Have you ever wondered how much time we spend on our homework and if it is too much? A 2007 Metlife study found that forty-five percent of students in grades 3 to 12 spend more than an hour a night doing homework, along with six percent of college students who said they spend greater than three hours a night on their homework.

In the 2002-2003 school year, a study on students from the University of Michigan found that American students ages 6 thru 17 spent three hours and 38 minutes on average per week doing homework. Studies have discovered that faculty tend to roughly observe these guidelines. The University of Michigan also found that students ages six to eight spend 29 minutes doing homework per night time while 15 to 17-year-old students spend 50 minutes doing homework. Another Metlife study found that 50 percent of students in grades 7 to 12 spent greater than an hour a night on homework, while 37% of students in grades 3 to 6 spent an hour or extra on their homework per night. The National Center for Educational Statistics found that high school students spend on average 6.8 hours outside of school doing homework per week.

        Next, I went around and interviewed some students about the homework they enjoy doing and homework they don’t enjoy, and teachers on homework they enjoy grading vs don’t enjoy grading. I also asked the teacher what homework they enjoyed when they were students.

The first person I interviewed was Lauren Gaskill, a 12th grader at Dimond who “likes doing projects in class” but she doesn’t like taking notes from a textbook. Some homework that Lauren finds pretty easy is Psychology work. Some advice that Lauren gives to the new students is “Don’t procrastinate.” Another 12th grader I talked to was Max Johnson. He thinks that his Psychology homework is fun. Some homework that Max does not enjoy is his English homework, but he does find his engineering homework to be quite fun. Some advice that Max wants to give the future student coming to high school for success is to stay on track when things are due. I then talked to Ellie Cunningham, a Senior this year. Homework that Ellie enjoys is pottery homework, because “Making mugs is fun.”. She doesn’t enjoy Mythology homework, because she finds it to be pretty boring.

The last person I talked to was Maguire Hamey, also a Senior. He finds engineering homework very enjoyable, but he does not like Economics homework. He finds that his English homework is easy. The advice that Maguire wants to give to future students is to not have any missing homework.

I then interviewed some teachers/staff on their opinion about homework. The first teacher/staff member was Mrs. Melican, who liked English projects and found that reading and writing were pretty enjoyable, but did not like math homework. The homework that Mrs. Melican finds easy includes writing assignments. Mrs. Melican’s advice for future students is to use your class time wisely. The next teacher I interviewed was Mrs. Nurmi, who likes to grade position papers and her students’ policy papers. In her opinion, she doesn’t like worksheets. Mrs. Nurmi finds grading multiple-choice tests easy. Worksheets are not easy to grade. Advice from Mrs. Nurmi is to figure out how to enjoy learning. The next teacher, “LT,” said:

“When kids take home an art project that they are invested in, that makes me happy. Finding a personal connection to an idea or process teaches students that school can have some lasting and important results. I often invested myself in good artwork and toiled at home for hours to complete it. This carries over to everything else in your life, ‘Invest time and energy into something and it shows in the end product.’ Easy things are just that, cheap and easy throw-away objects and a waste of time. Ask yourself: Do you want your life to be easy and cheap, or do you want to live a meaningful life? Invest time and energy into relationships, hobbies, and anything you care about and want to succeed in creating. Successful people slowly build something over time into a lasting endeavor that stands the test of time and cannot easily be forgotten or discarded. Make your life into something that cannot be easily thrown away or forgotten.”

The next person I talked to was a freshman named Jacob Molina. He likes to do textbook work. He does not like to do projects. Homework he finds to be easy is book reports. Advice he has for future freshmen is to think before you act and plan ahead. The last person I went and talked to was an 11th-grader named Luci Kozelski. She enjoys doing artwork, does not enjoy doing history homework, finds math to be easy, and her advice is to stay caught up.