Senior Brenna Moore juggles three ECE classes, two waitressing jobs on school nights,and is a ski instructor in Vermont on the weekends. Sitting at lunch surrounded by friends, you can often find Moore with her AirPods in and head buried in homework. 

“I think that excessive homework will just cause burnout and just get you overwhelmed,” said Moore.

Moore is not alone. At Morgan, many students like Moore have jobs and sports on top of school work. According to an article by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 22.5% of high school students in the U.S, were employed in 2023. 

Moore believes homework gets excessive when teachers assign new lessons that they didn’t have time to introduce in class. Therefore, “Students shouldn’t be learning new things or doing new things on their own at home because then they don’t really have the resources or the capability to ask for help or clarification from a teacher if they need it.” said Moore. 

For some, having the motivation to complete their homework is already a struggle, but having enough time for it may be another. Junior Gwen Madura faces the struggle of managing extracurriculars and a rigorous amount of homework. As a two-sport athlete and employee at Franks Mobile Kitchen, Madura gets stressed when it comes to having hours of homework after already being at school for seven hours. 

Madura shared, “more than 30 minutes of homework at night is not needed.” She explained her frustration at having to do work at school all day and then going home for more. The crunched timing makes her feel the need to rush it. 

“I just want to get it done quicker, so I just skip through my assignments,” Madura added. 

Moore and Madura both view the biggest downfall of homework being the amount of time it takes to complete and understand. 

Madura is not alone in her concern. In a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) it was found that “after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a negligible impact on performance.” 

While homework has always been a normal and seemingly crucial part of school, some believe that the style is outdated. Karyn O’Beirn is a member of the guidance department at Morgan and also has a daughter attending Morgan, allowing her to see both sides of the homework debate. When her daughter was in elementary school, O’Beirn remembered doing certain exercises and games as a way to help her daughter practice the skills she was learning in school. 

“Clinton did a really great job of the homework that was given in Joel, and I’m going to use the word homework very loosely…reading with your child every night or playing a math game. That was the kind of stuff I remember doing, and that was helpful.” O’Beirn reflected.

While everyone’s learning style is different, O’Beirn reflected, “I think you find that kids are much more excited if it were a different style.”

The School Aid Specialists, took a look into how and why some schools are transitioning to online homework. The article suggests that this new way of learning provides a “fundamental pedagogical shift driven by the need for instant data, personalized pacing, and the adaptation to an AI-driven environment.” These online assignments allow for students to get immediate feedback and help when struggling and unable to ask a teacher.  

Teachers have dashboards that open Monday morning and can see a map of each student’s understanding of the previous work. The article explains, “A teacher can see, in seconds, that 60% of the class failed question #4 on the digital homework last night. This allows the teacher to immediately reteach that specific concept at the start of class, rather than discovering the gap days later on a test.”

Changing the typical homework given in high school would be difficult but O’Beirn believes it would cause many improvements. O’Beirn said, “I do think that it would be amazing.”

Despite many frustrations regarding homework, Moore acknowledges the benefits. Using homework as a tool, rather than a lesson, helps students stay engaged and do things outside of school work, said Moore. “If you get taught a concept in class and your homework is there to help you practice it and to master it, that’s beneficial,” closed Moore.