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 am an extrmely hard-working 16 yr old female. I read this at 1:21 am as i try to finish my very difficult french essay which is due tomorrow morning. I also had to finish physics homework and I never even got a chance to start my math homework/study for my math test/prepare for my BIG music project due in 3 days. I never get more than a 7 hour sleep MAX except for friday nights. I do not have time for a job. I hardly procrastinate. When I do, its because i’m desparate for a break!!! I am so tired i ache. I do not socialize during weeknights. I think junior year has got to be the most stressful yet. I am working 10x harder and my grades have dropped 10% like seriously teachers. if i have to work any harder i may explode.
LikeLike
oh by the way, teachers have got kids at school for 6 hours, add 1 hour to that for an extra curricular (sports/music) plus 5 hours of homework, thats 12 hours a day of work! then you got some crazy people who have a job and then its like… wow
LikeLike
Agreed with more downtime, maybe the work should be lighten a bit, but I believe giving high school students homework provides a good foundation for time management. Not only does homework help students learn more about the subject, it helps create a stronger work ethic. So homework is good, just lighten to the load a bit.
Wait till you’re in college, there’s no homework, so you can celebrate there, but for high school and anything lower, just do the work.
LikeLike
Yen, I’m the mother of a high schooler. We are not arguing for no homework in high school, we understand that when assigned prudently, it’s necessary. However, I have a child who is knee deep in college applications now and is so burned out. How I wish schools would have allowed her the time to do this all year long so it’s not shunted to break when she so desperately needs time off to unwind and recharge her batteries. How about if we agree to this:
1. Two hour high school homework max. Regardless of the amount (two or three), there MUST be a policy. Because what we have right now are teachers assigning at will without coordinating with the rest of the team. Our children carry a seven subject course load. You cannot assign two hours per subject per night because that leads to our teens up half the night and unable to learn productively the following day.
2. Minimal (and I mean MINIMAL) homework on weekends. None would be even better.
3. No homework on vacations and breaks
4. No homework over the summer. You can assign reading, my daughter loves books.But there’s no excuse for worksheets and endless papers. It’s either a vacation or it isn’t. Don’t call it one and then make the kid work all summer. And then write on the bottom of the assignment sheet, please be sure to get some rest. Don’t mock.
Because right now, high schoolers in demanding programs receive NO breaks. That’s what we face here. It leads to burnout, disengagement from learning, stress, sleep deprivation and a host of other ills. What I see right now is no oversight and homework that just grows and grows without scrutiny. That is not just foolish, it’s dangerous and places unnecessary stress and hardship on not just the child but the entire family. Our students are learners, not workers.
LikeLike
hey this is a totally awesome speech! I right now am doing a speech on how homework is harmful to your health! I am in grad 8 right now and needed to look us some help cause I was stuck! I will send you a copy of my speech u just will have to email me first so I know your email! it was a very helpful speech!
LikeLike
Writing this right now at 12:22 on MLK day, or i should say the day after MLK day. Got my wisdom teeth removed last week and I have not been able to start my homework that I got the friday before the pulling. This weekend alone, I have had about 5 hours of reading to do, including 3 hours of AP U.S.H and 1-2 hours of reading Huckleberry fin. Now I have about 15-30 min of english make up work to do, few mins of Math, and 30-60 min of AP art history. I guess I should have done all this earlier, but I just could not start it. Bad procastination problem, furthered by much by the lack of a good homework environment, and probably laziness set off by weight loss from inability to each much, and having bad digestion problems with what I do eat.
While weekends usually are not this bad, normal school days are. I usually have about a max of 7 hours of sleep do to my restlessness and house doesn’t shut off until 11 because my family are asses, and school starts at 7:35 and I wake up at 6:40. Usually sleep 10-11 hours a night on weekends. Darn Edison and his invention of the lighbulb.
On most nights I usually have 2 hours or more of homework to do. Biggest being Honors pre-calc, followed by ap us history. Anything non-regular and I get thrown off course. The presence of a lot of regular homework advises the prescence of a schedule, but schedules are total crap when dealing with nonregular homework. Flexible schedules involve the ability to not procastinate, which I do not have. I usually get home at 3, shower/eat till 4, and in all the weekdays I only have 6-8 hours of freetime, I usually spend it from 4-6.
