As we jump into the school year of 2020-21… times are tough. As a freshman entering high school, I had no idea what to expect. We were not anticipating to be carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, or the weight of our backpacks. Classes are beginning to teach and attempt to return to some type of normal. This comes along with the inevitable reality of homework. 

Sometimes, I don’t understand how other students can juggle everything and still manage to get their work done. Homework causes a lot of unnecessary stress in teenagers. However, homework is a good tool to teach students responsibility and time management, among other things. Someday, we may realize that homework helped us solve the global issues we have been left to fix.

Sports and extracurriculars are highly encouraged for high school students. Teachers and adults tell us to be well rounded in order to get into a good college. Sports practice can take a couple hours after school, and more on the weekends. Plus, if you live further out of town you have to factor in transportation time to and from school and sports practice. In addition, athletes require more sleep than an average teen, when in reality, they typically get less. Extracurricular activities and sports cause students to have less time than needed to finish homework.

Most teenagers have a job of some sort. Some kids don’t have a choice, it is expected of them to pick up extra shifts to support their family. Oftentimes, these students fall behind in classes and miss due dates because they don’t have the time to finish the assignments. Jobs can take up a huge portion of time that needs to be used to complete homework. Work can also be very draining and tiring based on the job, meaning most kids would rather come home and sleep compared to getting homework done.

Many teenagers want to maintain healthy relationships,  but it requires time and energy. Maintaining a healthy relationship with someone isn’t easy if you have to juggle hours worth of homework and sports practice, let alone a job. It is critical to have people in your life who can love and support you while you grow, especially people your own age. Humans are pack animals by nature, we require other humans in our life to rely on and learn from.

We can all agree that sleeping is important, right? Teenagers tend to get around 7 hours of sleep each night, and based on what I’ve gathered, it is often less. The average teen requires around 9-9.5 hours of sleep according to The Sleep Foundation. This could be due to many other things, but homework is a huge factor in the lack of sleep. Kids need a chance to rest, not spend hours on math problems.

I am not involved in much after school. I don’t have to come home and make dinner for my family or clean it up every night, but sometimes I struggle to get my homework done on time. Overall, it is unrealistic to cut it out of our lives. It can be beneficial, by teaching growing minds responsibility, preparing us for college, and showing our teachers that we care and understand (or don’t understand) the material. If the only thing high schoolers had to focus on was after school homework assignments, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But the reality is that the day will never be long enough. The best we can do is lug around our hefty backpacks and give it our all.