Meet Hershey High School Sophomore Maddie Smith. She’s a varsity soccer player, and an honor roll student. She comes home from an away night game against Lower Dauphin at 9:00, she still has to eat, shower, and on top of all of that, has three hours of homework to finish. She doesn’t get to sleep till 1:00 AM. This is the harsh reality for students like Maddie.

There is no denying that homework leads to better academic achievement, but the amount of work is not worth all the consequences.

Smith isn’t alone in the volume of homework she faces.  High School students on average are given a substantial amount of homework every night. According to the Los Angeles Times, “A poll of public school teachers finds that on average, high school students are assigned 3.5 hours of homework per weeknight, or more than 17 hours a week.”

These long hours of time spent on homework takes away time from other important things such as extracurriculars, sports, and spending quality time with friends and family.

In an interview with People Magazine, Mary Helen Rogers, the vice president for the Better Sleep Council (BSC) said, “We’re finding that teenagers are experiencing this cycle where they sacrifice their sleep to spend extra time on homework, which gives them more stress.”

By reducing the amount of homework given every night and cutting out busy work being distributed would make it easier for students to keep up with busy schedules and stay mentally and physically healthy.

A new study, conducted by the Better Sleep Council, said that homework stress is the biggest source of frustration for teens. The study found 74 percent of those surveyed ranking it the highest.

These newly researched statistics show that students are sacrificing more than they are getting in return from the homework being given to them. 

An option to help deal with having an overload of busy-work, talk to a teacher or your guidance counselor.