Public Opinion on Necessity of Homework

The controversy about whether to give kids homework seems to go on for a long time. Meetville.com (dating app to find the right person) polled 80,568 users to find out their opinion on the topic.

The poll, conducted from 5/14/14 to 9/16/14, posed the question: “Should homework be banned?”, and yielded the following results: “Yes” - 29%, “No” - 71%.

Alfie Kohn, author of “The Homework Myth”, says many proponents of homework argue that life is filled with things we don't like to do, and that homework teaches self-discipline, time management and other nonacademic life skills. She challenges this popular notion: “If kids have no choice in the matter of homework, they're not really exercising judgment, and are instead losing their sense of autonomy.”

It is not surprising that with the variation of systems of education in different countries, their approaches towards homework differ as well. The USA participants of the poll accounted to 50%, Canada - 5%, Britain - 12%, Australia - 7% and other countries - 26%.

According to Alex Cusper, Meetville service analyst, “when pushing such policies in every specific country, a lot has to be taken into consideration: culture, personal traits of students. That is not an easy choice for the government, or the school.”

Meetville, a leading mobile dating service, regularly conducts research among its users. Millions of people from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia answer hundreds of questions every month. You can find the results of the poll here. If you are interested in research on a particular topic, please contact us. Any reprint of the material should be followed by clickable links to the survey.