Homework – How Much Is Too Much?

Throughout high school I can recall dragging home a heavy workload of books to the point where my shoulders were red when I got home. A reoccurring problem among many teachers is that they don’t realize the stress that they put upon their students. Most students receive about four to five hours of homework every night, but only complete about half of it. The workload is just too much for these students to handle.

I believe that homework is very important and it does help to review topics that were recently covered in the classroom, but many teachers seem to forget that their students have seven other classes that they receive homework for almost every day. This leaves no time for extracurricular activities and causes anxiety among students.

Also more and more students seem to be having back problems at a young age. This is mostly caused by the plethora of textbooks that they have to bring home every night. As I mentioned in a previous entry, block scheduling would be one solution to this. Unfortunately, not all schools have block scheduling. Other teachers must assign homework with a reasonable perception of how much the student receives as a whole.