By PAYTON WARREN
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s Note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
Although homework is an opportunity for students to learn on their own about something they are learning in class, I think it is not needed. Many students don’t even do the work on their own.
High school students have many other responsibilities other than school. You spend seven hours a day at school and then come home just to work on more school. A lot of students have many other responsibilities, like work, taking care of siblings, sports, etc. There are students who have parents who can’t be around a lot or provide for their families, so it is often put on the children. By giving students homework, teachers make them less able to work a job and get hours so they can get money to help around the house.
Not only that, but sports take up a lot of time. Sports could help get students money for college. Sports have a potential future. Homework has no future but to be thrown in the trash. Giving homework gives people less time to spend with family and friends, which could be the only thing they look forward to or even the only thing keeping them going.
A better alternative for homework would be giving students classwork they can do, and if they have any questions, they can ask. From personal experience, sometimes it is hard to do homework because you don’t understand what you are learning. Most teachers then take the homework not by completion but what you got right and wrong, which can cause your grades to drop. I think classwork is a way better option, that way students have more free time after school to do things, and they can have a better understanding on the topic. Asking questions helps you understand a lot better than just winging it on homework. Homework also isn’t very effective if you don’t understand it, and after turning it in, some teachers never really explain why you got it wrong or what you should do to solve it.
Students can spend hours working on homework a night. This can cause them to stay up late to work on homework if they have jobs or extracurriculars they were at during the day. Students staying up all night can cause poor performance issues at school. Some students go to bed late doing homework and then have to wake up early to get to school on time, which is leaving them exhausted. This could cause them to sleep during school or to be late for work.
Speaking from experience, I work two jobs. I work after I get out of school, so around 3:00, to 8:00, which takes up most of my day. Working at a dog kennel, I have no free time to work on homework at work – if that were even an option.
For example, I worked on Thursday and didn’t get home until around 8:10, but I still had to eat dinner, along with studying for three tests on top of homework. I didn’t get to go to bed until around 11:00 or 12:00 that night. High school students need about eight to 10 hours of sleep, and going to bed at midnight does not get you your recommended hours of sleep.
I understand that there is a law that you have to go to school and most people would reply with “school comes first.” I agree, but also people need jobs to get money so they can pay for things and help around their home if it is needed. I think you should worry about school during school. My life does not revolve around school; I have other responsibilities that also take time out of my day so I can’t always be doing homework for seven classes at night.
I think there are many alternatives schools can work on to get homework out of the equation. Obviously getting practice in topics you are learning is really important, but there are activities we are able to do in school instead of sending students home with hours of work.
It is hard for a lot of students to learn things on their own and to do work they don’t understand. Sometimes they will just cheat on the homework teachers give out because they don’t understand. So basically, homework is pointless because students are not learning anything.
The best reason to stop homework is because it is taking up students’ time to do other things in their lives. Life does not revolve around school. Homework takes away kids’ time to work or help out family or even spend time with friends and family.
Homework causes students to stay up for hours to work. Even if students don’t have a job, you are still taking away their time to do other things they love. Giving students hours of work on top of other responsibilities causes a lot of stress.