As the final bell rings at North Atlanta and I race to my car, my 6 hour shift of “Learning” is finally over, or so I think. But wait, there’s still 5 hours of homework waiting for me! On top of the extracurricular activities and IB work, it seems teachers don’t have an issue with torturing students with hours of homework every night. When midnight rolls around, my mom asks what I’m doing still awake, but what can I say? Clearly teachers don’t care: They’d rather make us do homework than let us get a good night of sleep.
The average high school students would say they get around 6 hours of sleep, but for IB students, 4 hours or less. When I walk into school, it takes everything in me just to get up the stairs. I do everything I can to keep my eyes open through the grueling hours of learning. By the time I get home around 4pm, it feels like it should be bedtime already. Running on 4 hours of sleep certainly isn’t enough for a 17 year old…
These long school days and restless nights of homework have surely affected my social life and have even made me reconsider if I want to go to college after graduation. Teachers say we need to prioritize their class but little do they know we have 8 classes to prioritize, not as easy as it may sound. “We are preparing you for college” My teacher says as she drops five new assignments due at midnight but what she doesn’t realize is all that work is making me not want to go to college.
As I sit at my computer around 2 a.m., I wonder to myself, is this really worth it? I have practically given up my social life to meet my teachers’ harsh demands and deadlines. Outside of lacrosse and my job I am expected to pour hours of my life into studying and homework, and I do it. I do it because that’s normalized and I fear what will happen if I miss an assignment. One missed assignment and boom, your grade drops in a split second.
The excessive homework given by teachers can’t just be blamed on them, though they’re the ones giving it to us, at the end of the day that’s their job. While 5 hours of homework is extreme, sometimes it’s necessary when class time isn’t always valued. Some students spend their class time talking, online shopping, TikTok scrolling and even working on other assignments- so maybe it’s a teacher’s revenge to give out homework.
