That’s one word to describe the balance between homework, sports, and a job. Can students handle three to four hours of homework each night, plus, two or more hours of a sport or a job?

Several students believe that the homework load is way too much for people who have a separate activity after school. Sophomore and cross-country runner, Kelly Murray, says, “I get home from cross-country and I don’t have time to relax because I have three or more hours of homework to do.”

Lack of sleep usually stems from students having too much homework. When I asked twenty people what time they usually go to bed after sports or a job, and homework, the average time is 11:30. According to this poll, students only get around six and a half hours of sleep per night when they should be getting at least eight.

How much homework should students be getting each night? “We should have one and a half hours of homework each night,” Lucas Chory says.

Sophomore, Rebecca Torrisi, has an interesting opinion on whether or not a lot of homework is actually helping students learn a certain subject in school. Rebecca says, “No, not at all, because you aren’t processing the material if you are half asleep, you are just doing it to get it done.

Do you personally have much free time when you get home from your sports or job, and finish your homework? I didn’t think so. Most students don’t get more than 30 minutes of free time. Jaclyn Belanger says “I have 20 minutes some nights, other nights I have none.”

Emmy Desjardins brings up a valid point that a reasonable amount of homework is helpful in trying to learn material. Although this is true, if a lot of homework is given, she believes it is just busy work and it doesn’t help you learn the material; “If I didn’t have too much to do, I would be happy to do it,” Emmy Desjardins said.

Some students think that homework should not be given after long classes in school. Should we have to spend more time on homework than we do in a class? Noah Malhi says, “Too much homework is pointless, we do enough work in school.”

Some people think we have too much homework. Others believe we need more homework to help us learn. What’s your opinion on the homework situation at Pentucket High School?