The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article this week by Dr. Daniel Gottlieb, a clinical psychologist, family therapist, and author of, among other things, Letters to Sam: A Grandfather’s Lessons on Love, Loss, and the Gifts of Life. I was excited to read Dr. Gottlieb’s article because he talks about what students themselves can do to deal with the homework problem. Only days earlier, I’d been asked by Teen Vogue what teens can do. It’s unfortunate that we don’t hear very much from students, since they’re the people most affected by homework and education policies. (On this blog, I’ve posted a poem by a teenager and a few students have left comments, but I’d love to have more entries by students. So spread the word.)
I asked Dr. Gottlieb whether I could post his article and he graciously told me I could. I hope you like it as much as I did.
Inside Out | Teenagers Drastically Need More Downtime
By Dan Gottlieb
To all adolescents,
You need more time.
Ninety percent of the high school students I speak with say they are under great stress. Most of it is time-related, and much of that is a combination of too much homework and too little sleep. You need time to sleep (physicians say nine hours a night at your age), to read whatever you want to read, to dream about your future, to just hang out. You and I are not the only ones who know this. A new study by local pediatrician Kenneth Ginsburg demonstrates how important unstructured play (a.k.a. hanging out) is for children’s development. The same is true for adolescents.
Free time fosters creativity and emotional development. It gives you the opportunity to deepen relationships and learn about yourself. Without free time, I worry that you could grow into adulthood valuing yourself more for your performance than for your humanity – therefore putting yourself at greater risk of self-absorption, depression and anxiety disorders.
Mental health professionals all over the country are concerned, but nothing seems to change. Perhaps, in talking to adults, we’ve been addressing the wrong people.
So, how can you create more time? Let’s start with homework. The three to four hours a night I’m told is typical is way too much. Many well-respected educators say students should be assigned about 10 minutes of homework per grade (20 minutes in second grade, etc.).
For seniors in high school, that means two hours or so a night. Harris M. Cooper, a psychology professor at Duke University and author of The Battle Over Homework, agrees; so does the National Parent Teacher Association. In their new book, The Case Against Homework, Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish find no evidence that homework helps elementary school students at all. And the U.S. Department of Education has said elementary students should be given a maximum of five math problems a night. Yet many children are sent home with dozens of math problems and words to memorize.
Convinced? Here’s what you can do about it:
At each school, form a committee to deal with this issue. Check at least one of the above books out of the library and start gathering evidence for your argument.
Have every student on the committee document how much time he or she is spending on each subject – and tell each teacher how much time it all adds up to. Many teachers may not be aware of how much homework you get from other teachers.
Try to get parents on your committee. I know many parents resent all the homework because it virtually eliminates precious family time. But parents should not take the lead in this project. They should be there to support you because this is your project, not theirs.
Set up a meeting with school administrators. Show them your data. Ask them for evidence of the benefits provided by this amount of homework. Perhaps you could begin a dialogue about how much homework is reasonable and relevant – and how it could be coordinated among teachers.
Ask administrators if they would designate a “homework coordinator” so students are not buried by multiple large assignments.
If you believe you are not being heard, try getting more parents to join your committee, and then bring them – and your argument – to the PTA.
Finally, keep me posted on your successes and failures so we can continue the discussion.
Any good education teaches you how to navigate your way in life. If, when you graduate, you see injustice in the world, I hope you will feel a sense of responsibility backed by the power to do something about it.
Begin now. If you believe your homework assignments are unjust, do something about them. Do it for yourself, for your future, and for the younger children behind you. You might end up changing the culture.
Stop Homework 
I’m a high school student and I think that what you’re saying is completely right. After school the second I get home I have to do my homework. It sometimes lasts till 9:00.
LikeLike
Nothing aggravates me more as a high school student than being loadded down with homework over the weekend. The one time a week we have away from school and we don’t even get to enjoy it because we are stressing out over homework that’s due on Monday.
LikeLike
I am a teenager who gets a lot of homework-atleast two hours a day. My name is courtney socroove and I am against having homework. we get a whole day of class anyway! HELP ME
LikeLike
HOMEWORK IS BOGUS!!!! It is totally unnecessary and a waste of time that could be used to feed my livestock at my farm in Kansas next to amish countries.
LikeLike
homework sucks it is wasted time that could be spent plowing my farm and helping arnie feed his livestock
LikeLike
Real world cases prove time-and-time again that “balance” is a much more valuable lifestyle then 8 hours of school followed by 3-4 hours of homework for a teenage student (that’s common sense). Where’s the time left for exercise and socialization?
