By Sophia Doan
My typical day starts with waking up at 7 to get ready for school. I go to my 6 hour school day, only to walk out of my three classes and onto the track. After track, I get home, ready to rest and relax after a long day of school, but then I look over at the pile of homework on my desk. After reading hours of textbook notes, writing practice essays and doing pages of trigonometry, I finally collapse into my bed only to wake up and repeat it all the next day. While a schedule of not getting home for hours and slowly becoming burnt out from homework and advanced classes initially seems unmaintainable, this reality remains very prevalent in high schools around America.
As education progresses, when kids trade their juice boxes and recess for AP classes and extracurriculars, the level of competitiveness and stress only increases. With college being the end-all-be-all, the epitome of success projected onto children, schools have increased the pressure put on students. Among hard classes, endless sports practice, jobs, and volunteering opportunities, students have to add in hours of homework to keep up with classes. Unfortunately, this overexposure of pressure and schoolwork easily results in students experiencing burnout.
According to a Stanford study done on the impacts of over assigning homework, “found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive” (Stanford research ). Their data shows that around 56 percent of the students reported that homework was causing the most stress on their lives. Unfortunately, highschool students commonly experience nights up late finishing a project or taking notes for a class. The health risks too much homework can bring include immense “sleep deprivation, headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems (Stanford research ). Additionally, anxiety, stress, and depression can result from this rise in responsibility. Psychologist researchers have studied and found a direct correlation between stress and health issues, ranging from headaches to more serious illness. As someone who struggles with chronic migraines, I have seen the negative impacts of stress—usually resulting from homework—on my issue.
With the school day already spanning around 6-7 hours—with sports and other extracurriculars tacked on—too much homework often becomes overwhelming to the average student. Teachers should instead focus on in class projects, making the most of the often long class periods. When the completion of homework is essential to a class, teachers should be mindful and empathetic towards the students’ other responsibilities.
Throughout my personal experience, I have dealt with teachers who handle homework in various ways. Below, I talked to one of the exceptional teachers at Westmont, asking how he handles setting up his students for success while still valuing their education. Chris Haskett is the AP Language and English 4 teacher at Westmont.
Do you assign homework in your class?
Chris Haskett: Yes. It is primarily reading.
Is the homework assigned essential to the course?
Chris Haskett: Yeah if you don’t read in an English class what the heck are you doing.
What is your late homework policy?
Chris Haskett: Well I would prefer people did things on time but ever since the pandemic my actual policy has gone out the window. So as long as you do it well you’ll get the points.
Do you believe students are exposed to too much homework throughout their high school career?
Chris Haskett: If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it does it kill the squirrel? If a student is assigned homework that they don’t do does it damage them? But for students who do the work it depends on the student. Do I think students should do homework? Yes. Do I think there is a saturation point where homework becomes detrimental to the student?
Have students ever approached you regarding homework concerns, and how would you handle a stressed student?
Chris Haskett: To each according to their ability. Some students are more stressed out than others, some have more responsibilities than others. I prefer to take it on a case by case basis. Some students genuinely do not have enough time to do certain assignments. On the other hand, some students need practice. You have to discern what is best for the student and then adjust the policy based on that.
How do you attempt to be mindful of students’ other responsibilities when assigning homework?
Chris Haskett: I like to find out what the students are doing or what they are involved in. When they are doing nothing I know I have to worry less about them. When they are involved in lots of different things I try to be more lenient.