I swear, homework is just a plot by the capitalists to put down the educated class. By stress is one of the important ones, as stress definitavely plays a negetive role on health. Breaks up families by making kids reclusive and with little time to spend with family. People who do homework cannot have jobs, so in order to get into a university you have to have parents supporting you or get some really good scholorships. Less sleep causes abnormal growth, making kids less mature mentally and emotionally. Less emotional strength makes the educated easy to crack and ply to the industrialists’ will. This is all some twisted system derived by dirty politcians to put down the only ones who can usurp the upper class, the middle class educated people.
LikeLike
if the adults would have listen to us….. the problem is solved yet they still think us as a 7 year old kid. even if u represent the student talking to the school admin or watsoever they listen n they forget the next minute u walk out of the office….. don’t you think??
LikeLike
Teachers just don’t know what it’s like to sit in school for 8 hours (it’s 8 hrs for me because I have to take the bus which comes quite some time before school actually starts, and my school lets me out later than it’s supposed to) and then stare at a computer screen or a piece of paper for 4-5 hours. One day I had to do 2, 2 hr long projects for different subjects, and I had to watch a 2 hour long commercial free documentary and write an essay about it. That goes along with the normal hw that my teachers give me. I get to bed each night aroud 2am and i get up at 6am.
LikeLike
i totaly agree.. i actually found this article searching the web for research on a persuasive essay about why we should have less homework. (subject by choice) to whoever wrote this i respect them greatly. i get about three to four hours of homework everyday. i go to school. sit on my ass. i get home at 3 and start up my homework. sit on my ass some more. no wonder why the majority of american teens are so overweight. i think homework is ridiculous. i have no time for friends or excersize especially. sad thing is im in eighth grade. who in the hell would listen to an eighth grader? teachers where im from, they dont care abt the students and what they have to say. i mean whos gunna listen to a super mature 14year old stuck in a middle school filled with elemetry schoolers (you know what i mean)
LikeLike
You are absolutely right. There is no need for homework. I went to public school from 1st to 9th grade and between the lack of sleep and pressure to get passing grades; I felt like I was going insane.
I’m an artistic person, a right brained type of person, I guess you could say. I didn’t fit into the typical student mold. All that structure and convention that came with public school didn’t help me, it just crushed me. Getting up at the crack of dawn to shove information into your head all day only to come home and have 8 hours of homework left to do…it’s just ridiculous. I basically got no sleep. 3- 4 hours a night, tops.
So after about the 8th grade, I sorta…gave up. I left some time for myself, my art, and my friends. I let myself get 9 hours of sleep. I shoved aside my unfinished work and practiced my guilty face in the mirror. Of course, my grades slipped drastically from where they had been. I got Cs and Ds. But you know what? I wasn’t really sorry about what I’d done. I was really happy during that time. I was doing what I loved to do and was finally getting enough sleep. I could actually THINK for once instead of walking around like a sleep-deprived zombie.
It didn’t last though.
My parents got concerned. I was usually an A student, what was happening? I didn’t know what to tell them. “I’m rebelling against the stressful school system by actually getting sleep”? You couldn’t say that to your parents. They’d say “Learn how to balance things better.”, but how can you balance things better if your homework is drastically out of proportion?! So instead I said “I dunno…I just can’t keep up with it anymore.”
Things started spiraling out of control at that point.
My mom didn’t believe me. She got my PSSA scores and they were off the charts. She said I was smart, so I should be getting good grades. I just shrugged and looked away. Not knowing what else to do, she took me to see a therapist who didn’t do squat either. She just said the same thing my parents would have. “Learn to balance things better”. When I gave her my argument that the homework was too out of proportion to “balance” things, she told me I was wrong and just needed to learn more life skills. I didn’t see her after that.
So I continued getting bad grades into 9th grade until I decided I had had enough. If I couldn’t have good grades AND sleep at the same time, then I just wouldn’t stand for it anymore. I went to cyber school the next year, 10th grade. It’s a lot better than public school for sure, but it’s awfully lonely. I’m a social person, loneliness isn’t for me. So I think I’ll go back to my school next year. I’m not sure what I’ll do though…I want to find a way to better the school system. (lessen homework, convince them to start school an hour later.), but I’ll just be a student in a school run by a bunch of hard-nosed adults who think they know better.
