Sunday, January 11, 2015
So much school, so little time
On average, students spend about 3.5 hours a night working on homework. Although this may not seem like a lot, it's only unsubstantial if school is the only contributing factor in your life. In order to keep up with the high demands of colleges, just attending, or even thriving, in school is not nearly enough. If you want to be accepted into a competitive college then on top of your 3.5 hours of homework, you also should be playing a sport, doing some sort of work, whether it is influenced by pay or strictly volunteer, and you are expected to not only participate in, but take a leadership role with some sort of extracurricular activity, such as a club. Studies show that in order for a high school student to be able to perform throughout the day, they should have gotten an average of 8.5 hours of sleep the night prior. In summation, a high school student is expected to attend school for seven hours, continue to do homework for another 3.5 hours, attend their job, focus on their extracurriculars, and take part in a sport in order to stay active and healthy. In my opinion, this is unrealistic. It just doesn't seem possible to maintain a healthy sleeping schedule, a satisfactory grade point average, along with having any sort of time to participate in any social events. That being said, I believe there should only be a certain amount of homework allowed each night. In a way, I think homework does take part in helping our memory store all of the things we learned throughout the day. However, this task can be completed without the excess busy work. If given the chance, many students can prove to be successful throughout their high school career without having hours worth of homework each night. As an alternative solution, teachers could also choose to make homework optional. This way, if the student feels unprepared in a class, then they have extra practice available to them. However, if a student feels as if they are fully informed on a certain unit, then the homework would be redundant to them. Although this may seem like a poor path for teachers to choose due to the belief that no student would do homework, we should be trusted to take care of our own education. High school is preparation for college, and the rest of our life in years to come. If we are given the power to make our own life decisions in the future, then making homework a choice would just be another way of preparing us for the real world.
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I completely agree with and support your opinion. As students, we are expected to juggle so much all at once, which is simply unrealistic to expect. With only 24 hours in a day, it is close to impossible to manage vigorous class schedules, large loads of homework, sports, clubs, jobs, a social life, and an adequate sleep schedule. One of the primary problems in attempting to manage all of these activities is the excessive amount of homework we are given. I understand that homework is necessary to help store the information we learn throughout the day in our brain, however most of the work we are given is unnecessary and redundant, as you pointed out. By allowing homework to be optional, it would permit students to focus on the areas in which we need help, rather than reviewing material we already understand. Additionally, it would give students enough time to engage in other activities, without feeling as though we are being pressured to cram everything into our intense schedules. Not only would a system of optional homework leave more time our hands, but it would also induce responsibility in us that would better prepare us for college and careers. Once we are on our own, we will not have our teachers or parents forcing us to complete our assignments. It will be solely our obligation, and with the education system that we have now, we will not be ready for the real world.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a good point that we are given too much work. 3.5 hours of homework is a lot especially when High schoolers are known for procrastinating. It is insane the amount of work we are expected to do along with having a life. I totally agree that there should be a restriction of how much a teacher can give night. It would totally get rid of some of the stress that students have with the amount of homework that was given.
ReplyDeleteMaking homework optional would make our lives easier. Sometimes students don't have enough time to do the homework and that's not fair for them. Making homework optional would take the burden off of some students.
Even though we complain about homework, it can be helpful. Giving homework helps remember what we learn in class and sometimes get a better understanding. Homework can also help students understand what needs to be focused on when studying. All in all homework may be a burden, but can be important.