Dear Mr/Madam President,

     Most adults would agree that childhood is the best time of their life, and almost all wish they could return to that stress-free environment. Childhood is stress-free, because as an innocent kid, one is free of responsibility and does not have to engage in the agony of contemplating their future quite yet. Also one does not have to make life-changing decisions and mold their life around their desired place in the workforce. As a student-athlete I believe that I, along with an uncountable amount of my friends and peers, forewent this “stress-free environment” ever since we enrolled in the sixth grade and began taking rigorous, advanced, academic courses. The confliction of my homework load and sports became an uncontrollable problem, and even though I have been able to maintain all A’s up until now as a sophomore, homework has caused it to not have been done gracefully or healthily. I believe that homework should be limited because it is useless, and a study hall should be implemented to aid students, like my peers and I, with the overwhelming burden of homework in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

     First off, homework should be limited because it is an unnecessary origin of stress. Some might argue that this amount of homework is needed to cover the entire curriculum, or to reinforce topics into the student's mind, but Australian Associate Professor Walker, of the University of Sydney, and Professor Horsley, from Central Queensland University, wrote a book that “says homework for young primary school children is of little or no value when it comes to academic achievement,” and also that “students are regularly given too much.” Associate Professor Walker and Professor Horsley are both stating that the amount of homework given is not only overly abundant, but also not needed. Obviously, compromising the stress level of a maturing young adult to provide them with unnecessary, undesired, and unhelpful extra work is not right. Therefore, homework should be limited because it is an unnecessary cause for stress in teenagers.

     Also, homework load should be aided through a study hall, because it can lead to unhealthy habits in young adults. Some might say that the reason why students are unhealthy in going to bed late, is not because of homework load, but rather because of procrastination and choice. Occasionally, on nights where my amount of homework is small compared to other nights, I will stay up later than necessary, or procrastinate by watching a little television or taking extra long to eat my food. But, most of the time, when my homework load is significant and I have multiple assignments from multiple classes, I will start my homework as soon as possible, which is around nine o’clock, and finish around eleven to twelve o’clock, limiting my sleep to six or seven hours. I have had an incomprehensible amount of these late nights, caused by the combination of necessary, consecutive sporting events such as, basketball practice after school, lifting, then baseball training, forcing me to get home around eight-thirty to nine o’clock and homework load. One might think that I should drop a sport to make time for school, which is more important, but I have already dropped tackle football, which I have been playing from the sixth grade, to help manage this catastrophe. So, in the end, homework is the main cause for my adoption of an unhealthy sleep schedule. As stated by kidshealth.org, this lack of sleep can cause stunted growth, obesity, diabetes, and insomnia overtime, due to lack of hormonal changes that mainly occur overnight. Although I do not believe to have encountered any of these effects quite yet, at a meager 5’6’’ and 125 pounds, I do believe an hour long study hall will help to reduce homework load and allow students to get into bed earlier.

     As you can see, homework is a major struggle for student-athletes my age wishing to get all A’s in rigorous courses. Homework should be limited because it is an unnecessary form of stress and does not increase academic growth. Also, a study hall should be implemented to aid students with the overwhelming homework load forced upon them, in order to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Sincerely,

Jack Anderson

SOURCES

            Ravitch, Diane. "Why Homework Is Good for Kids." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.           

            AM By Rachel Carbonell. "Study Finds Homework Has Limited Value." ABC News. N.p., 25 June 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.           

                          "Can Lack of Sleep Stunt Your Growth?" KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. The Nemours Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.