I’ve been through enough years of school
to tell you that homework is not the
most enjoyable part of school some
students will tell you that they hate
homework every single drop of it some
will tell you that they could have spent
that time playing video games some will
tell you that they could have spent that
time texting friends but I’m almost
certain that every single parent in this
room would disagree with me many parents
think that homework is an essential part
of learning that without homework
learning is not possible educators also
have a similar view on this matter
educators view homework as kind of a
fail-safe if a student doesn’t do well
in school that day
homework is there to help them and to
help them improve though this may be
true in a short period of time in the
long run the results of homework are not
consistent take a look at it this way if
homework actually made us better our
school should be the best in the world
we should be releasing thousands of
educated men and women who travel the
world and help other people cope with
our issues heck if homework actually
made us better there shouldn’t be a
single third world country in the whole
world but know as many of you know
homework does not make us better we
don’t have the best schools in the world
that title is held by a different
country Finland and you know what’s
special about Finland schools they don’t
have homework now I’m not saying that
homework is not beneficial I mean it
does teach you something sometimes but
to achieve little academic improvement
we’re sacrificing much much more any
pediatrician will tell you that a child
needs more than nine hours of sleep
every single day but unfortunately
homework intervenes a student spends
– ADA showers of his or her day in a
school itself moreover a child has 30
minutes of homework from every class on
average that’s another two to three more
hours including extracurricular
activities and just having fun this is
clearly not sufficient sleep for our
students our students are not our
students are simply not getting enough
sleep when you think of a school you
would think that they put the education
and the safety of students first but
this is clearly not seen when it comes
to homework by implementing homework
we’re actually affecting a student’s
ability to learn contrary to what most
people think
by installing homework in our school
system we’re actually affecting a
student’s health a closer look at this
issue hints at something much more
disastrous homework interrupts a
friendly relationship between parent and
child now I’m sure that every parent in
this room wants a happy family where a
child gets enough time to play where
children get enough time to eat three
meals in a day but once again homework
intervenes this time in what seems like
a natural connection I’m sure many of
you understand this situation you
calling come on it’s time for dinner
and your son or daughter is calling back
coming dad I’m almost done I have one
more minute left and coming two hours
later or the more aggressive response of
mom can’t you see I’m doing homework
geez this angers both sides of the
conflict the parents because they want a
happy family they want a family that’s
amazing and children because of the
frustration and the annoyance in this
way homework is kind of like chaos
theory I’m sure many of you know that
I’m sure many of you have famously heard
that a beat of a butterfly’s wings could
cause a storm
the other side of the world relate this
to a different situation I mean none of
you here would trade a $10 bill for a
penny but this is exactly what we are
doing with homework
once again homework has proven itself to
be inefficient moreover if you still
think that homework is an important part
of school homework really doesn’t have a
major effect on the education of
children just because you give a child a
worksheet and tell him or her to
complete it tell him or her to finish
every single math problem does it mean
he or she actually understands the
material you see this is where teachers
should come in a teacher who just hands
out worksheets just doesn’t give out
tangible advice and just plays on a
mobile device all day is no better than
homework itself but to reach this goal
we must require a change in the way our
teachers participate in the education of
students if we can have personalized
personalized medicine all the way to
personalize recommended for you bars on
YouTube why don’t we have personalized
education teachers are here to teach I
mean that’s why we have them but a
teacher even teachers in this
educationally gifted school don’t give
out advice a student can stick on to and
build upon even teachers in this school
aren’t the best teachers a student could
have this is where this is our first
step in reaching a better school system
moreover we straightforwardly tell
students that they are doing something
wrong but we never told them why they
are failing we never tell them what they
are failing at this is our this is
another step in reaching a better school
system
moreover we have been assigning homework
the same way since the 1900s as the
Einstein once said the definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again but expecting different
results
though 100 years may not seem like a lot
take into consideration that our school
system that our world even has evolved
rapidly these last 20 years the clunky
computers of the 80s have evolved into
slim devices that can fit in our hands
the unwieldy carts of the 1800s have
evolved into the super cars of today
primitive medicine such as bloodletting
in the medieval ages has evolved into
groundbreaking cancer fighting
techniques of today but home work has
remained more or less unchanged I mean
if I was doing something wrong I’d know
about it I would work to fix it and I
would work to be better at it but the
richest school system in the world still
clings on to its almost primitive ways
you see the school systems of Finland
Denmark and Singapore are some of the
best in the world but our country the
richest country in the world is lagging
behind its national counterparts where
according to a national survey the
government spends a little more than
$12,000 $12,000 per student Finland
students exceed in academics all while
the government spends 24% less we
repeatedly tell them that they’re not
good enough we repeatedly tell them that
they’re failing we repeatedly tell them
that they’re not good and that they
should improve but this all ends up
being not beneficial unfortunately we
can never become Finland or can we their
school system is the exact opposite of
ours they don’t have homework or
standardized
tests but the absence of homework can be
clearly seen in Finland schools a
shorter school day led students pursue
their dreams let students make good
friends and have friendly and make good
family interactions a 15-minute break
between every class lets students
interpret and understand what they just
learned no homework lets students
socialize with their friends and make
better teacher to student interactions
but the results of a homework free
environment can be is more evident in
the future of these students lives
better teacher to student interaction
leads to higher success rates poverty is
literally unknown to the people of
Finland everyone has offered an
opportunity
everyone is offered an opportunity to
succeed in life more time for sleep
let’s these adults develop good habits
moreover the absence of standardized
tests plays a major part in the whole of
these students lives studies have shown
that these students are the happiest
students in the world they have a
virtual stress-free life we know that
homework will not work
we know that homework is not an
efficient way of teaching our students
but we still implement it you see what
if I told you that homework is the root
cause of big issues in our countries
such as drug use and high school
dropouts but if you really think about
it all these crimes or all these
problems are caused by a failure in
school let’s take a look into the mind
of a student who’s struggling in middle
school every day he forgets to do
homework because he was not able to
because of family issues or even just
because they forgot he goes to school
feeling that he’s stupid that he’s a
moreover the constant strings of zeros
that he gets from every failed
assignments makes him even makes him
feel even more bad eventually he may
drop out and what do you think high
school dropouts do but wait let’s take a
closer look at this child
imagine if homework didn’t exist every
day for this kid would be a new start
every day would be a blank slate every
day would be a new opportunity to
restart and forget all the failures of
yesterday imagine a student that doesn’t
have any homework imagine a student that
doesn’t have any major stresses in his
or her life that student is more likely
to succeed but this change will not
happen overnight it’s not like one day
all teachers just suddenly decided to
stop giving out homework to every single
student this change will take a gradual
movement but there is one thing we as
citizens must do to get there this
change requires a change in the mindset
of our people many people don’t allow
themselves to analyze their mistakes
many people don’t allow themselves to
understand other people’s ideas and this
is exactly what we shouldn’t be doing
many people think that our country is
already perfect and that we need no
reform many people think that we’re
already the best country in the world
and that our schools are already amazing
that they’re phenomenal but this just
reinforces the fact that we’re not
willing to understand other people’s
ideas
now after all this talk about homework I
have a homework assignment for all of
you go to a library a bookstore or even
online and look up the controversy about
homework
there are many titles on the subject but
while you’re reading remember to keep an
open mind
remember to truly understand what these
people are saying read and maybe you’ll
form a new opinion thank you [Applause]