LikeLike
Celia says:
***
She said I was smart, so I should be getting good grades.
***
Celia, I feel your pain. That was what everyone said about me as a kid. Yes, I was smart, but I wanted to have some control over my life. I felt like the only way I could get good grades would be by dumbing myself down and doing a lot of crap I didn’t care about.
I was honestly surprised when I got to college and discovered that it was possible to learn in school. Since then I have never stopped studying and learning different subjects. Like me, you may find that college is a big improvement over high school.
All I can say is, hang in there. I hope you will keep in touch with us at the StopHomework page.
LikeLike
homework is okay, i guess but it just SUCKS when there is SO MUCH of it, especially how each teacher gives you homework so by the end of the day you’re loaded. isn’t going to school for like 7 hours enough? NO because then after school most people have sports teams, practices, various activites and often don’t have the other 7 hours to do homework. so, there’s dinner and my homework will often keep me up until 12 to 2 am sometimes.. 😦
LikeLike
watever
LikeLike
suPeR bOoRiNg
LikeLike
this homework is harmful putos
LikeLike
homework doesnt bother me because i dont do it.
LikeLike
home work does not affect me because i do not do it
LikeLike
our drama production just ended, but during it, we sometimes had practice from 6-9. I don’t live that far away from my school, and I can walk, so I had a little time to do homework. I usually stayed at school during those three hours doing homework, and once practice started, I didn’t get a chance to work on it anymore. Then, when I got home, I would still be up to 11:30 sometimes doing homework. We also had a practice on a saturday. Our director said we should ask our teachers to lighten up because of drama, but even though some of them said they would, they still didn’t. I keep getting in trouble with my parents for not doing homework or for turning it in late, but I don’t care anymore. I get my stuff out and pile it around me while going on the computer (like, facebook and fun stuff) and then just quickly switch tabs whenever they walk in the room. Of course, whenever I don’t turn in my work, my teachers email my parents (I’m a sophomore! what the f*** i should be able to live my own life without my parents getting emails from my teachers. That’s like what they did in sixth grade or younger! and it’s not my teachers, my parents tell them to email them if I don’t turn stuff in on time.) During drama, the cast and crew are running on pure adrenaline and caffeine, and that is far from healthy. whenever I don’t turn something in or I turn it in late, my parents are breathing down my back while I do it. They have threatened to not even let my try out for drama next year if I don’t get my grades up and everyone is telling me that if I did my homework and got it in on time, i could be a straight A student, which is true, except for the fact that I can’t keep up with all the homework I have in other classes. All my teachers tell me that and my response? “it’s just too bad I don’t have the time to do your homework because I’m doing other teachers’ homework!” at least I wish I could say that, but of course I never do. Also, the grading system in my school is super strict. A 96% is an A-. Not an A+, not an A, but an A-. What the f***!!! How does that make any sense? Tonight, we had a gathering that some friends of ours were putting together where a whole bunch of families would just hang out, and one of my friends was trying to get a lot of people from my group of friends to go, so obviously, i was going, but my parents told me I couldn’t if I didn’t finish my homework (make-up work, of course). They finally agreed to let me go, but only for an hour and then my dad gave me a big lecture about how irresponsible and selfish i was because we could only stay for an hour so I could do my homework (what the f***! If I didn’t do it the first time, chances are I won’t want to do it again!). My mom was helping me do my homework! It was a report about myself! It’s not that hard! The only reason I didn’t have it done was because I had so much other homework I had to do, but when I do get a chance to do it, my mom is sitting next to me going through the rubric to make sure I do it right! I’m not 6! I love learning and I love school. It’s a great chance to socialize and have fun with your friends, but not if every spare moment is spent on homework. I socialize during the 50 minutes I have at lunch, because otherwise I’m stuck at home doing homework. I don’t eat much, either. I never have time in the morning to eat breakfast because I’m trying to sleep in as late as possible since I went to bed super late the night before. I also almost never eat lunch because if I’m not trying to catch up on what’s happening in my friends’ lives (which fails miserably because I’m a girl and I only have 50 minutes to talk in) I’m catching up on homework. I have a major paper and a major project due on monday, both of them are overdue. Then on top of that, I have a test (which is the first of this quarter, so it’s kinda important) and another