Students want to take back their Wednesdays

Imagine that you get home from school, and you just want to sit down and watch T.V. However, you have loads of homework from every class you take. Homework is disliked by students because it impacts their personal lives and mental health. Eighth grade students in TLRNC (Tolerance) recently proposed an idea for no homework Wednesdays to the leadership  team of Edison Intermediate School (EIS). TLRNC is an organization made by the guidance counselors of EIS. They try and have events and fundraisers to try and better the school and the students. According to the students who presented this idea, it will allow students to have more free time and focus more on their mental health.

However, if the idea is adopted, students may have more time to do activities they enjoy. Seventh and eighth grade Language Arts teacher Ms. Jessica Ciampa said, “I think it’s definitely something to look forward to throughout the week. I think that it might give students more motivation to work harder on their assignments throughout the week.” 

Another way that this plan could benefit the students is helping their sleep schedule. Seventh grader Ellie Corso said, “It impacts my sleep schedule. And then it is stressful to have so much homework and after school activities. You feel like you don’t have time for yourself.” 

A study from Stanford University shows that homework could be doing more harm than good. “A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study” (Parker).

Mrs. Kimberly Swenson, eighth grade Language Arts teacher, likes the idea of no homework Wednesdays because they are convenient and less stressful for students. “I like the idea of it being in the middle of the week and giving a break. And I think that mental health is so important. I think that it’s been a rough year, even though we’ve kind of gotten back to normal after COVID, It’s still not all 100% there yet. So I kind of like the idea.”

However, handling the homework schedules can be a challenging job for teachers. Mrs. Swenson gives insight about a teacher’s perspective on no homework Wednesdays. “It does get tricky for teachers, though, because it only gives a certain number of days for homework. We try not to do big things due on Monday. So we try to stay away from Friday as a night for homework as well,” Mrs. Swenson explained.

She continued, “The only problems I foresee is how you fit everything into the other days, and you don’t want to be giving more homework than kids are used to. A lot of teachers don’t like to give quiz and tests on Mondays because it’s steady over the weekend, then it really doesn’t give that many days left in the week.”