The homework debate has been going on for as long as students can remember. While some people argue that homework is essential to our learning, others argue that it’s just a waste of time.

On top of that, there is the question of how long students are supposed to do their homework.
The new policy stating that teachers cannot count homework for more than 10 percent of a student’s grade does not stop teachers from assigning an overwhelming amount.

Nevertheless, as much as you might dread it, homework is an important part of our learning. For one thing, it enables us to comprehend and practice what we’ve learned throughout the day.
Because of the lack of time a teacher has to completely explain a topic, a student might not have enough time to grasp everything that was taught in class.

Homework allows a teacher to see what needs to be reviewed for the test and what they need to spend more time on.

On the contrary, because a student has other homework to also complete, he or she might not have sufficient time to complete their work.

This might influence the student to copy someone else’s work, find the answers online, or even have one of their parents complete it for them.

Plagiarism has become a very serious problem. Not only is it unfair to the person who isn’t credited for their work, but it is also unfair to the person who is cheating.

By copying another person’s homework, you won’t understand what is being taught and this might affect you when you are taking a test.

Not to mention, that if a teacher catches you copying someone else’s work, there would be serious consequences.

Another problem that comes with homework is that students lose time that could be spent doing other things, like sleep for instance.

Many students are in clubs and sports and with the new late-start time schedule, many students get home late.
It is very hard to complete homework in a short-period time considering that the average teenager needs to have nine and a half hours of sleep.

As a student who has a lot of homework to complete, it’s hard to finish everything and have nine and a half hours of sleep.

Too much homework causes a student to reduce their time for sleep which is harmful to their health. This brings me to my next point, health.

On average, a high school student completes about three and a half hours of homework. If you add in a couple of hours for extracurriculars, it really doesn’t leave any time for relaxation.
According to Anne Brosnan, one of the school psychologists, too much pressure of any type can lead to stress.

“When people are feeling too much stress it can cause all sorts of problems,” Brosnan said. “Stress can cause physical problems such as headaches, stomach aches, and skin outbreaks.”

According to the American Psychological Association, teens are more stressed than adults. About 54 percent of teens report stress to have slight or no impact on their body or physical health, which differs from the 34 percent of adults.

Some tips that Brosnan has for managing homework stress is to keep track of your homework and to not procrastinate.

“Keep track of your assignments by writing them down in your notebook,” Brosnan said. “Start homework on the day it is assigned so you can get help from your teacher if needed.”

Having a routine and additional help from other students can also help you with stress management.
Even after doing all of these things and you are still feeling stressed, Brosnan advises you to talk to your school counselor to see if there are any additional changes to make it better.

With the amount of homework teachers assign, it’s easy for students to believe that teachers are only trying to keep students busy.

Too much work can eventually become ineffective. Students are more focused on completing assignments on time rather than actually trying to comprehend the information.