What somebody really needs to do is a study of the “success” rates 20 years later of students who studied for 3-4 hours in high school vs. those of students who did not. Most members at the country clubs I belong to (where one must have both free-time and considerable money) were NOT people who studied for 3-4 hours a night.
LikeLike
Thanks Chris, I always could use some extra help on my farm in Kansas…
Homework is still BOGUS!
LikeLike
Enough with the porn crap, you people need to grow up.
I’m a senior in high school and between a full day of school and a part-time job, there really is just no time for homework. I usually work 20-25 hours per week on top of going to school for 7 hours every day. On average I have about 3 hours of homework and only about 30 min after school to do it before I have to go to work.
Homework doesn’t teach me anything either, it’s just busy work that bores me and I usually don’t remember any of it the next day anyway. Besides, teachers are paid to teach us IN school, not destroy our social lives outside of school. And to be honest, I actually stayed home from school today because I needed to finish 2 journalism papers that I didn’t have time for over the weekend. This is the 3rd time I’ve stayed home because of unfinished homework and probably not the last. Thanks to this site, I think I’m gonna write my editorial on teens and homework.
LikeLike
I absolutely agree. I get out of school and go sraight to gymnastics for four hours five nights a week. I then go home and have tons of homework to do and i am often up until 2 in the moring just doing homework. its ridiculous!! i love learning but i am not benefiting from all of this homework. on the weekends i rarely get time with my friends or even just to myself because of all the homework i am given. im constanly stressed to the point of tears. i dont know what else to do. over my holiday break i was still loaded with homework and projects and maybe got to see my friends twice. i will try to make a committee and addressing the situation but i need help now, not tomorrow or next week.
LikeLike
I totaly agree. Im writeing a bill for school to make it manditory for you to have a study hall/ open hour so you can have some time to your self when you get home.
LikeLike
People say you should be getting 10 minutes of more homework for every grade you proceed through. Yea right. I am a 7th grade teenager and I have to do at least 2 hours of homework every night. This and I have to spend even more hours doing my school project. I can’t even have time to do my after-school activites. I don’t want to imagine what it is going to be like in high school.
LikeLike
Scuvry home work is as crazy as a cat-a- nine tails. i need more time sailing the seven seas and 4 major oceans.
LikeLike
im doing a debate in english and the topic is ‘homework should be a major part of modern and future schooling’ and im negative!!!!!
i hate homework!!!!!!!! if anyone has any info for me about teens and homework and the effects of it plz inform me
roxyrulz_94@hotmail.com
LikeLike
I think that this is compleatly right! Students should be givin less homeowork or even none. I am a student only in grade 8 but already i am staying up untill at least 10.30pm at night doing homeowrk when i start homeowrk at 3.30 .
I am also doing a debate at the moment and need information to back up my case. The topic is ” himework should be a major part of schooling” but i anm negitive.
please if anyone has any iformation on this topic please e-mail me on lucy_lu_27@hotmail.com
thank-you
LikeLike
hi i need information for my school project it is about homework and the effects my sister has already messaged in but im more important than her!!!!
LikeLike
I’m afraid I can’t do your research for you, but I have made it easy for you by writing a book that explains, in a very easy to read way, the problems with homework. The book should be in your local bookstore or library and, if it isn’t, you should request it.
If you have a specific question that you’d like me to answer, I’d be happy to do that.
Good luck with your school project. If you send me a copy of the finished paper, I’ll consider posting it as a “guest blog” entry. If you look at past entries, you’ll see that I’ve posted the writings of other students.
LikeLike
Hi my name is Damian Wigfall and i a high school student and i think that we shouldnt get homework because most high school studens have to work.I dont think we even learn anything from homework because there is no teacher there to help us and our parents dont have all the answers.I think if we get homework they should give us at least thirty minutes of class to do it
LikeLike
i think that homework can become a hasle when you have other activities like sports and stuff. i usually swim for 2 hours come home and then start my homework at 7 and i end up staying up late till 12 or 3 ‘o clock in the moring casue i’m studying or doing homework that i tuff…
LikeLike
i totally agree with this person , because i juss joined football and i also have a 0 period, i would haved enough time but like football practice ends at like 7 , and my mom wants me in bed by 10 , so thats only 3 hours of work time, and i have 6 classes to do hw, so also i dont have any free time not even on the weekends. I thought i was the only person that understood this, or i mean i thought that no adults understood this from students but i was wrong. Thank You very much.
LikeLike
Adnan–I’m glad you found this site. Perhaps you can enlist some adult support in reducing the homework load in your community. Good luck.
