why homework was made

Who Invented Homework and Why

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.

All you need to do is click the “ do my assignment ” button and send us a request. Need instant professional help? You know where to go now.

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.

Speaking of, don't forget that Studyfy can help you with your homework, whether it's Python homework help or another topic. Don't wait too long to take advantage of expert help when you can do it now. 

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 Big Question: Who Invented Homework?

Crystal Bourque

Love it or hate it, homework is part of student life.

But what’s the purpose of completing these tasks and assignments? And who would create an education system that makes students complete work outside the classroom?

This post contains everything you’ve ever wanted to know about homework. So keep reading! You’ll discover the answer to the big question: who invented homework?

The Inventor of Homework

The myth of roberto nevilis: who is he, the origins of homework, a history of homework in the united states, 5 facts about homework, types of homework.

• What’s the Purpose of Homework? 
• Homework Pros
• Homework Cons

When, How, and Why was Homework Invented?

Daniel Jedzura/Shutterstock.com

To ensure we cover the basics (and more), let’s explore when, how, and why was homework invented.

As a bonus, we’ll also cover who invented homework. So get ready because the answer might surprise you!

It’s challenging to pinpoint the exact person responsible for the invention of homework.

For example, Medieval Monks would work on memorization and practice singing. Ancient philosophers would read and develop their teachings outside the classroom. While this might not sound like homework in the traditional form we know today, one could argue that these methods helped to form the basic structure and format.

So let’s turn to recorded history to try and identify who invented homework and when homework was invented.

Pliny the Younger

Credit: laphamsquarterly.org

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

Before the idea of homework came to the United States, Germany’s newly formed nation-state had been giving students homework for years.

It wasn’t until German Philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762—1814) helped to develop the Volksschulen (People’s Schools) that homework became mandatory.

Fichte believed that the state needed to hold power over individuals to create a unified Germany. A way to assert control over people meant that students attending the Volksshulen were required to complete assignments at home on their own time.

As a result, some people credit Fichte for being the inventor of homework.

Horace Mann

Credit: commons.wikimedia.org

The idea of homework spread across Europe throughout the 19th century.

So who created homework in the United States?

Horace Mann (1796—1859), an American educational reformer, spent some time in Prussia. There, he learned more about Germany’s Volksshulen and homework practices.

Mann liked what he saw and brought this system back to America. As a result, homework rapidly became a common factor in students’ lives across the country.

Credit: medium.com

If you’ve ever felt curious about who invented homework, a quick online search might direct you to a man named Roberto Nevilis, a teacher in Venice, Italy.

As the story goes, Nevilis invented homework in 1905 (or 1095) to punish students who didn’t demonstrate a good understanding of the lessons taught during class.

This teaching technique supposedly spread to the rest of Europe before reaching North America.

Unfortunately, there’s little truth to this story. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that these online sources lack credible sources to back up this myth as fact.

In 1905, the Roman Empire turned its attention to the First Crusade. No one had time to spare on formalizing education, and classrooms didn’t even exist. So how could Nevilis spread the idea of homework when education remained so informal?

And when you jump to 1901, you’ll discover that the government of California passed a law banning homework for children under fifteen. Nevilis couldn’t have invented homework in 1905 if this law had already reached the United States in 1901.

Inside Creative House/Shutterstock.com

When it comes to the origins of homework, looking at the past shows us that there isn’t one person who created homework. Instead, examining the facts shows us that several people helped to bring the idea of homework into Europe and then the United States.

In addition, the idea of homework extends beyond what historians have discovered. After all, the concept of learning the necessary skills human beings need to survive has existed since the dawn of man.

More than 100 years have come and gone since Horace Mann introduced homework to the school system in the United States.

Therefore, it’s not strange to think that the concept of homework has changed, along with our people and culture.

In short, homework hasn’t always been considered acceptable. Let’s dive into the history or background of homework to learn why.

Homework is Banned! (The 1900s)

Important publications of the time, including the Ladies’ Home Journal and The New York Times, published articles on the negative impacts homework had on American children’s health and well-being.

As a result, California banned homework for children under fifteen in 1901. This law, however, changed again about a decade later (1917).

Children Needed at Home (The 1930s)

Formed in 1923, The American Child Health Association (ACHA) aimed to decrease the infant mortality rate and better support the health and development of the American child.

By the 1930s, ACHA deemed homework a form of child labor. Since the government recently passed laws against child labor , it became difficult to justify homework assignments.

Studio Romantic/Shutterstock.com

A Shift in Ideas (The 1940s—1950s)

During the early to mid-1900s, the United States entered the Progressive Era. As a result, the country reformed its education system to help improve students’ learning.

Homework became a part of everyday life again. However, this time, the reformed curriculum required teachers to make the assignments more personal.

As a result, students would write essays on summer vacations and winter breaks, participate in ‘show and tell,’ and more.

These types of assignments still exist today!

Homework Today (The 2000s)

In 2022, the controversial nature of homework is once again a hot topic of discussion in many classrooms.

According to one study , more than 60% of college and high school students deal with mental health issues like depression and anxiety due to homework. In addition, the large number of assignments given to students takes away the time students spend on other interests and hobbies. Homework also negatively impacts sleep.

As a result, some schools have implemented a ban or limit on the amount of homework assigned to students.

Test your knowledge and check out these other facts about homework:

• Horace Mann is also known as the ‘father’ of the modern school system (read more about it here ).
• With a bit of practice, homework can improve oratory and writing skills. Both are important in a student’s life at all stages.
• Homework can replace studying. Completing regular assignments reduces the time needed to prepare for tests.
• Homework is here to stay. It doesn’t look like teachers will stop assigning homework any time soon. However, the type and quantity of homework given seems to be shifting to accommodate the modern student’s needs.
• The optimal length of time students should spend on homework is one to two hours. Students who spent one to two hours on homework per day scored higher test results.

Ground Picture/Shutterstock.com

The U.S. Department of Education provides teachers with plenty of information and resources to help students with homework.

In general, teachers give students homework that requires them to employ four strategies. The four types of homework types include:

• Practice: To help students master a specific skill, teachers will assign homework that requires them to repeat the particular skill. For example, students must solve a series of math problems.
• Preparation: This type of homework introduces students to the material they will learn in the future. An example of preparatory homework is assigning students a chapter to read before discussing the contents in class the next day.
• Extension: When a teacher wants to get students to apply what they’ve learned but create a challenge, this type of homework is assigned. It helps to boost problem-solving skills. For example, using a textbook to find the answer to a question gets students to problem-solve differently.
• Integration: To solidify the learning experience for students, teachers will create a task that requires the use of many different skills. An example of integration is a book report. Completing integration homework assignments help students learn how to be organized, plan, strategize, and solve problems on their own.

Ultimately, the type of homework students receive should have a purpose, be focused and clear, and challenge students to problem solve while integrating lessons learned.

What’s the Purpose of Homework?

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Homework aims to ensure students understand the information they learn in class. It also helps teachers to assess a student’s progress and identify strengths and weaknesses.

For example, teachers use different types of homework like book reports, essays, math problems, and more to help students demonstrate their understanding of the lessons learned.

Does Homework Improve the Quality of Education?

Homework is a controversial topic today. Educators, parents, and even students often question whether homework is beneficial in improving the quality of education.

Let’s explore the pros and cons of homework to try and determine whether homework improves the quality of education in schools.

Homework Pros:

• Time Management Skills : Assigning homework with a due date helps students to develop a schedule to ensure they complete tasks on time.
• More Time to Learn : Students encounter plenty of distractions at school. It’s also challenging for students to grasp the material in an hour or less. Assigning homework provides the student the opportunity to understand the material.
• Improves Research Skills : Some homework assignments require students to seek out information. Through homework, students learn where to seek out good, reliable sources.

Homework Cons:

• Reduced Physical Activity : Homework requires students to sit at a desk for long periods. Lack of movement decreases the amount of physical activity, often because teachers assign students so much homework that they don’t have time for anything else.
• Stuck on an Assignment: A student often gets stuck on an assignment. Whether they can’t find information or the correct solution, students often don’t have help from parents and require further support from a teacher.
• Increases Stress : One of the results of getting stuck on an assignment is that it increases stress and anxiety. Too much homework hurts a child’s mental health, preventing them from learning and understanding the material.

Some research shows that homework doesn’t provide educational benefits or improve performance.

However, research also shows that homework benefits students—provided teachers don’t give them too much. Here’s a video from Duke Today that highlights a study on the very topic.

Homework Today

Maybe one day, students won’t need to submit assignments or complete tasks at home. But until then, many students understand the benefits of completing homework as it helps them further their education and achieves future career goals.

Before you go, here’s one more question: how do you feel about homework? Do you think teachers assign too little or too much? Get involved and start a discussion in the comments!

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History Cooperative

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.

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As the Covid-19 pandemic began and students logged into their remote classrooms, all work, in effect, became homework. But whether or not students could complete it at home varied. For some, schoolwork became public-library work or McDonald’s-parking-lot work.

Luis Torres, the principal of PS 55, a predominantly low-income community elementary school in the south Bronx, told me that his school secured Chromebooks for students early in the pandemic only to learn that some lived in shelters that blocked wifi for security reasons. Others, who lived in housing projects with poor internet reception, did their schoolwork in laundromats.

According to a 2021 Pew survey , 25 percent of lower-income parents said their children, at some point, were unable to complete their schoolwork because they couldn’t access a computer at home; that number for upper-income parents was 2 percent.

The issues with remote learning in March 2020 were new. But they highlighted a divide that had been there all along in another form: homework. And even long after schools have resumed in-person classes, the pandemic’s effects on homework have lingered.

Over the past three years, in response to concerns about equity, schools across the country, including in Sacramento, Los Angeles , San Diego , and Clark County, Nevada , made permanent changes to their homework policies that restricted how much homework could be given and how it could be graded after in-person learning resumed.

Three years into the pandemic, as districts and teachers reckon with Covid-era overhauls of teaching and learning, schools are still reconsidering the purpose and place of homework. Whether relaxing homework expectations helps level the playing field between students or harms them by decreasing rigor is a divisive issue without conclusive evidence on either side, echoing other debates in education like the elimination of standardized test scores from some colleges’ admissions processes.

I first began to wonder if the homework abolition movement made sense after speaking with teachers in some Massachusetts public schools, who argued that rather than help disadvantaged kids, stringent homework restrictions communicated an attitude of low expectations. One, an English teacher, said she felt the school had “just given up” on trying to get the students to do work; another argued that restrictions that prohibit teachers from assigning take-home work that doesn’t begin in class made it difficult to get through the foreign-language curriculum. Teachers in other districts have raised formal concerns about homework abolition’s ability to close gaps among students rather than widening them.

Many education experts share this view. Harris Cooper, a professor emeritus of psychology at Duke who has studied homework efficacy, likened homework abolition to “playing to the lowest common denominator.”

