It is very easy to answer 'yes' to the above question, especially when one is loaded with homework up to the neck. However I will not say that homework should be abolished. It is useful in many ways, I will say that homework should be given discreetly.
Every teacher ought to realise that other teachers are also giving homework. So if five diff teachers come into the class and all of them give us homework, then we will hv 5 diff sets of hmwork to do.
It's already a full-time job concentrating on what each teacher tells us in class. So by the time we reach home, all we want to do is to flop into bed and take a nice nap. The nap normally is filled with dreams about unfinished homework and angry teachers. So more often than not, sleep is out of the question. After lunch it is usually back to work trying to finish the assignments before evening comes and we go out to play for a while.
However, the homework cannot be done in one sitting. This is especially so when we get stuck in a mathematics problem and can see no way through. So after dinner it is back to work once again to complete the homework and try to do some studying as well. Sometimes the going gets so overwhelming that the only sane thing left to do is to quit and do something else, that does not involve crazy-thinking- that-can-causes-migrain or headache, like watching television or playing with the computer.
There are a few students in my class who have more or less given up on subject that the teacher load with too much homework, example math. I suppose the strain has taken its toll on them. They are simply not bothered anymore. They just sit quietly everytime they are chastised by the test we get. They show no concern at all for the results. The teacher has given up on them now. The teacher ignores them as much as possible. I wonder how the students really feel about the teacher underneath their assumed silence. I wonder how the teacher really feels about them.
Doing homework is never a pleasant affair. If the vol of homework is manageable then they can be done efficiently and quickly. In this way we do learn anything except that we are simply fed up. I believe then that we should not abolished homework completely. The best thing to do is for the teacher to seriously consider the student's welfare before any homework is given. Homework should aid the students to learn. It should not be the opposite. Like food, if taken in moderate quantities, it nourishes; if taken in excessive amounts, it kills.
