Imagine this: You’re working on a big assignment that’s due tomorrow. Maybe it’s an essay for English, a packet for math, a report for science, or a presentation for social studies. It’s been looming over you for a long time, and you just decided to do it. Whatever it is, it’s important, and you know it is. After finally reaching a stopping point, you take a deep sigh of relief. That was a stressful experience, wasn’t it? Stress is one of the most common side effects of doing lots of homework, and also one of the most dangerous.
Stress from homework can lead to a variety of harmful side effects, such as anxiety, depression, and burnout. According to a health teacher at Lincoln East, Cami Karnes, on top of these side effects, kids are spending more than a couple hours on homework at night, they are unable to exercise, eat well, socialize, be with family, and get proper sleep.
“I think that excessive homework can definitely cause stress, especially if it doesn’t have a purpose or benefit,” said Karnes. “If homework is just simply a routine, it can do more harm than good.”
With homework being assigned to students almost every day, it puts a lot of pressure on them. Most students even have jobs that they have to work at on top of doing their homework. A lot of students have other things to do than study at home, or prove that they know a subject. Some teachers overload students with homework, and students have other priorities to get done. Some students can’t always keep up with everything, and others have a job that they are obligated to work at, meaning that not everyone can get a certain amount of homework done each day, which might even impact their grades.
In a survey that was given to numerous students, 90 responses were recorded. When asked what they do to cope with stressful assignments, in a multiple choice question, 67 students said that they listen to music, 58 students said that they take a few breaks, and 23 said that they asked a friend for help.
According to a response from the survey, “Overall I think it hurts the grades of those who can’t get assistance and cuts more time out of the average day of a student. It’s especially an issue if they have responsibilities at home that leave them little time for other things, such as caring for siblings, cooking dinner, etc.”
Most of the responses repeated one main idea: Homework should be optional, and shouldn’t be graded. Other responses stated that homework is good because it helps them learn and understand the subject, which is one of the benefits of homework. One of the people who took the survey, Dakota Pape, agreed to an interview when asked to follow up his answers.
“I’ve never had a homework assignment since 6th grade that I’ve actually had to do at my house,” said Pape. “It causes me stress because it makes me feel like I have to do it at school, and if I don’t do it at school, I’ll have to do it at home, so I have to try to do everything on school time.”
High school students have many roles they are trying to juggle – they have school days, home lives, family obligations. Just as the adults in our lives need time to unwind in the evenings, so do we. Students have lives beyond homework. Homework is very traditional, which is why some teachers assign it. It would be better if it was in smaller increments so students don’t get overwhelmed, and if assignments had a better meaning behind them.
In the end, we know that students are indeed stressed out by homework. While some students said that small amounts of homework are beneficial, others said that if it feels like a job, it can overwhelm them. While we’re solving problems on our math homework, the district needs to solve a few problems with how they perceive homework.