But as I learned after talking to a variety of stakeholders — from homework researchers to policymakers to parents of schoolchildren — whether to abolish homework probably isn’t the right question. More important is what kind of work students are sent home with and where they can complete it. Chances are, if schools think more deeply about giving constructive work, time spent on homework will come down regardless.

There’s no consensus on whether homework works

The rise of the no-homework movement during the Covid-19 pandemic tapped into long-running disagreements over homework’s impact on students. The purpose and effectiveness of homework have been disputed for well over a century. In 1901, for instance, California banned homework for students up to age 15, and limited it for older students, over concerns that it endangered children’s mental and physical health. The newest iteration of the anti-homework argument contends that the current practice punishes students who lack support and rewards those with more resources, reinforcing the “myth of meritocracy.”

But there is still no research consensus on homework’s effectiveness; no one can seem to agree on what the right metrics are. Much of the debate relies on anecdotes, intuition, or speculation.

Researchers disagree even on how much research exists on the value of homework. Kathleen Budge, the co-author of Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools and a professor at Boise State, told me that homework “has been greatly researched.” Denise Pope, a Stanford lecturer and leader of the education nonprofit Challenge Success, said, “It’s not a highly researched area because of some of the methodological problems.”

Experts who are more sympathetic to take-home assignments generally support the “10-minute rule,” a framework that estimates the ideal amount of homework on any given night by multiplying the student’s grade by 10 minutes. (A ninth grader, for example, would have about 90 minutes of work a night.) Homework proponents argue that while it is difficult to design randomized control studies to test homework’s effectiveness, the vast majority of existing studies show a strong positive correlation between homework and high academic achievement for middle and high school students. Prominent critics of homework argue that these correlational studies are unreliable and point to studies that suggest a neutral or negative effect on student performance. Both agree there is little to no evidence for homework’s effectiveness at an elementary school level, though proponents often argue that it builds constructive habits for the future.

For anyone who remembers homework assignments from both good and bad teachers, this fundamental disagreement might not be surprising. Some homework is pointless and frustrating to complete. Every week during my senior year of high school, I had to analyze a poem for English and decorate it with images found on Google; my most distinct memory from that class is receiving a demoralizing 25-point deduction because I failed to present my analysis on a poster board. Other assignments really do help students learn: After making an adapted version of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book for a ninth grade history project, I was inspired to check out from the library and read a biography of the Chinese ruler.

For homework opponents, the first example is more likely to resonate. “We’re all familiar with the negative effects of homework: stress, exhaustion, family conflict, less time for other activities, diminished interest in learning,” Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, which challenges common justifications for homework, told me in an email. “And these effects may be most pronounced among low-income students.” Kohn believes that schools should make permanent any moratoria implemented during the pandemic, arguing that there are no positives at all to outweigh homework’s downsides. Recent studies , he argues , show the benefits may not even materialize during high school.

In the Marlborough Public Schools, a suburban district 45 minutes west of Boston, school policy committee chair Katherine Hennessy described getting kids to complete their homework during remote education as “a challenge, to say the least.” Teachers found that students who spent all day on their computers didn’t want to spend more time online when the day was over. So, for a few months, the school relaxed the usual practice and teachers slashed the quantity of nightly homework.

Online learning made the preexisting divides between students more apparent, she said. Many students, even during normal circumstances, lacked resources to keep them on track and focused on completing take-home assignments. Though Marlborough Schools is more affluent than PS 55, Hennessy said many students had parents whose work schedules left them unable to provide homework help in the evenings. The experience tracked with a common divide in the country between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

So in October 2021, months after the homework reduction began, the Marlborough committee made a change to the district’s policy. While teachers could still give homework, the assignments had to begin as classwork. And though teachers could acknowledge homework completion in a student’s participation grade, they couldn’t count homework as its own grading category. “Rigorous learning in the classroom does not mean that that classwork must be assigned every night,” the policy stated . “Extensions of class work is not to be used to teach new content or as a form of punishment.”

Canceling homework might not do anything for the achievement gap

The critiques of homework are valid as far as they go, but at a certain point, arguments against homework can defy the commonsense idea that to retain what they’re learning, students need to practice it.

“Doesn’t a kid become a better reader if he reads more? Doesn’t a kid learn his math facts better if he practices them?” said Cathy Vatterott, an education researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. After decades of research, she said it’s still hard to isolate the value of homework, but that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned.

Blanket vilification of homework can also conflate the unique challenges facing disadvantaged students as compared to affluent ones, which could have different solutions. “The kids in the low-income schools are being hurt because they’re being graded, unfairly, on time they just don’t have to do this stuff,” Pope told me. “And they’re still being held accountable for turning in assignments, whether they’re meaningful or not.” On the other side, “Palo Alto kids” — students in Silicon Valley’s stereotypically pressure-cooker public schools — “are just bombarded and overloaded and trying to stay above water.”

Merely getting rid of homework doesn’t solve either problem. The United States already has the second-highest disparity among OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations between time spent on homework by students of high and low socioeconomic status — a difference of more than three hours, said Janine Bempechat, clinical professor at Boston University and author of No More Mindless Homework .

When she interviewed teachers in Boston-area schools that had cut homework before the pandemic, Bempechat told me, “What they saw immediately was parents who could afford it immediately enrolled their children in the Russian School of Mathematics,” a math-enrichment program whose tuition ranges from $140 to about $400 a month. Getting rid of homework “does nothing for equity; it increases the opportunity gap between wealthier and less wealthy families,” she said. “That solution troubles me because it’s no solution at all.”

A group of teachers at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, made the same point after the school district proposed an overhaul of its homework policies, including removing penalties for missing homework deadlines, allowing unlimited retakes, and prohibiting grading of homework.

“Given the emphasis on equity in today’s education systems,” they wrote in a letter to the school board, “we believe that some of the proposed changes will actually have a detrimental impact towards achieving this goal. Families that have means could still provide challenging and engaging academic experiences for their children and will continue to do so, especially if their children are not experiencing expected rigor in the classroom.” At a school where more than a third of students are low-income, the teachers argued, the policies would prompt students “to expect the least of themselves in terms of effort, results, and responsibility.”

Not all homework is created equal

Despite their opposing sides in the homework wars, most of the researchers I spoke to made a lot of the same points. Both Bempechat and Pope were quick to bring up how parents and schools confuse rigor with workload, treating the volume of assignments as a proxy for quality of learning. Bempechat, who is known for defending homework, has written extensively about how plenty of it lacks clear purpose, requires the purchasing of unnecessary supplies, and takes longer than it needs to. Likewise, when Pope instructs graduate-level classes on curriculum, she asks her students to think about the larger purpose they’re trying to achieve with homework: If they can get the job done in the classroom, there’s no point in sending home more work.

At its best, pandemic-era teaching facilitated that last approach. Honolulu-based teacher Christina Torres Cawdery told me that, early in the pandemic, she often had a cohort of kids in her classroom for four hours straight, as her school tried to avoid too much commingling. She couldn’t lecture for four hours, so she gave the students plenty of time to complete independent and project-based work. At the end of most school days, she didn’t feel the need to send them home with more to do.

A similar limited-homework philosophy worked at a public middle school in Chelsea, Massachusetts. A couple of teachers there turned as much class as possible into an opportunity for small-group practice, allowing kids to work on problems that traditionally would be assigned for homework, Jessica Flick, a math coach who leads department meetings at the school, told me. It was inspired by a philosophy pioneered by Simon Fraser University professor Peter Liljedahl, whose influential book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics reframes homework as “check-your-understanding questions” rather than as compulsory work. Last year, Flick found that the two eighth grade classes whose teachers adopted this strategy performed the best on state tests, and this year, she has encouraged other teachers to implement it.

Teachers know that plenty of homework is tedious and unproductive. Jeannemarie Dawson De Quiroz, who has taught for more than 20 years in low-income Boston and Los Angeles pilot and charter schools, says that in her first years on the job she frequently assigned “drill and kill” tasks and questions that she now feels unfairly stumped students. She said designing good homework wasn’t part of her teaching programs, nor was it meaningfully discussed in professional development. With more experience, she turned as much class time as she could into practice time and limited what she sent home.

“The thing about homework that’s sticky is that not all homework is created equal,” says Jill Harrison Berg, a former teacher and the author of Uprooting Instructional Inequity . “Some homework is a genuine waste of time and requires lots of resources for no good reason. And other homework is really useful.”

Cutting homework has to be part of a larger strategy

The takeaways are clear: Schools can make cuts to homework, but those cuts should be part of a strategy to improve the quality of education for all students. If the point of homework was to provide more practice, districts should think about how students can make it up during class — or offer time during or after school for students to seek help from teachers. If it was to move the curriculum along, it’s worth considering whether strategies like Liljedahl’s can get more done in less time.

Some of the best thinking around effective assignments comes from those most critical of the current practice. Denise Pope proposes that, before assigning homework, teachers should consider whether students understand the purpose of the work and whether they can do it without help. If teachers think it’s something that can’t be done in class, they should be mindful of how much time it should take and the feedback they should provide. It’s questions like these that De Quiroz considered before reducing the volume of work she sent home.

More than a year after the new homework policy began in Marlborough, Hennessy still hears from parents who incorrectly “think homework isn’t happening” despite repeated assurances that kids still can receive work. She thinks part of the reason is that education has changed over the years. “I think what we’re trying to do is establish that homework may be an element of educating students,” she told me. “But it may not be what parents think of as what they grew up with. ... It’s going to need to adapt, per the teaching and the curriculum, and how it’s being delivered in each classroom.”

For the policy to work, faculty, parents, and students will all have to buy into a shared vision of what school ought to look like. The district is working on it — in November, it hosted and uploaded to YouTube a round-table discussion on homework between district administrators — but considering the sustained confusion, the path ahead seems difficult.

When I asked Luis Torres about whether he thought homework serves a useful part in PS 55’s curriculum, he said yes, of course it was — despite the effort and money it takes to keep the school open after hours to help them do it. “The children need the opportunity to practice,” he said. “If you don’t give them opportunities to practice what they learn, they’re going to forget.” But Torres doesn’t care if the work is done at home. The school stays open until around 6 pm on weekdays, even during breaks. Tutors through New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development programs help kids with work after school so they don’t need to take it with them.

As schools weigh the purpose of homework in an unequal world, it’s tempting to dispose of a practice that presents real, practical problems to students across the country. But getting rid of homework is unlikely to do much good on its own. Before cutting it, it’s worth thinking about what good assignments are meant to do in the first place. It’s crucial that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds tackle complex quantitative problems and hone their reading and writing skills. It’s less important that the work comes home with them.

Jacob Sweet is a freelance writer in Somerville, Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, among other publications.

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Origin and Death of Homework Inventor: 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.

