By: Jacob Fogelstrom

As students come home from a long, 6 hour school day that’s full of various concepts and limited breaks, they find themselves with multiple hours of homework. Not to mention the stress caused when needing to fit in time with family and any extracurricular activities the student is passionate about and is involved in outside of school.
“Homework can be very useful, but the excessive amounts of homework given is completely unnecessary and causes unneeded stress to students,” said Heritage student Patrick Aiello (10).

Students sacrifice the first half of their days during the week getting an education in the classroom, so why force them into stressing about planning the rest of their day after school around extensive homework that limits them from pursuing their passions outside of the classroom. School causes students stress whether they’re at school or just at their house, which shouldn’t be the case.
I understand that school and education is important, but the stress brought upon students through unnecessary amounts of homework given should be called into the light and changed. Students should have the right to be given a limited supply of homework for each class as 8 classes of extensive homework can be a burden on the students.

In the argument that homework is a necessity in order for students to fully take in concepts and apply them in the classroom to express their understanding, comes the idea that students stress has become completely fixated on the letter grade that is a constant representation of their knowledge in the class. This should not be the case, students should focus on taking in the concepts in the homework. This stress created from the letter grade and extensiveness of the homework given during school causes students to begin copying homework from their peers instead of going through and completing it on their own.

“I often find myself fixated more on the letter grade, then the material itself when doing homework, as the letter grade is what I need to have in a good position to get to the next level, but the importance should always be the other way around,” said Heritage student Ethan Bower (12).

The level of importance in students minds between the letter grade, and understanding a topic fully is placed in the wrong positions due to the importance of a single letter that glooms over the students head in order to continue their education at the next level.

Students in the school system should be motivated to learn and feel passionate in what their learning. This generation of students is facing the burden of unnecessary levels of stress placed onto them in areas they should feel passionate about and motivated to succeed. Students shouldn’t feel stress when going through school attempting to find their true passions in life. This stress placed onto students should be reflected and adjusted accordingly, in order for students to find their passions and feel motivated to succeed for the right reasons.