What does a typical weekday look like for you?
We often hear from students about how their schedules are overloaded — they have too much homework, and they’re running from one extracurricular activity, sport or volunteer project to another. As a result, they don’t sleep enough or spend enough time with their friends and families.
Does that sound like you?
Imagine that your school, and all of its related activities, suddenly demanded less from you. How would you feel? Would you worry about becoming bored? Or would you welcome a slower schedule?
In the guest essay “High Schoolers Need to Do Less So That They Can Do Better,” Tim Donahue, a high school English teacher, writes about the pressure that college-bound students face:
We have pushed high school students into maximizing every part of their days and nights. Those who take the bait are remarkably compliant, diluting themselves between their internships and Canva presentations. We condition students to do a so-so job and then move on to the next thing. We need to let them slow down. Critical cognition, by definition, takes time.
The underbelly of grade inflation is that now ambitious students must clear more time in their schedules for the stuff that really makes a difference. Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, Amanda Claybaugh, said: “Students feel the need to distinguish themselves outside the classroom because they are essentially indistinguishable inside the classroom. Extracurriculars, which should be stress-relieving, become stress-producing.”
He continues:
It’s no wonder kids are so fried when they get home that they retreat to their screens. And in the maelstrom, home life gets eroded, too. “Between classes and sports, I never see my child,” a well-meaning parent at my prior school told me. “I come into their room and drop dinner on their desk. I feel like a prison warden.”
Mr. Donahue ends his essay arguing for a “collective pushback” on the ever-increasing demands of high school:
Let’s not forget that exploration is the catalyst of learning. If we allow for more unbroken stretches of time, we begin to see those meadows that have been in front of us the whole while. When students are allowed uninterrupted thought, they can build ideas together. A gut reaction to a character’s monologue can lead to understanding of another passage, which can lead students to connect not only with fiction but also with one another. What was once invisible becomes apparent; sustained thought offers a grounding and an ascension. Molly Worthen, a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is pretty adamant about this: “We need an intervention: maybe not a vow of silence but a bold move to put the screens, the pinging notifications and the creepy humanoid A.I. chatbots in their proper place.”
That sounds nobler than kids taking a fourth year of math because private consultants instruct their clients to optimize their college applications even when so few Americans use calculus in their daily lives. It sounds better than launching into thousands of hours of French that will never be used. Consider that college-bound seniors cramming it all in will, in a matter of months, be taking half the number of classes when they matriculate.
This year, Americans have flown and driven at record levels, used more energy in their houses than ever before and have continued to deny the palpable, growing doom of this more than ever. But we have made this climate; we have brought this on ourselves.
Our high school students also have a breaking point, and it has been announcing itself for quite some time with its own resounding trends — depression, anxiety, migraines. We are letting this happen, too. We are letting it waft through the floor vents, fueled by the gnawing sense that there are ever more young business founders competing for select colleges with ever dwindling acceptance rates.
Can we take it down a little? Can we allow them to do less so that they can do it better?
My students, read the entire essay and then tell me:
What does a typical weekday look like for you? How much time do you spend at school, doing homework, participating in extracurricular activities or sports, and with your friends or family? Do you think of yourself as overscheduled?
Which parts of Mr. Donahue’s essay resonate with you, if any? For example, are you expected to do too much — and then, because of all your obligations, do you end up doing a “so-so” job at everything? Do extracurricular activities feel more stress-producing than stress-relieving? Do you feel fried after school? Do you rarely get to spend meaningful time with your family?
Do you agree with Mr. Donahue that high school and all of its related activities need to be less demanding? Or do you think you should be more challenged at this time in your life?
Mr. Donahue calls for a “collective pushback,” in which students, teachers, parents, schools and college admissions departments would all have to scale back their expectations so high school students are able to slow down and still succeed. Do you think that is possible? Why or why not?
How might your life be different if you could slow down and do less? What do you imagine your school experience, social life and home life would look like? Would it be better or worse?