project in a class that the teacher grades using a point system and when you turn things in, you accumulate points, so she’s trying to give us more points to accumulate so that if we miss a deadline (she doesn’t accept late work) you still have a chance at passing the class, but I will fail that class if I don’t turn this project in and get a good grade on it. And it’s in french. I am only in french 1 and I don’t know that much french yet, which means I have to do this entire project on the computer, translating things using wordreference.com. and that takes a lot of time. Back to my nagging parents, my mom is a teacher, so there is no way I’m going to convince her that too much homework is a bad thing. I mean, she already believes that, but I’m never going to convince her that what we get in school is too much. My dad complained to my sister’s spanish teacher a few years ago because she assigned my sister 500 lines to write out and now my spanish teacher (I had her last year) is afraid of my dad. But guess what? My sister got in trouble for not turning something in on time. That teacher is super strict, and when I did the same thing, I bring home a detention, and get a scolding from my parents. This has been going on since like 4th grade! Something needs to change. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents to death, but they can be annoying, especially about school. I can’t WAIT till summer! Whenever I try to explain to my parents why I hate homework and to give a logical explanation (and I usually try to do this respectfully) they pretty much just say “suck it up! it’s what your teachers gave you, so do it!” Thank you for reading my long rant. You have no idea how good it felt to get that out! (Well, you might, but you know what I mean).
LikeLike
homeork is for fags!!
LikeLike
homework is not for f*gs ! AND WATCH YOUR MOUTH
LikeLike
Ah yes, it is difficult to do homework nowadays, as of right now I’m doing a persuasive letter about homework and its Herculean amount is not simply keeping up with the times, I do hours of 7th grade homework , so maybe it’s time for homework to grow up…
LikeLike
I’m a high school student who gets most of his homework done in less than an hour. I do not really experience the stress issue but I still know that homework does absolutely nothing for me.
LikeLike
I am a junior in the IB Program, and the amounts of homework that my fellow students and I are assigned are ridiculous. We have four classes a day, three academic classes and an elective. Rather that ten minutes of homework per grade per night, we get closer to ten minutes per grade, per night, per class (excluding the elective). It is completely and utterly ridiculous. I get up at 6:00 in the morning an get home at about 4:00. After about fifteen minutes, I start my homework, and on a good day, I get sleep around eleven. On a bad day, I may not go to sleep until 1:00 or 2:00. What makes this worse, is that the majority of our homework does not even teach us anything. It is like the teachers feel obligated to give us busy-work just because we are in IB. Frankly, I think that homework is ridiculous and stupid. Unfortunately, as many of the other comments here demonstrate, there are so many people who are just stupid, and do not care about their or anyone else’s future, making our entire generation look bad, and convincing school administrators that we deserve all of the homework we get as if it is some sort of punishment. Something has to change, but as it is, no one is making any progress in bringing about those changes.
LikeLike
I go to a very highly respected academic school, homework is unbearable, I’m up till 1 am every night because of my sports that run late and homework. Its stressful and now as soon as I get home I sleep, then wake up, practice, then do homework, then sleep again, Thanks to all the homework I now have split sleep habits.
LikeLike
i think the homework programs in schools currently are terrible. we spend so much time on it now we have no more to enjoy life. sometimes the stress is unbearable, i think that we will never get rid of homework in school the way we’re going but it would be nice if it could consist of work we have failed to finish in class and revision when needed instead of the massive amounts of busy and pointless work we get now. i’ve shown my parents the work i do and they agree that much more half of it i will never use again. and yet i still work my arse off and get no where it irritates me so much sometime i cry because i have studied so hard and planed everything out like the teachers have said and i still only get past my maths exams by 5 or 6 marks when i hear the younger year levels whine about their 1 hour a night homework tasks it then makes me pity them because they’re going to move up into the higher year levels and wish they were doing the 1 hour stuff again, just as i did.
i think homework fills us with insecurity and anxiety. it makes us stupid because we can’t do it all and everyone makes it seem like we should be handling it with ease. i’m a just above average student on most subjects excluding one or two but i still feel this way.
we stress so much, and over what? a mark on a page.
