This is the pro argument on the effects of homework on students. To read the con click here.

Homework. That dreaded thing that all high school students hate. However, more importantly, it is a nice positive dose of reality for lazy teenagers who will soon be dealing with college papers and demanding jobs.

Although all high school students are not lazy, the mere mention of any form of so-called “work” is almost always meet with whines and moans. Often, students act as if the teacher has personally offended them by suggesting they do more than sit at home and watch TV.

Do not be naive enough to believe that teenagers are unchangeably lazy. In fact, students are constantly active, balancing sports, clubs, extracurricular activities, and family and friends with their ever-looming schoolwork. Quite simply, students’ hatred of homework comes from the belief they have more important things to do with their lives.

In reality, homework is absolutely crucial for students and their lives, not to fix the lazy teenagers, but to prevent laziness. Having homework prepares you for the real world. Not only will it help prepare you for college, but it will also prepare you for all jobs you might hold in the future and for life.  In college, professors are not going to bat an eyelash when they tell you to write a six page paper that’s due next week. In life, your boss isn’t going to like it if you whine and moan every time they ask you to write up a report.

Homework for the sake of homework is stupid, and nothing is more annoying than busy work. However, true college preparatory homework will not only help you learn the topic you are working on in your classroom, but it will teach you to do more than just write the paper or do the report.

Also, it will give you practice with whatever you are working on. Students love to ask, “When will I ever need this in my life?” If it is a paper, you will always need to know how to write and communicate effectively. If it is something more precise like the quadratic formula in math class, you may never need that equation again, but practicing it will teach you how to think. It will train you to logically solve problems, which you will do for the rest of your life.

At the end of the day, even if we don’t like it, homework helps students to become better adults. And isn’t that what all teenagers want? To be treated like adults?

Hope Kelly is Editor in Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.