Every student in the world has stressed over their homework, some have even cried. I know I have, plenty of times. Homework this, homework that, it’s not like we haven’t been at school for eight hours doing work or anything. School itself is already stressful enough, and having homework at home, which is a place to relax, is too much for an individual. Some people argue that it helps the students get more practice with what they’re learning at school; some say that it stresses kids out too much.

Homework was invented by Robert Nevilis in 1905. He was a teacher who thought students needed more practice at home. Ever since, homework has been important to every teacher and school. Educators say that it enhances the student’s ability to understand the subject better, but it does more than that. Studies have shown that homework can lead to stress and depression. Students have to deal with being in school for eight hours, then having to go home and work on more stuff from school is very overwhelming. Every person likes to be relaxed after a long, stressful day, but some students cant because they have too much homework.

Homework doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get better at something or even get better grades. Sometimes it might even make it all worse. It can make an individual feel stupid when they don’t fully understand a subject. Every student has their own personal problems, which could be from bullying, going through a tough break up, to family problems. The school board of education needs to keep in consideration that we as students have a personal life outside of school. We already have enough things to worry about, and homework just makes it a lot harder for us.

Homework can go either way, it can be a positive thing, but it can also be a student’s worst nightmare. Students who are taking more than one AP class or honor classes know how hard it is to keep up good grades without being stressed. Sometimes a student has many upcoming tests they have to study for, or even projects, and that is something really stressful to deal with. That has happened to every student at some point. For example, mid-term of this school year, I had an upcoming test for formal geometry, for AP Spanish, I had to do a project for World History and take two quizzes on Edmodo for Chemistry, plus all of my homework from other classes all in one week. I would go to sleep at 2 the earliest to try and finish all of my work, and I didn’t procrastinate, so just imagine how late I would’ve gone to bed at if I had procrastinated.

Society thinks that babies need a lot of sleep. What most people don’t know is that teenagers need as much sleep as babies do. Studies have shown that when teenagers hit puberty, which is usually between middle school and high school, they need to sleep at least 9 hours. With all the homework that is giving at school, most teenagers don’t even get 6 hours of sleep. Doing homework till about 12/ 1 in the morning and having to wake up early as well can make a student feel tired and weak. I’m not saying that every student has this problem, but I’m pretty sure more than three-fourths have gone through this at some point.

Going to sleep late for a student is one of the hardest things to deal with as well. Having to wake up early in the morning and get ready to face school again is not something easy to do, especially if you’re like me who does not enjoy waking up in the early morning. I would be so tired at school, I would fall asleep in class, and when I would wake up, I’d be lost on what we were learning. Even after school, I’d be so tired from being at school, I just wanted to go home and take a nap. But I couldn’t. I had to clean my room, wash the dishes, clean downstairs and upstairs, and had to help my mom cook dinner. Then after dinner, I would have to clean up the kitchen once again, help my mom with whatever she needed and go do my homework.




Being a student and a person is not something easy to do, at least not for me anyways. As a teenager, all you want to do is have fun, explore this adventurous world, but homework and grades are
always there to stop you. Society is always encouraging teenagers to be active, but what they don’t realize is that students cant because of all their homework. They need to understand that we as students have a lot of things to deal with outside of school. I understand that teachers want their students to succeed with the subject but homework overwhelms students, which wears them out. Once a student’s reaches that point, they will not care about doing their homework and will lag at school which will cause them to get really bad grades, or worst case scenario, it will lead them to drop out.

On the other hand, I understand why homework is so important. It may help you get better at something, gives you a little more practice. If you don’t understand something, taking it home and working on it there might help you understand it. Maybe after a long day at school, your mind can finally focus on one subject, which enhances your ability to understand it. Maybe if the most important classes were the only ones to give you homework, life would be easier.

Since pressure on teenagers has increased in the last few years, students who don’t do their homework are most likely the ones to cheat. With all the stress around students, having good grades is more important than actually getting an education. This generation of kids worry more about passing and getting good grades than actually understanding the subject and getting an education.

Teachers might say that they leave their students a little bit of homework, but what they don’t realize is that some students have up to 7 other classes and teachers to worry about. Sure, they might leave you a small worksheet, or even just to study vocab, but that adds on to the other ton of homework you have for your other classes. Us as students don’t get long breaks. We get 2 days off for a whole week to relax, but guess what again; we have homework on our free days.

A suggestion I have for the school board is the following: if a student personally thinks they don’t need homework, they shouldn’t get homework. But on the other hand, if a student wants more practice at home, they can take some homework. It could count as extra credit, depending on the teacher, but if you didn’t turn any homework in, it wouldn’t harm your grade.

If a student does not understand the homework, we don’t have a personal teacher or tutor there to help us. In my opinion, it is more stressing trying to do your homework without any help, especially if you don’t completely understand it. It is also very hard to get help online, and not all students have internet access at home due to economic issues. Also, if you’re getting help online, it is harder to focus and you don’t get that one on one interaction with an instructor.

Overall, yes, I do believe homework might be good in some cases, but if you look at the factors and consequences, homework is more stressful than helpful. Once you become a student, you will forever be a student rather than a teenager. If you add all the hours you’re at school and the hours you spend doing homework or studying, you spent ¾ of your day doing school work. Educators needs to understand that students have a life outside of school.