As most students here at Granada must already know, many teachers on campus are extremely strict when it comes to homework completion and due dates. However, many of them are not aware of some of their students’ dreadfully busy lives outside of school. Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of going home to take a nap or watch TV once they get home from school. For a lot of kids at GHS, the second the bell rings at 3:30 and they grab their backpacks and rush out the door as efficiently as possible to deal with other responsibilities, whether it be hours of training for competitive sports, projects for clubs, or other extracurriculars. Yet this demanding arrangement can cause students with insanely time-consuming schedules to struggle with sleep deprivation, organizational issues, and stress and anxiety. By no means while writing this am I claiming that just anyone deserves to be let off the hook or should be allowed optimal time for a single worksheet, but students struggling with time management should receive at least some extra help and support from teachers in schools so they can be the best versions of themselves while here at Granada.
Firstly, students who get home during late hours immensely struggle with keeping up with their assignments and completing homework on time. After a long, exhausting day, some of us are forced to stay up, up to three extra hours a night doing worksheets so they don’t fail their classes or get into trouble with their parents. As a result, grades become the most important thing in a teenagers life, even more than sleeping and eating at times. This causes students to lose way too much rest than is particularly healthy for them. A few assignments for one class might not seem like much, however a few assignments per class can begin to pile up, creating hours worth of extra schoolwork.
A freshman here in competitive water polo, Violet Graham, says she practices, “22 hours a week total,” and trains before and after school.
Graham states that she gets “about six to seven hours of sleep” on average per night, and is “exhausted pretty much every day at school.”
Most teachers don’t realize this, but those late nights create so many problems for their students. According to the CDC, “teenagers aged 13 to 18 years should sleep eight to ten hours” per day. But alas, this isn’t the case. I’ve interviewed some of our other freshman athletes and learned that they too struggle with completing their assignments in the small time frame they receive from their teachers.
Pranavi Pasupulati states that she trains, “for three hours after school” and also gets “about six to seven hours of sleep at night.” She also says that, “homework does sometimes interfere with eating and sleeping, especially when there’s a project.”
This poses major issues for growing teens’ behavior and academic performance.
Ashlin Liao claims that she sometimes will go to bed at “2 a.m. due to large amounts of assignments that are all due the next day.”
Sleep deprivation is linked to many chronic health problems such as heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression. This is super dangerous for young adults to experience, and can impact their lives greatly, and even continue affecting them in the future. Even though this arrangement is unintentional, it still produces so many easily avoidable problems for teens that just aren’t worth the hassle. Of course students need to do better about communicating with their teachers if they feel as though their schedule is causing them to revert to unhealthy habits. However, teachers and faculty could help floundering students by giving them extended due dates, more work in class so they receive less for when they get home, and notifying them if there’s anything that they could complete early so the work doesn’t build up so much.
Secondly, students struggling with time management tend to also have difficulties with organization and remembering their responsibilities. Rushing around all the time can result in: lack of focus, shorter attention spans, and mood swings, all of which can cause students’ grades to decrease.
Liao said that she does have a hard time with her organization skills. “It’s hard to remember what I have to do when practice is right after school.”
Organization is an important part of school, and can seriously help students with their time management skills. They can get to their work more efficiently without wasting time searching for loose papers in their backpacks, extending the amount of time they have to work on assignments. It also helps with remembering what tasks need to be completed and by when, so they can prioritize the things that are due sooner.
For students who have so much on their plates, this can seem somewhat unimportant compared to everything else, but studies show that it’s actually quite the opposite. “When children are organized, they have an easier time focusing on their schoolwork and completing assignments in a timely manner.” (lakshyaschool.in)
Teachers need to enforce organization much more at this school, and ones across the U.S. There are so many helpful benefits that can come out of tweaking this tiny problem that many students seem to be challenged by often.
Additionally, students with so much on their plates tend to be more prone to stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact their mental health greatly. When students have limited time to complete bucketloads of required tasks, it can begin to feel like too much to handle, triggering them to spiral.
Graham said that she’s usually “stressed about completing [her] assignments on time.”
Stress and anxiety have become major issues for the teenagers in this generation. It’s become so common that Cross River Therapy (CRT) did a survey, proving the immense amount of stress or anxiety students from middle to high schools face in the U.S. The survey showed that “45 percent of students in high school admit to being stressed almost every day in school. 61 percent of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 feel stress over producing satisfactory grades. 50 percent of middle school students reported feeling stressed over academics all the time, while 75 percent of high school students felt the same.”
This poll shows students in general, not just the ones who engage in time consuming activities on the regular. Imagine how stressful it must be for a person who can’t even start their work until after 8 PM at night, but also have the same expectations as people who go home before 4:00 and spend three hours on their phones before completing homework.
Liao said, “I do feel stressed. Mostly about my homework and wondering whether I will finish it on time or not.”
So many students worry and stress over similar things, and while it’s understandable, it can also be very unhealthy for people of any age. Students don’t even always have enough time to eat anything once they get home due to their large amounts of work every night, which prevents them from getting the nutrients they need, making the lack of energy problem even worse. The effects of stress and anxiety could lead to devastating consequences and leave life long impacts on a students future if not handled properly. It can lead to irritability, aggression, panic attacks, depression, substance use, and even thoughts of suicide. Good mental health is extremely important for everyone, but especially for teens struggling with balancing everything going on in their chaotic lives.
Overall, students who maneuver through challenging sports and activities after school have a harder time completing their schoolwork in the short time frame they are given. Late night homework sessions can cause sleep deprivation, organizational issues, and chronic and/or mental health problems for students due to work overload and exhaustion. It isn’t fair or good for students to constantly struggle in schools for reasons they can’t control. Moving forward, I hope students start to find better ways to handle their schedules, and that teachers who read this will take it into consideration for the benefit of their students so they can aid them in reaching their full potential.
