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 in 12th grade, I have to prepare for my university entrance exams (which start tomorrow) and yet I had around 20 long math problems for the weekend. It’s ridiculous.
I’ll get to go to sleep today at 1:00 am if I’m luckyand I have to wake up at 5:30am for school.
I just hope I pass those exams.
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I am a senior (12th grade) student in high school…
I get up at 6.30, have my breakfast and prepare for school.
I have lessons from 7.30-14.30. (but sometimes I even have to stay at school for lessons until 18:30….from 7:30)
I have lunch after that and then get home at 15:30 and start doing my homework right away. I generally study until 3:00 am, and then I am not even finished!! I am one of the best students at school, and I learn very quickly, so I cannot even imagine the situation of those who are slow lerners…
I usually skip dinner, because there is just no time for that… I go to bed at 3:30 and then get up at 6:30. I usually have 2 or 3 tests EACH DAY. So I have to prepare for them too. – and yes, this is high school!
This practically means that I study more than 19 hours A DAY! And I do nothing else. And still, I cannot finish everything. Besides, I must prepare for my A-level exams and two language exams.
Saturdays I normally go horse-riding once in two weeks, if I have the time. Other than that I study from 8:00 to 00:00… Then Sunday get up at 8:00 and keep studying. Still haven’t finished with everything.
So basically zero social life. If I can still keep my eyes open, after midnight during the weekend (or after 3:00 am during weekdays) I can do something else than studying – for example, I love to write. But don’t have the time to do it earlier.
I mean seriously, WHAT THE HELL? Noone could convince me that this was the same a decade ago. It certainly was not…
How can I possibly be expected to get good grades at school, learn everything, do all the homework, pass all my exams well, keep fit, keep up a social life, engage with stuff that I personally actually LIKE to do, help out around the house, be interested in other things, AND get at least 9 hours of sleep every day???
Someone, please let me know what I’m doing wrong…. Anyway. I find this IMPOSSIBLE.
I must add that sometimes I work, too, in which case I get 0 hourse of sleep. There are times when I get only 14 hours of sleep a week. (which means averagely 2hrs a day)…. this is insane!!
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I am in 10th grade, and in science we are learning about DNA and genetics. Normally I ADORE learning about this topic, but the homework is killing my love for it.
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How the hell are you kids supposed to learn properly what was taught in class if you don’t do homework.
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Youguysaredumb, the point that us teenagers are TRYING to make is that homework doesn’t help learning, it destroys learning along with our curiosity to learn new things. Homework doesn’t equal and is far from learning.
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Hi I’m Hachem and I suffer the same problem
It’s holidays now and Gosh Mom and Dad force me to study HARD
I study Maths : “Do you French homework”
I go French : “Don’t stay at one thing you didn’t study much today go do some english writings ” and so on as my head will explode I pass 3/4 of the day when I’m awake STUDYING .
It’s massive Stress and what’s worse, I can’t read stories, Mom says :”Stories are useless now, go learn the theme’s full vocabulary instead !”
I mean, No computer unless I do my project, No IPad unless It’s night .
Do you believe I wait EVERYONE to sleep at night to watch few videos on Youtube “Maybe” to entertain my self ?
It’s hell here, extreem hell
I mean this is holiday I wonder how’s the deal at college when the holidays are done …
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i fucking hate homework cause i have things to do
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My parents make read the textbooks even though I don’t understand the lesson. I mean what is the point in reading material that you do NOT understand ahead. A comment above states how teachers are paid to teach us, not textbooks. Either way teachers make it really hard on us
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School has made me want to beat myself, it makes me feel so stressed and pathetic, I feel more stress and rage rather than actually learning a single damned thing. I usually only sleep about five hours a night, we receive so much work it takes up my entire evening, and even then it’s hard to maintain A’s and B’s. Homework is a necessity, no doubt, but this is ridiculous. It needs to stop.
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These are great points but honestly with all the homework and activities I am involved in there is no time to do this much work to stop the homework issue. With relation to the time I have I will get nowhere in my efforts.
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THIS POST IS ON POINT! I am in year 9 (3rd out of 5 years in high school) and no doubt I will be getting a job soon so I won’t have enough time for anything. GUESS WHAT… WE ARE HUMAN. We can’t be expected to get up at half six in the morning and function for a whole 6 to 8 hours in school, do whatever after school activities we have, do all our homework, get 9 hours of sleep and still have free time plus having a job would take up loads of time. It makes us stressed and depressed. SCHOOL SHOULD NEVER COME BEFORE OUR HEALTH. Our health is so so much more important but yet school takes over it. I have awful anexity and often have panic attacks in class (I can’t see or breathe, my body collapses and my body shakes for about 5 mins), an eating disorder, depression an I feel there is no meaning to live anymore. You know what? I am very proud of myself for getting out of bed in the morning and actually going to school when I want to die because that is not easy.
