Letting the Air out of School Pressure: Decreasing Unnecessary Burdens on Students |
Posted: August 3, 2020 |
Students today are under more pressure than ever before. The stress created by this pressure can lead students to engage in self-punishment, develop eating disorders, and exhibit behavioral problems. The health and wellbeing of students is at risk. But, there are things which schools can do to decrease the pressure on students. Limits can be put on homework, schools can start later in the morning, and Advanced Placement classes can be eliminated. It is not enough to just help students try to endure the stress, it is time for schools to decrease the social pressure on students. Students should not have more anxiety than their working parents and a greater workload than their working parents. Current school policies should be changed because they place unnecessary pressure on students. Effectively LearningToo much homework creates undue stress on students and is counterproductive. According to studies, students should have no more than about two-and-a-half hours of homework a night. After two-and-a-half hours, students are no longer effectively learning and remembering what they are working on. In fact, the work they continue to do is often detrimental and counterproductive. If students work longer than two-and-a-half hours, they are doing busy work with no real benefit. If teachers assign more than two-and-a-half hours of homework a night, they are causing their students excess stress and wasting their time. Spending too much time doing homework results in students not getting enough sleep and causes them health problems. It also prevents students from spending time on their passions and socializing. Students who don’t have enough time for recreation fail to develop crucial life skills such as communication and cooperation, that cannot be learned in school. They also suffer socially because they decrease, or even eliminate their non-academic activities. After six to seven hours at school, students should not have the additional burden caused by more than two-and-a-half hours of homework. Inadequate SleepLater school start times result in better student performance and better student health. When schools start before the suggested start time of 8:30 A.M., students don’t get enough sleep to maintain their health, or to maintain their grades. Starting at 8:30 A.M. allows students to obtain the recommended amount of sleep, which is about eight to ten hours. Inadequate sleep is correlated with being overweight, using drugs and alcohol, not exercising enough, and suffering from depression (“Most”; “Schools”). A later start time, results in better school attendance and better grades. One study found that when the school start time was moved to 8:30 A.M., “there was an increase in the daily median sleep duration of 34 min, associated with a 4.5% increase in the median grades of the students and an improvement in attendance.” The same study found that a “later school start time is associated with a better alignment of sleep timing with the circadian system (reduced social jet lag), reduced sleepiness, and increased academic performance.” A different study found that a later school start time increased graduation rates . ConclusionImplementing new school policies to reduce the amount of pressure on students will not be difficult. Limiting homework to two-and-a-half hours per night can be implemented by assigning certain days to homework from designated classes. Delaying school start times till at least 8:30 A.M. can be mandated by state law. And eliminating Advanced Placement classes is a simple policy decision. Each of these things will decrease student stress, improve attendance, improve academic achievement, improve student health, and increase time for needed extracurricular activities and social interactions. Further, Advanced Placement classes are not needed to prepare students for college, and they are unnecessarily time-consuming. When all of these changes are implemented, students will be capable of having healthier lifestyles, and they perform better academically. The current situation does not benefit students, it increases mental health issues, and it does not provide adequate time for non-academic pursuits. It is time for schools to take action to improve the lives of their students.
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