kids need more sleep than adults!

Wonderopolis

I’d love it if this were true but it does sadly get worse. You see this day and age, school focuses on scores when it originally started out ases on learning, actual learning. Now it is just memorization, and a game to see who can obtain the most A’s. Most of the people we look up to today, inventers of many things, didn’t finish or go to school. Not only this, but school deeply impacts mental health. The school system is not made to handle all sorts of people together at once. School is flawed; however, it is somewhat useful. It does help us learn basic knowledge such as, how to properly form a sentence, or how to add chairs. Because we learn this basic information, we are more likely to make more discoveries further on in time.

Hi, Meg! Thanks for stopping by. We're sad you have this view of school. What is your favorite thing to do at school? 

Wonderopolis

i hate school never ever try to get me to like it ill only like highschool and im 9

That is great advice, Anna Beth! Thanks for sharing it with us! We hope that you are getting enough sleep each night!

Wonderopolis

POTATOES ARE AWESOME

Thanks for sharing, Anna Beth! Have you seen  Wonder 435: Do Potatoes See With Their Eyes?

We have a Wonder about potatoes!  Wonder 435: Do Potatoes See With Their Eyes?

Wonderopolis

That is a WONDERful attitude to have a bout school, issac! It is always important to try your best and have fun learning new things at school!

Wonderopolis

Hi, Camilla! We LOVE that you love school - there is so much to learn and WONDER about! You definitely fit in here at Wonderopolis - thanks for being an awesome Wonder Friend!

Wonderopolis

I dont like it

Why cant u just create your own planet if i could it would be video game universe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank you video game awesome

your awesome boi

We're sorry that you don't like school.  It sounds like, with all of that technology on your new planet, you may need school there, too, though!

i hate wonderopilis

We're sorry to hear that, Wonder Friend.

Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing, Oscar! There is so much information to WONDER about at school :)

Wonderopolis

do you hate school cuz i do :)

We're sorry to hear that, catman.  It can be so much fun to learn new things at school. Hopefully your experience at school gets better soon.

NO IT IS NOT ARE YOU PAID TO SAY THAT

Wonderopolis

Hi, Donovan! It sounds like you are a hard worker! Homework can be difficult sometimes, but keep doing your best, and ask your teacher if you have specific questions!

Wonderopolis

SunlitSaucer600

IDK I Don't Know?...

Thanks for asking, Nicki!! Since we do not list the publish date for our Wonders of the Day, you may put the date you accessed this page for information.  The following is how you would cite this page:  

"Why Was School Created?"  Wonderopolis.  https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-was-school-created .  Accessed 13 Nov. 2017.

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BEN10FAN a.k.a Katie

Those sound like really fun classes, BEN10FAN a.k.a Katie!! ?

Wonderopolis

We think so, too! There is so much information to WONDER about at school!! ?

Wonderopolis

When you mean wonderful you mean stuff we won't use in life and help me pay my taxes tax's some stuff I will use but when I need to find x on my math quiz how is this going to help?

We're sorry to hear that, Bob.   Wonder #1534: Why Do I Need to Learn Algebra? may help you find that answer, though!

Wonderopolis

i agree with you 100% i hate school, sometimes i wish i could do things to it that i shouldn't, and yes there are some cool teachers at my school. and even though i wish i could drop out i just can't. for both my future and my family name.

What a WONDERful outlook on going to school, GoldMa!! It sounds like you have some amazing goals that you are determined to reach!! What are some of your future goals?

Wonderopolis

Sasuke Uchiha

I love School

Sorry you are feeling that way, Sasuke.  School can be rough - lots of work, trouble with peers, teachers who don't understand you.  But hang in there!  The lessons you are learning are making you smarter and stronger to face the world as an adult.  We hope things get better for you!

Wonderopolis

DoughnutPanda

Wonderopolis

Reid Keller

That's great!  What do you like to read, DoughnutPanda?

Art is great!  Thanks for sharing your thoughts, DoughnutPanda!

Wonderopolis

That's too bad, Kid.  Hang in there - summer break is coming!  We hope you keep WONDERing with us!

Wonderopolis

Nolan James

Boi di was pretty factual (DABS)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Olivia.  We know school can be frustrating at times and some content might not seem to easily connect to modern day life.  We would, however, like to share a quote with you from Confucius: "Study the past if you want to define the future."  He saw great value in understanding what had already happened and how that can impact the future.  We love your passion, Olivia and your desire to make the world a better place!  Don't lose that!  We hope you keep on WONDERing with us, too!?

Wonderopolis

yeah! that would be really helpful

Thanks for sharing, Bonnie!  Just follow the format below in our response to Georgia.  Just swap out the title, link, and date anytime you need to reference a Wonder of the Day. ?

Thanks for asking, Georgia! We ask that Wonderopolis be listed as the author. Since we do not list the publish date for our Wonders of the Day, you may put the date you accessed this page for information. The following is how you would cite this page ---> "Why Was School Created?" Wonderopolis , https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-was-school-created . Accessed 4 April. 2017.

Wonderopolis

Hejekoeiwkqkksmdmejaklskdms

So you can learn new things!  And Wonder more!  

Wonderopolis

Why does school have to be 8 hours

Not every school does it that way, but that does seem to be pretty standard for getting a "full day's work."  Hang in there, Nya!  It takes some hard work but it's worth it!

Wonderopolis

I don't like school

Clever. ?  You should explore our Wonders and find something that interests you.  Happy WONDERing!

Wonderopolis

boi school sucks 7 crapy hours of bull crap

Sorry you feel that way, Jim.  But if you keep an open mind, school can be beneficial.  Sometimes just learning how to try when you don't feel like it is a great skill that will help you in life.  Hang in there, Jim and keep WONDERing with us!

? (We are just going to slow-clap that response, Liam). 

Wonderopolis

Or "murky absolutely to haters."

Wonderopolis

Dun With life

Oh, Dun, that sounds really tough. Don't give up, though! We encourage you to talk to an adult about what's going and hopefully they can help. Your situation does sound very stressful, but by talking it out, maybe you can come up with a plan to handle the stress. So glad you are one of our Wonder Friends - don't be a stranger!

Wonderopolis

Kay-Kay Is Here

Sorry you aren't enjoying school right now, Kay-Kay! We hope it gets better for you. It can be so fun to learn new things!