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In addition, the only free time we have is at night so we go on our phones at night on Instagram and Facebook etc and don’t get much sleep. It is stupid I hate school it ruined my life I hate my life
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Should be an hour a night of homework. I’m going to write to school and tell them to start a homework club after school every Wednesday (we go home from school an hour early on Wednesday) so people can get some of it done. I spend about ten hours a week on homework so it not bad for me but for some of you it is awful. If I could get an hour done at school it would be great so I would be 2 hours a day on weekends.
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I HATE SCHOOL
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SCHOOL IS PAIN
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I hate homework and one week we had a new paper to write in the same week all due the next day. Its like all my teachers want me to stay in from outside and work on homework all weekend.
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This article confirms what I and I’m sure plenty of other people all feel. I mean it’s insane when you actually add up the amount of work we receive. I’m in 8th grade and our teachers are giving us (13 and 14 year olds) usually about 5 hours of homework. Seriously a low amount of homework for us would be about 3 hours. I’m so stressed right now though because I just did a musical tonight and I was at the theatre from the moment after school till 10:30 pm and I got home at 11:00 pm and now I’ve got 5 hours of homework to do. Oh joy
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School isn’t about learning anymore it’s about passing
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This is too true and it really pisses me off. During weekends, I get assigned way too much work and other things to do, leaving me no time to hang out with friends or enjoy myself. On breaks, almost every teacher I have assigns a HUGE packet, due the day we get back and to be graded. This absolutely kills the fun of a break, as I am either working on the packets or stressing about them the entire break long. It makes me wonder how the teachers would feel if we loaded them down with packets to do over their breaks.
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Exactly. And the part about a “homework designator-” that’s not happening. My teachers tell me that they don’t care whether we have multiple large assignments at once because they need their stuff done THEN and THERE with no room for waiting or wiggling. I don’t know if this is just BS or if it has to do with Common Core (which is also BS) but I’m getting sick of having little to no down time after school.
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I get too much homework, at our school the homework is supposed to take 1 hour a day! That would be heaven! But I had to leave all of my clubs and free time for homework. THIS ISN’T RIGHT!!! We have 25 hours of learning a week already! I do 8 hours a day and my parents sometimes ban me from doing any more. My class only spends 0-2hours on it except 3 people including me but only because they’re dyslexic! Homework has taken my life! Especially French and Spanish vocab tests, they kill me last time I spent 5 hours revising and got 3/10 I had to write 35 words as punishment for not trying! ????
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I agree, i get like, 3 different homework, when i finish one i got the two others, i finish the second one (but barely) and theres no time left for the last one, which causes me to fail my class and ends up in my parents yelling at me and removing stuff
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Homework SUCKSSSSSS!!!!! I am in 2nd grade and my teacher gives us too many coloring pages! I’d rather listen to bvb (aka THE BEST BAND EVRRR RR!!!) and cut myself. I Ms. Kroger I WILL HAUNT YOU WHEN I DIE!!!!!!!!!!!
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Dear stop homework.com, I am in complete agreement with what you have posted. Teenagers are left with basically no time to do anything they want and are left depressed, prone to anxiety and overtired day after day. Im glad we share similar thoughts.
thank you.
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I hate my life!!!!!!!!!!!!! Homework done iz suuuuper badddddddddd
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I agree with Emoteensuicidebvbilycuttingmyself they are absolutely correct HOMEWORK SUCKSSSSSSSSS!!!!!
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I agree with all of you. Homework is a waste of time! I have not been able to see any of my friends for almost half a year because my grades got bad, my phone and electronics were takin, and I have been a complete DB for months!! I am literaly typing this while I’m sopposed to be writing a persuasive essay. ABOUT HOMEWORK!!!! It’s just too much. I get home from school everyday and get to work on hw and it takes until 19:00 on a day when im goin as fast as I can, and I get home around 14:45!!(sry for the military time, I wana join da navy so im practicing, that’s 7 and 245) Im only in 7th grade and I wana run away and live off my friends and a deadbeat job at a restaurant for the nxt 5 yrs!! I am deeply sorry to anyone else who is in my situation or anything like it. But like I keep telling myself, JUST HANG ON!! Your stil going to turn 18 and be able to do whtevs w/ the rest of your life. But really, im going to take their advice and bring this up w/ my school. jst not my parents, who think it is all perfectly justified, reasonable, and just plain acceptable. WTH??? Alright, back to my damn essay. That’s already a day late.UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! >.< 😥
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If anyone has any tips on how to deal w/ this bs PLEEEAAASE tell me!! I wil check this every day for help, ’cause I need it!!