Here goes my two cents: I believe school-related activities, especially assignments, should be both challenging and less frequent. Challenging assignments encourage students to learn and grow. However, Mr. Donahue states that “critical cognition, by definition, takes time,” so these assignments should not be assigned so often. Giving students more time to work on challenging assignments will better ensure that they put in more effort rather than doing a “so-so job” before moving onto the next assignment. A high schoolers average day would start around 6 or maybe earlier, they would then get ready for the day and head to school. They would go through their day with many assignments expected to be finished during class, then a pile of homework waiting for them once they get home giving them no break. Once they come home they would have no motivation for anything due to being drained from school for about 8 hours. They would then go on their phone for some relief but instead that would make them more tired missing the work, then falling behind. But if they did do their homework it would take up the rest of the day leaving no time for their outside life. I believe High school needs to be less demanding to a mild extent. Some students have better things to do than just school all day. The average school day takes out half a persons day to do anything, and the school works takes out, most of the time, the other half of the day. Beyond that, it’s really frustrating because it’s all we do everyday and we miss out on time, at our young age, like spending it with people we cherish, being able to attend activities, or even work on sports. On the other hand, some students truly do need the extra work and extra demand to keep them on track. If a student struggles on a subject and has the time of the day to work harder then that makes the situation completely different. School sports promote themselves as teaching students the value of teamwork, self-efficacy, respect for others, and whatever else. I work as a substitute teacher in high schools. Can you guess which students most often bully and shame other students, then become confrontational when told to knock it off? Can you guess which students, when they are offered separate space to cool off, most often double down?
Students on sports teams enjoy the time they spend playing - that is how it should be, games are great! And nobody should begrudge them their joy. But these "athletes" are often encouraged by their coaches that their odds of a successful career in sports are better than statistics would bear out. Students throw their youth, health, and future at organized sports, and blow off academics, to their detriment. They know this, they are insecure about it, and look to exploit insecurities in others to soothe themselves when class is challenging.
An average high schoolers day begins with waking up at 7 or even earlier some times, them immediately getting ready and heading to school starting their day. At school teenagers are expected to go through out their day learning and paying attention in all their classes-having assessments, and home work poured on to them through out the day. Some teens day don’t even end with school, besides all the class work they have piles of home work when they get home writing for them. I believe that high school does r need to be do demanding, while it prepared us for life we still have a other 4 years of collage to prepare is for the real world and in stead we should have less work in our years of high school.
I fully believe that high school is far too demanding. How am I supposed to retain information when I am extremely stressed about grades, tests, maintaining healthy friendships, avoiding judgment from other students, and everything else in my life? I find myself procrastinating when starting on homework after school, and instead just scrolling on my phone because I do not want to spend every waking hour thinking about school. In addition to that, everyone learns differently. One student may learn best when they can take notes, while other students may find it helpful to have a more hands-on learning experience. Some schools do a better job than others at accommodating different kinds of learning styles, however I believe that there is no way to completely understand the struggles of the students around us.
I agree that high school is too demanding, especially for freshmen who have just made the jump from middle to high school. My weekdays without extracurricular activities typically look something like this: get to school at 8:20, get out of school at 3:50 and get home around 5:30, and when I have extracurriculars I get home around 7:00. I have around 1-2 hours of homework a day, sometimes more if I have larger projects. This combined with when I get home means I typically don't get the amount of sleep I need. I think that the word “fried” used in the article is a very accurate way to describe how I feel when school ends. My educational classes are incredibly draining and the stress and tiredness also way me down throughout the entire week. I also have decently sized projects to work on over most weekends, which takes away from what's supposed to be a relaxing break. I love visual art, photography, and music but because of school and my schedule I find myself too tired or overwhelmed to do the creative activities I love. Combined with my home life, friends, and lack of free time, it is hard to appreciate or have time for the full high school experience. Overall, I feel very overwhelmed and I feel teachers and school boards should make changes to reflect this because I know a lot of students feel similar.
I think that sleep is one of the biggest problems when it comes to stress and exhaustion in students. High school students who have to wake up at 6:00 every morning, get home late after extracurriculars, and have to do homework late into the night get barely enough sleep. I get home most days at ~6PM after play rehearsal ends 5:45, and I don't have any study halls or free periods because I have too many other classes I want to take during the school day, so I end up with a lot of homework once I'm home.