Wonderopolis

The Meaning Of School

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Wonder Friend. We're sorry you aren't enjoying school right now. We hope you find ways to make the most of it while you're in school. :)

Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing your connection to this Wonder, Liila! We're really glad to be WONDERing with you! Pop quizzes aren't the most fun, but being prepared for them by keeping caught up on school work certainly helps! :)

Wonderopolis

We're really sorry you are struggling with depression right now, Nathan. We did some searching online and found a website with a list of hotlines you can call, depending on your particular situation. (Click the blue text of our comment to view the list.) We encourage you to talk with someone. Doing so will help you get the help you need to feel better!

Wonderopolis

crazy gymnast

We're sorry you are having such a hard time right now, crazy gymnast. We have sent you an email with more information to help you.

Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Ethan! The value of homework is debated by many. You can check out the benefits and drawbacks at Wonder #1385. We're glad you are WONDERing! :)

Wonderopolis

roblox player

Wonderopolis

We're sorry you feel that way, roblox player. We hope school gets better for you soon. It can be a lot of fun to learn and discover new things! :)

Wonderopolis

We're sorry you're having such a tough time at school, User. We hope it gets better for you. Thank you for WONDERing and learning here at Wonderopolis. We are glad you are here. :)

Wonderopolis

Agree on that school is dumb

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, c. We believe that parents are excellent teachers for their children. In fact, Wonderopolis was created as a way for families to WONDER and learn together. We're glad you are WONDERing and we hope you'll continue learning with us. :)

Wonderopolis

Adeja Hairston

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Adeja. It can tough waking up so early! It might help if you get to bed a little earlier. Maybe you could try it this week and see if it helps you in the morning! :)

Wonderopolis

Thank you for sharing your feedback, Emilia. We hope you'll continue WONDERing by finding how schools have impacted American society! We'd love to hear what you find out! :)

Wonderopolis

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Elena. We're so glad to hear from you! :)

Wonderopolis

We're glad you shared what you learned, Oscar! Your family and teachers want you to learn new things so that when you grow up, you can get a job, contribute to your community, and have a good life. All of those things take education -- when you have knowledge, you can be the best you! :)

It can be hard to get up for school, Titanium--especially at the beginning of the school year! If you Wonder about the things you're learning, hopefully school won't be so boring for you!

Wonderopolis

We're sorry to hear that, Dawson. We hope you tell your teacher. We hope things get better. Thanks for sharing your story. We're glad you're WONDERing with us! :)

teachers do nothing about bullying. If fact they think you are a liar if it's against a "popular" kid. I pulled my kid out of public and into online because of bullying. they never stopped it or even tried to. Instead of Fs she use to get, she gets As, Bs and Cs.

We appreciate you joining the conversation, c. We don't think it's fair to say that all teachers do nothing about bullying, because many teachers do try to help. We're sorry your child was bullied but we are happy to hear she is doing so well in school now! We hope you and your daughter will keep WONDERing with Wonderopolis! :)

Wonderopolis

Reading Class

We're glad this Wonder was helpful and informational, Wonder Friends! Keep up the GREAT enthusiasm for WONDERing and learning! :)

Wonderopolis

schoolhater

We're sorry you don't like school, Wonder Friend. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We hope you this Wonder shared reasons why school was created! :)

Wonderopolis

We're sorry to hear that, cassy. We hope this Wonder helped tell why school is important! :)

Wonderopolis

Hello, Kymani! We're sorry to hear you're not liking school. We're sure it can be tough sometimes, but keep working hard. It will pay off in the end! :)

Wonderopolis

Hi, Rayn! We're sorry to hear you don't like school. It's a great place to learn and hang out with your friends. We're glad you think it's important! :)

hey if you go to duryea or any school with cfisd there is no tag because of me i was playing then got knocked down i got a brain bleed and a conccusion and was in the hospital for over two weeks so sorry

Oh goodness, crazy gymnast! That sounds really bad. We hope you are better now!

Hello, Ryan! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about school. We're sorry to hear you don't care for your school. They're just trying to keep you safe. We hope things get better at school! :)

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We're glad you liked this Wonder, sarah! We hope your school year gets better! :)

Welcome, fie! We hope you're having fun WONDERing today! Visit again soon! :)

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Hi, tia! We're sorry you're not having fun at school. Hope the year gets better! :)

Yes I love school

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Me too because I can see my best friends everyday. I also get to see my AWESOME teacher!!!

That's AWESOME, luisa! We're THRILLED to hear you're having fun and learning at school! :)

That's GREAT to hear, kanh! It's a GREAT way to learn and hang out with friends, too! :)

We appreciate you sharing your opinion, austin! We think school is SUPER important, too! :)

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Hunterthedog

Hi, Hunter! Technology has helped us expand our learning outside the classroom, school is still important, too! :)

That's right, krisha! It's very important and a GREAT opportunity! :)

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Hi, Mia! We hope this Wonder was helpful! We encourage you to keep learning about this Wonder topic at your library and online! :)

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Hi, Wonder Friend! We're sorry to hear you're not liking school! School is a GREAT place to learn and have fun with friends! :)

landocommando

Hi, Wonder Friend! We're sorry to hear that! School has so many cool opportunities and is a GREAT place to WONDER! We hope you change your mind! :)

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Thanks for sharing your opinion, Wonder Friend! Try to think about all the good times, too! :)

billybobjones

Welcome, billybobjones! We appreciate you sharing your thoughts about the Wonder question! We're sorry you are not having fun at school! We hope it gets better! :)

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That's a GREAT question, zach! It would be cool to learn the answer! According to the National Center for Educational Statistics there are 132,656 schools just in the US in 2008! We hope you keep researching and let us know what you find out! :)

Hi, zach! We're sorry to hear you don't like school. We hope things get better because school can be lots of fun! :)

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Ishaan Shetty

Hi, Ishaan! We hope this Wonder helped you answer why school is important. Thanks for WONDERing with us! :)

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Trinity Goebel

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Trinity! School is GREAT for so many reasons. We hope you start to like it better! We appreciate you stopping by Wonderopolis! :)

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Thanks for sharing your opinion, Angel! We're glad you're WONDERing with us! :)

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Hi, Celia! Thanks for taking time to stop by Wonderopolis! We know exams can be stressful, but try to stay positive. Math is a necessity for so many things. Check out Wonder #9: How Can Math Help You Cook? and Wonder #1534: Why Do I Need To Learn Algebra? . We hope your week gets better! :)

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Thanks for sharing your opinion, Vadim! We're glad you are part of our Wonder Community! :)

try your best

Great advice, bob! Thanks for being a supportive Wonder Friend! :)

We're sorry to hear that! Exams can be stressful sometimes, but they will be over before you know. Try to stay positive and always keep WONDERing! :)

