GUEST WRITER: Daniel Nonato-Nonato
Homework is something that students do almost every day. Homework is work students are meant to do outside of school. It is assigned for extended learning and development. Some students hate homework and others love it.
According to the Kalamazoo Public Schools District Policy, high school students should be assigned between 90-120 minutes of homework and at least 30 minutes of reading each night. Homework is assigned for extended learning and development.
Personally, I have about 60 minutes of homework daily, 80 minutes when I have a project to do or an exam coming up.
According to The U.S. News, having more meaningful homework assignments can help build time management skills in younger students. More meaningful assignments may also enhance parental interaction. For high school students, doing assignments outside of class can get them interested in a career path.
For me, homework is extra time to practice what I have learned in class, so I won’t forget the material.
“Homework is an important part of my daily life, because without it I would not be able to get into a good college and learn,” said junior Kanejia Conner.
However, homework can cause students to get depressed, stressed, frustrated and can affect a student’s physical health. According to a survey conducted by The Health Line of more than 43 hundred students at 10 high schools, more than 70 percent of students said they were stressed because of school work. 56 percent of students listed that homework was their primary cause of depression.
Student athletes in particular can get stressed from doing too many things at once, like both going to sports practice and completing homework after school. It is stressful to do so many things after school. Student athletes might be tired after practice or a game and still have to do homework. Sometimes student athletes have to sacrifice sleep because they know that if they want to play a sport they have to do their homework in order to maintain the GPA required to play.
There are some cases where teachers assign homework involving activities not previously learned. This might put stress on students. One time when I was in 8th grade a teacher gave me a homework assignment that had nothing to do with the topic that we were discussing in class. Teachers should assign homework that is relevant to the topic that students are learning to minimize their students stress.
Some teachers are forced to do this because they aren’t able to finish units when there is too much work to cover. Teachers have to follow the rules the district tell them to do.
“In English classes there is so much reading to do that we will not finish the curriculum,”  said  Journalism and English teacher Tisha Pankop.
My solution is that teachers should continue to assign homework, but just two or three times each week. Also, teachers should not assign homework when there are exams coming up. This will allow students time to study for the exams. When big projects are assigned, less homework should be given as well.
“Homework is essential to our understanding of difficult subjects, but in many occasions it can add an unnecessary element of stress on students,” said sophomore Aidan Lane.