Most kids look forward to their high school years — full of sports, the arts, pep rallies, and so many other things that make school fun. How could those four years be anything but awesome? However, with the start of school comes homework. Students’ lives have become busy to a point where young adults are becoming overwhelmed — most commonly by homework.

A study done by US News found that high school students have an average of 3.5 hours of school work each night. This is a large leap from the guideline that was endorsed by the The National Education Association, which allotted 10 minutes for first grade and an additional 10 minutes for each grade, eventually leading to a maximum of two hours for high school seniors.  A level of interest and readiness to learn is an important part of school, which can be overshadowed by students dreading the amount of homework they will be taking home.

High school students should learn how to live a balanced life, and too much time spent on homework cuts into other needs such as sleep and the chance to try extracurriculars. The emotional reactions of students should be taken into consideration as well. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Education states that 56% of the students who participated in the study named homework as their main source of stress. In high school, students should be focused on learning about the different subjects they are interested in and figuring out what they want to try. They should be able to participate in extracurriculars so they have a chance to be a part of a team or showcase their creativity. Students should not be having anxiety issues due to the overwhelming workload they are carrying.

Beyond the amount of time that homework takes is also the fact that the quality of homework has gone down. Too much homework seems to be borderline busy work and less focused on the learning. The point of homework should be to take some time out of class to focus on the parts of that class that are challenging for each student. The reality is that more students are focused on getting it done to keep their grade up as opposed to really learning. Another issue is that students are doing their homework in the car on the way home from a practice or trying to get through it late at night when they are exhausted. Limited time leads to lower quality work.

Homework can be an important tool if it provides students with the specific practice they need to better understand the class. This means maybe five of the same problems that they can do well instead of 20 that will just make them weary. Students should not be crashing and burning because of the amount of homework they have. The crucial part of these high school years is that students should learn to live a balanced life and will approach their learning with excitement.