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Welcome, Alex! We hope this Wonder was helpful and you learned some information you can include in your essay. You can also continue researching the history of school at your library and online. Don't forget to cite your sources you use. The official Wonderopolis Permissions Policy states: Wonderopolis materials may be cited or excerpted in periodicals, books, and educational materials under the following stipulations: 1. A URL of the material referenced is provided so that readers may access it online 2. Inclusion of the following branding information: “Wonderopolis is brought to life by the National Center for Families Learning.” Since our Wonders are sometimes updated, the proper way to cite the publishing date is to list the date you consulted our page for your research. Good luck on your essay! :)

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Welcome, AJ! We're sorry to hear you don't like school. That makes us so sad. There is so much to learn about and it's a GREAT time to spend with friends. We hope your year gets better! Thanks for visiting Wonderopolis and WONDERing with us! Have a WONDERful day! :)

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Hi, Morgan! We're sorry to hear you don't like school. School is a GREAT place for learning, WONDERing, and having fun with friends. We hope as the year continues things get better. Thanks for commenting and always keep WONDERing! :)

Great question, a! It's always important to know why we need to know what we're learning and it helps to make a real world connection. According to Khan Academy , "algebra is handy anytime you need to solve something but you don't have all the components to do it like basic math. " For example calculating sale discounts and tips at restaurants. Keep up the great thinking! :)

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We think it's pretty neat too, Dylan! We're so glad you visited Wonderopolis today and left us this great comment! :)

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Thanks for WONDERing with us, Trevon! We're really glad you shared a comment with us! Have a WONDER-filled day! :)

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We're sorry you didn't like this Wonder of the Day, J.J.! But we've got loads of other Wonders waiting for you - we bet you'll find one you like! (https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonders/) :)

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We're all smiles today too, MSF! Thanks for commenting! We hope you have a WONDER-filled day! :)

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elijah h jordan m

We love the extra WONDERing you're doing, Elijah H and Jordan M! We encourage you to embark on a Wonder journey of your own to explore your question! When you find the answer, we hope you'll come back and share it with us! :)

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Amelia L. and Torrance H.

We're so glad you came to Wonderopolis today, Amelia L. and Torrance H.! For a while, girls did not attend school because it was customary for women to take care of the household instead of working outside the home like men did. We're sure glad schools eventually opened to girls as well! Like the creators of today's video, some people feel a longer school day would give students more time to master important skills and expand their knowledge. Thanks for WONDERing with us, you two! :)

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Thanks for sharing your opinion, Jaclyn S! Sometimes the school day can seem pretty long, but there's just so much to learn! Have a WONDERful day! :)

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Macey &amp; Carson

Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis and commenting, Macey and Carson! We can't wait to see what the future holds for school! We bet it includes LOTS of WONDERing! We want to know what you think! :)

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Emmaleigh S.

What an interesting question, Emmaleigh S.! We're not sure what will replace computers in the future, but we're excited to find out! What do you think? :)

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That's right, Zech! One-room schoolhouses were common in rural areas of the U.S., where populations of people were smaller. :)

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What a great question, Gabe M! Humans from very long ago were curious about the world around them, just like we are today! They WONDERed how things work and how to make things better and all that WONDERing helped them to learn new things! :)

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Hi there, Nikita R.! Thanks for asking for a bit more clarification! Education is SO important to every part of our lives - whether you're reading a prescription label, selecting food at the grocery store or following a recipe for a tasty meal, just think about all the times you or your parents have needed to read something! We don't just need to read and write in our day-to-day lives, but also for our jobs. Eventually, you'll grow up and need to get a job to help pay for your food, home, clothes and more. School is a way to teach you the skills you'll need to be good at your job. School not only teaches us reading, writing and math, but also MANY more skills that will help us be successful in life! :)

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Abi and Emma

Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis, Abi and Emma! We're not sure how long school days would be if they were lengthened. This is a hot debate! Some people propose one hour extra and some propose up to 3 extra hours! Still others suggest not lengthening the school day, but increasing the number of days students attend school throughout the year. What do you think sounds best? We hope books will be around for a very long time! We just love curling up with a good book! Don't you? :)

I want longer days because then we would have a longer summer!

That's true, Hunter! Thanks for joining the discussion and sharing your opinion! :)

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Thanks so much, Kaedyn B! We're so glad you paid a visit to Wonderopolis today and left a comment! :)

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I HATE school is hard and the teachers wont help me in anything they worry about other less and more of me so i cant never have freedom cause they always in my back staed of others

Welcome, WONDER Friend! We're so sorry to hear you don't like school. Thanks for sharing your story. We encourage you to talk to an adult at your school about your concerns. We hope the year gets better! Always keep WONDERing! :)

Hello, jack! We are sorry to hear you don't like school. School is a great place for WONDERing! We hope you'll keep an open mind and hopefully it will get better! :)

Hello there, Landon A. and Lance H.! They focused on reading, writing and math because those were the skills needed for the jobs available back then. But when you think about it, a lot of what we learn in school still revolves around these basics even today! :)

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Hi, Daija G.! One-room schoolhouses were used in rural (country) areas, where the population of residents was quite low. Children would have been a variety of ages and there might not have been enough students to fill just one grade, so all the children would gather together and a teacher would teach the basics of reading, writing and math to them. Often older children would be helpers for the teacher and help younger children understand the lessons. Do you like helping your teacher now? If you lived back then, do you think you'd want to help younger kids learn? :)

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Dani K and Genevieve V

We love that you're WONDERing, Dani K and Genevieve V! A couple hundred years ago, the subjects of reading, writing and math taught the skills needed for the jobs that people had back then. But as science and other newer fields have advanced, schools have broadened the range of subjects that are taught in order to prepare us for new kinds of jobs. At first, schools were for boys only because it was normal for only men went to work outside of the home and for women to take care of the household (doing things like raising their children, cooking, and cleaning). At one time, it was thought that girls didn't need the skills of writing and math. We're really glad that thinking changed, and that now our schools are for boys and girls! Aren't you? :)

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Claire Washburn

I don't know, but if a teacher sees this, were in trouble!

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School troughs away our play time =( =(

Hi, kaitlyn! We hope you're having fun in school, too! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)

Heehee, Claire! We bet your teacher is glad school was created, so that he or she gets to do what they love -- help you learn! :D

Thanks for WONDERing with us today, Brody H! When Horace Mann became Massachusetts' Secretary of Education in 1837, schools in the U.S. had already been established for about 200 years, so the idea of going to school was not a new concept for him. He worked to make schools more organized and improve public education. :)

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Im at school right now and I am bored out of my mind

We're sorry to hear that! School is a GREAT chance to learn new things and hang out with friends! Keep trying your best and we hope it gets better! :)

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Question 1 of 3

Who is considered the Father of the Common School Movement?