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stp da hw!!!
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Dear homewrkhater,
I’m sorry to hear that homework is getting you down. You definitely should talk to your teachers about it. I also suggest you try to get together with some of your friends and, as a group, approach your teachers and talk about how much time homework takes and how it interferes with your ability to do other things besides school and school work.
As for getting support from others online, I suggest you take a look at the stophomework facebook group. More people talk to each other there than they do here:
As for your parents, would they be willing to do their own research about homework? Perhaps you could tell them about this website, or point them to a few articles online about homework. They will learn that homework is not the be all and end all and that there is actually very little research showing any correlation between homework and academic achievement. However, there are many people just like your parents who believe that if their kids don’t do homework, they’ll end up flipping burgers for the rest of their lives. While that’s not true, it’s very difficult to get people to change their minds about beliefs that they’ve held for most of their lives. I know! I’ve been talking and writing about this issue for many many years (almost 20), but, sadly, education policies haven’t changed very much.
I wish you lots of luck!
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Dear Anonymous:
Thank you for the advice I will definitely try your suggestions. This should help with many of my problems.
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Dear Homewrkhater,
I was the person who responded to your comment. Just a glitch that my name didn’t show up.
Good luck and let me know what happens!
Sara Bennett
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OMG! Thank you so much
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I definitely will
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OMG! I totally agree with you. I am a 7th grader at Middle School and I am packed with homework every night. It is horrible. I had 3 surprise projects that I our teacher told us the day before it was do! Thx. I love you!!
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TOOO MUCH HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Homework is FUCKING LIFE! DEAL WITH IT!
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I’m diagnosed with ADD. I go home with homework in 5 out of my 7 classes, daily. I spend anywhere from 3 hours to 6 hours an afternoon doing homework. I have no time for hobbies. I have no time for exercise or time outside. I am also sleep deprived. Something needs to change, and quick!
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I have about two hours of homework every night after eight hours of school. On top of that, I have a half-hour to an hour of piano practice, three hours of reading, and sometimes even chores after that. Most of the time, I also have this big Language Arts project or a test to study for, too. What does that leave? About 5 minutes of socialization and free time, spent getting ready for bed. That means the only time for freedom is in the middle of the night in complete secrecy, leaving me with little sleep on top of my insomnia disorder. And guess what? I wake up so worn out the next day just to do it all over again.
AND I’M IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!
Thanks for the website, and letting me know I’m not alone. I join the revolution!
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At my school I take all honors classes.I have 4 academics and 4 electives. I take 2 electives each day but it switches on and off every other day. I recently got kicked out of my honors classes because I wasn’t doing the extra “honors” work. After 7 hours of school and 3 hours of soccer I am too tired mentally and physically to even open a book and attempt do my homework. I’ve stayed up till 2 am the past 4 nights trying to get a project done and i think it’s starting to effect my mental health. I have really bad anxiety and stress so when something is late I freak out. My essay has been 10 days late and its come to the point where I don’t even talk to my friends and I start worrying about the long term effects. My mom is getting mad and saying I’m depressed because I won’t hang around by my family when really I’m trying to make up all my missing work, but she thinks I use that as an excuse. I hate when teachers are like I give you homework to refresh your memory. Ok first of all teenagers aren’t that stupid and they won’t forget everything over night. I know sometimes we don’t pay attention in class, but did u ever think that maybe it’s because we go to a place we don’t like aka school at 7:30 in the fricken morning!! and then go to bed around 12:30. If you want us to pay attention more in class don’t give us huge stacks of homework that will make us lose sleeping time at night cause I’m pretty positive we will be making up that lost sleep in their classroom and fall even more behind. So do humanity a favor and stop the useless homework.
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And guess what?? I do many extra-curricular activities normally, but I had to quit a lot of them because I wanted more free time, but it really didn’t make much of a difference. Then, it ALL comes back to the parents, who always push you to do ALL of your homework, AND do as many activities as there are available. Well, I just CAN’T! My dream is to become a gamer on YouTube and meet many of my favorite Minecrafters, and I get SO close to meeting some, but then I hear from upstairs, “COME UP HERE AND READ YOUR 86 CHAPTERS!” I mean, I love my parents and all, but this is ridiculous. Now that I’ve seen many comments about high school and college being stressful and unhealthy, bye bye to my dream. It’s all homework, and us teens should do something about it. If you are reading this comment, make a stand against the people who govern this “life” of school. I wish I could now, but I’ve got to read my 86 chapters. Good luck to all.
