Exhausted, sophomore Sofia Sossa gets home from her volleyball tournament at 9 p.m. The last thing she wants to think about is homework, but her mom reminds her about the English essay that her teacher assigned on Thursday. She doesn’t have the energy to complete her work by 11:59 p.m. but also knows her teacher won’t give her an extension. Reluctantly, she opens her computer and manages to write and submit her whole paper by 1 a.m. and hopes her teacher doesn’t mark it late.
Teachers assign their students homework over the weekends and expect them to complete it by the due date, whether it is Friday night, Sunday night, or even Monday morning. Teachers claim to assign their students homework because they want them to remember the concepts they were taught during the week. They believe it keeps students responsible and keeps their minds working, rather than having to struggle to go back into “school mode” on Mondays.
Although those seem like good reasons, students believe that the homework they do on the weekends doesn’t help them, it just makes them more stressed. Students have extracurriculars like sports that keep them busy on the weekends, so worrying about doing homework on top of sports can be challenging. “ I participate in extracurricular activities over the weekend like volleyball and it’s hard to balance it all,” Sossa said.
Weekends should be a time for students to relax and take a break from the stress of the school week. There are times when we have multiple tests a day on different days of the week, so taking the time to sleep and do things that make us calm is important for our mental health. Having to worry about doing homework when we are relaxed can take a toll on our mental health, sometimes causing major anxiety.
For certain students, weekends are the only days they can go out and see their friends. Parents don’t usually let their kids hang out with their friends during the school week, so we make plans on the weekends. This is also important for our mental health because spending time with people that make you happy can improve your happiness.
Getting enough sleep is an important part of keeping teens mentally and physically healthy, but having to do homework can stop us from getting the right amount of sleep on the weekends. Since on school nights, students only have a few hours after school to do their homework and outside of school responsibilities, we don’t get the right amount of sleep. Students end up sleeping at 12 a.m. or later trying to keep up with the studying for tests and homework their teachers give them. That’s why we must focus on getting the proper amount of hours on the weekends which is harder to do when we have homework.
So after finding out about why teachers assign homework and how students feel about it, how do you think MCPS should react? Should there be homework on weekends or is homework on school nights enough?