The Legacy of Homework

The legacy of homework is deeply embedded in the educational landscape, reflecting a historical evolution that spans centuries. From its ambiguous origins to the diverse purposes it serves today, homework has played a pivotal role in shaping learning experiences.

While its effectiveness and necessity have been subjects of ongoing debate, homework endures as a tool for reinforcing concepts, fostering independent study habits, and preparing students for future academic and professional challenges.

In the contemporary educational context, the legacy of homework is a complex interplay of tradition, pedagogy, and evolving perspectives on the balance between academic demands and student well-being.

The Complex History of Homework

Throughout history, the evolution of homework can be traced through a series of significant developments. In ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, scholars and philosophers encouraged independent study outside formal learning settings.

The Renaissance era witnessed a surge in written assignments, marking an early precursor to modern homework. The Industrial Revolution further transformed educational practices, as the need for a skilled workforce emphasized the importance of individual learning and practice.

The purposes and perceptions of homework have undergone substantial transformations over time. In the 19th century, homework was often viewed as a means of reinforcing discipline and moral values, with assignments focused on character development.

As educational philosophies evolved, particularly in the 20th century, homework assumed various roles—from a tool for drill and practice to a method for fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Perceptions of homework have fluctuated, with debates arising around issues of workload, equity, and its impact on student well-being. The complex history of homework reveals a dynamic interplay between societal expectations, educational philosophies, and changing perspectives on the purposes of academic assignments.

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.

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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Homework in America

• 2014 Brown Center Report on American Education

Subscribe to the Brown Center on Education Policy Newsletter

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

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]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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Teaching Students About the Iconic “Martin” Show

Teaching students about karen duffy: an inspiration for overcoming challenges, teaching students about stingray barbs: uncovering the mysteries of a unique marine adaptation, 12 colleges with the most nba players, what you can buy with the 529 plan, teaching students about shaun alexander: a lesson in perseverance and success, how to set up and start using a cash app account, teaching students about sean avery: embracing unconventional lessons in sportsmanship, how to become a tafe teacher, teaching students about gloria ramirez, who invented 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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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.

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 Invented Homework And Why

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Roberto Nevelis of Venice , Italy, is often credited with having invented homework in 1095 or 1905, depending on your sources

Every student in their life has realized that they love going to school and college, but the only thing they hate about education life is homework. You must have giggled with your friends during lectures about who was the person behind the concept of homework, and without knowing the full information, we all, as a student, has hated the person so much. There are so many debates that revolve around assignments. Students and teachers have the opposite thinking about homework. The tug-of-war between the professors and educators will never end.

It's very important to know all the facts about assignments before making any conclusion. That's why in this blog, we are going to discuss all the interesting facts that a student must know about homework. We hope that you will be a little more motivated to do your next assignments by the end of this reading. However, the scenario has changed with the guidance of homework help UK several students are more than happy while doing homework as they get a chance to outshine in their class.

Who Made Homework And Why?

Roberto Nevilis was an Italian pedagog who was behind the concept of homework. The credit for improving the education system is all because of the homework. Although earlier, it was believed that assigning homework or assignments was an alternative to giving physical punishment.

The reason behind the concept was a little bit simple. The inventor invented homework not to forget the learning as soon as they left their classes. The main motive is to enhance the creative skills and make students more familiar with the concepts. Roberto Nevillis was a teacher, and he never wanted students to forget things that he has taught with so much determination and hard work. That's why he decided to invent a different method by assigning homework.

This is the one side of history; when we look at the other side, some people also believe that the homework was invented by Pliny, who gave some home assignments to his students or followers to improve their skills. He asked students to practice some exercises at home for practice. However, Nevills is only responsible for the creation of homework.

Now, many more questions must be popping into your mind, so let's talk about some homework facts one by one.

What's The Purpose Of Assigning Homework? What Does Homework Stand For Teachers?

There is a different perspective of students and teachers while doing homework. Let's see from the viewpoint of teachers what's the definition of homework.

• Many research has shown that assigning homework to students can enhance their skills as they focus more on learning.
• A student becomes active at home and remembers well what was taught to them in class.
• As it is said that practice makes a man perfect, so by assigning assignments to students, the professors aim that students should do regular practice to master the skills.
• One of the reasons is to check the capabilities of students and what extra they can learn.
• Students don't get off track if, from time to time, homework is given to them; they will be more informed about their academic syllabus.
• Last but not least, it keeps the confidence of students high so that they can perform well in the upcoming exams.

The Viewpoint Of Students Are The Opposite

The importance of homework is up to the mark; it's necessary for students' growth and learning. However, students have some valid points which can't be neglected. We all know how tough it is to be the number one student; you must perform well in all activities. In this scenario, it's quite challenging to cope with piles of homework. Thanks to the assignment helper , they are there with students in every thick and thin situation.

Some more reasons from student's viewpoint are:

• Takes a lot of time and effort - The students have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders, and achieving higher grades in assignments is one of them. It takes a lot of time to write professional answers, and that's why they hate doing homework as they are left with zero hours for other activities.
• Does not get enough appraisal - After putting so much effort, parents and professors do not give them the credits they have tried best. All their efforts went in vain when they didn't get enough marks.
• Feeling of stress and anxiety - completing the assignments till the cutoff dates is a lengthy procedure. To be the best, you have to research a lot and gather a lot of information which sometimes gives so much stress to students.

What Went Wrong With Homework?

From the student's point of view, we can notice that homework background is causing more trouble. Instead of improving their skills and knowledge, it is becoming a headache for many people. The result is that students can't add a little more fun to their college life due to assignments.

There are a lot of new concepts in every subject, and sometimes teachers may assign some topics for a home to reduce the syllabus. This becomes too hectic for students, and they end up having poor grades in academics. Not only did their academics get hampered, but they also didn't get enough time for following their passion and hobbies.

Let's introduce you with a secret, your assignments will not leave your side, but you can do so! You can make a smarter move by outsourcing your assignments with The Student Helpline by just clicking on the proceed button! Instead of having grudges with the person who invented school, you will love to hear a lot of appraisal from your loved ones.

Sounds amazing? Now, no more debuts, get your work done with the best subject matter experts, and live your life to the fullest!

Happy learning!

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The Pros and Cons of Homework

Homework is a word that most students dread hearing. After hours upon hours of sitting in class , the last thing we want is more schoolwork over our precious weekends. While it’s known to be a staple of traditional schooling, homework has also become a rather divise topic. Some feel as though homework is a necessary part of school, while others believe that the time could be better invested. Should students have homework? Have a closer look into the arguments on both sides to decide for yourself.

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Why should students have homework, 1. homework encourages practice.

Many people believe that one of the positive effects of homework is that it encourages the discipline of practice. While it may be time consuming and boring compared to other activities, repetition is needed to get better at skills. Homework helps make concepts more clear, and gives students more opportunities when starting their career .

2. Homework Gets Parents Involved

Homework can be something that gets parents involved in their children’s lives if the environment is a healthy one. A parent helping their child with homework makes them take part in their academic success, and allows for the parent to keep up with what the child is doing in school. It can also be a chance to connect together.

3. Homework Teaches Time Management

Homework is much more than just completing the assigned tasks. Homework can develop time management skills , forcing students to plan their time and make sure that all of their homework assignments are done on time. By learning to manage their time, students also practice their problem-solving skills and independent thinking. One of the positive effects of homework is that it forces decision making and compromises to be made.

4. Homework Opens A Bridge Of Communication

Homework creates a connection between the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents. It allows everyone to get to know each other better, and parents can see where their children are struggling. In the same sense, parents can also see where their children are excelling. Homework in turn can allow for a better, more targeted educational plan for the student.

5. Homework Allows For More Learning Time

Homework allows for more time to complete the learning process. School hours are not always enough time for students to really understand core concepts, and homework can counter the effects of time shortages, benefiting students in the long run, even if they can’t see it in the moment.

6. Homework Reduces Screen Time

Many students in North America spend far too many hours watching TV. If they weren’t in school, these numbers would likely increase even more. Although homework is usually undesired, it encourages better study habits and discourages spending time in front of the TV. Homework can be seen as another extracurricular activity, and many families already invest a lot of time and money in different clubs and lessons to fill up their children’s extra time. Just like extracurricular activities, homework can be fit into one’s schedule.

The Other Side: Why Homework Is Bad

1. homework encourages a sedentary lifestyle.

Should students have homework? Well, that depends on where you stand. There are arguments both for the advantages and the disadvantages of homework.

While classroom time is important, playground time is just as important. If children are given too much homework, they won’t have enough playtime, which can impact their social development and learning. Studies have found that those who get more play get better grades in school , as it can help them pay closer attention in the classroom.

Children are already sitting long hours in the classroom, and homework assignments only add to these hours. Sedentary lifestyles can be dangerous and can cause health problems such as obesity. Homework takes away from time that could be spent investing in physical activity.

2. Homework Isn’t Healthy In Every Home

While many people that think homes are a beneficial environment for children to learn, not all homes provide a healthy environment, and there may be very little investment from parents. Some parents do not provide any kind of support or homework help, and even if they would like to, due to personal barriers, they sometimes cannot. Homework can create friction between children and their parents, which is one of the reasons why homework is bad .

3. Homework Adds To An Already Full-Time Job

School is already a full-time job for students, as they generally spend over 6 hours each day in class. Students also often have extracurricular activities such as sports, music, or art that are just as important as their traditional courses. Adding on extra hours to all of these demands is a lot for children to manage, and prevents students from having extra time to themselves for a variety of creative endeavors. Homework prevents self discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system. This is one of the main disadvantages of homework.

4. Homework Has Not Been Proven To Provide Results

Endless surveys have found that homework creates a negative attitude towards school, and homework has not been found to be linked to a higher level of academic success.

The positive effects of homework have not been backed up enough. While homework may help some students improve in specific subjects, if they have outside help there is no real proof that homework makes for improvements.

It can be a challenge to really enforce the completion of homework, and students can still get decent grades without doing their homework. Extra school time does not necessarily mean better grades — quality must always come before quantity.

Accurate practice when it comes to homework simply isn’t reliable. Homework could even cause opposite effects if misunderstood, especially since the reliance is placed on the student and their parents — one of the major reasons as to why homework is bad. Many students would rather cheat in class to avoid doing their homework at home, and children often just copy off of each other or from what they read on the internet.

5. Homework Assignments Are Overdone

The general agreement is that students should not be given more than 10 minutes a day per grade level. What this means is that a first grader should be given a maximum of 10 minutes of homework, while a second grader receives 20 minutes, etc. Many students are given a lot more homework than the recommended amount, however.

On average, college students spend as much as 3 hours per night on homework . By giving too much homework, it can increase stress levels and lead to burn out. This in turn provides an opposite effect when it comes to academic success.

The pros and cons of homework are both valid, and it seems as though the question of ‘‘should students have homework?’ is not a simple, straightforward one. Parents and teachers often are found to be clashing heads, while the student is left in the middle without much say.

