By: Kevin Mosqueda, Veronica Coria, Mitzy Miramontes, Allison Avelar
Good grades. Social life. Sleep. Choose two. Many students feel like this is the choice they are faced with every school year. “I often feel overwhelmed doing about 4-6 hours worth of homework each day and still have to manage or keep up with my extracurriculars.” Senior Manuel Tovar is one of the of the many students here at Animo Pat Brown who think the same way about the amount of work given. This raises the question, are APB students receiving so much homework that it’s affecting their health?
Over the four years here at APB, students have a ranging response as to how much homework they get and the factors that go into how long it takes them and if they are given enough time. United States History teacher Mr.Sandoval has a huge difference in the amount of homework when it comes to his regular classes to his AP class. Mr. Sandoval said, “My AP students are expected to get 2-4 hours of homework depending on the week while his regular class receives 30-40 minutes of homework per week.” Mr. Sandoval said he gives enough time for his students to finish the homework given, the students procrastinating and doing it last minute is what makes them think that he gives too much work. Mr. Sandoval does argue that AP students will feel a little pressure when it comes to finishing the homework on time but it is what’s expected of them in a college class.
Now hearing this, some may argue that of course if a student takes an AP course they should know that they will receive a lot more homework. However, it gets to the point where they hardly have time for their extracurricular afterschool and on top of that do chores at home. Students at APB should not feel pressured to the point that they stress on how they are going to do what they need to everyday.
Take the new freshmen for instance, they receive an average amount of homework and have time to do any other extracurricular activities they want additional to their chores. Freshmen Evelyn Garcia said, “The amount of homework I receive is not too much that I feel stressed. I still manage to have time in my day to do my chores and other activities.” Another Freshman Amy Mosqueda said,”Most of the time it takes me about 30 minutes to complete all my homework, and I still have time to anything else I need to do” Although some freshmen have no complaints about the amount of homework given, others disagree. However, English teacher Ms. Siemientkowski said, “It all depends on the unit, for example, students read the book Of Mice and Men and were assigned 10 pages of reading for homework. It should have taken them about 30 minutes or at most 1 hour to finish.” Hearing this makes it clear that freshmen do not feel the effects of stress on their health.
But as you go up a grade, doing homework begins to take longer and takes up more of one’s time, especially if the person has other responsibilities to do. Sophomore Julian Aguilar says that he spends around two and a half hours on homework and projects. He says he feels he doesn’t have enough time to do homework because “…my mother picks me up around 4:30-5:00 daily and I do other things between 6:00-7:30 or I’m just struggling to help my little sister to complete work” Julian feels that he has to juggle his time often because of the time he gets home and because he also has chores to do. He says, “having less homework would give me more free time to go out before it gets dark with friends to parks and other places.”
Juniors feel the pressure of having to finish their homework on time even more. Junior Yasmin Valencia says she spends about 3 hours daily doing homework, Algebra alone takes up 2 hours. Junior Lissete Cisneros, currently is an AP student, says she spends 3 hours a day doing homework.
Many students are expected to join a club, but will students have enough time to complete their homework and remain committed to their club at the same time? Many students believe that they are not given enough time. Many students argue that they rarely have time to do things they enjoy because they either have clubs to attend or get the sleep that they need.
However seniors experience more work than any other grades, the amount of homework is exhausting. Biology/Anatomy teacher Ms. Ohara says that the average time it takes to complete the homework is about 30 minutes. Not only that, she gives her students an extension to turn in their homework, if they were working productively. Senior Angelica says it will “depend on how much homework [she] get[s], [she] spend[s] a few hours completing it.” She still has enough time to enjoy other activities and have time for herself. Since she has regular classes and no AP classes she still has an amount of time to complete her homework. On the other hand someone who has AP classes spends 4 – 6 hours to complete all of their homework. Senior Victor Patino says, “I often take a few hours to complete my homework but I still have enough time to chill or do what I want.” Overall many factors go into how long it takes a student to complete the homework but what exactly it the limit to the amount of work they should get?
