In recent years, the amount of stress and workload on students as young as middle school has taken a drastic change. Students are finding themselves more stressed and anxious about going to school than anything else. There’s actually a type of stress that’s related to school and that is school stress. This takes also takes a toll on not only the students but also the parents.

High school students now spend 17.5 hours per week working on homework, that’s not even including the time already spent at school. Three years ago, in 2011, high school students were only spending roughly around 6.9 hours on homework and in 1994; it was only an hour of homework a day at most. Only in three years, the rate of hours spent on homework has raised over 10 hours? Now teachers find it necessary to assign busy work as homework and a 5-page paper due the next week.

You’re told in high school that you should try at least one Advanced Placement (AP) class that is similar to a college level course before you go and earn your diploma. A lot of these AP classes actually in turn give more stress on students and sometimes make them physically ill. When I was in my AP class, of a subject I really did love my entire school career, I soon realized that the workload and amount of tests we had weekly was causing me to want to skip this class and be part of it. This supposed college level course caused me more stress than my actual college course has.

Schools tell you that the only way to succeed is to get the best grades and spend all your time doing your work, while joining a club or two, maybe a sport, get a job, and spend some time with your friends. Students already are spending nearly an entire day per week on just homework alone. I feel that schools need to stop focusing on being the best and focus on actually teaching your students how to learn and grasp what’s being mentioned in the classroom.

A lot of students will actually miss a day of school over the stress and anxiety it causes. This is a problem we have when it comes to school. Instead of focusing so much on standardized tests, SATs, countless hours of homework, and trying to be the best school in the state, schools need to find a way to help their students succeed and not have a sense of nausea over just thinking about school.

Going back to the basics of education would be the best way to go. To reduce stress, anxiety, and the amount of workload students have. The three ‘R’s’, which are reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic are the basics we need to go back to. Students now are not taught how to study and actually learn the material presented in front of them. Going back to these basics will help students learn how to succeed in anything that is put in front of them. Along with going back to these basics and reducing the amount of homework will help a lot of students find a way to balance every part of their teenage life. This will encourage students to reach for their diploma and make it through high school.