Homework has been an important part of the educational system for many years, many believe it is mandatory and is a great help in a students success, others argue the oposite and that teachers should be able to teach the materials in the time frame given during class and it should not be extended into after school hours. Research was taken at Wheeling High School to learn how the
students and teachers feel about homework, and on whether it is beneficial or should be eradicated completely. To begin with I interviewed Wheeling High School’s one and only Mrs. Owens, who currently teaches Sociology and shared her opinions on the homework debate, she voiced, “It (homework) can be beneficial depending on what the situation is. I don’t think necessarily on a daily basis, considering we’re on a block schedule, that students should have homework if we utilize our time in class wisely, because it’s important that you guys are able to separate school from having a life outside of school. But like for tests and quizzes and things like that, I definitely think students should study.” Personally I, and many others can agree with me on Mrs. Owen’s description on how homework should be utilized, and tbh I think we should start a petition. Are YOU the
Wheeling High School students up for it? Moving further into the topic I interviewed current Wheeling High School seniors, starting with Hyunyoung Mo…This exceptional student explained that “Homework is giving when it helps you learn at home, but it’s not when we have to do three hours of notes each night.” I simply could not have put it better myself, we students have lives, struggles and need rest, how could anyone think it’s fair to put our STILL growing brains through and added 3 hours of punishment straight after an already exhausting 8 hour school day, not to mention students who have
extracurriculars, jobs, sports, clubs, or have home responsibilities how can some teachers expect us to do it all, it’s kinda bogus if you ask me. Julia Zanik, current senior, who is a varsity girls volleyball team member and a 4 year orchestra member. She gave her thoughts on how homework really ain’t all that. “It’s not really beneficial because I think that what we have to learn should be addressed in class. There’s more to life than school, so we should be able to have more free time outside.” We’re all young and high school is meant to be fun. What’s fun about doing 2 hours worth of y=mx+b;1 hour worth of “compare and contrast” and another 1 hour of “write a letter to the protagonist of the book…?” I could go on and yes I’m taking it personally. Ultimately homework can definitely take a toll on our lives outside of school which it most definitely shouldn’t be doing in the first place. The final outstanding Wildcat I interviewed was Sergai Stjepanovic, who plays varsity boys soccer here at Wheeling. I asked him if he believes homework is beneficial and his answer was, “I think homework is a waste of time and we don’t really learn much doing it, I feel like I’d rather use that time (that he spends doing homework) doing my own things.” His statement is something I think we can all relate to as student body and staff, we all have a never ending list of better things that we much rather be doing other than doing or even grading homework, so why go through that struggle when it isn’t giving what it should be giving?