Among other reasons, the Florida Department of Education claims that homework is beneficial because it “gives students another opportunity to review class material,” and that it “teaches students how to take responsibility for their part in the educational process.” However, many students question the usefulness of homework. How is it helpful, for example, if the student did not already gain understanding of the material while in class?
School Lacks Meaning for Students
Many East students complain that they will never remember anything they are taught in school. One big reason this is true is that many lessons don’t have much to do with average jobs, paying bills, or handling taxes. An exception is the new requirement to study Financial Literacy. According to the West Virginia State Legislature, “Beginning with the class of students entering 9th grade in the 2024-2025 school year and thereafter, each high school student shall complete one-half credit course of study in personal finance during their 11th or 12th grade year as a requirement for high school graduation.” Most students will find this class relative to their future success, but what about all the other classes? It’s hard for a lot of teens to stay focused on what they learn in school when they feel they can’t keep up with work that doesn’t have much meaning for them in the first place. When you add homework into the mix, it can be discouraging.
Homework Is Stressful
“I think homework is annoying,” sophomore Porsche Ambler said. We spend all day here at school just to go home and do homework.”
Homework is something that most students despise unless they actually like school, which is rare. Homework is one of the easiest things to do, yet at the same time one of the most exhausting. It is supposed to help you, not be something you dread, but considering kids go home and have to do more work when they just spent eight hours at school, no wonder they feel stressed and often turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help with assignments.
Sophomore Madilyn Gibson feels the stress of knowing she has on average another two hours of homework waiting after school. “It’s very tiring and exhausting,” Gibson said. “I hate it.”
Peyton Copenhaver, also a sophomore, echoed Gibson when she said, “I think it sucks that we will come to school for eight hours and then go home and do more work for an hour or two.”
And is eight hours too much time in school? Or not enough? Different students pick up the fundamentals at different rates depending on how each one learns, or how they view education in general. For many, eight hours at school can be way too much, especially if they have an after-school activity like sports, band, credit recovery, etc.. Students feel a lot of fear knowing they may not finish assignments before the due dates and earn zeros when they truly have no time. Also, there is too much emphasis placed on grades rather than actually learning something.
Pressure for Good Grades
As long as students get good grades that’s all that matters, right? A student receives a grade card, a piece of paper that the world gives a lot of meaning to, but in reality it is just a paper with letters. It is supposed to measure progress, but what if a student’s grades are poor and no improvement is seen? According to administration and teachers, East’s new cell phone policy “Away for the Day” will raise student engagement and grades, but that remains to be seen. Teaching styles should be changed if no improvement is seen.
Teachers who assign homework also need to feel more for their students. For example, some students go home and may not have access to the internet. They may not have power at all–or even running water. Teachers should also take into consideration the hard work that goes into being a student athlete. Student athletes find it hard to balance late-night games with homework, in most cases because of the long drives, no internet access, and lack of sleep.
Sophomore Myeisha White, a basketball player, explained the pressure she feels. “It is definitely a mentally breaking thing to do,” she said. “You feel as if you are being held to this impossible standard and fear that if you don’t have a certain GPA you’ll become grade ineligible and be stripped of what you love doing because of late night games and not much time to do the work.
In conclusion, homework is very easy, but so frustrating that many students choose to use Artificial Intelligence to complete it. Assigning homework is useless because, in students’ eyes, using AI is preferable to losing precious after-school hours that they would rather dedicate to extra-curricular activities, or just plain relaxing.