  • a Thomas Jefferson Not Quite!
  • b George Washington Not Quite!
  • c Roger School Not Quite!
  • d Horace Mann Correct!

Question 2 of 3

<p class=\"FreeForm\">Which of the following is NOT a subject that was a focus of the earliest schools?</p>

  • a reading Not Quite!
  • b writing Not Quite!
  • c mathematics Not Quite!
  • d psychology Correct!

Question 3 of 3

<p class=\"FreeForm\">By what year were all students in the United States required to complete elementary school?</p>

  • a 1800 Not Quite!
  • b 1861 Not Quite!
  • c 1642 Not Quite!
  • d 1918 Correct!

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Origin and Death of Inventor of Homework: Roberto Nevilis

Roberto Nevilis

Roberto Nevilis is known for creating homework to help students learn on their own. He was a teacher who introduced the idea of giving assignments to be done outside of class. Even though there’s some debate about his exact role, Nevilis has left a lasting impact on education, shaping the way students around the world approach their studies.

Homework is a staple of the modern education system, but few people know the story of its origin.

The inventor of homework is widely considered to be Roberto Nevilis, an Italian educator who lived in the early 20th century.

We will briefly explore Nevilis’ life, how he came up with the concept of homework, and the circumstances surrounding his death.

Roberto Nevilis: The Man Behind Homework Roberto Nevilis was born in Venice, Italy, in 1879. He was the son of a wealthy merchant and received a private education.

He later studied at the University of Venice, where he received a degree in education. After graduation, Nevilis worked as a teacher in various schools in Venice.

Table of Contents

How Homework Was Born

The Birth of Homework According to historical records, Nevilis was frustrated with the lack of discipline in his classroom. He found that students were often too focused on playing and not enough on learning.

To solve this problem , he came up with the concept of homework. Nevilis assigned his students homework to reinforce the lessons they learned in class and encourage them to take their education more seriously.

How did homework become popular?

The Spread of Homework , The idea of homework quickly caught on, and soon other teachers in Italy followed Nevilis’ lead. From Italy, the practice of assigning homework spread to other European countries and, eventually, the rest of the world.

Today, homework is a standard part of the education system in almost every country, and millions of students worldwide spend countless hours each week working on homework assignments.

How did Roberto Nevilis Die?

Death of Roberto Nevilis The exact circumstances surrounding Nevilis’ death are unknown. Some reports suggest that he died in an accident, while others claim he was murdered.

However, the lack of concrete evidence has led to numerous theories and speculation about what happened to the inventor of homework.

Despite the mystery surrounding his death, Nevilis’ legacy lives on through his impact on education.

Facts about Roberto Nevilis

  • He is credited with inventing homework to punish his students who misbehaved in class.
  • Some accounts suggest he was a strict teacher who believed in disciplining his students with homework.
  • There is little concrete evidence to support the claim that Nevilis was the true inventor of homework.
  • Some historians believe that the concept of homework has been around for much longer than in the 1900s.
  • Despite the lack of evidence, Roberto Nevilis remains a popular figure in the history of education and is often cited as the inventor of homework.

Conclusion – Who invented homework, and how did he die

Roberto Nevilis was a visionary educator who profoundly impacted the education system. His invention of homework has changed how students learn and has helped countless students worldwide improve their education.

Although the circumstances surrounding his death are unclear, Nevilis’ legacy as the inventor of homework will never be forgotten.

How do I make myself do my homework?

What is Roberto Nevilis’ legacy?

Roberto Nevilis’ legacy is his invention of homework, which has changed how students learn and has helped countless students worldwide improve their education.

Despite the mystery surrounding his death, Nevilis’ legacy as the inventor of homework will never be forgotten.

What was Roberto Nevilis’ background?

Roberto Nevilis was the son of a wealthy merchant and received a private education. He later studied at the University of Venice, where he received a degree in education.

After graduation, Nevilis worked as a teacher in various schools in Venice.

What was Roberto Nevilis’ impact on education?

Roberto Nevilis’ invention of homework has had a profound impact on education. By assigning homework, he helped students reinforce the lessons they learned in class and encouraged them to take their education more seriously.

This concept has spread worldwide and is now a staple of the modern education system.

Is there any evidence to support the theories about Roberto Nevilis’ death?

There is no concrete evidence to support the theories about Roberto Nevilis’ death, and the exact circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

What was Roberto nevilis age?

It is believed that he died of old age. Not much information is available on his exact age at the time of death.

Where is Roberto Nevilis’s grave

While many have tried to find out about his Grave, little is known about where he is buried. Many people are querying the internet about his Grave. But frankly, I find it weird why people want to know this.

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Who Invented School: the Who, What & Why of Our Modern Education System

origin of school homework

Crystal Bourque

origin of school homework

Have you ever stopped to consider: who invented school?

In many places around the world, school is something students take for granted. It’s a free, compulsory system that is available to everyone.

But how did we end up with the modern school systems used today? And why is school so important?

The History of School & Education

Father of the modern school system, standardized education and tests, what’s the point — why invent school, why school is important, 7 fun & quick school facts, school and kids today, the inventor of school.

Let’s begin by answering the big question: who invented school?

If you’re wondering who created school, you’ll find the answer a bit complex! Let’s start with history.

who invented school

«Plato and Aristotle». Credit: images.squarespace-cdn.com

We need to look way back to 283 BC. At this time, libraries, like the one founded in Alexandria, Egypt , focused on improving literacy. The creation of libraries offered an essential educational tool for many schools.

Later, in ancient Greece, groups of people would meet with a tutor to learn. The Greeks named these first gatherings academies. The word’s origin is credited to a philosopher named Plato, who founded his school of philosophy in 387 BC.

During the Byzantine Empire in 425 AD, Emperor Theodosius II founded a more formalized school system. As a result, he created the University of Constantinople .

This school offered a more structured learning environment than the academies of ancient Greece. Students studied law, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and more at this university.

Between 780 AD and 1260 AD, Islamic culture began focusing on education and more formal school systems, known as Islam’s ‘Golden Age.’ Political and cultural elites created schools called Madrasas to provide learning opportunities for everyone.

origin of school homework

«Bust of Horace Mann». Credit: digitalcommonwealth.org

In many circles, Horace Mann is considered the inventor of school.

In general, he’s credited as the father (or creator) of the modern school system in the United States, even though many school systems existed at the time.

Born in 1796, Horace was a lifelong scholar. He became a lawyer and librarian at Brown University. Horace also tutored Latin and Greek. In 1827 he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, where he became very involved in advancing education.