It’s important to understand all the advantages and disadvantages of homework, taking both perspectives into conversation to find a common ground. At the end of the day, everyone’s goal is the success of the student.

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Home » College Of William & Mary » Why Was Homework Invented?

Why Was Homework Invented?

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In 1905, an Italian teacher named Roberto Nevilis invented the concept of “homework.” Originally, its purpose was to be used as a punishment for students who were lazy in class or for those who were disobedient or rude to their teacher . This practice became popular and became more frequently used around the world.

Who came up with homework and why?

An Italian pedagog Roberto Nevilis is considered the real “inventor” of homework. He was the person who invented homework in far 1905 and made it a punishment to his students. Since time when was homework invented, this practice has become popular around the world.

Who was the first person to get homework?

Roberto Nevelis of Venice, Italy, is often credited with having invented homework in 1095—or 1905, depending on your sources.

Is homework a waste of time?

Homework is taking up a large chunk of their time, too — around 15-plus hours a week, with about one-third of teens reporting that it’s closer to 20-plus hours. The stress and excessive homework adds up to lost sleep , the BSC says.

Was homework meant to be a punishment?

Does homework actually help.

Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills . Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it.

Is California banning homework?

In the early 1900s, Ladies’ Home Journal took up a crusade against homework, enlisting doctors and parents who say it damages children’s health. In 1901 California passed a law abolishing homework !

What does homework stand for?

Half Of My energy Wasted On Random Knowledge Product Description. Homework stands for “ Half Of My energy Wasted On Random Knowledge “.

How do I stop stressing my grades?

Stop stressing about your college grades and do these fun things instead

• Set milestones and rewards. Source: Giphy.
• Sleep more. Snuggle in.
• Play sports. Sweat out those frustrations!
• Join a club or fraternity. Your stress could be owed to a lack of outlets to unload.
• Hang out with your friends. An alternative form of therapy.

Should homework be banned?

Homework in elementary school has not been shown to lead to better achievement in school . And too much homework in the higher grades can lead to worsening grades and increased mental and physical issues. So it’s important to be mindful of how much time your child is spending on it each day.

Is 3 hours of homework too much?

That study, published in The Journal of Experimental Education, suggested that any more than two hours of homework per night is counterproductive. However, students who participated in the study reported doing slightly more than three hours of homework each night, on average .

What country gives no homework?

The truth is that there is nearly no homework in the country with one of the top education systems in the world. Finnish people believe that besides homework, there are many more things that can improve child’s performance in school, such as having dinner with their families, exercising or getting a good night’s sleep.

Who created school?

Horace Mann Horace Mann is considered as the inventor of the concept of school. He was born in 1796 and later became Secretary of Education in Massachusetts. He was a pioneer in bringing educational reforms into society.

Does homework cause depression?

However, when homework exceeds, it affects their emotional well-being making them sad and unproductive students who would rather cheat their way through school . Studies documented in the Journal of Experimental Education conclude that homework that exceeds two hours is counterproductive to the health of students.

Who made homework a daily thing?

Going back in time, we see that homework was invented by Roberto Nevilis , an Italian pedagog. The idea behind homework was simple. As a teacher, Nevilis felt that his teachings lost essence when they left the class.

How much homework is too much?

How much is too much? According to the National PTA and the National Education Association, students should only be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level . But teens are doing a lot more than that, according to a poll of high school students by the organization Statistic Brain.

Does homework affect sleep?

Too much homework can result in lack of sleep , headaches, exhaustion, and weight loss”. Similarly, Stanford Medicine News Center reports that the founder of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic stated, “’I think high school is the real danger spot in terms of sleep deprivation,’ said William Dement, MD, Ph.

Why should teachers not give homework?

Studies have also shown that too much homework can be very unhealthy, making students feel stressed and burnt out . Most teachers give about 1-2 pages of homework which may not seem like a lot but when you add them up it can easily overwhelm a student.

Is homework illegal in the UK?

There have even been subsequent questions about its legal status. Just to be clear: schools are not obliged to set homework, and some don’t . But when schools do set homework, children do need to do it.

Is homework illegal in Canada?

In Canada, some teachers have no-homework policies and a few schools have banned it outright .

Is a homework illegal?

Homework is legal in all US states as there are no state laws banning them . However, schools in different states are free to have their own rules about homework. Some states where some schools (or districts) have banned or limited homework include: Utah.

By Edmund Duncan

Edmund Duncan is an education expert and thought leader in the field of learning. He has dedicated his life to helping students achieve their full potential in the classroom and beyond.

Edmund's work as a teacher, administrator, and researcher has given him a unique perspective on how students learn and what educators can do to foster a love of learning in their students. He is passionate about sharing this knowledge with others, and he frequently speaks at education conferences around the world.

When Edmund isn't working or speaking, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends. He loves traveling and exploring new places, and he is an avid reader who loves learning about new cultures and customs.

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The Surprising History of Homework Reform

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

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 .

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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Debunking the Myth of Roberto Nevilis: Who Really Invented Homework?

• By Emily Summers
• February 18, 2019

For those of us who have attended a formal education setting, you might remember the frustration of getting homework from most of your teachers. Before class ends, your teacher instructs your class to answer a certain page of your book or to write an essay about the topic you had just discussed.

Some of us really didn’t like doing homework. It was very time-consuming and, on top of extra-curricular activities, house chores, and other tasks you needed to do, you had very little time to yourself and your hobbies before having to go to sleep.

If you’ve ever been curious enough to find out who to thank for inventing homework, Google and several websites will tell you that it’s a man named Roberto Nevilis. That he invented homework as a form of punishment for underperforming students and, almost a thousand years later, billions of students are frustrated both at school and at home because of him.

But that, like a lot of things on the internet, simply isn’t true. In fact, Roberto Nevilis doesn’t even exist.

Who Invented Homework? Not Roberto Nevilis.

The nail in the coffin, a brief history on the education system, the father of modern homework, is homework still effective.

Online, there are many articles claiming that Roberto Nevilis was the first educator who came up with giving students homework. But if you look at the websites that claim this, you’ll find that it’s mostly forum websites or obscure educational blogs. No credible website or news source even mentions the name Roberto Nevilis. And for a guy who has affected the educational career of anyone who has had a formal education, you’d think a credible website would mention him at least once. Or some of the less-credible websites would confirm his contribution without saying the word “allegedly” or a vague “scientists believe” or the like.

Nevilis was supposedly a teacher based in Venice, Italy when he invented homework. Some claim that he invented it in 1095, while others claim he invented it in 1905 before it spread to Europe and to the rest of the world. It was said to be a form of punishment for students who underperformed in class. Students who performed well in class were spared from homework.

Either way, this claim is dubious. In 1095, education was still very informal around Europe and an organized education system in the continent didn’t start until 800 years later. In the 1500’s, English nobility were still being taught by private tutors.

Around 1095, the Roman Empire had long fallen and the Pope was still organizing the very first crusade and education was still informal, so it would be impossible for Nevilis to not only hold a class and give out homework, but to also spread out his idea to the rest of Europe when there was still no organized educational system.

And it couldn’t have been 1905, either. In 1901, California passed an act that banned homework for students younger than 15 years old before the law was revoked in 1917. That means Nevilis – assuming he does exists and isn’t the work of some internet trolls – couldn’t have invented it in 1905 in Europe if it already made its way to California and probably the rest of the world four years earlier.

And if that’s not enough evidence, just take a look at all the information you can get on him online. The only websites that mention his name: Quora, WikiAnswers, clickbait articles, and blogs for websites that help you write your homework (though if they can’t do their research properly, you might want to stay away from their services).

There’s no credible website mentioning him anywhere. And the websites that do mention him are very vague in describing his contribution. “Scientists believe” becomes a very sketchy claim when a website doesn’t cite a credible source. And if you try to search “Roberto Nevilis,” only the same handful of websites show up.

The truth is, homework existed dating back to the earliest civilizations and the first forms of education. In feudal times, education was reserved for the wealthy men. Those who weren’t rich had no time to study reading or philosophy and were busy making a living. Wealthy young women were trained in the more womanly arts, though princesses and nobles were expected to know a few things and were tutored as well. While they weren’t given workbooks and links to online quizzes, their tutors had expected them to read literary pieces during their free time.

The earliest evidence of a formal school comes from the Sumerian civilization. They had Edubas, which were houses of clay tablets were scribes practiced how to read and write. Archaeologists found student exercises etched into the tablets. Not much is known if they followed a schedule or were all taught by one teacher like the education system today.

During these times, however, homework did not involve answering questions or writing down essays as we’ve come to know it today. If we look back at history, there were other forms of educational methods that students and teachers at the time would have considered the homework of their time.

While we can’t pin the invention of homework to a certain teacher, we can trace back who was responsible for making homework that way it is to this day: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, a German philosopher known as the founding father of German nationalism.

In 1814, Prussia had a problem stirring nationalism among its citizens. Instead of serving the country after the war, citizens could choose to go back to whatever they were doing without thinking of dedicating their time and sacrifice to the country. There was no sense of pride or nationalism.

And so, Fichte conceived the Volkschule – a mandatory nine-year education similar to primary and lower secondary education provided by the state – and a Realschule – a secondary school available to aristocrats. Those attending the Volkschule were given the homework we know today as a way to demonstrate the state’s power even during personal time.

The system spread across Europe, but not in a totally dominating way. Some countries continued with their own system, which is why countries such as Finland don’t impose homework on their students. However, in 1843, back when the United States still practiced private tutors or informal lessons, Horace Mann reformed public education after travelling to Prussia and saw their education system and adapted it into the American education system. Thus, homework eventually evolved into a global practice.

Homework, therefore, is the result of nationalism and getting students to understand that “me time” actually falls on government time if they want to get their education. Contrary to what many websites would say, it wasn’t invented as a punishment for academically failing students.

However, over 200 years had passed since homework’s evolution into what we know it is today. So, is it still necessary to keep our students burdened with extra assignments? On one hand, it can be a good way to teach students time management skills. We like to think that work stays at work and personal life stays out of work, but as working adults, we know this is not the case. Homework at an early age teaches students to use their time wisely.

And while homework can still be helpful in students’ education, it’s only helpful to a certain extent. When plenty of teachers pile on homework, they’re depriving students of time to focus on their extra-curricular activities and personal life.

For those of us who have graduated with high grades, we’ve learned the hard way that a spotless report card can get our foot on the door, but if we have poor interpersonal skills and lack the skills you can only get outside of academics, you can’t achieve total success. Homework is good, but only to an extent. Then, it just becomes an unnecessary burden on students.

In fact, if you look at Finland and Japan – countries that don’t practice giving out homework – you can see that homework is unnecessary if the educational system favors it. Finland has shorter school days, longer summer breaks, and have an educational system where students aren’t required to start school until the age of seven. However, their students have always ranked high in terms of exams.

