Sitting at a desk, wrapping up the third hour of homework tonight, but realizing there’s still at least another two hours to go causes students to break down because of stress.

On average, students spend at least an hour a day on homework during the school year, according to researcher Gretchen Livingston. Livingston also found this number rose by 30 minutes since the 1990s. This means kids aren’t socializing as much and don’t get to spend as much time with friends. The mundane ring of “sorry, I have homework,” echoes through the lungs of too many students. Missing opportunities and chances to make memories seems to be the norm and all for one grade on one paper. 

“I feel sorry for kids these days. They get so much homework. Remember the days when we put a belt around our two books and carried them home? Now they’re dragging a suitcase. They have school all day, then homework from six until 11. There’s no time left to be creative,” musician Tom Petty said.

Furthermore, around 56 percent of students say homework is the main cause of stress at school, according to a study done by the Journal of Experimental Education. On top of that, students don’t seem to benefit from the vast amount of homework. It degrades them and makes them feel as though their grade is more important than they are. Almost no one goes around saying, “wow, isn’t homework just the greatest? I sure do love spending hours hunched over a desk! Oh boy, I get to do even more tonight! Lucky me!” Nowadays, kids wake up, go to school, come home, do their homework and sleep leaving no time to spend with anyone.

Yet many teachers don’t grade for accuracy, but instead for completion when it comes to homework. This helps boost grades and provides practice in preparation for tests and exams without fear of it hurting their whole grade. So long as they do their own work, homework benefits students. 

However, not a lot of kids do their own work because they know it’s not checked for accuracy and are only looking for easy points. This doesn’t help their grade, but worsens it because they don’t get the practice for the test that it provides.

Overall, homework has its advantages in small doses and doesn’t need to be at the forefront of every students’ mind. So put homework off for a minute and take time to smell the roses.