Tick, tick, tick! The clock sounds as I’m stressing over five loads of worksheets due the next day. My mind wanders as I want to watch television, hang out with friends, and exercise, but I also want to get good grades. The question is, how much homework is too much?

According to the National Education Association, there is a “10 minute rule” where the amount of homework should increase by 10 minutes for each grade level, but of course, that is not always the reality.

As a sophomore, I’d say I get at least two hours of homework each night and that is just too much. At Algonquin, sports and extracurricular activities are offered and are extremely encouraged by teachers, guidance counselors, and parents. That’s what helps gets you into a good college along with good grades, but I argue that doing these extracurriculars and sports mean there is not enough time to do two hours of homework each night.

Also, high school students are some of the most social people in the world and should be the most active physically. With the heavy load of homework many students receive at Algonquin, being physically and socially active gets severely limited.

Despite all of this, I do understand that homework is important for the development of student’s minds. I’d have to say that without 10-15 homework problems a night depending on the subject, I wouldn’t be any good at taking tests because a lot of homework problems appear on tests.

Also, I understand that procrastination is a thing. In fact, I may be the king of it. But speaking for all students, procrastination is not on the teachers. If they give you a project that is due in two weeks, they don’t expect you to wait until the last night to do it.

Students receiving too much homework is also terrible because it is a distraction from what is more important, tests and quizzes, which make up a larger percentage of a student’s overall grade. For example, in most math classes, the percent distribution is 90% tests and quizzes and 10% homework so giving fifty problems a night just isn’t necessary or practical.

In order to stay healthy, sleep may be the most important factor. Teens need about 8-10 hours of sleep per night to function at their best. On the contrary, one study shows that only 15% of high school students sleep 8 ½ hours on school nights (National Sleep Foundation).

A likely factor to this is indeed too much homework. The lack of sleep leads to being tired all throughout the day in school when you are supposed to be learning. Then, when you get home and you are still tired from the five hours of sleep, you have to do two more hours of homework, given after your sports practice and after school club. What this does is create a domino effect that is almost impossible to stop, unless teachers lighten the load on homework.

So when it is 11 p.m. and you’re struggling to get three subjects worth of work done and think that is unnecessary, think about my point and don’t be afraid to speak up.