It’s because in Finland, a teaching career is at the same league as doctors and lawyers. Compare that to our current education system, where teachers are underappreciated and harried in public schools. Finland’s education system allows students more leeway, showing how it is possible to produce bright students without putting too much pressure on them.

We’ve all been frustrated with homework back when we were studying, but homework is actually more than just a nuisance we all have to face in our educational career. It’s actually an important factor which can shape productivity and the time students have for other factors of their education.

About the Author

Emily summers.

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The Value of Homework

Are teachers assigning too much homework.

Posted September 5, 2016 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

• Studies show that the benefits of homework peak at about one hour to 90 minutes, and then after that, test scores begin to decline.
• Research has found that high school teachers (grades 9-12) report assigning an average of 3.5 hours’ worth of homework a week.
• While homework is necessary, there needs to be balance as well as communication between teachers about the amount of homework being assigned.

The value of homework has been the subject of debate over the years. In regards to research, the jury is still out as to whether homework positively impacts a student's academic achievement.

In the past, I have written a couple of posts on homework and whether or not it is being used or abused by educators. I am always amazed at what some of my young readers share about sleepless nights, not participating in extracurricular events, and high levels of stress —all of which are attributed to large and daunting amounts of homework .

There have been studies that show that doing homework in moderation improves test performance. So we can’t rule out the value of homework if it’s conducive to learning. However, studies have also shown that the benefits of homework peak at about one hour to 90 minutes, and then after that, test scores begin to decline.

Now, while looking at data, it’s important to review the standard, endorsed by the National Education Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association , known as the "10-minute rule" — 10 minutes of homework per grade level per night. That would mean there would only be 10 minutes of homework in the first grade, and end with 120 minutes for senior year of high school (double what research shows beneficial). This leads to an important question: On average, how much homework do teachers assign?

Typical homework amounts

A Harris Poll from the University of Phoenix surveyed teachers about the hours of homework required of students and why they assign it. Pollsters received responses from approximately 1,000 teachers in public, private, and parochial schools across the United States.

High school teachers (grades 9-12) reported assigning an average of 3.5 hours’ worth of homework a week. Middle school teachers (grades 6-8) reported assigning almost the same amount as high school teachers, 3.2 hours of homework a week. Lastly, K-5 teachers said they assigned an average of 2.9 hours of homework each week. This data shows a spike in homework beginning in middle school.

Why homework is assigned

When teachers were asked why they assign homework, they gave the top three reasons:

• to see how well students understand lessons
• to help students develop essential problem-solving skills
• to show parents what's being learned in school

Approximately, 30 percent of teachers reported they assigned homework to cover more content areas. What’s interesting about this poll was the longer an educator had been in the field the less homework they assigned. Take a look at the breakdown below:

• 3.6 hours (teachers with less than 10 years in the classroom)
• 3.1 hours (teachers with 10 to 19 years in the classroom)
• 2.8 hours (teachers with more than 20 years in the classroom)

The need for balance

While many agree that homework does have a time and place, there needs to be a balance between life and school. There also needs to be communication with other teachers in the school about assignments. Oftentimes, educators get so involved in their subject area, they communicate departmentally, not school-wide. As a result, it’s not uncommon for teens to have a project and a couple of tests all on the same day. This dump of work can lead to an overwhelming amount of stress.

Questions for educators

Educators, how can you maximize the benefit of homework? Use the questions below to guide you in whether or not to assign work outside of the classroom. Ask yourself:

• Do I need to assign homework or can this be done in class?
• Does this assignment contribute and supplement the lesson reviewed in class?
• Do students have all of the information they need to do this assignment? In others words, are they prepared to do the homework?
• What are you wanting your students to achieve from this assignment? Do you have a specific objective and intended outcome in mind?
• How much time will the assignment take to complete? Have you given your students a sufficient amount of time?
• Have you taken into account other coursework that your students have due?
• How can you incorporate student choice and feedback into your classroom?
• How can you monitor whether or not you are overloading your students?

What kids think of homework

Educators: As a conclusion, I have provided a few of the many comments, that I have received below. I think it’s important to look at the age/grade level and messages these teens have shared. Take time to read their words and reflect on ways you can incorporate their perspective into course objectives and content. I believe the solution to the homework dilemma can be found in assigning work in moderation and finding a balance between school, home, and life.

“I am a 7th grader in a small school in Michigan. I think one of the main problems about what teachers think about homework is that they do not think about what other classes are assigned for homework. Throughout the day, I get at least two full pages of homework to complete by the next day. During the school year, I am hesitant to sign up for sports because I am staying up after a game or practice to finish my homework.”

“I'm 17 and I'm in my last year of high school. I can honestly tell you that from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. (sometimes 1 or 2 a.m.) I am doing homework. I've been trying to balance my homework with my work schedule, work around my house, and my social life with no success. So if someone were to ask me if I think kids have too much homework, I would say yes they do. My comment is based solely on my personal experience in high school.”

“I am 13 and I have a problem: homework. I can’t get my homework done at home because it is all on my school MacBook. I don’t own my own personal computer, only an Amazon Fire tablet. What’s the problem with my tablet? There are no middle or high school apps for it. You are might be wondering, “Why not bring the MacBook home?” Well, I am not allowed to, so what is the punishment ? Four late assignments, and 1 late argument essay. And 90% of the homework I get is on my MacBook. This is a mega stresser!"

Raychelle Cassada Lohman n , M.S., LPC, is the author of The Anger Workbook for Teens .

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Background for CDC’s Updated Respiratory Virus Guidance

Executive summary, transitioning from an emergency state, changing risk environment, unified, practical guidance, updated guidance on steps to prevent spread when you are sick is informed by numerous factors, ongoing vigilance and action.

The 2023-2024 fall and winter virus season, four years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, provided ongoing evidence of the changing face of respiratory diseases. COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV. This reality enables CDC to provide updated guidance proportionate to the current level of risk COVID-19 poses while balancing other critical health and societal needs. Key drivers and indicators of the reduction in threat from COVID-19 include:

• Due to the effectiveness of protective tools and high degree of population immunity, there are now fewer hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 . Weekly hospital admissions for COVID-19 have decreased by more than 75% and deaths by more than 90% compared to January 2022, the peak of the initial Omicron wave. Complications like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) are now also less common, and prevalence of Long COVID also appears to be decreasing. These reductions in disease severity and death have persisted through a full respiratory virus season following the expiration of the federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 and its associated special measures on May 11, 2023.
• Protective tools, like vaccines and treatments, that decrease risk of COVID-19 disease (particularly severe disease) are now widely available. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of symptomatic disease and hospitalization by about 50% compared to people not up to date on vaccination. Over 95% of adults hospitalized in 2023-2024 due to COVID-19 had no record of receiving the latest vaccine. Treatment with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) in persons at high risk of severe disease has been shown to decrease risk of hospitalization by 75% and death by 60% in recent studies.
• There is a high degree of population immunity against COVID-19. More than 98% of the U.S. population now has some degree of protective immunity against COVID-19 from vaccination, prior infection, or both.

As the threat from COVID-19 becomes more similar to that of other common respiratory viruses, CDC is issuing Respiratory Virus Guidance, rather than additional virus-specific guidance. This brings a unified, practical approach to addressing risk from a range of common respiratory viral illnesses, such as influenza and RSV, that have similar routes of transmission and symptoms and similar prevention strategies. The updated guidance on steps to prevent spread when you are sick particularly reflects the key reality that many people with respiratory virus symptoms do not know the specific virus they are infected with. Importantly, states and countries that have already shortened recommended isolation times have not seen increased hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19. Although increasingly similar to other respiratory viruses, some differences remain, such as the risk of post-COVID conditions.

CDC will continue to evaluate available evidence to ensure the recommendations in the guidance provide the intended protection. This includes monitoring data to identify and model patterns in respiratory virus transmission, severity, hospitalizations, deaths, virus evolution, and Long COVID. In addition, CDC continues to make systems-level investments to protect the American public. Examples include measuring and enhancing effectiveness and uptake of vaccines and antiviral treatments, particularly for those at increased risk for severe disease; integrating healthcare and public health systems to prevent, identify, and respond to emerging public health threats more rapidly; and strengthening partnerships across sectors to ensure a strong public health infrastructure.

• The Respiratory Virus Guidance covers most common respiratory viral illnesses but should not supplant specific guidance for pathogens that require special containment measures, such as measles. However, the recommendations in this guidance may still help reduce spread of various other types of infections. The guidance may not apply in certain outbreak situations when more specific guidance may be needed.
• CDC offers separate, specific guidance for healthcare settings ( COVID-19 , flu , and general infection prevention and control )

Since 2020, CDC provided guidance specific to COVID-19, initially with detailed recommendations on many issues and for specific settings. Throughout 2022 and 2023 , CDC revised COVID-19 public health recommendations as the pandemic evolved. These changes to the guidance reflected the latest scientific evidence as well as the progression through the pandemic. The expiration of the federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 in 2023 also reflected a shift away from the emergency response phase  to the recovery and maintenance phases in which COVID-19 is addressed amidst many other public health threats. Measures appropriate to an emergency setting are less relevant after the emergency ended.

The continuum of pandemic phases

In developing this updated Respiratory Virus Guidance, CDC carefully considered the changing risk environment, particularly lower rates of severe disease from COVID-19 and increased population immunity, as well as improvements in other prevention and control strategies.

Trends in outcomes

Hospitalizations.

In 2024, COVID-19 is less likely to result in severe disease than earlier in the pandemic because of greater immunity from vaccines and previous infections and greater treatment availability.

COVID-19 remains a greater cause of severe illness and death than other respiratory viruses, but the differences between these rates are much smaller than they were earlier in the pandemic. This difference is even smaller among people admitted to the hospital. Studies show the proportion of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 (15.5%) or influenza (13.3%) who were subsequently admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) was similar, and patients 60 years and older hospitalized with RSV were 1.5 times more likely  to be admitted to the ICU than those with COVID-19.

Hospital admissions for COVID-19 peaked in January 2022 with more than 150,000 admissions per week, based on data from CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) covering all U.S. hospitals. During the week ending February 17, 2023, there were 18,977 hospital admissions for COVID-19. During this same week, there were 10,480  hospital admissions for influenza.

Another data source—called Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network ( RESP-NET ) — collects hospitalization data on 8–10% of the U.S. population since before pandemic. The RESP-NET figures below demonstrate how COVID-19 hospitalizations have decreased over time and are now in the range of those for influenza and RSV.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have been declining year-over-year since 2022, with winter peaks more closely resembling those of influenza

Data on weekly new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19, influenza, and RSV from surveillance sites in the Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network ( RESP-NET ), which cover 8–10% of the U.S. population, October 2019–February 2024.