LikeLike
im moving to philidephia, you are amazing, wish my teachers thought like you 🙂 x
LikeLike
Did you know some teens actually kill themselves because of homework stress? Also, scientists say we need more sleep than babies.
-Andrea 7th grade
LikeLike
As a current High School Senior I can verify everything that is written up there. Although, instead of 3-4 hours of homework being a lot, I would LOVE to get 3-4 hours instead of the 7-8 hours I get per night. As for sleep, I generally will get 3-4 hours on a good night because homework will take me into 1 or 2 in the morning and I get right back up at 5:30. I am so extremely frustrated with how much of myself I am sacrificing just for the sake of getting into a “good” college, and how much the teachers don’t understand that we NEVER get downtime, and we never get time to relax or even sleep. I am ready to give up on a lot of things, and feel so emotionally drained and numb I can hardly function from day to day without extreme caffeine dependancy and short naps during lunch. I am ready for a change. My parents said they never had anywhere near the homework load I have when they were in High School. How can I possibly stop this? How can I give students like me a chance to actually live?
LikeLike
why is homework needed
LikeLike
homework is really not fair. we’re at school all day long working and learning. at the end of they day ahhhh schools over 🙂 WAIT nope. sorry. 3 and a half tons of homework. i am up until 9 pm stressing about it. it causes me to have depression and i can’t get enough sleep. then i get up tomorrow morning at 6, go to orchestra, and the whole cycle starts all over again.
LikeLike
i totaly agree i am stuck doing homework un till 9 or even eleven the lest amount of homework i have gotten this yes is till 530 i stink and i am in 6th grade!
LikeLike
ps they should REALLY LET US have a say we are like slaves and they are our masters. even my mom who used to teach thinks i have too much.
LikeLike
It is obvious that many teenagers feel very strongly about the fact that we are piled with an unecessary amount of homework; this site has posts from 2006, and is still recieving new ones!
As a junior in highschool, I feel so trapped within my homework, as well as the pressure to do well on SATs, AP Exams, and to get into a good college.
I feel that most teachers forget that students have families, friends, and lives outside of school.
They all treat their students as if their class is the only one the students are taking and assign ample amounts of homework, saying we should spend at the very least half an hour on it. Well, I guess that isn’t too bad, but when you are asked to spend at the very least half an hour on each class, and have 8 classes, in addition to extra curricular activities, sports, and studying for tests that are exclusive to the actual homework assignments, that gives most students NO free time all day, even for weeks- which sounds ridiculous, but I know it is actually true. We are expected to be professional in the world of academics, and I feel that we are missing out on our youth which should be spent on exploring what we wish to learn about most. Some days I just want to draw, or write songs, or listen to music, or read a fiction novel on my choice, but instead must plow through hours of meaningless math problems, putting all of my aspirations for the present on the backburner, while I strive to reach goals that others want for me. The whole situation places even more stress on me, and some days I find myself unable to cope. Overall, I believe something needs to be done to save our youth from going insane and losing what little bit of childhood they have left.
LikeLike
I find it quite funny that most of these posts were made after 5:00, most of them being around 1-4 am, which means that most teenagers are staying up until 4 am! I have to get up at 5 for school, so if any one is in that situation, like a friend of mine I know, that means you are only getting 1 hour of sleep! that is 1/9th of the time needed!!!!!! And it isn’t only that teens are staying up till 4 am because they want to, it is because they are doing homework! and then they get stressed out and do what everyone else on this site did, look up something about how to do homework, or reliveve homework related stress, and end up with this site so they have some idea that they aren’t alone in today’s mess of an education system.
LikeLike
I can vouch for the teens above. I’m the one who stayed up with my daughter, because I felt guilty going to bed while she was forced to give up so much sleep. I’d beg her to just pack it in, I didn’t care, she had permission to stop and eventually screaming at her because I became so sleep deprived. Momentarily blaming her for a situation she did not create and then feeling horrible about it the entire next day. Let’s hear it for family values!
LikeLike
I should turn in blank sheets of paper for the shits ‘n giggles. Can’t get a zero as long as something is submitted.
