Lets face it, no one actually enjoys doing homework. After students spend approximately six and a half hours at school, homework is the last thing on their mind.

Most high school students are in clubs or do sports. This increases the time spent at school. If a student is in multiple clubs, then they do not get home until much later in the evening.  This is a problem most continuously faced by student athletes. With practice everyday after school, games every few days, and constant meetings, sports can take up a ton of students’ time.

in comparison to students who get home directly after school, student athletes may get home two to four hours later. This eliminates valuable homework time. Additionally, after running and working their bodies, most student athletes don’t quite have the energy to do homework after a hard practice.

At  this point, it’s basically night time and these students haven’t gotten the chance to do their school work. Students need an average of nine and a half hours of sleep per night, but this seems impossible due to the amount of homework assigned by teachers. 

Some students stay up all night doing homework and are forced to go to school, go to practice and then have even more homework assigned to them.  If students fail to complete their homework in a timely fashion, then a build-up of work occurs which leads to a very stressful situation. 

When asked what the hardest part about balancing school and sports was, Nick Finder, a junior at Lindenhurst High School and a player on the Varsity Football team says, “The hardest part of balancing schoolwork and a sport is definitely the missed assignments and homework that can result from the constant practice and team activities.”  This brings up the idea that student athletes should be excused from missing assignments. Finder states “No, I don’t think that is a valid excuse, but I have noticed how it can be more difficult to study or do homework. But being exempt from assignments just isn’t fair to other students.”

Although homework seems like a whole lot of nothing, it is actually very crucial to the education system. After learning about something in school, it’s beneficial to solidify the topic at home. Additionally, by trying to figure it out on their own, students are able to learn something new.

Homework teaches students how to manage their time and to be responsible. Homework is a good assessment of a student’s current knowledge on a topic and makes them aware of what they should work on. This prepares them for the real world by giving them real responsibilities.  

Teachers shouldn’t assign homework every night just to give their students something to do. This isn’t practical since it relies less on using what the students learned and more on keeping them busy.

Mr. Viggiano, an AP teacher at the Lindenhurst High School says, “Homework should not be used as an everyday occurrence, I do believe it should be used when necessary… The importance of homework is to check kids’ awareness and understanding of that days’ lesson and it could be used to give a prompt for tomorrow’s classwork”.

Homework is very important and even though all students hate it, it shouldn’t be stopped just because students may struggle with timing. Doing homework allows students to grow on their own, outside the classroom, and it helps to identify the problems that students face individually. Additionally, no students should be exempt from homework, no matter the circumstances.