Cumulative annual rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations (Oct. 1–Sept. 30 to align with start of typical fall and winter virus season) have declined since 2021–2022

*Hospitalization rates per 100,000 population. Data from the Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET)  are preliminary and subject to change as more data become available. As data are received each week, prior case counts and rates are updated accordingly. Hospitalizations rates are likely to be underestimated as some hospitalizations might be missed because of undertesting, differing provider or facility testing practices, and diagnostic test sensitivity. Rates presented do not adjust for testing practices, which may differ by pathogen, age, race and ethnicity, and other demographic criteria. Surveillance for each pathogen was not conducted during the same time periods each season. For all seasons displayed, all three platforms conduct surveillance between October 1 and April 30 of each year. Surveillance for influenza hospitalizations was extended to June 11, 2022, for the 2021–2022 season, but otherwise occurred October through April each season. Surveillance for RSV hospitalizations occurred from October 2019 through April 2020. Since October 2020, surveillance for RSV hospitalizations has occurred year-round excluding May–June 2022. Surveillance for COVID-19 hospitalizations has occurred year-round since March 2020. Cumulative rates for the 2023–2024 season are not presented as surveillance is ongoing .

Hospitalizations by age group . Over time, rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 have decreased across all ages but have remained higher among adults ages ≥65 years relative to younger adults, children, and adolescents. Among older children, rates have decreased, and rates among children are now highest among infants ages <6 months. As of the end of December 2023, about 70% of hospitalizations were among people ages ≥65 years, and 14% were among those ages 50–64 years.

Increasing proportion of COVID-19 hospitalizations are in older adults, as well as the youngest children

Percents of weekly COVID-19-associated hospitalizations, by age group — COVID-NET, March 1, 2020–January 27, 2024

The proportion of hospitalizations caused by each of these viruses in the 2022–2023 season varied by age group. Among children <5 years RSV caused the most hospitalizations. Among children and adolescents 5–17 years, influenza caused the most hospitalizations, and hospitalizations overall were the lowest in this age group. Among adults, COVID-19-associated hospitalizations were higher than those for influenza or RSV. These patterns have been broadly consistent thus far in the 2023-2024 season.

Most COVID-19, influenza, and RSV hospitalizations are in older adults and young children, with COVID-19 highest among older adults and RSV highest among young children (note differences in y-axis rates of hospitalizations across age groups)

Weekly rates of laboratory-confirmed respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations by age, 2022–2023 season. Seasonal influenza surveillance ended in April 2023 for the 2022–2023 seasons; surveillance for COVID-19 and RSV hospitalizations was year-round. Data from RESP-NET .

As of February 10, 2024, 1,178,527 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in the United States. In 2021 COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death (12% of all deaths) and in 2022 it was the fourth leading cause of death (5.7% of all deaths), following heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injury. In preliminary data from 2023 , COVID-19 was the 10 th leading cause of death. Among deaths from COVID-19 occurring from January–September 2023, 88% were among people ≥65 years.

COVID-19 is increasingly a contributing rather than the primary (underlying) cause of death. In 2020, COVID-19 was listed as the primary cause for 91% of deaths involving COVID-19. During January–September 2023, that number had fallen to 69%.

Reported deaths involving COVID-19 are several-fold greater than those reported to involve influenza and RSV. However, influenza and likely RSV are often underreported as causes of death. CDC estimates that from October 1, 2023, to February 17, 2024, 17,000–50,000 influenza deaths occurred, several times greater than the number of reported deaths. As such, the data on reported deaths should be interpreted with caution when assessing the true burden of deaths and comparing across diseases.

Current estimates of total COVID-19 deaths are not available, but COVID-19 deaths are not likely to be as underreported as are deaths involving influenza because of widespread COVID-19 testing and intensive focus on COVID-19 during the pandemic. Total COVID-19 deaths, accounting for underreporting, are likely to be higher than, but of the same order of magnitude as, total influenza deaths. Supporting this idea, the cumulative rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations during October 1, 2023–February 3, 2024, was 97 per 100,000 population, compared with 52 per 100,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations and 44 per 100,000 RSV hospitalizations. In-hospital death was about 1.8 times higher for COVID-19-associated hospitalizations (4.6%) vs. those for influenza (2.6%).

COVID-19-associated deaths based on reports on death certificates declined over 5-fold since their peak in 2020-2021 and are now at the same order of magnitude as estimated influenza deaths

*Reported death data from CDC’s National Vital Statistics System based on death certificates, available at CDC WONDER . Data from 2022-2024 are provisional and subject to change .

****Estimated influenza deaths, accounting for underreporting, based CDC modeling available here: Disease Burden of Flu , including confidence intervals. It has been long recognized that only counting deaths where influenza was recorded on death certificates would  underestimate influenza’s overall impact on mortality . Influenza can lead to death from other causes, such as pneumonia and congestive heart failure; however, it may not be listed on the death certificate as a contributing cause for multiple reasons, including a lack of testing. Therefore, CDC has an established history of using models to  estimate influenza-associated death totals . While under-reporting of deaths attributed to RSV and COVID-19 likely also occurs, regularly updated model estimates are currently not available. Modeled burden estimates for influenza are not directly comparable to death certificate derived counts for COVID-19 and RSV .

Divergence between infection and severe disease

Although hospitalizations and deaths involving COVID-19 have declined substantially since 2022, rates of infections with the virus have not. For example, the percentage of SARS-CoV-2 tests that are positive, a key indicator of community spread, reached peak levels of 14.6% in August 2023 and 12.9% in January 2024, similar to the peak levels observed in earlier years. Differences in testing practices between time periods might influence these data, but these high levels of test positivity are consistent with high levels also seen in wastewater.

SARS-CoV-2 test positivity (orange line) has remained elevated, a marker of ongoing COVID-19 spread, but deaths (blue bars) have declined substantially

Provisional COVID-19 Deaths and COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) Percent Positivity, by Week, in The United States, Reported to CDC. Sources:  Provisional Deaths from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) Figure from CDC’s COVID Data Tracker .

Wastewater viral activity levels of SARS-CoV-2 demonstrate ongoing community transmission

Figure from CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)

MIS-C is a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19 in which different parts of the body become inflamed. As of January 2024, more than 9,600 cases of MIS-C have been reported to CDC, including 79 children who died. Before March 2022, the end of the initial Omicron wave, most weekly totals of MIS-C cases exceeded 50, with some weeks involving >150 cases. The number of cases declined substantially after that point, with no week exceeding 25 cases. The reduction in MIS-C cases is likely due to multiple factors, including an increase in population immunity from both infection and vaccination, as well as differences in development of MIS-C associated with SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Weekly U.S. MIS-C cases (blue bars) have declined markedly despite ongoing high levels of COVID-19 test positivity (orange line)

Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions

CDC broadly defines Long COVID as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop ≥4 weeks after COVID-19. It can include a wide range of health conditions that can last weeks, months, or years. Although COVID-19 is becoming more similar to influenza and RSV in terms of hospitalizations and death over time, important differences remain, like the potential for these post-infection conditions. Long COVID occurs more often in people who had severe COVID-19 illness but can occur in anyone who has been infected with SARS-CoV-2, including children and people who were asymptomatic. Estimates of Long COVID vary widely and can differ based on study methods and how long after infection symptoms were assessed. Based on the nationally representative 2022 National Health Interview Survey, 3.4% of adults reported Long COVID and 0.5% of children . In Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Surveys, one quarter of people currently reporting Long COVID reported significant activity limitations.

Accumulating evidence suggests that vaccination prior to infection can reduce the risk of Long COVID . There is mixed evidence on whether the use of antivirals, including nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid), during the time of acute infection can reduce the risk of Long COVID. Decreases in Long COVID prevalence have been reported in several countries including the United States , United Kingdom , and Germany , likely due to less severe illness from COVID-19 overall, protection from vaccines, and possible changes in risk with new variants.

Increase in population immunity against COVID-19

Now, more than ever before, most people have some degree of protection because of underlying immunity. Data from a national longitudinal cohort of blood donors aged ≥16 years provide insight on the proportion of the population with antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from infection, vaccination, or both (referred to as hybrid immunity). Hybrid immunity has been described as providing better protection with longer durability against severe illness compared to immunity from vaccination or infection alone.

In January 2021 , only an estimated 22% of people aged ≥16 years had antibodies against COVID-19. By the third quarter of 2023 (July–September), 98% had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, with 14% from vaccination alone, 26% from infection alone, and 58% from both. An estimated 96% of children aged 6 months to 17 years had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in November–December 2022, including 92% with antibodies from a prior infection, according to blood samples from commercial laboratories. Although immunity against SARS-CoV-2 tends to decline from high levels initially generated by vaccination and infection, substantial protection persists for much longer , especially against the most severe outcomes like requiring a ventilator and death. New data show that the 2023–2024 updated COVID-19 vaccine can provide an additional layer of protection against severe disease.

Prevalence of vaccine-induced and infection-induced antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among a cohort of U.S. blood donors ≥16 years

Immunizations

As of February 3, 2024, 22% of adults reported they had received an updated 2023-2024 vaccine, including 42% of people aged ≥65 years. Vaccine uptake varies geographically and by other demographics. As of February 11, 2024, 40% of nursing home residents were up to date with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Reductions in COVID-19-associated hospitalizations over time could be even greater if more people, especially those at greater risk, receive updated COVID-19 vaccines. Among adults with COVID-19-associated hospitalizations during October–November 2023, over 95% had not received an updated (2023 –2024) COVID-19 vaccine , and most (70%) had also not received an updated vaccine from the previous year (2022–2023) .

Over 95% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 during October–November 2023 had not received an updated (2023–2024) COVID-19 vaccine (Preliminary)

Data from COVID-NET. Data are preliminary as they only include two months of hospitalization data for which the updated monovalent vaccine dose was recommended. Continued examinations of vaccine registry data are ongoing. No record of bivalent or updated monovalent dose : No recorded doses of COVID-19 bivalent or updated 2023-2024 monovalent dose. Bivalent booster, but no updated monovalent doses : Received COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccination but no record of receiving updated 2023-2024 monovalent booster dose. Updated monovalent dose: Received updated 2023-2024 monovalent dose. Persons with unknown vaccination status are excluded.

Vaccine effectiveness data provide the best real-world information on impact of COVID-19 vaccines on hospitalization. Data shown below from two studies presented at the Feb. 28–29, 2024, meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices demonstrate that the 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccine is associated with an additional ~50% increase in protection against COVID-19-associated hospitalization.

Vaccine Effectiveness of 2023-2024 vaccine against hospitalization among immunocompetent adults aged ≥18 years

VE estimates adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, geographic region, and calendar time. MMWR February 29, 2024

Data from another study suggest that these vaccines provide similar protection against disease caused by different co-circulating variants . Vaccines continue to provide protection to both people who have had a prior infection and those who have not. To be optimally protected against COVID-19, everyone 6 months and older should receive the latest CDC-recommended vaccine.

