Working Hard or Hardly Working?

1722 Words4 Pages

What is an agreeable amount of homework for a high school student? A student might say one hour, a teacher would say three. However, neither of these ideal amounts of homework are correct as far more is given every night. Teachers do believe that this helps the student to learn on a deeper level, but it instead stresses out students on a deeper level. Because health issues, excessive stress, and loss of interest in the learning experience result from overworked high school students, school need to limit the amount of homework given to their students.
Excessive stress in high school students is a concerning outcome that results from an excess of work from school. Sixteen year old student Bretta McCall, who has had her fair share of homework, says, “Academic stress has been a part of my life ever since I can remember. This year I spend twelve hours a day on schoolwork. I’m home right now because I was feeling so sick from stress I could not stay at school.” (MindShift) Because McCall is a high school student herself, she knows first-hand what it is like to deal with overly excessive amounts of work and stress. McCall deals with twelve or more hours spent working on schoolwork, which is more than any full-time job expects. The purpose of high school is to prepare teenagers for the dedication required to maintain a full or part-time job. However, like McCall, many students are forced to work more hours than that of an actual job. The students are overworked and overstressed, which leaves them with health issues that make them feel sick. Mary Alvord is a clinical psychologist in Maryland and public educator coordinator for the American Psychological Association. As a professional on the subject, she says, “A little stress ...

... middle of paper ...

...work they hand out in order to save students and find an agreeable amount that actually benefits the student to help them learn.

Works Cited

Enayati, Amanda. "Is Homework Making Your Child Sick?" CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan.
1970. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
"High School Students’ Health Suffers From Too Much Stress." MindShift. N.p., n.d. Web. 20
Feb. 2014.
Hough, Lory. "Are You Down With or Done With Homework?" Harvard Graduate School of
Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Perle, Elizabeth. "High School Homework: Are American Students Overworked?" The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Nov. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Trudeau, Michelle. "School, Study, SATs: No Wonder Teens Are Stressed." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web.
21 Feb. 2014.
Vizzini, Ned. It's Kind of a Funny Story. New York: Miramax /Hyperion For Children, 2006.
Print.

Open Document