Picture this: I get home from lacrosse practice at 6, and I have to shower, prepare for the next school day, and eat dinner. By then, the time is 7:30, and I start my homework after an exhausting day. However, it’s not homework for just one class. I have major assignments due for four of my classes the next day. This will take me hours to do.
With no procrastination, I start with my history essay, followed by the required videos to watch for physics. At 10, I am finished with my math packet and moving onto my reading for English class. My eyelids are getting heavier by the minute, but I stay up until 11:30, with barely any retention of what I just read for the past hour and a half. I finally get to sleep by 12, but I have to wake up at 6 in the morning for school.
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This scenario is not just a personal issue. Many of my peers experience the same problem multiple times a week, leading to sleep deprivation. It is a never-ending cycle that causes studentsto be tired while learning valuable information in school, thus making it difficult to remember the material they are taught. Primarily, this affects students who take higher level classes, which I believe is unfair. These students challenge themselves and expect to have more work than a regular class, but ultimately they are punished for it. Instead of only sacrificing social hours and family time for school, they are now forced to choose between sleep or successful grades.
So, what is it that I would change as the principal of my school? Not anything unrealistic, like no homework, but I would make a policy that allows teachers to cooperate in order to make homework less overwhelming for students. I believe that the teachers of advanced classes should work together to ensure that students will have less stress by arranging their due dates to be different from one another. Maybe then, students would have enough sleep each night.
Kylie Meehan
Point Pleasant Borough High School