According to the National Education Association (NEA), a student should be assigned ten minutes of homework in total per day. Which means that an 8th grader in the USA; should have at most, 80 minutes of homework per night. Do students in the United States receive too much homework? There are many complaints all around the country. Some say yes, they have too much homework and they are missing out on a normal childhood. Others say children need more than they are already being assigned.

There are negatives to overloading students with homework. William Crain, a professor of psychology in New York, states, “Kids are developing school-related stomachaches, headaches, sleep deprivation, and depression then ever befoer. A child is glued to his or her desk for as many as seven hours a day at school, and two hours at home per day, which adds up to almost 45-55 hours a week! In addition, students who receive a large amount of homework a day will miss out on playtime, which is essential for learning social skills, for proper brain development.

Although some parents and teachers believe assigning a large amount of homework is necessary for a successful life and will improve students' standardized test scores, it's not. There are other ways of giving your child a great education and a greater chance of getting into a good college. A number of studies showed that “more is not better”. For example, in countries such as Japan; and Denmark, which have higher scoring students, teachers assign less homework. The United States is among the most homework-intensive-countries in the world for 7th and 8th graders. So larger amount of homework clearly does not mean higher test scores.

If schools assign less homework, it would most likely benefit the teachers and parents as well. Teachers who assign large amounts of homework may be unable to spot any errors in students' work because they are more focused on getting though every paper. Teachers who assign less homework will be able to check it more thoroughly. A student who is assigned less homework will live a happy and healthy life. The family can look forward to stress-free, care-free nights and, finally, teachers can too.