LikeLike
well i personally think that homeworks should be given but in a limit i myself get homework for about three hours or more daily but i really enjoy doing it i am a senior student and head girl of my school and sorry guys i DONOT AGREE WITH YOU ALL!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
i wrote a debate speech about homework and this site helped me heaps. Me and my siblings suffer from the amount of homework we get and i think something should be done all around the world. I came up with the idea to run a trial period where students get about 1 hour of homework per night, and most students in my class changed (behaviour wise) I think that the education board should re think the idea with homework and make a suitable limit for each year level!!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
comment21 … stinks
LikeLike
Joseph: Would you send me a copy of your speech? With your permission, I’d like to consider posting it.
Did your school implement your 1-hour policy idea? If yes, for how long?
LikeLike
hi, my name is courtney, i’m 17 and a junior in high school. i agree that homework amounts only to busy work most of the time. there’s no teacher to help us, and most of our parents can’t even help us because if you’re like me, you’re in an advanced math and it confuses our parents when we’re coming home with what amounts to college math. it’s ridiculous. i think teachers really need to collaborate so there aren’t like 3 major tests or projects within days of each other. this puts way too much stress on the student, and usually causes us to think “quantity,” not “quality” when it comes to our work. face it, when you have 4 subjects of homework, you aren’t putting your best into it. something needs to be done.
LikeLike
i think that homework is a way that mekes teachers feel like they are making teens smarter, but really they are ruing our lives, they are adding on to anxiety, stress, depression, and all of that could lead up to possible suicides, or drop outs.I feel like homework is another way to make me hate school, not only do i have to go to 7 hours of school, but then added on to it is an additional 2 and 1/2 hours of homework, therefore 9 1/2 hours of my day is devoted purely to school. there is 24 hours in a day, if 9 1/2 hours are devoted to school, i have 15 hours of my day left, but i still need 9 hours of sleep so that leaves me six hours but its to late to socialize, so i can sit at home and watch tv, or depress about my non socialable life that is being ruined because of school.
LikeLike
i totally agree when i hav volley ball and cheerleading practice all in the same day it sux to come home and do my homework… homework is just a stress adder so ya homework is GAY!!!!!!! ha ha
LikeLike
i am totally against homework! i am in 9th grade and i am supposed to do a editorial about high school homework over the week-ends and i am all against it, i have a teacher (mr. watson) who says that weekends are our time and that what i think is right because no one likes mondays when you have to go to that class and feel all tired cause you spent all night doing homework and it will make more people want to go to that class cause no homework! come on everyone likes no homework so i am fully AGAINST IT!!!!!!!
LikeLike
Yes I agree!
School is important to me and homework is too but when you have too much it can be very stressful. My eating habits are horrible now. I havent worked out in months and I feel like my brain is constantly running-even in my sleep! Sometimes I will only get one hour of sleep a night.
I get home from school around 2:30 and I try not to take a nap because then I will be tired when school starts up the next day and it will just be a viscious cycle for the next two days. I am soo stressed out and managing my time hasn’t been great either. I will start my homework usually around 3 pm and sometimes wont finish until 1 or 2am and I get up to get ready for school at 5:30 am!!
I have 2 AP classes and the rest are honors. I would like to get a job but don’t think my psyche can handle it lol and I feel like whatever Im learning in school it doesn’t stick in my brain. If this is only 11th grade, I sure can’t wait till senior year! =[
LikeLike
I agree with this 100%. I’m a junior in high school who takes a combined english/history honors IB class and let me say the homework load for that one class is insane. There are two teachers who teach it and each teacher is allowed to assign their “own” homework each night. My school does block scheduling, so there are only 4 classes in the day but my english/history class meets each day because it is technically 2 classes. Today from that one class alone we were assigned 6 different assignments (which is to read like 30 pages in a packet, read 40 pages in a book we’re reading for english, read another packet and make an outline, define about 65 vocab terms and take notes on our class notes) all to be completed by Friday! I honestly do not understand what these teachers were thinking. Those 6 assignments would not have been too horrible if that was the only homework we had but we still have 7 other classes where homework is also assigned. Like Bree said above, school and homework is important to me but once there is too much assigned it gets way to stressful. I’m lucky to get 6 hours of sleep a night now, and having free time has become a rare blessing. Our english/history class has discussed the homework amounts to the teacher and our reply back has often been “you can’t say it’s unfair, besides you’re in high school you don’t have lives.” For the teacher to say that to their students does not seem right at all. Yes we are only juniors in high school but we still have family and friends to spend time with and activities that we participate in after school. I thought that teachers were suppose to help their students become more confident in their studies and to teach us to really embrace learning, but I guess that the teacher’s main purpose now a days is to bring their students down and tell them their life is not important.