Horace believed several things about providing quality education to students:

  • First: schools needed public funding.
  • Second: schools should be free of religion (non-sectarian).
  • Third: only hire well-trained, professional teachers.

By 1837, Horace was appointed Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

In this position, he helped develop the modern school system. He based this new curriculum on his core beliefs: that any student should receive an education, no matter their background or social class.

origin of school homework

smolaw/Shutterstock.com

One result of Horace’s work is that schools across North America (and the world) attempt to offer standardized education. One way to achieve this is through standardized tests.

Standardized tests measure what students within a school or school system are taught and learn. For example, some standardized tests measure IQ (intelligence), while others like the SATs and ACTs discern whether a college should accept a student.

For many, standardized tests only prove that a student can memorize information. They don’t believe that these types of tests measure progress, nor should the scores indicate a student’s success rate.

However, others believe that standardized testing shows students areas for improvement and offers an objective way to measure education.

Either way, it looks like standardized test systems are pretty ingrained within the modern school system. For example, it took until 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic to allow states to cancel standardized testing .

So what’s the point? Why did those ancient Greeks discuss philosophy? Why did Horace Mann create a modern education system?

Since time began, human beings have needed to pass down information to survive. From generation to generation, skills like hunting, farming, cooking, and more, family units provided the necessary information children needed to survive.

However, as the global population grew, societies developed. People began to see how easy it was to have a few adults teach a bigger group of children.

It wasn’t until much later that schools focused on specific subjects like science, mathematics, literature, and creative arts.

when was school invented

ESB Professional/Shutterstock.com

Although some students might disagree, school is an important invention for many reasons.

One reason why school is so essential is that it helps children develop critical thinking skills and make good decisions.

Another reason school is important is that it introduces children to different subjects. Through these subjects, children can explore the things that interest them.

For example, when introduced to computer science, a child might want to further their studies and become a software programmer. For this reason, students take tests and exams and are given homework and essay assignments.

School is important for many other reasons too, including the fact that it:

  • Fights Gender Inequality: In many places in the world, girls get much less education than boys, which means girls are more likely to get caught up in human trafficking or violence. Getting an education and school helps girls get better jobs and increase their income.
  • Reduces Poverty: Educated children can earn better jobs. Better jobs lead to higher incomes for people in general. As a result, this reduces poverty for entire families.
  • Builds Communities: For many children, a school is a place where they can explore, play and be themselves. School is also a space where parents can feel like they’re a part of something special too.
  • Provides Opportunities: Schools offer unique opportunities to learn not only a variety of subjects but also to join extracurricular activities. For example, sports, music, or debate clubs provide scholarships and other beneficial options.
  • Builds Confidence: School helps children build confidence in their skills. When children don’t feel confident, it affects how they move through the world. As a result, many children develop anxiety, preventing them from attaining goals and moving forward.
  • Improves Socialization Skills: Children must socialize with their peers because it teaches them to listen to others, think critically, and solve problems.

When students go to elementary and high school and participate in post-secondary education, it benefits everyone on an individual and community scale. Therefore, schools benefit entire countries, which is why it’s so essential.

Did you know that there’s more to school, education, and the invention of school than meets the eye?

Here are seven exciting and fun, quick facts about school.

  • During the Han Dynasty, officials used standardized tests to determine which citizens could become government members.
  • The Aztecs made school compulsory in the 1400s.
  • Mann visited Europe to learn more about their school system and how they taught children. He also created a Common School Journal (1838). Both helped to form a more standardized teaching system.
  • Harry P. School is a man also credited with the invention of school. In 1369, Harry gathered up misbehaving children and locked them in a room! Other adults didn’t seem to mind, so it’s often believed that the modern idea of teaching children in a single room came from this incident.
  • Developed in 1914-1915, by school director Frederick J. Kelly, The Kansas Silent Reading Test is the first known multiple choice test.
  • Education in Denmark doesn’t stop after post-secondary education. One out of three adults between 25-64 is involved in a continuing education course.
  • The oldest school in the world is in Chengdu, China. Shishi High School was formed in 194 AD and became a modern school in 1902.

who made school

Akkalak Aiempradit/Shutterstock.com

While it’s difficult to credit one person, or even one society with the invention of school, it’s interesting to note just how long we’ve used education to pass on crucial information.

Better still, despite how people might feel about standardized education or tests, there’s no doubt that school systems benefit children all over the world in many ways.

Excited about school, education or learning? Get involved! Tell us what you think about the history of school, who invented school, or why you think school is important. See you in the comments.

The picture on the front page: ESB Professional/Shutterstock.com

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Who Invented School Homework? Exploring the History and Impact of This Educational Tool

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By Happy Sharer

origin of school homework

Introduction

School homework is an educational tool used in classrooms around the world. It is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers outside of class time, generally for the purpose of reinforcing or expanding lesson material. The invention of school homework has had a lasting effect on the way we learn, but who was responsible for its creation? In this article, we explore the history of school homework and uncover the person behind its invention.

A Historical Look at Who Invented School Homework

The first recorded instance of school homework dates back to 1095 in China. According to historical records, Emperor Shenzong of Song issued a decree that stated: “Children are to be given several hours of work each day and they will be examined on their progress.” Since then, school homework has become a regular part of the educational system in many countries. But who was responsible for its invention?

Examining the Origin of School Homework

Examining the Origin of School Homework

In order to fully understand who invented school homework, it is important to examine how it was developed. The modern concept of school homework is largely credited to Italian educator Roberto Nevilis. In 1904, he created a system of assigning students tasks outside of class time as punishment for not completing in-class assignments. His goal was to encourage students to take their studies more seriously and be more productive with their time.

Nevilis’ system of school homework quickly spread throughout Europe and eventually made its way to the United States. By the 1920s, school homework had become a regular part of the educational system in many countries. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s that school homework became widely accepted and adopted in classrooms around the world.

The Person Behind the Invention of School Homework

The Person Behind the Invention of School Homework

As we have seen, the invention of school homework can be attributed to Italian educator Roberto Nevilis. But what motivated him to create such a system? According to his own writings, Nevilis believed that school homework would help students develop better study habits and increase their understanding of the material. He was also a firm believer in the idea that students should be held accountable for their own learning and that school homework was a means of achieving this.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of School Homework, Through the Lens of Its Inventor

Even though Nevilis was a strong advocate for school homework, he was also cognizant of its potential drawbacks. In his writings, he noted that too much homework could lead to student burnout and decreased motivation. He also recognized that some students may find it difficult to complete their homework due to other commitments such as family obligations or extracurricular activities.