On top of how physically and academically exhausting high school can be, it's also extremely tiring socially. Having to interact with so many people for hours each day leaves me so tired and overstimulated that even when I do have free time after finishing my homework, I want to spend it alone. I don't have the energy to play video games with my dad or watch a show with my parents and brother like I want to. My brain is so fried that as soon as I have the space to just breathe, I shut myself in my room and sit in bed on my phone or computer. I think that the amount of exhaustion that students have by the end of a long school day increases the tendency to doom-scroll and spend mindless hours on social media. Over the weekend, I tend to want to use my free time on Saturday to do fun things with friends from outside of school, but then on Sunday when I'm exhausted from all of that social interaction, I have to cram all my homework before Monday, which makes me sleep late.
On a typical weekday, I wake up at 6:30. I eat breakfast, pack my lunch, and get ready for school. I get on the bus at 7:40, and get to school ten minutes before classes start. I have three classes before lunch, and 2 after. On days I have after school activities (Tuesday and Wednesday), I get home at 7:00. On every other day, I get home an hour earlier. My teachers assign about 30 minutes of homework a day, which with 5 classes works out to 2 and a half hours a day of homework, more if there are larger projects. On my least busy day of the week, Monday, that means that if I work undistracted and uninterrupted, I get done at 8:30. That leaves just 2 and a half hours until I go to bed at 11 to eat dinner, get ready for bed, When I have extracurriculars or therapy, that's just 1 and a half hours. I would definitely say I’m overscheduled.
I have a longer school day than most of the school around me, starting at 8:30 and ending at 3:50. Because of this I am a little late to my sports and have to make sure I have a snack in my last class before I go strait to the gym (at a separate location). Then practice with my team for about 2 hours to an hour and a half (not including dry land). When I get home at about 6:00 I then have dinner (30 mins) with my family, witch is something mandatory I have to attend since it is the one time I spend time with my family during the week. Then I head to my room to do homework until about 8:30 and get everything ready for the next day (I have a habit of forgetting things) for ten mins. I will usually read until 10:00 and then go to bed. Because everything I do is very punctual and repeats everyday I don't think I myself as over scheduled on the week days. Surprisingly I do often feel over scheduled on the weekends because I have sports and homework I have to do. I feel like I don't have enough time to do things I want to do like drivers ed or hanging out with friends. I feel like it would be more manageable if there was only homework during the school week and not over the weekend.
I usually wake up at 6:30, start school at 8:30, get home at around 4:30, rest for 2 hours then spend the rest of the night doing homework until I sleep at 10-11. Depending on the amount of homework, days can feel either chill or packed and stressful, despite not having extracurricular activities on weekdays. I'd say they're still relaxing for me because mine is usually on the weekends and requires minimal effort while still being enjoyable, so there's no hard commitment to be had. Even though this is true, I don't get to spend a lot of time with friends and family; I only do when it's something planned, and those have been pretty sparse. I don't mind this because I like having my alone time on the weekends even when I need to do a lot of homework, but I think there are definitely benefits to more bonding time in general. On the topic of if high school needs to be less demanding, I'd say it depends. As a freshman who is currently doing fine, I'm not really sure what my upperclassmen have to say, though I can vouch for some of my older friends who have definitely felt stressed by their high school commitments. My opinion is that school should be inherently slow, but can become more challenging if a student wishes to go down that path. If schools slowed down everywhere, I think my life would not be that different; I'd just have more free time to spend, but that does necessarily mean it's an improvement, even if it may certainly feel like it to me. School is both exciting and exhausting. Although others may argue, school can be fun and exciting at times. From talking with your friends in class, to sports, and clubs, there is always a highlight of my day that happens during school. However, with school comes a downside: homework. Friends, sports, clubs, and the piles of homework can be hard to manage at times. We may think that the work school gives us is too much but it also helps prepare us for the future by teaching us time management. Most classes don’t make everything due the next day, so spreading out your workload makes it more possible to take care of. In conclusion, the workload school gives us is necessary and helps us learn valuable life skills, such as time management.
