A recent study conducted at ten high schools with high-performing students suggests that being assigned a lot of homework results in stress and even physical health problems.
The students reported having to do an average of three hours homework per night. That's at odds with the popular impression that students these days are getting an easy ride.
Some of the students reported being overwhelmed; one described it as "an endless barrage of work" and another said "there's never time to rest."
They cited homework as the main reason they didn't get the recommended 9.25 hours of sleep per night. Excuse me for being skeptical but you don't suppose Facebook might have something to do with that as well?
Also, I don't remember getting the 9.25 hours of sleep per night when I was a teen-ager, except on weekends, even though I didn't feel overwhelmed with an endless barrage of homework. Of course that was long before the internet; my excuse was listening to the local radio station's rebroadcast of Jean Shephard's show at 11pm weeknights. He was a fantastic storyteller.
The report also said "students will often do work they see as 'pointless, useless, and mindless.' Hey, welcome to the real world, kids!
I don't doubt that some schools are assigning too much homework, but I also think any study like this would benefit from more objective measures and should take into account the self-dramatizing propensity of teens. Also, the study characterizes the schools they studied as "upper middle class," "privileged" and "high-performing" so it's not representative of the average schools.
However, for people who write for teens this is useful as a little insight into how some of them feel about the demands being made of them.
