Dear future president,

I am a junior in high school. Over the summer I got a job and now we’re about a month into the school year. Although the school year has just begun, I have discovered that it is extremely hard to go to school, keep up with my homework, and work to pay my car insurance and gas.

Completing school work, and having a job at the same time is hard for most students to balance. A majority of teachers give homework every week if not everyday at my high school. A lot of the kids at my school including me, have so much homework that we fall behind. Then, having a job makes it even harder to do well in school and keep up on the work we’re given. Because we have so much school work, we miss out on a lot of things that we wish we could do, whether it’s to go hang out with our friends or go to the beach with our family on the weekends. If students have a lot of school work, and a job, they won’t get all of their homework done, which will bring grades down even more. The effect of that is it causes us to do poorly on tests because we don’t know what we’re doing. Many of my friends can relate, and I'm sure other students in many other cities or states can agree that balancing all these things is very hard, especially when you’re trying to excel in school.

My life has been completely taken up by school and work. This has made me forget what I want to do for my future and what I want for myself. I used to play guitar and lacrosse, but the last time I did either of those things was in the summer. I’ve always been told that my junior and senior year are to prepare me for college or whatever I decide to do after high school. But being so over-worked has made me lose track of things I might want to do when I graduate.

I understand that to be successful and understand what we’re being told, we need to reinforce what we were just taught. I agree that reinforcement will help us have a full understanding about our classes, but I think homework is having a negative effect on students. We spend about seven hours at school and if we do sports, that’s about another two. Work also adds hours to our day. Yet, teachers still expect us to finish our homework thoroughly, and understand it.

Many people might agree that it would be simpler to not have a job in high school. Although that would allow many students more time for their schoolwork, it will become a problem for many students. Like me, many students pay for things on their own. I pay for my car insurance and gas. I also buy myself clothes and food. Many kids around the U.S. have even more priorities than myself. Some kids have to financially support their families. Having these priorities can become difficult for many students because now they have these financial priorities that they must work for, and go to school so they can graduate and start their own lives.

I understand how much homework we have is based off of our teachers, but I also think that there should be a limit to how much homework students receive. I believe that if there were less homework for high school students, we would feel less pressure and less stress.

We have been told that high school will be the best four years of our lives. So far it hasn’t been because of the stress we have. Although school is supposed to prepare us for college and our lives after high school, I don’t think it should create anxiety and stress for our future. Having less homework will help students better balance high school and their jobs.

Sincerely, Julia F.