LikeLike
I AM FREAKING OUT WITH ALL MY HOMEWORK. I have a huge committee project and three tests and a huge oral. Also a book report. Homework is ruining my life.
LikeLike
I am soooooo awesome
LikeLike
it is quite unreasonable how much homework there is these days coming at us at such a vast uncontrollable amount. the basic fact is that teachers actually dont want to waste time finishing our work in class so instead force us to give the time at home. school should be school and home should be home and they should not mix. school is where you learn, mature, and learn knowledge and desirable skills whilst home is where you should be able to relax, enjoy life and just chill after a difficult day at school, but instead we are being forced to bring school with us to our homes, making us more tired, cranky and all together, not in control of our own lives. i think homework has quite a large negative impact on our lives and if not taken away completely at least decreased or made easier.
Posted from South Africa, Cape Town
LikeLike
This is ridiculous, not only do we have no time for homework but we also don’t have enough time to form a ‘committee’. Therefore being a ridiculous option for any student to spend more time holding meetings which will, I’m sorry to say, go no where.
LikeLike
Hello. I am a 15 year old high school sophomore. Lately I’ve been under great stress due to school. Every night I come home to start my homework, but I just cannot do it. Why? Because I’m so far behind with all of my other work. I sit down and try to begin on the night’s homework and realize that I don’t know what the hell I’m doing because I haven’t even gotten to do the homework for the prior night yet. I cannot keep up with all of the work I’m being given! I’m struggling in all of my classes, and I’m already failing two of them. Before I got to high school I was always top in my class, but now I’m struggling so much because my teachers keep piling on more and more information. I don’t have the best memory in the world, and I, quite frankly, have the attention span of a peanut, so it’s very hard for me to retain information. I haven’t done my homework in months now, and the reason why is not because I’m lazy, which is what my friends seem to believe. It’s because I’m fucking stressed out, and the thought of even starting homework gives me anxiety (I have an anxiety disorder, by the way). I really believe that teachers today need to slow it down on the homework they’re giving out. No, I don’t think that teachers should eliminate homework totally. As much as I’d love that, it probably wouldn’t be very productive. They should just scale back on the work load they give out. That’d be very helpful for me, as well as many other high school students, I’m sure.
LikeLike
Well I for one definitly feel the NEED for homework. It helps me understand the classwork the next day, and it helps whatever we’ve learned stick with me. But sometimes it can be too much. I think that we NEED homework, but what we DON’T need is four or five hours of it. I’m currently freaking out because I had about oh, four days (weekend+a day) to do 3 interviews, write 5 pages, study for a test, three algebra two worksheets (my teacher is a first-year math teacher, and i’m in advanced) two Spanish-2 assignments, a 6 page “Histionary” (Terms we use in class+definitions, there’s about 60 or so each time) Studying for a test, making a clay pot for Art one, and doing 5 chemestry packets. Plus, I live in a low-income house with 5 siblings that I need to help around with (I love ’em all, don’t get me wrong) a girlfriend i’ve had for 2 years now that i’ve been arguing with (nothing new, lol) had to go help my friend get stuff, art club, and my website. All this in about 3 days? Granted, it was a weekend, but that’s supposed to be my time. SO! Homework helps, but this is a little much. 😛
LikeLike
I am a freshman and I get about 6-8 hours of homework each night therefore I only get a few hours of sleep each night. I think homework is good, it helps me make better grades and is a good technique for studying. I just don’t think that it’s necessary to have such a load of homework to do, that it prevents students from getting the sleep that they need. Also, over the weekend I get from 17 to 23 hours of homework.
LikeLike
Homework should only be assigned if it is truly important. So, most homework is out the window right away.
LikeLike
I agree somewhat– homework is good for you, but only if it doesn’t completely ruin your nights. (I believe an hour and a half maximum is enough.) I’m in 7th grade, and I’m usually up working until 11:00 at night, usually on Algebra/Geometry. For example, tonight I have 227 grammar problems to complete by tomorrow morning (all busywork!), and then 30 math problems. After this, I have to finish my history project, read 2 articles about Russia and take notes, and practice my violin (which usually gets put completely off by homework and studying). I’m overwhelmed… this is my typical night! I have less time for family and exercise. I think I’ve gained a few pounds by just sitting around a book all night.
