Homework can cause a lot of problems in school and can lead to sleep deprivation as well as stress. It also takes up way too much time and gives way too much stress to already stressed-out students.

“Students go home after 7 hours of school only to spend even more time doing work at home where there are distractions and other responsibilities that can get in the way,” said junior Samantha Schuster. ¨I do have a life outside of school, I have a job, and I have a family and other stuff to do.¨ But that’s not even taking into account the effectiveness of homework, said Schuster.¨There are so many distractions and you can’t focus the same then as you can at school.”

Assuming that the student has the free time to do the homework. Many students have clubs, sports, and jobs. According to MVOrganizing.org colleges recommend most high schoolers to work ¨10 to 15 hours a week,¨ but many students in the state of Minnesota work more than that, according to minimum-wage.org minors under 15 work up to 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week. And there are no restrictions on the hours worked for 16 and 17-year-olds.

Some of these jobs can go till 9 pm where students 16 years of age are no longer allowed to work until 7 a.m. and 17-year-olds cannot work anytime from ¨11 p.m. to 5 a.m. before a school day¨. Assuming that a 16-year-old works until 9 p.m. and is ready to start their homework around 9:30 p.m. of which MVOrganizing.org states the average time spent to be ¨about 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight.¨

That leads a student to finish around midnight at the very most. That’s an average of 7 hours of sleep estimating that the kid wakes up sometime around 7. The Center of Disease Control (CDC) states the average teen needs 8-10 hours of sleep.

When it comes down to it homework may just be used incorrectly. According to college-homework-help.org homework in 1905 was actually created as a punishment by a ¨Pliny the Younger¨. Though, many people don’t see it as punishment anymore, but more as an essential learning tool. It’s often taught that homework is an essential part of learning but many teachers are actually presenting homework in different ways than the traditional home worksheet usually given.

Ms. Germain is one of these teachers who states they believe it should ¨be in the student’s hands if they have a lot of homework or not.¨ They do this by making their class homework almost exclusively the objective of completing unfinished classwork. This way the amount of homework a student has and stresses over is completely in tandem with the amount of effort and work is given.

Though there is more than just one way to fix the homework problem of overloading and stress. Everyone seems to have interesting ideas on how to fix the currently stressful homework system. Many of these solutions are focusing on a more individualized homework system.

Junior Marshal Lilly believes that homework should be based upon an individual’s grade ¨your longest hour should be the one you understand the least¨ — meaning, in a standard class an A or B grade would not give you much homework to complete as it demonstrates you know the subject pretty well or you are well versed in that subject.

In that way of thinking a C or D student should have more materials given to help them improve and raise their grade. Though it’s still believed that a lot of homework, namely “busy work” should never be given, Marshal states that it “collides with family and friends¨ instead of spending that time on hobbies or spending time with loved ones, you’re doing homework.