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Homework stresses me out so much, it cuts me off from hanging out with my friends, over the last term we’ve been learning about our identities and who we are, I struggled so much with this becuase I have no idea who I am, school work takes up so much of my time that I haven’t figured myself out yet, I’m in grade 8 so I know that the amount of work I get will only get worse but sometimes I feel like I just can’t do it anymore ;-; I strongly agree with less homework.
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I have completely no time for me after finishing school work, all I want to do is cry. I can’t even focus in class because I’m thinking about how much I have to get done. People really underestimate how much stress teens have & they think we shouldn’t or don’t really have any just because we don’t have to worry about bills & our school work is so easy. “Your homework is so easy!” But then parents contradict themselves “I can’t help you, I don’t know how to do this, its too hard.” Honestly why do I need to know the quadratic formula or anything past multiplication, division, subtraction, addition, & square roots to get through life? I don’t plan on become a mathematician. There is no point in half of the stuff they teach us in math & I feel like that’s honestly the main problem with school, math. Math is too complex, sure kids can do it, but what’s the whole point? They won’t remember 3/4 of it. School has sunk me into such a great depression I’ve attempted suicide, I have other complications in my life besides figuring out why Johnny bought 40 watermelons.
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I am a freshmen in highschool (9th Grade) and I cannot get any free time without paying for it later. I have one teacher, who as admittedly awesome as he is, sometimes puts things on tests that we just learned the previous day. When I don’t finish my homework, there’s the “You had all day to do it” excuse. No I didn’t. Here is my problem right now. My parents made me sign up for track and field, which has numerous downsides. First of all, I HATE it. Second, it takes up a ton of time. Third, when I get home from school (in the EVENING), I’m so tired from running and being at school for 7 hours before that I just don’t have the energy to do all my homework at a good quality. Fourth, I’m really interested in learning how to code, but I don’t have the time, so I have to wait until summer. I feel like I have to waste my time doing all this until I have time to learn about something I’m actually interested in and that I see as a potential career. I’m wasting time waiting for time. Fifth, I’m stressed out. My parents have been upset with my apparent “attitude” because I’m not thrilled to have to do chores and mow our oversized lawn, on top of EVERYTHING ELSE, so they took away my PS3 (literally unplugged it and hid it somewhere) and are considering selling it. I hardly ever have time to use it anyway, but they always find a way to blame everything on videogames, when my REAL problem is that I don’t have time for anything because they make me do all these extra-curricular stuff! I just wanna come home everyday and go to sleep and forget about everything!
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I don’t like homwork
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As A middle school student, I can honestly say I agree with this. Almost every night I am up past midnight, usually to one or two AM, finishing only my English homework. The rest I must use a study hall for. I believe we have too much homework a night, and it must stop. The only after school activity I participate in is track, which goes until about 5:15-5:30 every night.
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I hate homework fuck
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There is too much pressure, the teachers expect far too much, as someone who works a 20 hours a week part time job on top of high school, it’s physically and emotionally draining trying to keep up with schoolwork. They should definitely cut down the amount of homework they hand out
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As a freshman in high school taking honors courses I completely agree with this article. Furthermore, I’m also on varsity cross country and track and am a member of multiple extracurriculars. After school and sports I get home at 6:30 and then I have homework that usually lasts until at least 10:30 and can ever go as far as 1 or 2 am. In my school, over half of students play a sport or are involved in a time consuming activity, and we all face this problem. With buses coming at around 6:40 am and zero period starting at 7, the average student at my school gets between 4 and 7 hours of sleep, and spends 4-10 hours on homework over the weekends. We need change, and quite frankly, at this point I don’t know how much longer I can take this.
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I am a high school student, and I think you all have it easy. I spend 10 hours in school, starting from 7am – 5pm, and if we include the time to prepare for school, I actually wake up at 6am, which is too early however you look at it. Since teenagers need more sleep, I’d say 9 hours, that forces me to sleep at 9pm, and it leaves me at least 4 hours of time to do everything else. Also, when buying the requirements for the next day, for some subjects it isn’t so easy. Some items aren’t easily acquired, so I have to spend at least one hour for those. Its already 6pm, and sometimes it will already be dark out. If you’re like me, you’d hate staying late because it increases the chances of encountering danger. Now, I have 3 hours left, and when I get home, I still have to do assignments and projects, and study, leaving me barely enough time to actually sit and relax at all. I actually wish for an 8am – 3pm class, because my school’s schedule is too dragged out and is simply just too long. I cannot relax, and currently, I am so stressed and I lack so much sleep.
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