Mount Vernon High School Students are overloaded with school work.  Teachers are assigning such a large amount of at-home work that isn’t necessary for good grades and only makes learning and life harder. The amount of tasks students are expected to do adds up to a lot more than a 24 hour day and students aren’t getting anywhere close to adequate sleep. School and homework is only a small part of what students have going on in their lives. Required work should be cut back for the well-being and academic success of students.

Some students are having to juggle school, homework, extracurricular activities, sports, volunteering, and have a job all in a given week. High schoolers are being spread so thin there’s no room for proper sleep. Young adults are supposed to get 8-10 hours of sleep each night. Some students aren’t able to get to bed until midnight, so in reality a majority of students are only getting 5-7 hours of sleep. 

Lack of sleep has several negative effects that affect the brain’s function. Some of the symptoms include memory issues, lack of concentration, and weakened immunity. Sleep deprivation is so harmful to students, especially weakening their immune systems during the pandemic. With the crazy amount of students’ responsibilities, they aren’t able to put in their best effort into everything. The heavy workload is cutting into students sleep and just isn’t manageable. Teenagers are constantly stressed and overwhelmed and it’s leading to an unhealthy lifestyle that pushes students to mental illness. 

The coronavirus has brought hybrid learning to Mount Vernon High School, but the problem still remains; students have so much to do in so little time. Half in school, half home learning is the safest and most efficient option for Mount Vernon High School dealing with the world’s current pandemic. Even though things are going mostly smooth, there are a lot of adjustments for students to get used to. Students are assigned 5-8 hours of schoolwork that they are expected to teach themselves. With distractions and responsibilities at home and the process of independent learning without help from teachers, school work can take a lot longer than teachers are estimating. There is definitely a heavier workload than previous in-school years. It just seems unreasonable that students have to wrestle so much time management as young adults.

Students from the high school have been doing so many hours of school work that is labeled required, when only 50-60 percent of the work is necessary to be successful in assessments. If there was a clear divide between actual required work for a good grade on tests, and additional learning to further expand on the subject, students could manage and balance their school workload and daily life responsibilities so much easier. Although the Mount Vernon Community School District has done their best to ensure students safety and education, they’ve skimmed past students’ well-being. If teachers truly had the best interest in mind for their students they should cut back on the amount of required homework.