by Leah Peloff ‘18

Each day entails the dreaded sounding of my alarm clock, six and a half hours of sitting behind a desk, three hours of cross country practice, and then a truckload of assignments due the next day. I try to work through all of my homework as quickly as one can, but often end up having to hold my eyes open as the time ticks by and my efficiency gets lower and lower. With two years of high school already completed, I have learned that giving excessive amounts of homework each night does more bad than good.

For example, I took Honors Pre-Calc last year and had about 30 problems for homework each night. People, including myself, would rarely ever complete the whole assignment on their own, without copying. This year, in AP Calc, my teacher only gives us 3-10 problems each night. In effect, almost everyone completes each homework assignment to the best of their ability. Students respond better to reasonable amounts of work and actually spend time doing the assignment correctly and reviewing the concepts learned in class, which is the whole point of giving homework anyway, isn’t it?