Despite these drawbacks, Nevilis still saw the benefits of school homework. He believed that it could help foster independent learning and teach students how to manage their own time. He also thought that school homework could reinforce and expand upon the material taught in the classroom, thereby helping students to gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Exploring the Impact of School Homework on Education

Since its invention, school homework has had a major impact on the way we learn. It has helped to foster independent learning and encourages students to take ownership of their own education. It also provides an opportunity for students to practice and reinforce the material they have been taught in the classroom. As a result, school homework has become an integral part of the educational system in many countries.

However, school homework has also presented challenges. Some students may find it difficult to complete their homework due to other commitments or lack of resources. Additionally, too much school homework can lead to student burnout and decreased motivation. Therefore, it is important for educators to strike a balance between assigning enough homework to challenge and engage students, while also taking into account their individual needs and circumstances.

Uncovering the Story of the Creator of School Homework

Uncovering the Story of the Creator of School Homework

Roberto Nevilis was the creator of school homework, but who was he and what is his story? Nevilis was born in Italy in 1875 and studied law at the University of Padua. After graduating, he began teaching at a local school and quickly became known for his innovative teaching methods. In 1904, he created a system of assigning students tasks outside of class time as punishment for not completing in-class assignments. This system would later become the modern concept of school homework.

Today, Nevilis’ invention of school homework has had a lasting impact on the way we learn. It has helped to foster independent learning and encourages students to take ownership of their own education. It has also provided an opportunity for students to practice and reinforce the material they have been taught in the classroom. Without Nevilis, school homework may have never become such an integral part of the educational system.

In conclusion, Italian educator Roberto Nevilis was the creator of school homework. He believed that school homework could help foster independent learning and teach students how to manage their own time. Despite this, he was also aware of the potential drawbacks of school homework and recognized that too much homework could lead to student burnout and decreased motivation. Today, school homework has become an integral part of the educational system in many countries and has had a major impact on the way we learn.

(Note: Is this article not meeting your expectations? Do you have knowledge or insights to share? Unlock new opportunities and expand your reach by joining our authors team. Click Registration to join us and share your expertise with our readers.)

Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. I have a passion for learning and enjoy explaining complex concepts in a simple way.

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Richardson ISD to close five schools, consolidate campuses due to declines in enrollment, funding

Project rightsize aims to address declining enrollment, and decreased state funding by closing campuses and consolidating schools, by ben russell • published february 23, 2024 • updated on february 23, 2024 at 12:52 pm.

The Richardson Independent School District plans to close four elementary schools and a Pre-K campus as part of its “Project RightSize” plan to respond to declining enrollment and lack of state funding.

The district said four elementary schools – Greenwood Hills, Springridge, Spring Valley, and Thurgood Marshall – will be consolidated into other elementary schools in the district starting in the 2024-2025 school year. The newly proposed attendance zones can be found here .

The Dobie Pre-Kindergarten campus will be closed completely beginning in 2025-2026.

Project RightSize is the result of months of planning, according to Superintendent Dr. Tabitha Branum.

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“When I think about the role of a superintendent and the things that weigh on your heart, and on your mind, tonight‘s conversation is probably one of the hardest conversations that I’ve had to lead to this point, and may in a long time, in my career,” Branum said at the outset of the announcement Thursday.

Two main factors brought this major change about – declining enrollment and a lack of funding from Texas legislators.

On any given day, there are more than 9,000 empty seats in Richardson ISD classrooms, according to figures released by the district. The elementary schools in question are each at less than 60% capacity.

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Project RightSize “would reduce operating expenditures by an estimated $10.8 million per year,” according to a Richardson ISD news release.

Starting next week, the school district will host informational meetings for parents of kids impacted by the changes:

Elementary school impact in Pearce Learning Community

Feb. 26, Pearce High School Commons Area – 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Elementary school impact in Berkner Learning Community

Feb. 27, Berkner High School Auditorium – 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Elementary school impact in Richardson Learning Community

Feb. 28, Richardson High School Auditorium – 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Elementary school impact in Lake Highlands Learning Community

March 4, Lake Highlands High School H Building Auditorium – 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Dobie Pre-Kindergarten School Impact

March 5, RISD Academy – 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

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origin of school homework

⚾️ No. 3 LSU, No. 10 Clemson fall

😱 No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Tennessee softball shocked

🥎 Mary Nutter Classic scores

🏃‍♀️ SEC indoor track & field champ winners

Stan Becton | NCAA.com | February 23, 2024

2024 sec indoor track and field championships: schedule, selections, how to watch.

origin of school homework

Here's a quick guide to the 2024 SEC indoor track and field championships, including the schedule of events, TV information and more.

When and where are the 2024 SEC indoor track and field championships?

The 2024 SEC men's and women's indoor track and field championships head to Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the Randal Tyson Track Center from Friday, Feb. 23 to Saturday, Feb. 24.

It marks the first time Arkansas has hosted the SEC championships since 2021. It'll be the 68th SEC men's indoor track and field championships, and the 41st SEC women's indoor track and field championships overall.

How to watch the 2024 SEC DI indoor track and field championships

The 2024 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships will air on SEC Network+. Click or tap here to watch  or click any of the times below.

SECN+ Broadcast Times

  • Friday, Feb. 23 - 2:30 p.m. ET
  • Friday, Feb. 23 - 5 p.m. ET
  • Saturday, Feb. 24 - 3 p.m. ET
  • Saturday, Feb. 24 - 5 p.m. ET

You can purchase tickets to the 2024 SEC championships here.

The schedule of events for SEC indoor championships

The 2024 SEC indoor Track & Field Championships schedule of events will be across two days from Friday, Feb. 23 to Saturday, Feb. 24. Click or tap here to view the schedule.   (All times Central)

SEC indoor schedule

Results from the 2024 SEC indoor championships

Click or tap here to follow along for all live results from the 2024 SEC indoor track and field championships. Throughout the meet, we'll add videos from some of the top performances to this article.

