To the editor:
We’d like the community to know about the issue of homework. Although we believe that homework can be useful, we have noticed that it increases stress and anxiety levels. Our goal is not to take away homework completely, but to encourage Wellesley Middle School to focus on quality, not quantity. We hope that we can reduce homework through more consistent enforcement of the faculty handbook, giving students time in class to start graded homework, and making sure that work completed entirely at home is not graded.
Teachers are commonly unaware of how much homework they are truly giving. The handbook states that 8th graders should have no more than 100 minutes of homework total, 25 minutes in each class. Our group created a survey for students, teachers, and guardians and we found that teachers are giving students more homework than they think. Most teachers said that their homework does not exceed 20-25 minutes per night, but 53% of students say that their homework often or sometimes takes longer than 20-25 minutes per class. From this, we can conclude that many teachers are unaware of the homework load they’re providing. This is a serious problem because students are drowning in homework, when they should be exploring new learning opportunities.
Giving students less homework helps them to take their time on their work and improve their academic quality. Students will also have time for other learning experiences through activities they personally enjoy. The less homework there is, the more free time and less stress students will have. Less stress helps students gain more sleep, new possibilities, and better mental health which overall benefits students’ learning quality.
Students get home from 6 long hours of school, just to do more work. They still have to go to practice, hang out with their family, and eat dinner, but they have to spend another two hours on schoolwork. They are up all night finishing up just to go to bed at 11:30pm to then wake up at six the next morning, which leads to a loss of sleep. Enforcing the rules in the faculty handbook and focusing on quality work over quantity will break the pattern.
This community can help us reach our goal by signing our brochures that can be returned to the Wellesley Middle School main office, filling out our Google form, and telling friends to do the same. We can be the start of a bigger change that will benefit all students, families, and even teachers in future. Link for form
Wellesley Middle School 8th graders,
Evie McCarthy
Scarlett Poirier
