The bell rings, calling attention to the end of second period. The students hurry out of class and into the hallway, heading to their next classes. On their way, students rant. You won’t believe how much English homework I have. And history just assigned two projects!

Ranting, frustration and anger can be heard in every hallway at VHHS. The topic of such discussions is usually homework, and everything wrong with it.

Staying up until midnight to finish homework is a habit for most high school students, and VHHS students are no exception.

As high schoolers, we attend hours of classes, and then stay after school for clubs or sports. Most people have other commitments, too, such as work or family obligations. On top of that, we need to do our homework.

It is obvious that teenagers are always running around trying to get something done, and if we aren’t, then we are too stressed and tired to do anything.

While I acknowledge the purpose of assigning homework — to further understanding and practice skills you’ve learned — I think it can be too much. Most times we may feel that some assignments don’t have value, meaning it’s just busy work.  

“There needs to be some very well defined purpose [of assignments] that is communicated to the students,” Mr. Pardun, a VHHS math teacher, said.

When teachers assign busy work, like worksheets with simple questions/problems, students may view it as less important and rush through it. When an assignment is not of great value students don’t give their best work. That’s how teachers can reduce homework by only assigning it when it’s meaningful to the student.

“I have never in my 25 years of teaching had a student say ‘that worksheet changed my experience in math; because of that worksheet, I am now much much better at doing this.’ so I’m not a big fan of worksheets, but I am a fan of a good problem,” Mr. Pardun said.

Completion points are the usual for homework worksheets. Some teachers will simply give you the points for doing it, and other teachers will not even collect it but simply look at it during class.

“You’re focused on finishing it, rather than learning,” Giselle Gomez (9) said.

In addition to the lack of value in some assignments, the workload can get out of hand. According to a survey conducted by TSP, only 10.2% of students think that due dates and assignments are evenly spread out.

An alternate solution could be creating a homework schedule affecting all major classes. For example, science classes would get Monday and Thursday, meaning science teachers can only assign homework on those days.

If the main academic classes are assigned specific days, then students would be able to focus more on their assignments. With the current workload, students have to juggle  multiple assignments from different subjects, and their minds keep shifting from one topic to another, not really retaining or focusing on one thing.

So, why do I need to spend hours of homework doing what may not be the most beneficial thing to my learning? That time may be well spent studying for a test or going over a lesson I’m not sure I understand.

Homework is not properly structured and needs to be adjusted soon. Anyway, I should get back to my homework now, I have this Delta Math, science worksheet, and English essay due tomorrow.