Topic > Students and Stress: Why Homework Needs to Be Limited

If we were to create a schedule for a high school student, a schedule full of “averages,” “shoulds,” and “ideals,” we would need a 26-hour day to adapt to each activity. However, we don't have 26 hours in a day, which is why schools should give less homework, which in return would improve the mental health of their students and, overall, lead to a better community. Students will stop looking for reasons "why I can't study" and will start paying more attention to the learning process itself and enjoying it more. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As stated, there is simply not enough time in the day to do the three hours of homework that students are assigned on average per night. This can be proven using the simplest mathematics. “The recommended amount of sleep for 14- to 17-year-olds is eight to ten [hours] per night,” sleep.org users say. So if we take 24 hours in a day and subtract 10 hours for sleeping, there are only 14 hours for all waking activities. A student would ideally only take about 10 minutes to eat breakfast and 30 minutes to shower and get ready, which leaves us with 13 hours and 20 minutes left, and then people typically go to high school for about 7 hours a day, but there is also (ideally) only half an hour of travel time each way, for a total of another 8 hours spent. This leaves the day with 5 hours and 20 minutes, so if the student plays a sport, another extracurricular activity, or at least gets the recommended amount of exercise outside of the gym, we have to add another hour and a half for that, leaving consequently 3 hours and 50 minutes for the rest of the program. Eat a 30-minute dinner, take 20 minutes to get ready before bed, average three and a half hours of assigned homework, study an extra half hour for tests and quizzes, and suddenly the student is a hour more than twenty-four hours. they had to use, which can't happen. So then you have to think to yourself, “ok, can a high school student really get a full ten hours of sleep?” And then we must answer: no. You don't have a full ten hours. So let's say the student is at the lower end of the sleep "recommendation scale", sleeping for eight hours instead of ten. This gives them an hour and more to use. “Great, they made it, right?” No. An hour left in the day is nowhere near enough to do everything you could do in a day, such as talking to friends and engaging in hobbies and recreational activities. Free time is also generous time, as most students have other extra responsibilities: perhaps they have to take care of pets, cook dinner, work, or do household chores; some students who take the bus may not get home for a full hour instead of thirty minutes. When you add all these extra things, there's even less time to relax, unwind, and relieve stress. Furthermore, students don't even need more than three hours of homework per evening. The amount of homework assigned is not as important as the quality of the homework, yet most students are assigned an unnecessary amount of homework. “Researchers have found that too much homework can decrease its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite previous research indicating that the benefits of homework plateau at about two hours a night.” The more homework the student receives, the less he or she actually learns from it. “Too much homework can lead to a.