Question

Too Much Homework?

Kids have always complained about having too much homework, but are students in America really assigned more work than is healthy? And how much is too much?
The National Education Association (NEA) has actually come up with guidelines for how much homework teachers should assign. The NEA says that kids should get no more than 10 minutes per grade level each night. So that means a first grader should have 10 minutes of homework, a second grader should get 20 minutes, and so forth. Using this same guide, a seventh grader should not get more than 70 minutes of homework each day. Ask the average seventh grader in American public schools, and he or she will tell you that a lot more than that often gets assigned. Of course, kids are prone to exaggeration, so it's hard to take them seriously. But most will adamantly state that they get way too much work sent home each night.
But kids are supposed to work hard in school, right? What's wrong with that? Psychologists say that more and more school kids are getting tummy aches, headaches, and other health problems from putting in too many hours studying. Also, kids who have too many hours of homework will not get much time to play—and playtime is needed for brain development and for learning good social skills. Playtime also gives kids badly needed exercise, and without it, they can put on an unhealthy amount of weight. If you're not in school yourself, you might think students get plenty of time to play and blow off steam, but they don't really. In fact, the average student in the United States sits at a school desk for nearly 7 hours daily. When you add in 2 to 4 hours of homework each night, that's more than 45 hours of schoolwork per week! Compare that to a normal 35- or 40-hour work week that adults put in, and it starts to become apparent that school can be more than a full-time job!
So why are students assigned that much homework? Teachers generally give homework as a way of getting kids to repeat what they've learned in class, so it will sink in better. But according to the Department of Education, an agency of the U.S. government, students often do the homework incorrectly. Working on 50 math questions and doing them wrong, for example, only reinforces the incorrect way of doing the problems. Homework only "works" as a learning tool if a parent or someone else makes sure the student is doing the drills correctly. Otherwise, all of the hours of homework in the world won't make him or her better student.
4Question 4
Which sentence weakens the author's argument that kids may be getting too much homework?
A.
When you add in 2 to 4 hours of homework each night, that's more than 45 hours of schoolwork per week!
B.
Also, kids who have too many hours of homework will not get much time to play.
C.
Of course, kids are prone to exaggeration, so it's hard to take them seriously.
D.
The NEA says that kids should get no more than 10 minutes per grade level each night.

Answer 1

C. It undercuts the students' reports by suggesting they're likely exaggerating, which weakens the claim that they actually get too much homework.