If I had more free time I know that I would be a much happier, healthier person. I would be able to get an actual good night’s rest, read for fun, watch tv or just have time for myself and with my family/friends. I’m so glad I stumbled across this website because until now I was not aware that there are actually adults out there that believe homework can be harmful to your health.
Thank you for reading.
LikeLike
I’m in my third year of highschool and im 16 (canada)Homework makes me hate school.
I get migraines from the stress of my three to four hours a night, plus i have to work to help my parents out with uni.
I end up missing school somedays just so i can have a chance to catch up. Social life? Pshh! not during the school week! I used to love reading, now i dont even have time for that! I’m now thinking of quitting my extra curriculars just so i can get a 6hr a night sleep. Looks like prom committee and Student Council are out!
LikeLike
Yeah you are right, I like to read too but I never have enough time to read for enjoyment.
LikeLike
I am in a large public high school. The teachers don’t collaborate about hw time, and in reality, they can’t, so they just give out whatever the f*** they please! My school is a friggin pressure-cooker, the pressure to be the best is tremendous. I have had to stay up for 72 hours straight doing work so that I could get a 26/50 on a history project that was supposed to take a week. I have started smoking to get the energy needed to carry on and continue to be mediocre. I am in all honors and two APs and I am below average in the intensity of the classes I take. I cannot remember the last time I was relaxed enough to think. I cannot remember the past time I got a full night’s sleep. I cannot remember being happy in the ‘best years of my life.’ The new yorker, several years ago published an article titled “N** T****: Students high, grades higher.” As a kid who avoids the high pressure to do drugs, I am screwed. That is seriously f***ed up.
LikeLike
Having homework isn’t that bad. I’ve kinda of mastered the whole having 4 hours of homework thing. I just do it in class and if I can’t do it in class, I try to do it all at lunch. Usually, I’ll get half of it done.
LikeLike
I am a freshman at Marist college and never had close to this much homework in high school. I think many teens take there schoolwork way to seriously and need to relax themselves a little bit.
LikeLike
Homework is a curse and a blessing.
Sometimes I find the homework completely unnecessary, but at other times I feel that it helps me understand the lesson better.
What angers me the most is that we’re punished if we do not complete it– but there is always an underlying reason.
Instead of giving students detention for not completing homework, they should try and find the underlying cause to why they didn’t finish.
We should be given less homework either way…
I have Algebra II, Geometry, Psychology, Spanish I, World History, Honors American Lit., and Honors Biology this year. These classes are difficult enough, I don’t need 25 problems in both Geo. and Algebra II. I don’t need three vocab worksheets in psychology. I don’t need half of what they give me.
On average, I get four hours of sleep.
I have to clean the kitchen each day.
I cook dinner every night.
I have to do so much, I cannot live a personal life beyond school.
My freshman year I had a 4.0 but no social life.
This year I have a social life. I’ll hang out after school for two hours and now my grades are dropping because I haven’t done my homework.
I’ve given up.
LikeLike
yes, you are completely right. I’m only a freshman and some nights i have styayed up until 2:00 in the morning doing homework, studying for test, doing projects, ect. It’s just too much, then on top of that I’m an athletic trainer, or water girl and that consumes most of my time then homework. Then the most hours of sleep that I mainly get is about 5-6 hours which is not good for a 14 year old. In result I never have a moment to myself and even if I do steal a second for me I end up paying for it in the long run. I don’t think Homework is really that neccesary, but I truly agree with this article. well I have to get back to my homewoprk now haha.
( I’m too stressed out someone please help)
LikeLike
homework is so gay i hate it…
we do enough work at school, if we all worked a little bit harder in class we wouldnt need it.. it doesnt even help us anyway it should be optional not compulsary…
END HOMEWORK, AM I RIGHT FELLAS!!
peace..
LikeLike
Hi, i think homework in high school is ridiculous especially when your in sports! i played football freshman year in highschool and i had to quit cause practice started at 330 and i got home around 730 which leaves me 2hours to do homework and whatever else i wanted to do! I stopped doing homework and just tried doing a portion of it in my other classes the next day before i had the class for the assignment. Homework is the only thing i hate aabout school, it is necessary so that we can practice it on our own time so it willl better stay in our minds but most of us highschoolerz have about 6 or 7 classes and that means 6 or 7 Assignments that we gotta do that night, this is insane, life would be more fun without so much homework fo’rrealz =[
LikeLike
we should all get together and put an end to homework, it is terrorising our lives, i almost had to miss my sport grandfinal because of it, that is just unacceptable.
if teachers could teach us better we wouldnt need homework..