Friday finals

  • Women's pole vault — Winner: Heather Abadie | Texas A&M
  • Women's weight throw — Winner: Jalani Davis | Ole Miss
  • Men's pole vault — Winner: Keaton Daniel | Kentucky
  • Women's long jump — Winner: Claire Bryant | Florida
  • Men's long jump — Winner: TBD
  • Men's weight throw — Winner: TBD
  • Women's Pentathlon — Winner: Charity Hufnagel | Kentucky
  • Women's 5000m — Winner: Sydney Thorvalson | Arkansas
  • Men's 5000m — Winner: TBD
  • Women's DMR — Winner: TBD
  • Men's DMR — Winner: TBD
Davis' 25.09m/82' 3.75" from the 2nd round ⬇️👀 Tale of the tape... • No. 3 thrower in collegiate history • 5th-best throw ever by a collegian • 3rd collegian ever at 25m+ • 7th 25m throw in collegiate history #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/P8DdrQnqcV — Ole Miss Track&Field (@OleMissTrack) February 24, 2024

Friday prelims

the reigning champ advances with ease 😤 Jacious Sears leads the SEC field with a time of 7.12 in the 60-meter prelims. #GBO 📲 https://t.co/gIaaR74zDX pic.twitter.com/6kkZqYKrS3 — Tennessee Track & Field (@Vol_Track) February 23, 2024
The freshman moves on! @Nyck1k runs 6.67 and finishes second in the heat, advancing on time to tomorrow's 60m finale 🤙 #onecockymind #cockyandconfident pic.twitter.com/trZrTmayqn — Gamecock Track & XC (@GamecockTrack) February 23, 2024
2024 SEC Indoor 50.86 section winner for Amber Anning in 400m prelims pic.twitter.com/1gnBCqqDhS — Arkansas Track & Field (@RazorbackTF) February 23, 2024
He was FLYING 😤 Jevaughn Powell finishes as the TOP qualifier in the Men's 400m Prelims with a PR of 45.35! #GoGators 🐊 | 📺 SECN+ pic.twitter.com/DPwkOw0QrQ — Gators Track and Field & Cross Country (@GatorsTF) February 24, 2024

SEC indoor track and field history

Here are the past SEC indoor track and field team champions. Click any of the below links for recent results.

SEC schools with the most indoor titles

Complete sec indoor championship history.

origin of school homework

The top contenders and dark horses for the 2024 men's indoor track and field title after the regular season

origin of school homework

The top 8 indoor track and field freshmen performances from the regular season

origin of school homework

A conference-by-conference look through a chaotic college basketball weekend

origin of school homework

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Chicago school board votes to remove uniformed police officers from schools.

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The Chicago Board of Education voted on Thursday to end its contract with Chicago police and remove uniformed officers from the city’s schools.

The vote came at the end of a nearly eight-hour school board meeting in which teachers, students and elected city officials spoke.

The battle on whether to keep the uniformed police officers in the 39 city schools where they continue to patrol, out of 634 schools, has been going on since police were assigned to protect the schools in 1991.

Some students told school board members that police in the schools scare them.

Supporters of removing police from schools said the officers targeted minorities and did not make schools safer.

Instead, the same supporters suggested the money spent on police patrols could be better spent.

Many supporters of removing police from schools said the officers targeted minorities, while also citing they felt unsafe in the presence of officers on school grounds.

Opponents of removing police from schools claim the officers made the schools safer, telling board members it should be up to the individual schools to decide whether to have uniformed police on the premises.

FOX 32 in Chicago reported that when the board cast their votes, it was in favor of a new “Whole School Safety Policy,” which eliminates the use of school resource officers.

The official plan will be presented to board members for final approval over the summer, and if approved, it goes into effect next school year.

Supporters suggested the money spent on police patrols could be better spent elsewhere.

“We want to be clear that many schools will still employ physical safety personnel like security guards at points of entry, and crossing guards and Safe Passage workers to ensure students can get to and from school safely,” the board said in the letter obtained by the station. “Some schools will also continue to use physical security tools such as security cameras or metal detectors. Furthermore, each school will still maintain a relationship with their local Chicago Police Department ‘School Sergeant,’ a position assigned to each police district to provide safety support to schools.”

The board also reportedly said in the letter the funding used for uniformed officers in schools will be reallocated for “alternative safety positions, resources, and interventions,” like restorative justice coordinators, youth intervention specialists, wrap-around supports and mentoring programs, and more.

Earlier in January, the Chicago Board of Education was reportedly seeking to strip Local School Councils, organizations made up of parents, teachers, and students, of their power to choose whether to have SROs at their schools.

The vote to remove uniformed police from schools came at the end of a nearly eight-hour school board meeting.

After taking the decision away from local councils, the board will remove all officers from school grounds, according to local outlet WBEZ. 

Alderman Nicholas Sposato had reportedly already been told that CPS would not opt out of renewing its contract with the Chicago Police Department.

The Illinois Policy Institute, a think tank that tracks policy decisions in the state, said, “Local School Councils already have the power to remove officers, but district leaders are taking away that local control.”

Supporters showing signs in protest of banning uniformed police on school grounds are shown.

The Chicago Teachers Union, (CTU) advocated for police officers to be removed from schools in 2020, amid the George Floyd protests. 

“These students along with the parents, teachers and staff that support them have looked at the data, experienced the brutality and are calling for police-free schools,” the CTU said in a statement in June 2020.

Some schools opted to remove officers from their premises in 2020.

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William Taft Howard High School was among the few that voted to keep them.

William Howard Taft High School is one of 151 high schools in CPS and serves over 4,000 students. CPS presides over 646 schools and 300,000 students.

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Many supporters of removing police from schools said the officers targeted minorities, while also citing they felt unsafe in the presence of officers on school grounds.

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IMAGES

  1. The History Of Homework: How It All Started And When?

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  2. Who Invented School Homework? Exploring the History and Impact of This

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  3. Who Invented Homework and Why is It Important to Students

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  4. Who Invented Homework? The History of a School Staple

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  5. Who invented homework and why homework was invented?

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  6. The Origin of Homework

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VIDEO

  1. Origin to how the school map wasn’t added

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COMMENTS

  1. Who Invented Homework and Why Was It Invented?

    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.

  2. Who Invented Homework? The History of a School Staple

    Horace Mann The 19th-century politician and educational reformer Horace Mann played a large role in the history of homework. Mann, like his contemporaries Henry Barnard and Calvin Ellis Stowe,...

  3. The Surprising History of Homework Reform

    In 1937, Carleton Washburne, an influential educator who was the superintendent of the Winnetka, Illinois, schools, proposed a homework regimen of "cooking and sewing…meal planning…budgeting, home repairs, interior decorating, and family relationships."

  4. Who Invented Homework ️ Why & When Was it Invented? History and Facts

    We can trace the term 'homework' back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger (61—112 CE), an oratory teacher, often told his students to practice their public speaking outside class. Pliny believed that the repetition and practice of speech would help students gain confidence in their speaking abilities. Johann Gottlieb Fichte Credit: inlibris.com

  5. Who Invented School Homework? [When, Where & How]

    The very first homework assignment can be traced all the way back to 1905 when an Italian teacher named Roberto Nevilis first invented the idea. He wanted his students to get used to thinking for themselves, so he gave them assignments that would require them to look up information and use it in their work.

