Column by J1 Reporter Sophie Golka

Talk with any Marian girl about what they are doing after school and it will always be the same answer: homework.

While homework is to be expected in high school, Marian girls’ homework load has gotten too high. Instead of about an hour of homework each night as you would expect, it’s multiple. This is a problem that so often goes unsaid by students and unnoticed by teachers.

Most students have activities after school which keeps them there well past the time school actually gets out. During musicals I’m at school anywhere from 14 to 17 hours in the day and at school more than I’m at home. Doing homework when I get home easily gives me burn out.

Teachers see many girls tired throughout the day, almost falling asleep in classes, and as time goes on, not caring about their homework or activities in class anymore. This isn’t because we are becoming lazy, just tired. We are overworked with the normal school day, activities, and with homework after those. We stay up late studying, looking over and creating notes and doing the activities assigned to us by the teachers outside of class. 

Whenever teachers notice, they always go to how long a student was on their phone. This doesn’t scratch the surface of why we are tired.

When someone is struggling and tells a teacher, it often seems like a one-time problem, but it goes deeper than that. Most teachers give assignments that take at least one hour to complete. On its own, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but put that with three other classes due to our block schedule and you are looking at about four hours of homework each day. That is on top of anything you do after school whether that be a sport, club, job, or even just help around the house. 

The time that is required for accomplishing all the homework we have puts too much strain on girls. While teachers don’t want that, they are contributing to the stress, especially when they put the concern of girls down by saying things like “it shouldn’t take you that long” or “it didn’t take me that long.” 

Time spent on homework is not a set amount of time as the amount of assignments differ each day and the time taken to understand and do the task to the best of that student’s ability fluctuates. 

While I get good grades, it takes me a long time to understand what I read or remember what I was supposed to take away from the project. So while it might have taken the teacher 20 minutes to do the assignment and the girl who gets things easily 40 minutes, it takes me an hour. This continually high amount of homework restricts my time to relax, read a book for fun and even sleep. Many times teachers will assign homework over breaks or long weekends, making it nearly impossible to relax and spend time with family. I know that was never the teacher’s intention although sometimes it can seem that way with the stress and anger high.

My account is just one of many and as anxieties and tiredness grows, teachers don’t realize the time and strain they are putting on their students by giving them the copious amounts of homework they normally do. They also don’t understand how much they could help their students by slowing down and having less homework or giving them more work time in class.