END OF DISCUSSION
AM I RIGHT FELLLAASSSSS
im aussie proud by the way so the message of stopping homework is internationally supported as well
cheers.
LikeLike
chuck norris doesnt believe in homework
so we should stop it
LikeLike
I agree that there is too much homework .Teachers don’t talk to eachother about the work they are giving out so we are often landed with several peices as well as coursework for very similar deadlines.
Isn’t the point of homework making sure that you can do the work without your teacher’s/ parent’s help?
LikeLike
I agree there is way too much homework. I am working most nights to about 11pm. I don’t even learn anything from homework, I just find it a useless, boring task that doesn’t help at all. Even the projects/assignments we are given are mostly ridiculous – the instructions are vague, unspecific, and I get stressed out not just about completeing it, but worrying over if I did it right or not, because teachers almost never answer your question about it properly. While they think it helps, it creates a distinct hate to learn, allows stress and depression. I usually spend my whole weekends working on projects, and I’m not sleeping properly because of it. My eating habits are messed up, and my social life is locked away in the bottom of the ocean most weeks.
And I end up procrastinating a lot out of the pure fact that the assignment is always a ludicrous task, or the teachers haven’t taught us what we’re meant to be doing. Who looks back when they’re in their chosen career path and says “oh, I remember doing that huge project in science, what was it?”
Honestly, stop stressing us out, we don’t need to work for 18 hours on a Sunday, it’s insane.
LikeLike
I totally agree with everything said here. I’m on a three day weekend right now and i haven’t been able to relax and do my own thing because of homework! This is ridiculous! I’m only in the seventh grade, I’m not even thirteen yet. There is a serious problem here.
LikeLike
I feel your pain, dear 7th grader. My daughter was just away all weekend too, not for pure pleasure but on a school finals competition performance.
She too worried excessively about how she’d get all her weekend homework done and took a boatload of it with her. Not surprisingly, none of it got done and she seriously considered taking today off to get it all done.
I’ve joked wryly that our kids are so inundated with homework, they have no time to actually go to school! What’s wrong with this picture? In the end, she fretted about missing school, went in and is now significantly behind. How are we supposed to go on college visits with unrelenting weekend work? Shouldn’t there be some time in a seven day cycle when the school does not own her?
Oh, I should add, it’s not a high school thing. As Leon Wieseltier would say, it’s just worser than worse. She was shut in all weekend in 7th grade too and our travels were crimped.
LikeLike
Since i had moved to another country my life is more hard every time.When i get homework i feel lasy because i got seriously no time to do it in my country We always study Cambrige subject its was more hard and we were doing 13 subject this is for teenagers between 13-17 am talking about and for all subject a homework everyday if it was not done we are in bad position.Since am in this new country am working with my parent ever night and i got no time for anyting ,I think that homeworks are bad ,kids feel lasy after a hall journay of school.schools are here to teach students whereas homes are here to make feel better after that.
LikeLike
I completely agree with everyone here. I am a sophmore in high school and i feel as though i dont know myself, all of my time is spent doing homework and studying for classes. I can’t not do my homework, i will feel guilty and never get to sleep. By doing my homework i can be up until about midnight everynight, and awaking at 5:30ish to start school and 4-6 hours of homework all over again. I also run track and cross country, so that is another 2 hours out of my day, but most days my performance is at a disadvantage because i am too stressed over the amount of homeowrk to do when i get home. Once home I sit down, and start on it, with honors and ap classes i feel as though my socail life is nonexistant.
LikeLike
i also run track and cross country which means that i get home at like 5:30 or later and i need to go to bed at 10 to get at least 7 hours of full sleep. i get tons of math homework and science which i hate now. thank god my english teacher doesn’t believe in tests and quizzes or worksheets but we still have a lot to read in his class and have to write a lot of paper’s. but i usually get like 4 to 5 hours of homework a night. And the amount of books we have to bring home is CRAZY and it makes my back hurt a lot i usually can’t even pick it up. there should be a homework limit and a set amount for how much our back packs should weigh now i have to go and study for my social studies final. =(
LikeLike
Abby sums up the real problems high schoolers face, in a nutshell.
1. Homework overload
2. Severe sleep deprivation
3. Backpack overload
3. A sense of futility. I can’t get all this done no matter how hard I try, what will happen to me?
4. Feelings of powerlessness and resentment.
Sounds to me like school is either not paying attention or just doesn’t care. However you slice it, the above harms teens and does long term damage.
LikeLike