Spounias 1

Mason Spounias

Mrs. Storer

English 3H: Block 4

10/28/19

Working Hard or Working Hard?

Classrooms sound like a broken record, “We have too much work”. It’s a lot easier to just

give homework than to actually do it, and no student is compliant with their workload.

Homework causes serious problems in young teens and adults because of the strenuous amount

of stress it puts on them.

My entire life I struggled with homework. Ever since middle school, homework has

stressed me out. I went to a private school, and as such had a rigorous education program. The

workload became too much in 6th grade, when I decided to simply not do my work. There was

just too much work to do and I couldn’t handle the stress. I closed my book and started to play

Pokémon till I fell asleep. These habits carried on into seventh and eighth grade. At that point I

realized how bad my grades were, and that in high school, I need to work hard. With the HSPT I

couldn’t risk anything.

In the time leading up to the HSPT I began to do my homework more. I tried to prep for

my life in High School and prepare myself for the unforgiving men and women my middle

school teachers described to me. No late work and grades count in high school. I was scared but

willing to work. That was until the time of the HSPT. Our teachers thought it would be a good

idea to give us more work to prepare us for the HSPT. Good idea on paper, it did not play out

well.
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Prior to the HSPT I had been taking summer classes with a tutor and going to classes on

the weekends so I could manage my time and balance my homework and work. It was working

well too as a lot of what I was learning was crossing over into school. This all fell apart when my

teachers gave us prep work for the HSPT. It was too much, and the stress of maintaining my

grades, studying for multiple tests at once, all this for my little eight grade mind was too much. I

had never had a breakdown until this time.

There was one week left before the HSPT, it was a weekend and I was studying with my

tutor. After he left, I remembered all the work that I had to do. I went to my bed and began to

study. Realizing how useless my efforts were I simply stopped. I couldn’t comprehend what was

going on at the time. I had a huge placement test next week and a huge math test. Not only that I

had English, Spanish, and Science projects all due. I had never felt so hopeless in my entire life.

All of this led me to do one thing, cry. I crawled under my covers, balled up as small as I could

and cried my heart out. I was shaking uncontrollably and having trouble breathing. It was the

worst thing I had ever experienced. If it weren’t for my mom telling me she loves me no matter

what I score and what grades I get so long as I do my best, I don’t know how I would have

handled moving forward.

I ended up scoring in the 90th percentile but ended up with a few D’s in some of my

classes during that period of time. The strenuous amount of work led me to cheat and inevitably

not learn anything from the 8th grade. I was setback in a lot of my high school classes, especially

math, because of this.

According to a recent poll of high school students done by Jeanne Fratello, 43% of

students found homework as their greatest source of stress. It is easy for teachers to assign

homework, but they don’t understand every student’s situation or capabilities. This can lead to
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sleep deprivation, headaches, exhaustion, weightless, and stomach problems according to a 2014

study done at Stanford. Sometimes the workload is simply too much, and they don’t understand.

In the end, 90% of high school students and 67% of middle school students admit to cheating

according to AdCouncil in 2018. The current education system is too damaging as it is and needs

to change to accommodate the mental health needs of students.

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Works Cited

Jeanne Fratello, "Survey: Homework Is Biggest Source of Stress for Mira Costa Students,"

digmb.com, Dec. 15, 2017

Clifton B. Parker, "Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework," stanford.edu, Mar. 10,

2014

AdCouncil, "Cheating Is a Personal Foul: Academic Cheating Background," glass-castle.com

Aug. 16, 2018