I think we can all agree that school for the past few years has been chaotic and that is an understatement. I think my sophomore year has been by far the most “normal.” Here’s an inside scoop of how life is this year as a sophomore.  

Last year as a freshman, it was not as chaotic as the two years prior, but it was still a chaotic year. We still had to wear masks, distance, wipe desks, for part of the year due to Covid. But moving further into the year, we stopped wearing masks but continued the other protocols. Other than covid regulations, 9th grade was manageable. But 9th grade with or without Covid restrictions was still much better than my sophomore year and I am only about five weeks in.  

The first thing to address is the workload, which has significantly increased. This takes me by surprise. I thought tenth grade would be easy. I could not have been more wrong. This year we often have numerous tests and quizzes all in the same week. 

When I asked my fellow classmates what they thought about this, some, including Kate Calanni, replied, “This year there is way more work compared to last year.” I am not the only one who has noticed. 

In an article from “Open Colleges.edu.au” called “Don’t Overload Students: Assigning Too Much Work Discourages Learning” by Marianne Strenger, she states in her research,  

“Because homework tends to act as a stressor in students’ lives, their bodies must find a way to respond or react to this stressor, and although research has shown that some level of   stress can be healthy, chronic stress can induce negative physical, mental, and behavior outcomes.”  

This proves that too much homework has negative effects on a student’s physical, mental and social health. 

Strenger also states that only 6% of students said they found their homework “very useful” in preparing them for learning, tests, papers or projects, and many experienced stress, compromised health, and a lack of balance. 

Students also voiced their frustration with their workload in Strenger’s research, saying things like; “There’s never a time to rest, there’s always something more you should be doing;” “It can feel like you are drowning;” and “My body crashes when I’ve done maybe half of my homework.”  

“Based on such student feedback, the researchers speculate that homework overload can actually limit a person’s capacity to learn,” Strenger also asserts.  

“Our study suggests that [students who are overloaded] experience higher levels of stress and more physical problems like sweating, headaches, exhaustion, stomach problems, and/or sleeping difficulties.” These impacts reinforce the negative impact of excessive homework.  

 I do not support making education easy or dumbing it down because I do enjoy challenges and I also do consider myself a workaholic. But it would be a help for teachers occasionally to be more considerate when it comes to scheduling tests and various assignments that sometimes seem to have little to nothing to do with what we did in class. It would also be helpful to review the assignments and tests because the action of just handing them back to us with grade on it does not help in learning the material. Students want to learn, and hope that we can be instructed in a way that leads to true learning and supports a healthy work and life balance.