Dear Future President,

Students in elementary to high school are getting assigned too much homework is the cause of huge amounts of stress and anxiety. These problems have affected me in middle school and high school but, much research from the National Education Association (NEA) shows that elementary schoolers are getting more homework than they should. The NEA says that each grade level should get ten more minutes of homework than the last grade level. For example, 10 minutes for first graders and 120 minutes in twelfth grade.

Even in elementary school I had more homework than someone that age should have. According to William Crain, professor of psychology at City College of New York, kids are developing school related stomach aches, headaches, sleep problems and depression. Too much homework cuts out activities and being active which leads to childhood obesity. Joel Wazac a teacher at South Valley Middle School, cut out homework completely to make lessons more engaging. As a result, students grades went up and the schools standardized tests scores were the highest they've ever been. Research from Standford University says that communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems and alienation from society. According to the study, more than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive (Parker). This matters because there are many serious effects of too much homework. I get very stressed out trying to finish all of my homework and prepare for tests/projects. Many students including myself experience much stress and anxiety trying to finish. An article online from “Health Line”, states that more than ⅔ of students said they use drugs and alcohol to cope with the stress. Drugs and alcohol should not be a coping mechanism for too much homework (Levy).

Many teachers think that homework helps the learning process even though many students don't do it or they spend too much time on it. Giving a lot of homework or practice does not always help. However, according to the CPE (Center for Public Education), more homework benefits older students than younger. Maybe because younger students get easily distracted and have less- effective study habits. For me personally, homework does not benefit me and doesn’t always help me prepare for tests.

I believe that if teachers lightened up on homework or even eradicate it and make the lessons more interesting, the students would benefit even more. Having no homework would be a huge relief, for most students.