Infants <6 months are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines but vaccination during pregnancy helps protect both pregnant people and their young infants from hospitalization due to COVID-19. For people with immunocompromising conditions , vaccine responses can be impaired, but vaccines provide protection against severe illness in this population. People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised are recommended to receive at least 1 dose of updated 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccine.

Immunizations are the cornerstone of protection not just for COVID-19 but also for influenza. New in the 2023-2024 season, immunizations are available to protect those at highest risk from RSV, including older adults and infants.

Vaccines substantially reduce the risk of hospitalization, and many people at higher risk of severe disease are missing this layer of protection

*Data on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness among adults for updated (2023-2024) COVID-19 vaccine and 2023-2024 seasonal influenza vaccine

**Data on 2023-2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines and 2023-2024 seasonal influenza vaccine from CDC’s National Immunization Survey (NIS) as of February 16, 2024. More detail, including confidence intervals around these point estimates, is available on CDC’s Respiratory Virus Data Channel . Data on percentage of older adults vaccinated for COVID-19 and influenza are for those 65+ years and for those 60+ years for RSV .

***RSV vaccination is recommended for older adults aged 60+ years based on shared clinical decision-making with a healthcare provider. RSV protection for young children is available through vaccination of pregnant people or use of an immunization called nirsevimab for young children. As of January 2024, an estimated 16% of pregnant people 32+ weeks gestation reported receiving RSV vaccine, and among females with an infant <8 months, 41% reported their infant received nirsevimab .

SARS-CoV-2 evolution, variants, and vaccines

RNA viruses like influenza and SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, accumulate random mutations over time as they replicate. Out of the many mutations that happen, a small number can provide advantages that lead to new variant lineages with increased fitness (e.g., infect people more easily or be more transmissible). Early in the pandemic, circulating SARS-CoV-2 genomes were relatively stable . Because the virus was so new, our immune systems did not recognize it, and the virus did not need new mutations to escape existing immunity to continue spreading. As population immunity increased and more people developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, this immune pressure selected for mutations that helped the virus escape from neutralizing antibodies, generating new variants. This evolving situation led to viruses that had many changes in the virus spike protein, such as early Omicron variants (e.g., BA.1, BA.2). These ongoing changes in the spike protein, called antigenic drift, from early virus lineages like the Alpha variant to the first Omicron variants resulted in significant escape from neutralizing antibodies, allowing reinfections of people who had been infected by early variants and leading to reduced vaccine effectiveness . Currently, all SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating are descendants of the early Omicron variants.

Changes in the spike protein that enable escape from neutralizing antibodies are the major driver of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, since they allow the virus to better escape people’s existing immunity. To better target the changing virus and increase protection against new variants, the COVID-19 vaccine is periodically updated. For example, the updated COVID-19 vaccine for 2023–2024 includes uses XBB.1.5 antigen, a variant that was dominant for much of 2023.

A wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants have been causing infections over time, most recently dominated by JN.1, representing increased transmission or immune escape by successive variants

Figure based on CDC genomic surveillance data

In 2023, a variant called BA.2.86 emerged with many changes in the spike protein compared to other circulating variants, raising concerns that it might lead to a similar degree of immune escape as the initial Omicron variant. This variant, in the form of its offspring JN.1—just one mutation different from BA.2.86, displaced the other co-circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, demonstrating it had higher fitness than other variants. However, vaccines continued to work well against JN.1 , and the number of U.S. COVID-19-associated hospitalizations occurring at this time did not exceed that of the previous year. These findings suggest that hybrid immunity induced by the updated vaccines, provided robust cross-protection against this variant and likely a wide range of variants, although continued vigilance is critical.

SARS-CoV-2 will continue to evolve, and new variants will continue to replace previous viruses. Therefore, genomic surveillance is used to identify and track variants , and representative viruses are phenotypically characterized as part of coordinated global efforts to develop updated vaccines as needed . CDC along with partners (e.g., National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and World Health Organization) continue to conduct genetic surveillance to monitor for new variants, perform epidemiologic and laboratory studies to understand immune escape, and monitor key indicators like hospitalizations and emergency department visits to help inform prevention strategies. This is a continuous and iterative process that will help prepare for the upcoming 2024–2025 fall and winter season.

SARS-CoV-2 shedding and transmission dynamics

Even as the SARS-CoV-2 virus has continued to evolve, the duration of shedding infectious virus has remained relatively consistent, with most individuals no longer infectious after 8-10 days. The presence of certain COVID-19 symptoms, most prominently fever, is associated with greater infectious virus on the day of symptom. The highest levels of culturable virus typically occur within a few days before and after symptom onset. Since Omicron BA.1 variant, there is a slightly shorter time between infection to symptom onset than previous variants. Overall, these data suggest most SARS-CoV-2 transmission, regardless of variant, largely occurs early in the course of illness.

Notably, over half of SARS-CoV-2 community transmission is estimated to come from people who are asymptomatic at the time, including both pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, meaning exposure to the virus in the community from people who do not know they are infected is likely common.

Highest levels of culture-positive SARS-CoV-2, an indicator of infectiousness, occur in the days around and after symptom onset, with a small proportion of people continuing to have culturable virus beyond one week

Unpublished data from the Respiratory Virus Transmission Network , involving five U.S. sites that enrolled people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and their household contacts during November 2022–May 2023. Onset was defined as first day of symptoms or, if asymptomatic, first positive test. Note that people can have positive PCR tests, which detect viral genetic material, after they are no longer shedding infectious virus, and culture is the best indicator of infectious virus. This figure is similar to one previously published based on data from early 2021, underscoring the overall stability of viral shedding across variants.

In the Delta variant era, vaccination was associated with reduced infectious virus, demonstrating the potential impact of immunity on viral shedding and transmission. Immunity from vaccination, as well as previous infections, wanes over time, which likely attenuates this impact. Additionally, the continued evolution of variants better able to escape existing immunity may also affect the impact of vaccination and previous infection on shedding of infectious virus.

Improvements related to other prevention and control strategies

In addition to greater population understanding of effective prevention strategies like hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, cleaning, masks, and physical distancing, advancements in awareness, accessibility, and the science base related to treatment, air quality, tests, and steps to prevent spread when you’re sick have also enabled people to act to lower the risk from respiratory viruses.

Several medications are available for outpatient treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 for people at increased risk of severe illness. Data for nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid), the first-line drug available for oral use, suggest that it reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by half or more . For example, a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that examined nirmatrelvir-ritonavir effectiveness and efficacy found that people who received nirmatrelvir-ritonavir had 75% lower odds of death and 60% lower odds of hospitalization. People who received nirmatrelvir-ritonavir had 83% lower odds of hospitalization and death as a composite outcome compared with people who did not use nirmatrelvir-ritonavir.

However, uptake of these treatments remains suboptimal , meaning many people are missing this layer of protection against hospitalization and death. A study of patients in the Veterans Health Administration reported that among all persons with SARS CoV-2 infection, 24% used outpatient antiviral medications in 2022, remaining at that level through early 2023. Similar overall rates of use, with a maximum of 34%, were found using observational data of a large cohort from health care systems participating in the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet). This study also highlighted racial and ethnic differences in treatment uptake. During April–July 2022, treatment with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir among adults aged ≥20 years was 35.8%, 24.9%, 23.1%, and 19.4% lower among Black, multiple or other race, American Indian or Alaska native or other Pacific Islander, and Asian patients, respectively, than among white patients (31.9% treated). A CDC study found that among 699,848 U.S. adults aged ≥18 years eligible for nirmatrelvir-ritonavir during April–August 2022, 28.4% received a prescription with 5 days of being diagnosed with COVID-19.

CDC and NIH continue to monitor real-world effectiveness data for COVID-19 treatment. Current evidence suggests that effectiveness of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir is retained among persons who have been vaccinated and confers incremental benefit among persons at high risk for severe disease, although this is an underutilized treatment.

Air quality

Ventilation and related strategies to improve indoor air quality can reduce infective viral particle concentrations in indoor air. In 2023, informed by accumulating evidence, CDC issued recommendations for using Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) 13 or greater and getting at least 5 air changes per hour of clean air in occupied spaces through air flow, filtration, or air treatment. CDC’s Interactive Home Ventilation Tool can help people identify strategies they can use to decrease the level of viral particles in their home. CDC also now provides a similar tool for building owners and operators. In addition, the U.S. Government issued a Clean Air in Buildings Challenge to help building owners and operators improve indoor air quality and protect public health.

Laboratory tests are currently widely available and can be readily accessed for diagnosis of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. At-home antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 are also widely available and increasingly familiar to the public. At-home rapid tests for influenza have recently received FDA approval and may become more widely accessible over time.

Staying home when sick and other steps to prevent spread

The importance of staying home and away from others when sick became more widely understood during the COVID-19 pandemic. When individuals have the option to stay home and be compensated while sick , they are much more likely to do so. Similarly, people with prior telework experience are more apt to work from home when they have respiratory symptoms , rather than work in person at an office.

Unlike early in the pandemic when COVID-19 was nearly the only respiratory virus causing illness, it is now one of many, including influenza , RSV , adenoviruses , rhinoviruses , enteroviruses , human metapneumovirus , parainfluenza virus , and other common human coronaviruses . CDC is focusing guidance on the core measures that provide the most protection across respiratory viruses. The updated guidance emphasizes the importance of staying home and away from others when sick from respiratory viruses, regardless of the virus, as well as additional preventive actions.

Virus not known in most respiratory infections

Viruses cause most acute respiratory illnesses, but it is rarely possible to determine the type of virus without testing, and oftentimes testing does not change clinical management. Testing for most respiratory pathogens is rarely available outside of healthcare settings. Although at-home antigen testing is widely available for COVID-19, most infections likely go undiagnosed. In a recent CDC survey, less than half of people said they would do an at-home test for COVID-19 if they had cold or cough symptoms, and less than 10% said they would get tested at a pharmacy or by a healthcare provider.

Even when testing occurs, COVID-19 is often not identified early in illness. The overall sensitivity of COVID-19 antigen tests is relatively low and even lower in individuals with only mild symptoms. Significant numbers of false negative test results occur early in an infection. This means mildly symptomatic cases are not always detected, and when they are detected, it often occurs several days into an illness, which is typically past when peak infectiousness occurs.

Public interest in prevention is not limited to COVID-19

A November 2023 survey from the Harvard Opinion Research Program found people were not meaningfully more concerned about any one respiratory virus, with roughly similar proportions reporting being concerned about getting infected with COVID-19, seasonal influenza, RSV, and a cold. Relatedly, a CDC survey found that a majority of Americans take precautions when sick with cold or cough symptoms (i.e., avoiding contact with people at higher risk, avoiding large indoor gatherings) even if they don’t know what virus is causing the illness.

