An Abundance of Homework | Teen Ink

An Abundance of Homework

June 29, 2014
By Hails_Was_Here SILVER, San Antonio, Texas
Hails_Was_Here SILVER, San Antonio, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 14 comments

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"I'm dead inside"- Me


As the teenager walks up to his bedroom door with his heavy backpack full of textbooks, he suddenly remembers about all the homework that is due the following day. He walks in the room and pulls out the textbooks and puts them on his desk. He begins to start his long evening of studying and homework but what he doesn’t know is that he really shouldn’t do half the homework he is forced to do.

The world we live in has many faults, as we should already know and one of these faults is the fact that teachers give unnecessary homework to students when they know that most students live busy lives after school. Students that are in clubs have 10 minute to hour-long meetings. Athletes have hour-long practices and competitions that seem to last all night. Then you have birthdays and celebrations with your family so students might not even get the chance to start their homework. That is why teachers should only give students 10 to 30 minutes of homework per class a night.

Imagine a world of robots constantly at the desk, studying and not having a social life, not having the time for hobbies or sports or even spending time with their family. Think about how uncultured this world would be.

I do believe that homework is a good for students as long as it’s beneficial to the brain and it’s a good review. It shouldn’t be too long that the student lacks concentration and looses interest in the subject but it shouldn’t be too short where the student remembers and learns nothing. Students should have fast and helpful homework that contributes to their knowledge like a quick review. It should also keep the students interested where they actually enjoy doing the homework.

Most of the time, I receive homework that doesn’t interest me so I become so bored where I stop doing the work completely and rely on my classmates for the answers the day the homework is due. Homework that lacks any interest for students is often disregarded until the day it’s due because the students don’t want to do something boring.

I took the time to make a verbal list that shows how much time it takes for each event on a normal school day. For seven to eight hours, students are at school. I will use 7 hours and 30 minutes for my verbal list.

Eating a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner should take at least two hours making sure you eat everything slowly because it’s benefits your health to eat slow. The two hours includes the time to talk to your family at the dinner table because socializing is healthy.

Students that sit down for most of the school day need at least one hour of exercise. If you don’t exercise daily, you have a higher chance to become obese and gain diseases like diabetes.

Everyone between the ages of 10-50 years old needs at least eight hours of sleep. Sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental shape, emotions, productivity, creativity, physical shape, and your weight.

One hour should be used in a day to clean, dress and take care of your physical appearance.

Everyone has a hobby that they love doing if it’s sewing or skating, which should use up one hour a day to practice and perfect your skills. This hour can also be used for relaxing or taking a nap.

Studies show that if teenagers don’t socialize, their social skills will not be as good compared to a person who socializes everyday. So to perfect your social skills, you can use one hour a day to socialize whether it’s with your real friends or your Internet friends and everyone knows how important socializing is for teenagers.

Most people do errands or have chores so that takes up to an hour or more a day but for now I’ll use an hour. This means babysitting, dog sitting, cleaning your room, picking up your sister or brother from school if you drive, things like that.

Don’t forget that everything you do isn’t on the same street. I will say that my transportation is about 30 minutes a day whether it’s to school or to a skate park, so I will use 30 minutes.

That totals up to 23 hours and leaves you with one hour to do your homework. How are you supposed to finish an hour of homework for at least two classes? Where are you going to get that extra hour? Certainly not from your sleep or exercise because you need those hours dedicated to those events. You need less homework to maintain a happy and healthy life.

An Australian study shows that an excessive amount of homework leads to stress, depression, and even lowers the students’ test scores. According to Richard Walker, an educational psychologist at Sydney University, the more time is spent on homework; the students’ score drops on a standardized test called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA.

Students really have life hard on them because of all of the homework they get from school. Teenagers shouldn’t be getting hour-long homework for each class because it will ruin their healthy life. That is why teachers should only give fast and beneficial homework that the student will remember forever instead of boring and slow homework that the student won't benefit from it all.


The author's comments:
This is a serious problem with me and so i decided to write an article about the "Too Much Homework" pandemic that is sweeping the nation.

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