School, Stress, and Strive: Is it Too Much for Students?

Homework. Everyone always rants and raves about how horrible it is, but how does it really affect the lives of students? According to sixty research studies, not only does homework not improve student grades, but there is also no direct correlation between achievement and homework.

Many teenagers do not have enough time to do all of the homework they are assigned, with work from other classes plus college applications and considerations.

Many homework assignments are not even cognitively cultivated by the teachers; they just give students what the district tells them to.  It is simply busywork that the teachers use to make sure that all the information has not leaked out of everyone’s ears by the end of the day. This becomes a major problem for students in high school as it only adds to their stress level. Not only do they need to keep up with that teacher’s work, but the other projects, tests, and assignments the teacher has given them

Each individual teacher can give hours of homework. Assuming that the average high school student takes at least seven classes, excluding gym and lunch, this can become overwhelming, especially if some of these classes are AP courses.

Coursework can be rigorous enough as it is without the addition of homework, but teachers can assign classwork to be finished at home and still give students intended homework which can become overwhelming. With this in mind, each grade has different responsibilities one on top of their homework, the two grades who will have the most responsibilities include juniors and seniors.

The time needed to prepare for components such as SATs and college applications can span up to hours, however, this time is usually cut short by homework.

In addition to administered tests, it should be also noted that some, if not a large portion of the homework given to students does not come from their teacher but the actual administrator or supervisor of that class subject. 

The Chief received some responses from Massapequa classmates on their feelings about this topic, and how homework is, as mentioned before, stressful and frankly a waste of time.

One student said that, “Between work, school, extra curriculars and other activities, free time becomes limited and stress becomes a non-ending cycle of exhaustion.” Students feel that they have too much on their plate and this makes it harder to essentially recharge themselves before even more is put on their plate.

Another anonymous student said,  “Homework makes it difficult to manage time, and I end up having to stay up very late to  finish all I need to do, causing me stress.” This then bleeds into the sleep schedule of the student, making it harder for them to focus in class, which makes the homework more difficult to understand.

The student then stays up late working on it because they’re so confused and it becomes a never-ending stress vortex of no sleep and slowly dropping grades. Homework is often regarded as a nuisance to students and the side effects of it only make their lives harder.   

Another problem homework causes is how it bleeds into after-school and social life more than it should. Students are required to get certain service hours for college, and some have sports and other clubs that they are participating in.

Older students even have after-school jobs, another thing that homework gets in the way of. Socializing, an important part of growing up, as it allows connections to be built, is yet another thing that homework gets in the way of.

If students are consumed with homework, it prevents social interaction. And if they don’t do it to go hang out with friends, that affects their grades and sleep schedule, as they’ll have to stay up late to make up for the missed time. 

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