I think schools should be less demanding for multiple reasons. I think excessive homework leads to high levels of stress which can negatively affect your mental health, and I think spending too much time on schoolwork can cut into your sleep time. Lack of sleep leads to bad performance The next day. I also think when students spend most their time doing schoolwork, they have less time to relax and for social activities which leads students to feel isolated and overall decreased and happiness. I think all the pressure and demand from schools leads kids to be burnt out and feel an insane amount of pressure to perform and constantly achieve high grades. Overall, I think that school should be less demanding.
I think that students' schedules should be filled. Of course it's stressful but that’s preparing you for life. No matter what it looks like. Even if it's college, a career, or the workforce, you’ll have to be able to manage your time. As a student in multiple different activities, It's to have this much to do. Coming home at the end of the day and having the satisfaction that I did so much in one day, is really nice to know. For me, not having something to do everyday makes me feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. Sure it’s both stressful and rewarding, but it is teaching you what the real word is like. Everyone should feel stressed a few times in there life, and when your an adult that stress could be even higher because you have more things to do. So if you do a bunch of stuff now (especially if its stuff you want to do), that will in return show you how much your able to handle without pushing yourself off the edge.
Every morning, I jolt awake to the relentless blare of my 6 AM alarm, wishing for just 10 more minutes of precious sleep. My day kicks off with that 6:00 wake-up call, a rushed shower, a quick breakfast, and a stack of dirty dishes waiting to be cleaned. Next, I rush off to school at 7:00 for my weightlifting Zero Period. I then try my best to endure classes from 8:45 to 3:15. By the time school ends, I’m finding it hard to stay awake. But sadly, that's not the end of it -- a grueling football practice from 3:30 to 7:00 follows. After a 12-hour day at school, I return home to even more chores - another shower, dinner, and a sink full of dishes. By the time I'm finally free, it’s 9:00 and time to tackle my homework. It states in the article, “Our high school students also have a breaking point, and it has been announcing itself for quite some time with its own resounding trends” and I believe I am inching closer and closer to that breaking point every day. So it's safe to say, I may be a little overscheduled.
High school can be both exhilarating and draining. There are many exhilarating parts of high school: sports, clubs, meeting new friends, the events, and more. However, as a freshman, I barely find any parts of high school that are intriguing. Keeping up with the heavy work pile weighs out the convivial parts. Sometimes I do wish that high school was less demanding but I believe that the workload is necessary. If you are working towards a highly complicated career, the workload is needed.
Does that sound like you?
Imagine that your school, and all of its related activities, suddenly demanded less from you. How would you feel? Would you worry about becoming bored? Or would you welcome a slower schedule?
In the guest essay “High Schoolers Need to Do Less So That They Can Do Better,” Tim Donahue, a high school English teacher, writes about the pressure that college-bound students face:
We have pushed high school students into maximizing every part of their days and nights. Those who take the bait are remarkably compliant, diluting themselves between their internships and Canva presentations. We condition students to do a so-so job and then move on to the next thing. We need to let them slow down. Critical cognition, by definition, takes time.
The underbelly of grade inflation is that now ambitious students must clear more time in their schedules for the stuff that really makes a difference. Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, Amanda Claybaugh, said: “Students feel the need to distinguish themselves outside the classroom because they are essentially indistinguishable inside the classroom. Extracurriculars, which should be stress-relieving, become stress-producing.”
He continues:
It’s no wonder kids are so fried when they get home that they retreat to their screens. And in the maelstrom, home life gets eroded, too. “Between classes and sports, I never see my child,” a well-meaning parent at my prior school told me. “I come into their room and drop dinner on their desk. I feel like a prison warden.”
Mr. Donahue ends his essay arguing for a “collective pushback” on the ever-increasing demands of high school:
Let’s not forget that exploration is the catalyst of learning. If we allow for more unbroken stretches of time, we begin to see those meadows that have been in front of us the whole while. When students are allowed uninterrupted thought, they can build ideas together. A gut reaction to a character’s monologue can lead to understanding of another passage, which can lead students to connect not only with fiction but also with one another. What was once invisible becomes apparent; sustained thought offers a grounding and an ascension. Molly Worthen, a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is pretty adamant about this: “We need an intervention: maybe not a vow of silence but a bold move to put the screens, the pinging notifications and the creepy humanoid A.I. chatbots in their proper place.”
