by Michelle Psaltakis, staff reporter
Photo from public domain
Homework has been around for the longest time. The purpose of it is to allow students to go home and practice what they have learned on their own. But how much homework is too much?
Teenagers are supposed to get nine hours of sleep every night, but that would mean that they would have to go to bed around 10 p.m. and that’s not likely. Homework becomes a priority and takes up all their time, leaving little for sleep.
“Homework is good when its not given as busy work. I don’t give a lot of homework because we spend a lot of time practicing in class. I give them extra work when I think more practice is needed. I know the juniors have SAT’s and AP tests to study for so its for their sake,” science teacher Ms.Katz said.
Students have at least six classes per day, each of which requires homework and projects. This can cause a lot of stress onto one person. All of this stress starts to build up which isn’t good for anyones health. Stress can lead to anxiety and depression and with all the homework students are getting, this rate is rapidly growing in teens.
According to NBC, it was found that 30 percent of teens had so much stress in their lives that they started to feel depressed, 31 percent felt overwhelmed, 36 percent said they felt over tired from stress and 23 percent said they had skipped meals just to get all of their work done on time. If this isn’t a red flag to school officials, then thats a serious issue.
Eating, exercising, and socializing is incredibly important for anyones emotional, mental and physical health. As well as the development of skills vital to their future career and having healthy relationships.
Students over work themselves for a grade to make sure that their GPA’s are high enough so they can get accepted into the college of their choice. As a student, understanding this stress comes naturally. Hearing close peers talk about how late they sleep, how little they eat and all their health issues is worrisome.
“Since I work and I have to study for necessities aside from school work, home work being piled up is definitely stressful for me. I tend to lose sleep because I still have to finish everything up. The most I get is four hours of sleep a night. I suggest people to finish their homework in school during lunch time or any free time you have. Also its best not to procrastinate because it takes your time away. The best way is to just plan things out,” senior student Da Hae Jung said.
Seniors and juniors have a ton of stress piling up, with SAT scores, college applications, scholarships, AP courses, extra curricular activities, etc, all while still having to go out and have a social life.
Weekends used to be a time of relaxing where many people would sleep in late, but now students are doing homework, projects, and trying to keep up with a job. Breaks are no longer considered breaks, they are now a chance for teachers to pack on more work.
What some don’t realize is that even a simple comment can make any student feel some sort of anxiety fear, even depression.
On the other hand, many teachers, students and parents feel that more work is better, because it will keep the students focused and on task.
“Homework keeps students occupied and makes them try harder. They are now able to take what they learned at school and bring it home. I can now see what my child is learning. It may seem like a lot but it will be worth it in the overall outcome,” parent Milagros Fernandez said.
Its not necessarily the teachers who should get the blame. They assign the work, but they also have a curriculum to follow, given to them by the Department of Education (DOE). The DOE changes what they give to the teachers to allegedly “better” the students. They have a tendency to improve standards, that fit the new expectations and information that comes in. When they fix these standards, the DOE only thinks about how it will make the schools or state look better.
Students learned how to cheat their way through school and beat the system, not learn to their full capacity. Maybe, if the DOE changed their mind set to realize that students are students not sponge robots who can take in information when they don’t have enough sleep.
