History teacher says that homework extends learning but gives students stress

January 11, 2024

A student in James Johnson’s third hour works on their homework during class. Many students feel as though they have to complete their homework in class in order to turn it in on time.

After being at school for nearly seven hours each day, having another four hours of homework is the last thing that students want. Especially for students who have to work multiple hours after school, it can be extremely difficult to balance these workloads with their personal lives.

According to Allie Bidwell’s US News article “Students Spend More Time on Homework but Teachers Say It’s Worth It,” high school students with five class periods in a day can have up to 17.5 hours of homework each week, which is approximately 3.5 hours a day.

Despite the amount of time homework can take, history teacher McKenzie Roman still believes that it’s beneficial to students.

“If you are learning in class and you practice that skill set at home, that just reinforces that learning,” said Roman.

While Roman knows that homework helps students remember what they’ve learned, it’s important to have a balance between homework and other parts of students’ lives.

“A lot of learning fatigues,” said Roman, ”so if you’re working hard all day at school and you go home and you have a whole bunch of homework to do at night, you don’t have opportunities for that downtime. That balance is needed to be successful.”

Roman advises students to participate in other activities in order to create the balance between school life and students’ personal lives.

“Make sure you’re getting outside, getting some exercise, and you’re having dinner with your family,” said Roman. “Also, you’re not spending too much time on screens like video games, TV, TikTok, or anything like that.”

The main problem with the amount of homework students have is the amount of stress it causes them.

Edutopia’s 2014 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 61% of respondents experienced “somewhat high” or “very high” levels of stress as a result of their academic workload. 70% of the respondents reported that they got seven hours of sleep or less each night.

The purpose of homework is to help students remember a topic or subject, but it can also lead to an unbalanced work/home life, which leads to stress.