Thank you for reading.
Off to go do my homework!
-Emily
LikeLike
Bailey, are you me? I’m 15 and a sophomore too. I’m way behind in my homework, some are from last year. I could be considered one of the best students, I rarely crack my books open until the day before the test, yet I get better grades as compared to those who actually study. Usually, I get mediocre grades, because I don’t try, or I try too hard. When I attempt to crack my books open and do my homework usually when I return home from class, I’m either tired, confused, lanky, sleepy, hungry or a combination of all. I make up for this by going outside, taking a nap, watching TV or going online. When I mean I’m tired from the school day, I really am exhausted. This is probably since my school starts early in the morning, expects all of us to be there 15 minutes in advance, plus my ride to school takes an extra 25 minutes. You see, when I sit down in an air-conditioned room doing minimal movements or mental exercises, my mind slows down and I feel sleepy, especially when I haven’t had even 7 hours of sleep the night before. Taking down notes is a physical exercise, but I rarely get to voice out my opinions on the subject topic and others have nothing productive to add which makes the entire class a boring load of ass fucking garbage. Seriously, the kids in my class are plain as cardboard. All the things talk about aren’t interesting in the slightest way, yet I play along with them. I guess us high school slackers would likely be the firm owners, or that successful person in your university with a doctorate degree, or perhaps some dude who created a new operating system out of scratch, rather than those nerdy kids who sat in class taking notes all day, acing tests, being unreasonably polite and studying when they get home. Too bad our current educational system bases our all-around intelligence and knowledge of certain topics that have been divided into units for kids with short attention spans on standardized tests, and kids who aren’t part of the circle of conformity are labelled as mentally unstable since they are unsuitable for conforming to being an office clerk in the future.
LikeLike
I’m in high school, and all the loads of homework that I get just stresses me to my max. In the last few months, I’ve had 4 panic attacks from the stress of multiple, and quite large projects and essays all being issued and due at the same time (which is usually within a week). Managing my time is out of the question, I can’t even sit down and get away from my work long enough to make a plan of action for anything. I get sick and have episodes of puking and dry heaving. My boyfriend is fed up with hearing about how stressed and depressed I am from the work load. I have an Ap class, and a honors class. Mixed with 4 hours of math homework a night, those two classes alone are at least 4 hours of homework when the work is assigned. The projects are half our grade and it’s just so….stressful…
I’m definitely FOR lowering amounts of homework given out to students a night.
LikeLike
i am 13 and i have nearly 7 pieces of homework a night and the majority of them are due in the next day. i was given 10 pieces of homework on friday, 3 pages of maths, history and geography projects and 3 pages of science, theses pieces of homework are due in on monday i was also given some more but they are not due in until tuesday. i hardly have any friends, i can’t go outside, i haven’t been shopping in 4 months and i am constantly tired.
LikeLike
I hate homework you spend all day in school then have to come home when you just want to sleep or doing something you like, like I write songs books I like reading but you end up doing homework instead. plus it doesnt even help me especially when i dont understand it and theres no one to help me with it until its already late work.
LikeLike
I just joined high school so im a freshman. And so far I’m nit doing as well as I would like to. I really agree with this article because just recently I’ve been focusing in my sleep lately and I’ve been well however my homework and grades I don’t do so very well in. I feel like homework is just a waste of my time. Especially if I don’t get the answers right then I’ve been doing the whole thing wrong thinking I was doing it right. And since it’s almost the end of the year some major projects are rolling my way. I’ve been super tired lately because I’m so used to sleeping early. There are to much projects to worry about and all the little homeworks invetween I can not keep up. Some times I just say fuck it. But that doesn’t help me for my future. And now I barely work out like how I used to because of school. I barely do on Facebook or watch tv anymore I feel like I have no social life at all especially since my parents don’t let me out as much.
However to my point homework and me just don’t work well together there’s so much problems to it. And they expect us to have social skills to apply for jobs. And I’ve even heard that in the mainland schools don’t have recess and there’s a rumor going around that my school in Hawaii will soon not be acing recess. Oh and in the class im graduating in it is mandatory to do a senior project while this years seniors have a choice. Like seriously.
Homework sucks!
LikeLike