It’s a Friday, you just got home from school, and you’re ready to relax. Except, now you remember. You have an English essay to write, a Chemistry project to work on, and an Algebra review worksheet to do. You then realize you’re not going to be relaxing for long. You sigh, and start working, hoping you will find some free time during the weekend.

This is the reality for many students at Chesterton High School. Students go through the school day, many have outside work or a job, and then finally are able to go home and relax. However, students are then expected to complete homework, instead of leaving time for other activities the student may enjoy. This problem is multiplied when teachers purposely give work out that is impossible to complete within the class period, so that students have no choice but to work on it at home.

Being in school and becoming educated on new topics is great, but when students have homework to do, it leaves out time for things they enjoy, which can lead to students becoming frustrated and tired. Consequently, the students will start skimming on their work because they aren’t able to develop a work-life balance. A student might have four assignments due the day after, but they also have a sport or outside hobby that they have to worry about, and usually, the outside activities take priority. A work-life balance is optimal for student growth, as it maintains a balance of many activities in day to day life. Ultimately, this balance being broken can have serious consequences on the student’s mental health and school grades.

Personally, I have dealt with homework problems myself, especially in this school. Having chemistry homework, an algebra review sheet, radio and tv projects, and newspaper stories to write is a lot to think about. Thinking and worrying about all the things I need to do really overwhelms me, and I’m sure it overwhelms a lot of other students too. It is important to note the fact that students often pick our schedules and electives; however, the vital core classes students take on top of these electives can become heavy on us. These core classes are more than necessary and important for life beyond high school, but a suggestion would maybe be to minimize the amount of classes students pack into their schedule by reducing the required 8 classes to a slightly lower number, or just removing some amounts of the workload in general. 

To add, one could give the argument that we receive time in class to do work, and the fact that students who have learning disabilities can receive less homework than regular students, but I don’t think these are proper reasons on why we should receive this much. I argue that many teachers either assign too much work to be able to get done in class, or they purposely assign homework on top of classwork. Having this much homework, and taking in account that we have eight classes to worry about makes homework a big issue for many students that we shouldn’t ignore. 

Homework can be useful for sure, but there needs to be a balance so students aren’t overwhelmed. Sure, students don’t particularly enjoy it, but a little bit of homework is crucial to understanding the material. In order to apply the information we learn in school, we need to take it home to practice. But all in all, it should only be a little bit. A heavy load of homework and assignments can create a sense of unmotivating and crunch, and on top of that, it won’t help them understand the material. Rather, it’ll drain them from the want to learn that subject. In my opinion, teachers at Chesterton High School give students too much homework, and as a school, teachers and students alike, should work to fix this issue.