That sounds nobler than kids taking a fourth year of math because private consultants instruct their clients to optimize their college applications even when so few Americans use calculus in their daily lives. It sounds better than launching into thousands of hours of French that will never be used. Consider that college-bound seniors cramming it all in will, in a matter of months, be taking half the number of classes when they matriculate.
This year, Americans have flown and driven at record levels, used more energy in their houses than ever before and have continued to deny the palpable, growing doom of this more than ever. But we have made this climate; we have brought this on ourselves.
Our high school students also have a breaking point, and it has been announcing itself for quite some time with its own resounding trends — depression, anxiety, migraines. We are letting this happen, too. We are letting it waft through the floor vents, fueled by the gnawing sense that there are ever more young business founders competing for select colleges with ever dwindling acceptance rates.
Can we take it down a little? Can we allow them to do less so that they can do it better?
My students, read the entire essay and then tell me:
What does a typical weekday look like for you? How much time do you spend at school, doing homework, participating in extracurricular activities or sports, and with your friends or family? Do you think of yourself as overscheduled?
Which parts of Mr. Donahue’s essay resonate with you, if any? For example, are you expected to do too much — and then, because of all your obligations, do you end up doing a “so-so” job at everything? Do extracurricular activities feel more stress-producing than stress-relieving? Do you feel fried after school? Do you rarely get to spend meaningful time with your family?
Do you agree with Mr. Donahue that high school and all of its related activities need to be less demanding? Or do you think you should be more challenged at this time in your life?
Mr. Donahue calls for a “collective pushback,” in which students, teachers, parents, schools and college admissions departments would all have to scale back their expectations so high school students are able to slow down and still succeed. Do you think that is possible? Why or why not?
How might your life be different if you could slow down and do less? What do you imagine your school experience, social life and home life would look like? Would it be better or worse?
Here goes my two cents: I believe school-related activities, especially assignments, should be both challenging and less frequent. Challenging assignments encourage students to learn and grow. However, Mr. Donahue states that “critical cognition, by definition, takes time,” so these assignments should not be assigned so often. Giving students more time to work on challenging assignments will better ensure that they put in more effort rather than doing a “so-so job” before moving onto the next assignment. A high schoolers average day would start around 6 or maybe earlier, they would then get ready for the day and head to school. They would go through their day with many assignments expected to be finished during class, then a pile of homework waiting for them once they get home giving them no break. Once they come home they would have no motivation for anything due to being drained from school for about 8 hours. They would then go on their phone for some relief but instead that would make them more tired missing the work, then falling behind. But if they did do their homework it would take up the rest of the day leaving no time for their outside life. I believe High school needs to be less demanding to a mild extent. Some students have better things to do than just school all day. The average school day takes out half a persons day to do anything, and the school works takes out, most of the time, the other half of the day. Beyond that, it’s really frustrating because it’s all we do everyday and we miss out on time, at our young age, like spending it with people we cherish, being able to attend activities, or even work on sports. On the other hand, some students truly do need the extra work and extra demand to keep them on track. If a student struggles on a subject and has the time of the day to work harder then that makes the situation completely different. School sports promote themselves as teaching students the value of teamwork, self-efficacy, respect for others, and whatever else. I work as a substitute teacher in high schools. Can you guess which students most often bully and shame other students, then become confrontational when told to knock it off? Can you guess which students, when they are offered separate space to cool off, most often double down?
Students on sports teams enjoy the time they spend playing - that is how it should be, games are great! And nobody should begrudge them their joy. But these "athletes" are often encouraged by their coaches that their odds of a successful career in sports are better than statistics would bear out. Students throw their youth, health, and future at organized sports, and blow off academics, to their detriment. They know this, they are insecure about it, and look to exploit insecurities in others to soothe themselves when class is challenging.
An average high schoolers day begins with waking up at 7 or even earlier some times, them immediately getting ready and heading to school starting their day. At school teenagers are expected to go through out their day learning and paying attention in all their classes-having assessments, and home work poured on to them through out the day. Some teens day don’t even end with school, besides all the class work they have piles of home work when they get home writing for them. I believe that high school does r need to be do demanding, while it prepared us for life we still have a other 4 years of collage to prepare is for the real world and in stead we should have less work in our years of high school.
