Many teens agree, and many adults remember, that homework can be frustrating and stressful as well. Almost every single day this school year we have had homework, and we believe we have too much at Valley Middle School of STEM.

We have almost always had homework for math ever since 6th grade, but now we’ve been getting many other assignments that we work on inside and outside of school. This includes classes like Social Studies, Communications, as well as Science and English.

Studies prove that too much homework can be stressful for students. According to Healthline Medical, “When it came to stress, more than 70 percent of students said they were ‘often or always stressed over schoolwork,’ with 56 percent listing homework as a primary stressor.”

The nationally recommended standard, according to the National PTA, for homework time in middle school is about 60-80 minutes. 36% of VMSS students report that they spend more than 1 1/2 hours on homework per night. 

If you read international news regularly, you would know that schools in Finland have no homework, but still succeed over the U.K. and U.S. in standardized testing. So this proves that if the school decides to lower the homework load, it is still possible for grades to stay at an acceptable level.

We understand that homework helps students prepare for tests, but too much homework overwhelms students. Excessive amounts of homework prevents students from learning anything because they are just trying to get it done quickly and turned in.

Most teachers assume all students work relatively fast on homework and class assignments, but that’s not the case for every student. Every student learns at a different pace. However, most kids either have after-school activities or have other events between the time of 2:40 to the time you go to bed. Some even have two or more events a day, whether it’s sports, theater, after- school programs, or anything else they are involved in.

On the other hand, we know that teachers give us work time for us to complete the assignment in class and advisory, and remove the need for “home”work. But sometimes, more often than not, the class time is not enough and it carries over into the time at home anyway.

Therefore we, the Editorial Board of The Eagle’s Call, believe that homework should be reduced at our school.

*Editorials appearing in The Eagle’s Call represent the majority view of The Eagle’s Call Editorial Board and are written by one or more members of the board.