What's More Cluttered? A Student's Mind or Their Book bag?
By: Dajah French
Students are told to get good grades, participate in extracurricular activities, and get at least 7 hours of sleep, all while has as much as 3-4 hours of homework and studying. Do you know what this causes? Stress. Stress can induce many symptoms, such as low energy rates, headaches, and sometimes even insomnia. These symptoms can all be caused by too many responsibilities placed on students. This can also affect the student's emotions, not to mention the already hormone-induced mood swings a teen can have at this age. Overloading students causes not only academic stress, but also takes a toll on students’ mental and physical health, which, unsurprisingly, hinders learning. Students worry less about learning and more about passing. Not only is stress taking a toll on the students learning, but it can also affect brain development. Stress hormones produced during worrisome times can shape the developing circuitry of the brain.
Different school students have different experiences, depending on the grade and the amount of work. 10th grader Keyirah Hatchett gives us an insight on her work load and how it affects her daily life. "On a typical school day I get home around 5, I eat and get comfortable, leaving me to start my homework around 7. I get homework from most of my classes everyday and over the weekend. It takes me around 4-5 hours to complete all of my homework. I have bowling practice on Monday's and Tuesday's, which doesn't end until 5, which means on those days I don't get home until around 7 or 8, depending on the bus schedule and the traffic. Leaving me with little time to sleep and then the next day I'm tired. It's the same cycle week after week, leaving me so tired that I don't even care to complete the homework myself, I ask someone I know for the answers or just do it at lunch so that I can get a good night's rest. But once you sleep good one night, you crave that for the rest of the week. So now I haven't done my homework in a week and we have a test tomorrow, so do you know what I'm up doing all night? Studying." Hatchett highlights the problem most high school students face, trying to juggle school, extracurricular activities and a job in some cases, students don’t have a lot of time to sleep. without sleep, students have the inability to concentrate, making them take more hours to study leaving them with less time to sleep and the struggle continues, sometimes leaving the student to decide if sleeping or getting work done is more important.
Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood teens will suffer myriad negative consequences, including an inability to concentrate, poor grades, drowsy-driving incidents, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and even suicide attempts. One of the many ways teachers can help students with their overwhelm of work is by communicating with the other teachers in the building to reduce homework and tests or stagger due dates and test days. By doing this, it will give students a chance to unwind, rest and take a break. Which is a necessity in the growing of an adolescent.
There are already schools all over Philadelphia using this technique, it's up to us students to make our teachers aware of the problem and the things they can do to help. Otherwise, there will be no change. Compare how you will feel in a month if you continue on the same way, to the way you'll feel in a month if your getting a good night's rest almost, if not every night. Which way would you rather feel?