I fully believe that high school is far too demanding. How am I supposed to retain information when I am extremely stressed about grades, tests, maintaining healthy friendships, avoiding judgment from other students, and everything else in my life? I find myself procrastinating when starting on homework after school, and instead just scrolling on my phone because I do not want to spend every waking hour thinking about school. In addition to that, everyone learns differently. One student may learn best when they can take notes, while other students may find it helpful to have a more hands-on learning experience. Some schools do a better job than others at accommodating different kinds of learning styles, however I believe that there is no way to completely understand the struggles of the students around us.
I agree that high school is too demanding, especially for freshmen who have just made the jump from middle to high school. My weekdays without extracurricular activities typically look something like this: get to school at 8:20, get out of school at 3:50 and get home around 5:30, and when I have extracurriculars I get home around 7:00. I have around 1-2 hours of homework a day, sometimes more if I have larger projects. This combined with when I get home means I typically don't get the amount of sleep I need. I think that the word “fried” used in the article is a very accurate way to describe how I feel when school ends. My educational classes are incredibly draining and the stress and tiredness also way me down throughout the entire week. I also have decently sized projects to work on over most weekends, which takes away from what's supposed to be a relaxing break. I love visual art, photography, and music but because of school and my schedule I find myself too tired or overwhelmed to do the creative activities I love. Combined with my home life, friends, and lack of free time, it is hard to appreciate or have time for the full high school experience. Overall, I feel very overwhelmed and I feel teachers and school boards should make changes to reflect this because I know a lot of students feel similar.
I think that sleep is one of the biggest problems when it comes to stress and exhaustion in students. High school students who have to wake up at 6:00 every morning, get home late after extracurriculars, and have to do homework late into the night get barely enough sleep. I get home most days at ~6PM after play rehearsal ends 5:45, and I don't have any study halls or free periods because I have too many other classes I want to take during the school day, so I end up with a lot of homework once I'm home.
On top of how physically and academically exhausting high school can be, it's also extremely tiring socially. Having to interact with so many people for hours each day leaves me so tired and overstimulated that even when I do have free time after finishing my homework, I want to spend it alone. I don't have the energy to play video games with my dad or watch a show with my parents and brother like I want to. My brain is so fried that as soon as I have the space to just breathe, I shut myself in my room and sit in bed on my phone or computer. I think that the amount of exhaustion that students have by the end of a long school day increases the tendency to doom-scroll and spend mindless hours on social media. Over the weekend, I tend to want to use my free time on Saturday to do fun things with friends from outside of school, but then on Sunday when I'm exhausted from all of that social interaction, I have to cram all my homework before Monday, which makes me sleep late.
On a typical weekday, I wake up at 6:30. I eat breakfast, pack my lunch, and get ready for school. I get on the bus at 7:40, and get to school ten minutes before classes start. I have three classes before lunch, and 2 after. On days I have after school activities (Tuesday and Wednesday), I get home at 7:00. On every other day, I get home an hour earlier. My teachers assign about 30 minutes of homework a day, which with 5 classes works out to 2 and a half hours a day of homework, more if there are larger projects. On my least busy day of the week, Monday, that means that if I work undistracted and uninterrupted, I get done at 8:30. That leaves just 2 and a half hours until I go to bed at 11 to eat dinner, get ready for bed, When I have extracurriculars or therapy, that's just 1 and a half hours. I would definitely say I’m overscheduled.
I have a longer school day than most of the school around me, starting at 8:30 and ending at 3:50. Because of this I am a little late to my sports and have to make sure I have a snack in my last class before I go strait to the gym (at a separate location). Then practice with my team for about 2 hours to an hour and a half (not including dry land). When I get home at about 6:00 I then have dinner (30 mins) with my family, witch is something mandatory I have to attend since it is the one time I spend time with my family during the week. Then I head to my room to do homework until about 8:30 and get everything ready for the next day (I have a habit of forgetting things) for ten mins. I will usually read until 10:00 and then go to bed. Because everything I do is very punctual and repeats everyday I don't think I myself as over scheduled on the week days. Surprisingly I do often feel over scheduled on the weekends because I have sports and homework I have to do. I feel like I don't have enough time to do things I want to do like drivers ed or hanging out with friends. I feel like it would be more manageable if there was only homework during the school week and not over the weekend.