  6. Homework

    Homework research dates back to the early 1900s. However, no consensus exists on the general effectiveness on homework. [4] Results of homework studies vary based on multiple factors, such as the age group of those studied and the measure of academic performance. [5]

  7. The Homework Dilemma: Who Invented Homework?

    Ancient Greece Timeline WW2 Timeline and Dates The inventor of homework may be unknown, but its evolution reflects contributions from educators, philosophers, and students. Homework reinforces learning, fosters discipline, and prepares students for the future, spanning from ancient civilizations to modern education.

  8. Who Invented Homework?

    Horace Mann Horace Mann, a 19th-century politician and educational reformer, was a pivotal figure in the development of homework. Mann, like his contemporaries Henry Barnard and Calvin Ellis Stowe, was passionate about the newly unified nation-state of Germany's obligatory public education system.

  9. Homework in America

    Drawing on the theories of his fellow educational progressive, psychologist G. Stanley Hall (who has since been largely discredited), Bok argued that study at home interfered with children's...

  10. Homework

    U.S. History Homework Homework views 1,603,581 updated May 23 2018 Homework Homework is not only a routine aspect of schoolchildren's lives, but also the key daily interaction between school and family.

  11. History of Homework

    HISTORY OF HOMEWORK. Dec 19, 1999. Mid-19th century: Most students leave school after sixth grade. High school homework is demanding but uncontroversial. 1900-1913: Ladies' Home Journal takes up a ...

  12. Who Invented Homework and Why

    It is commonly believed that Roberto Nevelis from Venice, Italy, is the originator of homework. Depending on various sources, this invention is dated either in the year 1095 or 1905. ‍ It might be impossible to answer when was homework invented. A simpler question to ask is 'what exactly is homework?'. ‍

  13. Does Homework Work?

    In other words, many parents' own history with homework might lead them to expect the same for their children, and anything less is often taken as an indicator that a school or a teacher isn't ...

  14. Who Invented Homework?

    Homework's origin takes us to Ancient Greece. Students went to the teacher to get new knowledge. Philosophers sought to invent a form of homework aimed to help understand the world and the nature of things, so the tasks were exclusively theoretical.

  15. Homework Pros and Cons

    Patrick A. Coleman, "Elementary School Homework Probably Isn't Good for Kids," fatherly.com, Feb. 8, 2018: 43. Valerie Strauss, "Why This Superintendent Is Banning Homework - and Asking Kids to Read Instead," washingtonpost.com, July 17, 2017 ... History, "Why Homework Was Banned," history.com (accessed Feb. 24, 2022) 47 ...

  16. Who Created Homework?

    The origin of homework is a nuanced topic, and attributing its creation to a single individual is challenging. Nevertheless, the roots of this practice can be traced back to influential educational figures who recognized the value of extending learning beyond the classroom walls.

  17. History of Homework

    This anti-homework movement reached its peak in the 1930s, with a Society for the Abolition of Homework being formed in order to prevent schools from giving students homework, with numerous school districts following their lead. Even in those schools where homework was not abolished, very few homework assignments were given.

  18. History of education

    The history of education extends at least as far back as the first written records recovered from ancient civilizations. Historical studies have included virtually every nation. ... devoted enormous time to school homework. These ideas rapidly disseminated through all social classes. After 1870 school textbooks based on Confucianism were ...

  19. The History Of Homework: How It All Started And When?

    History Of Homework: The Origins 1. Pliny The Younger: 2. Roberto Nevilis Of Venice: 3. Horace Mann: My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man The Anti-Homework Wave Homework: A Form Of Child Labor 1. Homework In The Progressive Early & Mid 20th Century 2. The Cold War & Homework 3. Homework As A National Risk 4.

  20. History of education in the United States

    In 1821, Boston started the first public high school in the United States. By the close of the 19th century, public secondary schools began to outnumber private ones. [81] [82] Over the years, Americans have been influenced by a number of European reformers; among them Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Montessori.

  21. Why Was School Created?

    In the United States, the first schools began in the 13 original colonies in the 17 th century. For example, Boston Latin School, which was founded in 1635, was the first public school and the oldest existing school in the country. The earliest schools focused on reading, writing, and mathematics. The New England colonies led the way in ...

  22. Who Invented School?

    Also, see Who Invented Homework? to learn more. The Origin of School. Before our modern education system was conceived, ancient civilizations had already recognized the importance of education and had their own means of instructing and learning. The early forms of schooling in ancient civilizations show diverse approaches to instruction and ...

  23. Origin and Death of Inventor of Homework: Roberto Nevilis

    The inventor of homework is widely considered to be Roberto Nevilis, an Italian educator who lived in the early 20th century. We will briefly explore Nevilis' life, how he came up with the concept of homework, and the circumstances surrounding his death. Roberto Nevilis: The Man Behind Homework Roberto Nevilis was born in Venice, Italy, in 1879.

  24. Who Invented School ️ When & Why Was School Invented

    In many circles, Horace Mann is considered the inventor of school. In general, he's credited as the father (or creator) of the modern school system in the United States, even though many school systems existed at the time. Born in 1796, Horace was a lifelong scholar. He became a lawyer and librarian at Brown University.

  25. Who Invented School Homework? Exploring the History and Impact ...

    Examining the Origin of School Homework. In order to fully understand who invented school homework, it is important to examine how it was developed. The modern concept of school homework is largely credited to Italian educator Roberto Nevilis. In 1904, he created a system of assigning students tasks outside of class time as punishment for not ...

  26. Black History Month, Part 3: A quick word with LaTrice Underwood

    "My school would host a huge Black History Program where all the students would learn history. We would dress up in our African garments, learn cultural dances, perform as our favorite historians, and put on a major production for the school and community. It would always bring me so much joy and honor because I felt like I was a part of the ...

  27. Richardson ISD to close five schools starting next school year

    The Richardson Independent School District plans to close four elementary schools starting next year and a Pre-K campus starting the following school year as part of its "Project RightSize ...

  28. 2024 SEC indoor track and field championships: Schedule, selections

    SEC schools with the most indoor titles. Total. Total Titles Schools; 38: Arkansas: 24: ... SEC men's indoor track and field championship history; SCHOOL YEAR TEAM; 1956-57: LSU: 1957-58: Alabama ...

  29. Chicago school board votes to remove uniformed police officers from schools

    The Chicago Board of Education voted on Thursday to end its contract with Chicago police and remove uniformed officers from the city's schools. The vote came at the end of a nearly eight-hour ...