Respiratory Virus Guidance does not imply all viruses are the same

Respiratory viruses are certainly not all the same. Some, like SARS-CoV-2, spread more through respiratory particles in the air, whereas others, like RSV and adenovirus , are thought to also spread via surface transmission. As such, this guidance is not meant to apply to specialized situations, like healthcare or certain disease outbreaks , in which more detailed guidance specific to the pathogen may be warranted. For example, adenoviruses are resistant to many common disinfectants and can remain infectious for hours on environmental surfaces. For the general public, however, an overall focus on hygiene, indoor air improvements, and mask use, coupled with necessarily specific recommendations about vaccines and treatment, provides a practical approach that addresses the key prevention measures.

The updated Respiratory Virus Guidance recommends people with respiratory virus symptoms that are not better explained by another cause stay home and away from others until at least 24 hours after both resolution of fever AND overall symptom are getting better. This recommendation addresses the period of greatest infectiousness and highest viral load for most people, which is typically in the first few days of illness and when symptoms, including fever, are worst. This is similar to longstanding recommendations for other respiratory illnesses, including influenza.

A residual risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission remains , depending on the person and circumstances, after the period in which people are recommended to stay home and away from others. Five additional days of interventions (i.e., masking, testing, distancing, improved air quality, hygiene, and/or testing) reduce harm during later stages of illness, especially to protect people at higher risk of severe illness. Some people, especially people with weakened immune systems, might be able to infect others for an even longer time. It is important to note that a similar residual risk of transmission is also true for influenza and other viruses.

In addition to the overall reduction in risk from COVID-19, other factors considered in developing this component of the guidance included assessment of personal and societal costs of extended isolation (e.g., limited paid sick time), analysis of the period of peak infectiousness ( see section 4.), and acknowledgement that many people with respiratory virus symptoms do not often know the pathogen that is causing their illness.

Case examples from states and countries that changed their COVID-19 isolation guidance to recommendations similar to CDC’s updated guidance did not experience clear increases in community transmission or hospitalization rates. Examples include the most populous Canadian provinces ( Ontario , Quebec , and British Columbia ), Australia , Denmark , France , and Norway , as well as California (on January 9, 2024) and Oregon (May 2023). In California and Oregon, for the week ending February 10, COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations were lower than the national average.

No appreciable difference in COVID-19 ED and hospitalization trends in Oregon vs. nation or neighboring Washington after guidance change

Data from CDC’s COVID Data Tracker

Need for ongoing implementation of recommendations

Vaccines remain an underused layer of protection, even for groups at higher risk. For example, only 42% of adults aged 65 years or greater had received an updated COVID-19 vaccine as of February 16, 2024, compared with 73% for flu . COVID-19 antiviral treatments are also substantially underused to prevent severe COVID-19, meaning many people are missing out on important protection. Influenza treatment is also underused.

Ongoing data monitoring

The SARS-CoV-2 virus will continue to evolve, and new variants will continue to replace previous viruses. Genomic surveillance to monitor for new variants, epidemiologic studies to understand immune escape, infectiousness, severity, and monitoring of key indicators like hospitalizations and emergency department visits, all help inform prevention strategies.

Various data systems are in place to continue to monitor for changes in how COVID-19 affects us . These include monitoring laboratory-based percent positivity and wastewater as indicators of changes in infections. Data on hospitalizations and deaths are indicators of severe illness while data on hospital occupancy and capacity provide information on stress on the healthcare system. Epidemiologic studies continue to assess how infectious the virus is and how efficiently it transmits between people as well as the severity of disease it causes. Ongoing monitoring through genomic surveillance and viral characterization will continue to be important to identify and describe new SARS-CoV-2 variants that may emerge. Vaccines will continue to be updated based on circulating variants, and other protective measures can be scaled up as needed. If variants emerge that have significant immune escape from existing vaccines and therapeutics, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as masking, distancing, and ventilation will be particularly important.

COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV.

Protective tools, like vaccination and treatment that decrease risks of COVID-19 disease are now widely available and resultantly, far fewer people are getting seriously ill from COVID-19. Complications like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and Long COVID are now less common as well. Data indicate rates of hospitalizations and deaths are down substantially, and that clinically COVID-19 has become similar to, or even less severe in hospitalized people, than influenza and RSV.

These factors have enabled CDC to issue updated Respiratory Virus Guidance that provides the public with recommendations and information about effective steps and strategies tailored to the current level of risk posed by COVID-19 and other common respiratory viral illnesses.

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Billie Eilish earned that Oscar

She was asked to pen a ‘barbie’ song. she delivered something devastating..

Waylaid in the psychic muck of a songwriting slump, Billie Eilish got an auspicious homework assignment from Hollywood last year, and instead of handing in something pink and sufficient, she ended up establishing a direct line of communication with God.

That might be the easiest way to understand “ What Was I Made For? ,” the existential piano ballad that just took the Oscar for best original song at Sunday night’s Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Eilish’s task was to write a tune for Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” and with the help of her brother-collaborator Finneas, she sang from the perspective of a plastic doll with disarming sentience and supreme grace, creating something that sounded like a lullaby but felt more like a prayer. Having already delivered a conspicuously breathy performance of the song earlier in the ceremony, Eilish sounded half-breathless while accepting her prize: “I’m so grateful for this song, and this movie, and the way that it made me feel.”

Even in the context of an intellectual property comedy that’s been galactically applauded for being better than it needed to be, “What Was I Made For?” is doubly better than it needed to be . It’s a plea to the universe that we’ve all cried out in our loneliest hours — What is life and why am I in it? — with Eilish posing the song’s titular question in an ASMR whisper that breezes through the chasm between annihilation and hope. “Think I forgot how to be happy,” she sings, gently nudging herself out of the abyss. “Something I’m not, but something I can be, something I wait for.”

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This is clearly the top-tier work of an overachiever who, now, unfortunately, runs the risk of being overprized. This is Eilish’s second Oscar in this category, her jazzy James Bond theme “No Time to Die” having won the trophy in 2022. Over at the Grammys, Eilish swept the top four categories in 2020, and “What Was I Made For?” won the Grammy for song of the year just last month. The 22-year-old has said in interviews that being asked to write about Barbie released her from the paralyzing pressure of writing lyrics about herself — which, in a serendipitous mental somersault, allowed her to do exactly that. So who is she now? Certainly more than a homework-doer or a trophy collector. The answer is something we’ll wait for.

Everything you need to know about the Oscars

The 96th Academy Awards came to a close, but you can catch up with everything you missed from the 2024 Oscars and get the minute-by-minute highlights from our live blog .

Winners: Check out the full list of Oscar winners , which include Emma Stone’s surprise win over Lily Gladstone, Billie Eilish’s victory for her heartbreaking “Barbie” song and Robert Downey Jr. winning for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss .

Firsts: Wes Anderson won his first Oscar , for the short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” and while Gladstone didn’t win she is still the first Native American woman to be nominated for best actress.

Red carpet: See our picks for the best celebrity Oscar looks , or click through the photos from the star-studded night .

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Billie eilish delivers heartfelt performance of “what was i made for” at the oscars.

Eilish and her brother Finneas, backed by an orchestra, got a standing ovation from the audience.

By Carly Thomas

Carly Thomas

Associate Editor

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Billie Eilish pulled on audience heartstrings while performing her hit song from the Barbie soundtrack, “What Was I Made For?” during the 2024 Oscars .

Wearing a Thom Browne tweed blazer and a long black skirt — similar to her red carpet look — Eilish sang the emotional lyrics as Finneas played the piano with an orchestra in the background.

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An orchestra pops up behind Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell during their performance of "What Was I Made For?" from #Barbie at the 2024 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/NYodPxLXhj — The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 10, 2024

When the music duo was initially approached to contribute to the  Barbie  soundtrack, the “Bad Guy” singer previously recalled that she “was in a dark episode and things didn’t make sense in life. I just didn’t understand what the point was and why you would keep going. [I was] questioning everything in the world.”

But after she watched some footage from the film that Gerwig had compiled, that’s when her perspective changed. “Basically I was just watching Barbie say and feel things that I really, really, really resonated with and felt so close to,” Eilish said at the Palm Springs Film Awards in January. “I felt so seen, and I did not expect that.”

The song also won the Oscar for best original song  on Sunday, making Eilish and Finneas the youngest two-time Oscar winners. Other nominated tracks this year included “The Fire Inside” from  Flamin’ Hot , “I’m Just Ken” from  Barbie , “It Never Went Away” from  American Symphony and “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from  Killers of the Flower Moon .

The 96th Academy Awards , hosted by Jimmy Kimmel , were held on March 10 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Find the full winners list here , and check out the Oscars red carpet arrivals .

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Princess Catherine Apologizes, Saying She Edited Image

A Mother’s Day portrait of Catherine, Princess of Wales, with her three children shows a range of anomalies indicating it had been digitally altered.

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Zipper and hair are

Portion of sleeve is

Edges of tiles appear

Hair has artificial pattern

Hair has artificial

By Mark Landler and Lauren Leatherby

Reporting from London

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, apologized on Monday for doctoring a photo of her with her three children, which was recalled by several news agencies on Sunday after they determined the image had been manipulated .

The decision to recall the photo reignited a storm of speculation about Catherine, who has not been seen in public since Christmas Day and had abdominal surgery in January. In her statement, the 42-year-old princess chalked up the alteration to a photographer’s innocent desire to retouch the image.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Catherine wrote in a post on social media. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

The photo, which marked Mother’s Day in Britain, depicted a smiling Catherine surrounded by her children, George, Charlotte and Louis.

Kensington Palace said that William had taken the photo last week in Windsor, where the family lives in Adelaide Cottage, on the grounds of Windsor Castle. But Catherine is known as a keen photographer, and the palace often distributes her photos of the family.

Hours after Kensington Palace released the photo, The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse issued advisories urging news organizations to remove the image.

The A.P. said that after a post-publication inspection of the photograph, its editors determined that the image “shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.” The source of the photo, it said “had manipulated the image in a way that does not meet A.P.’s photo standards.”

The details of the photo show a range of visual inconsistencies suggesting it was doctored. In several areas of the image, details like a sleeve or a zipper don’t line up, or have artificial patterns.

A palace official said Catherine made minor adjustments in what was meant to be an informal picture of the family together for Mother’s Day. The official reiterated that William had taken the photo, though Catherine edited it.

Samora Bennett-Gager, an expert in photo retouching, identified several other questionable elements, including the edges of her daughter Charlotte’s legs, which he said were unnaturally soft, suggesting the background had been manipulated. Catherine’s hand on the waist of her son, Louis, is blurry, which he said could indicate the image was taken from a separate frame of the shoot.

The photograph appeared on newspaper front pages and websites around the world, including the website of The New York Times. The Times removed the photo from an article about it on Sunday evening.

Adam Dean contributed reporting.

Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades. More about Mark Landler

Lauren Leatherby is a visual editor based in London. More about Lauren Leatherby