Students rarely enjoy studying or doing school work in their free time. Students would rather do what they like after a tiring day of sitting in classes all day learning like their hobbies, spending time with family, working to provide for their family, sports, clubs, and way more! 

“I feel like we shouldn’t have homework, if we do work in classes,” junior Jordan Baker said.

Baker loves to spend time with her family, play video games, and take her dog for walks. Baker’s personal time is important to her, and she doesn’t like wasting it on schoolwork.      

Many students agree: homework takes up too much personal time at home. 

In the past 3 years, students experienced doing school online during COVID. KPS did online school with assigned chromebooks. Classes started at 9:00 A.M. and ended around 3:00 P.M. KPS students took online classes for as long as 1 and a half years and then went back to in-person schooling fall 2021. 

Doing online classes made school more of a home life, not really balancing school life and home life. Lots of people had family problems that made online classes no longer a priority, showing up on time or even logging on didn’t seem like a huge option to students. Many students did not participate in class discussions or class assignments, they had their cameras off and were playing video games or on their phones.    

As many can guess, students’ focus wasn’t always 100%. Cell phones were in the way, video games, family issues, and more prevented school from being a priority. 

Many students don’t have the attention span to do work at home after school: procrastination gets in the way. When students don’t do their work until the last minute, bad habits start to appear. 

Many students have had these bad academic habits for years. After elementary school, students’ parents don’t keep track of every piece of work they get handed. Cell phones and video games are a big thing now for many kids. When teens get home from school, homework won’t be their first priority until parents make it.

“ I do my work as soon as I get home,” said Jordan Baker. 

Students that do work when they get home, conserve more time for themselves later. They get more time to rest, and take time to themselves. 

Two LN students hate homework and agree if they do work in class, then they shouldn’t have to do it at home. Although students don’t like doing homework, they’ve been doing it for years. 

Lots of times students come home and have to work. It’s not unusual for students to have jobs when in school, but it’s harsh on their time for school and participation in their classes. Many students don’t get done with work until 9 or 10 P.M., and that can affect their sleep schedule. 

“ I only work around 15 hours a week, but it can really impact how well I do my school work,” said senior Alexis Johnson, “I come home late and then don’t have time to do homework. I feel like most teachers don’t respect that I have things going on outside of school and want me to dedicate my entire life to Loy Norrix.”

Getting up at 6 A.M. after a late night of work doesn’t always sound pleasant, especially to a teenager’s ears. Sometimes sleeping in class becomes a thing for students. While sleeping in class, students lose  time to complete work, participating in class discussions, and doing an assignment assigned to the class.

Homework teaches students time management. An article from Allison Academy stated, “If you have control over your free time, you will be able to better organize your school responsibilities, and in consequence, you will become more productive, get better grades and will have more time to do things you love.” 

Some students could care less about homework. With the new grading system for KPS, 90% tests and quizzes and 10% homework and in-class assignments might lead some students to give less effort  to even do homework or assignments. But it can also get them to do work if they didn’t do very well on their last test. 

Time management can fix people’s lack of organization. Students that lack organization in time and work, end up doing more work and spending more time on things they prefer.

“Although I don’t like doing homework, I still take the time after school to do it,” sophomore Madison Johnson said. Johnson fills her freetime with drawing, and she doesn’t enjoy taking the time to do schoolwork when she can be working on her art projects.  

Students lacking time management skills can affect how well they do things at home. It can affect how well they focus on the homework, how long they want to put into the assignment, and when they want to finish it. With TV, cell phones, video games all as distractions, those can get in the way of students doing their work. 

Students’ parents can be strict when it comes to school, whether it’s grades, worrying about cell phone usage in school, or focus. Some parents care very much about grades, some very little. Strict parents can affect how children view doing homework and schoolwork: positively or negatively. As it may affect students’ grades in a positive way, sometimes it can affect students negatively too.