I usually wake up at 6:30, start school at 8:30, get home at around 4:30, rest for 2 hours then spend the rest of the night doing homework until I sleep at 10-11. Depending on the amount of homework, days can feel either chill or packed and stressful, despite not having extracurricular activities on weekdays. I'd say they're still relaxing for me because mine is usually on the weekends and requires minimal effort while still being enjoyable, so there's no hard commitment to be had. Even though this is true, I don't get to spend a lot of time with friends and family; I only do when it's something planned, and those have been pretty sparse. I don't mind this because I like having my alone time on the weekends even when I need to do a lot of homework, but I think there are definitely benefits to more bonding time in general. On the topic of if high school needs to be less demanding, I'd say it depends. As a freshman who is currently doing fine, I'm not really sure what my upperclassmen have to say, though I can vouch for some of my older friends who have definitely felt stressed by their high school commitments. My opinion is that school should be inherently slow, but can become more challenging if a student wishes to go down that path. If schools slowed down everywhere, I think my life would not be that different; I'd just have more free time to spend, but that does necessarily mean it's an improvement, even if it may certainly feel like it to me. School is both exciting and exhausting. Although others may argue, school can be fun and exciting at times. From talking with your friends in class, to sports, and clubs, there is always a highlight of my day that happens during school. However, with school comes a downside: homework. Friends, sports, clubs, and the piles of homework can be hard to manage at times. We may think that the work school gives us is too much but it also helps prepare us for the future by teaching us time management. Most classes don’t make everything due the next day, so spreading out your workload makes it more possible to take care of. In conclusion, the workload school gives us is necessary and helps us learn valuable life skills, such as time management.
I think schools should be less demanding for multiple reasons. I think excessive homework leads to high levels of stress which can negatively affect your mental health, and I think spending too much time on schoolwork can cut into your sleep time. Lack of sleep leads to bad performance The next day. I also think when students spend most their time doing schoolwork, they have less time to relax and for social activities which leads students to feel isolated and overall decreased and happiness. I think all the pressure and demand from schools leads kids to be burnt out and feel an insane amount of pressure to perform and constantly achieve high grades. Overall, I think that school should be less demanding.
I think that students' schedules should be filled. Of course it's stressful but that’s preparing you for life. No matter what it looks like. Even if it's college, a career, or the workforce, you’ll have to be able to manage your time. As a student in multiple different activities, It's to have this much to do. Coming home at the end of the day and having the satisfaction that I did so much in one day, is really nice to know. For me, not having something to do everyday makes me feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. Sure it’s both stressful and rewarding, but it is teaching you what the real word is like. Everyone should feel stressed a few times in there life, and when your an adult that stress could be even higher because you have more things to do. So if you do a bunch of stuff now (especially if its stuff you want to do), that will in return show you how much your able to handle without pushing yourself off the edge.
Every morning, I jolt awake to the relentless blare of my 6 AM alarm, wishing for just 10 more minutes of precious sleep. My day kicks off with that 6:00 wake-up call, a rushed shower, a quick breakfast, and a stack of dirty dishes waiting to be cleaned. Next, I rush off to school at 7:00 for my weightlifting Zero Period. I then try my best to endure classes from 8:45 to 3:15. By the time school ends, I’m finding it hard to stay awake. But sadly, that's not the end of it -- a grueling football practice from 3:30 to 7:00 follows. After a 12-hour day at school, I return home to even more chores - another shower, dinner, and a sink full of dishes. By the time I'm finally free, it’s 9:00 and time to tackle my homework. It states in the article, “Our high school students also have a breaking point, and it has been announcing itself for quite some time with its own resounding trends” and I believe I am inching closer and closer to that breaking point every day. So it's safe to say, I may be a little overscheduled.
High school can be both exhilarating and draining. There are many exhilarating parts of high school: sports, clubs, meeting new friends, the events, and more. However, as a freshman, I barely find any parts of high school that are intriguing. Keeping up with the heavy work pile weighs out the convivial parts. Sometimes I do wish that high school was less demanding but I believe that the workload is necessary. If you are working towards a highly complicated career, the workload is needed.
