In the KISJ community, many students are facing problems with the homework due date. The main source of this problem comes from the controversial policy that was enacted by the higher authority called the 10 PM policy.
The 10 PM policy makes teachers assign homework due dates until 10 PM in order to prevent students from staying overnight to finish school-related work. However, as the 10 PM policy sets the due date from originally 12 AM or before class period, it deducts 2 to 10 hours of time for students to finish homework. Due to this, the students complain they find themselves chased by the time very frequently. This is especially a problem for students who ride the bus home or have academies after school as they usually arrive home at 7 or 8 PM after school, only having 1-2 hours to finish homework by the time they arrive home. Due to this issue, students tend to stay up overnight the day before the assignment is due to finish their homework which shows the purpose of the policy is currently failing.
To gain more insight, one of the students in the KISJ community, Matthew Jang, has spoken up about this issue, explaining the situation the students are in. “I think it’s time for teachers to change their policy so we don’t have to rush through it and have a more stable mindset. By this, we can feel safer and we can relax more.” Students are in an ‘unrelaxed’ state and don’t feel emotionally safe due to the fear of submitting assignments late due to such limited time students have to finish their homework, having to rush with great anxiety.
However, not only does the 10 PM policy negatively affect students’ mentality, but also complains the 10 PM policy affects them academically as well. Matthew Jang states “It doesn’t benefit our lives as a student, and it just makes us more insecure about our academic life and I often feel I have to rush through homework a lot.” The lack of time detriments the students’ performance as students often find themselves rushing to finish their homework, affecting the quality of students’ homework, leading to disappointing grades.
However, what do teachers think about this issue as they are the ones who assign the due dates? One of the veteran teachers in KISJ community states, “I haven’t really seen a tremendous difference in students’ ability to turn it in on time or not. It’s been pretty much no change for previous years; rather they turn it in at midnight or they turn it in at 10 PM.” In the eye of the teacher’s perspective, they are completely neutral about the controversial topic of the 10 PM policy, believing it’s neither the fault of the policy nor the student that the 10 PM policy is an issue. “I don’t think it’s fair to say ‘well the students complain just because they are procrastinating,’ nor do I think it’s fair to say if we had 2 more hours, we wouldn’t procrastinate.''I think it’s somewhere in between,” stated Mr. Wilke. He believes the policy does indeed put pressure on students for the deduction of time; however, he believes it is the student’s responsibility to stay on task and finish their work on time.
In contrast, the vice-principal of the KISJ community, Mrs. O’Bryon, had a quite different response compared to the teachers. Mrs. O’Bryon, who has high authority in KISJ community, states, “I wonder what their time management strategy is, I wonder do they open up the assignment on the day they get it, I wonder do they start it, do they check in with teachers with questions, do they assess much time they probably need to complete it, or are they starting at 8 o’clock the day it’s due.” On the contrary to the teacher’s perspective, the vice-principal believes it is the responsibility of the students that they follow this policy and believes the students’ complaint about the policy is not justified, putting the fault on students that the policy is an issue.
Furthermore, Mrs. O’Bryon broke the hope of the abolishment of the 10 PM policy as she states, “considering all the stakeholders had a voice in creating it, I don’t think it’s going to be changing anytime soon.”
It might not be fair to say that the 10 PM policy is giving a negative impact on the students nor it might not be fair to say that it is giving the students positive impacts. However, as insights greatly differ from multiple perspectives, it proves the 10 PM policy has multiple issues that need to be resolved to achieve its original intent of benefiting students academically and mentally. For students, they should try their best to adjust to the given environment and start to accept the 10 PM policy as it is for the benefit of their future, time management life skills, and there is no sign of the policy's abolishment in the near future.
A policy called the 10 PM policy in the KISJ community, which sets the due date for homework to be until 10 PM, is currently a controversial topic as students complain the policy deteriorates their well-being. As the 10 PM policy deducts time for students to complete homework, students usually have to rush their homework which increases pressure, anxiety for students. However, teachers, they are neutral to this controversy as they believe the policy doesn't negatively or positively affect the students. For the vice-principal Mrs. O'Bryon, she believes students' procrastination is stirring up the controversy and not the policy.