How long does homework really take? Ask different people and get different answers ranging from people who don’t even do it to people who will spend up to 4 hours completing homework. Behind those numbers is a bigger story that is about the stress, time management, and whether homework load matches what students can realistically handle.
For many students, the amount of time they spend on their homework depends on a combination of factors: the number of advanced classes they are taking, the amount of homework certain teachers assign, and extracurriculars like school sports that may limit the time available to complete their homework. An evening can fill up with readings, worksheets, and projects that people may hold off until the last second, which makes what would’ve been manageable homework almost impossible to complete without staying up absurdly late. When workload increases, so does the pressure to keep up, and it possibly causes even more problems and could lead to their whole night revolving around school work when they have already spent seven hours in class.
A lot of people will argue that the amount of time to spend on homework is a measure of how people manage their time. Having a few hours of homework every once in a while is not the problem; the problem is that some kids end up having that every night, and it interferes with their personal lives. The challenge is not just the sheer amount of it, but it is the unpredictability. One night there could be a lot of homework for some and the other there could none. When people have a lot of homework, they end up rushing, and they get more worried about completing it than actually mastering it, causing them to possibly completely disregard what they are learning and use things like AI just to finish it.
Homework also does not affect everyone the same way because, as mentioned, students normally have extracurriculars like sports, clubs, or even jobs that they work, which already limits the amount of time they would get on homework by a lot, and it ends up not even mattering if they can manage their time.
Ian Escobar ‘28, who takes all honors classes and plays soccer after school, said, “It all depends on the day. Sometimes I’m drowning in homework and end up having to do part of it in a study hall the next day, and sometimes I breeze through it.”
Kai Mackay ‘28, who also takes all honors classes, plays soccer after school, and works a job, said, “I find myself spending at least 1-2 hours a night on doing my homework and studying and with my after-school activities, especially work, I don’t remember the last time I got a good amount of sleep.”
The biggest problem with excess homework is that when kids are in a crunch for time, it becomes not about understanding the assignment but instead about completing it without fully understanding it. Some people may just fill out random answers, and some may use AI to complete them, which creates a cycle that leads to problems, even in class, where it becomes hard for a student to complete assignments on their own.
