Homework always piles up on my desk every day after school; I often find myself up late at night doing homework that could have been easily completed in class. Staying up late to do the work means my brain isn’t processing information the same way it would have during the day. I can’t ask teachers for help when I’m alone in my room at midnight, wondering how I’m supposed to find the electron configuration for beryllium for FOS without support or explanation.
Spending time in class getting work done always feels better than being stressed at home with no immediate help. At school, I’m able to get all my work done. The environment is better because everyone is working at the same time, motivating me to do my work and I can get help right away from my teachers.
Because classes at CHS are 100 minutes long, I believe that students should have enough time to complete their work in class. However, sometimes teachers take the whole class to teach or lecture, leaving work to do at home. Similarly, some students don’t get all the work done in class even if time is given to them. For some students, that time is spent talking with friends or doing work from another class.
After school, some students have after-school activities that start right after school and end later in the afternoon, meaning they don’t get home until late. I leave my house around 3 p.m. every day, and get home around 8:30 p.m.. By the time I get home, I’m exhausted and want to go to bed rather than stay up later to do homework. When doing homework late at night, it’s harder for me to process the information I’m trying to learn or review. I’ve noticed that when I finish homework or assignments in class, I tend to get higher grades on the test, for many reasons.
Not only does getting work done in class improve my scores, but it also sometimes helps me understand the content much better. When I do homework at home, I often forget what we talked about in class that day because there is a lot of time in between class, and when I sit down at home to do my homework. But when I get the work done in class, I remember the content much better because it is still fresh in my mind. I’m able to recall the information better and it processes better in my mind.
Stress for teenagers, or anybody, can cause a range of mental and physical health problems, including anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and a weakened immune system. Stress can also negatively impact teens’ learning in school, meaning they might not do as well.
I believe that if all teachers gave students at least 30 minutes to complete work from the class, the scores would increase. This way, students wouldn’t have to spend so much time at home staying up late doing homework from class. I also believe that students would feel less stressed with the workload they have at home if they were able to complete work in class.
