Horizon students all have homework, whether it’s massive amounts or barely any. These assignments are necessary to further develop our understanding of the concepts we learn in our classes. However, many believe that these assignments are either too long or just simply unneeded.

When asked how long she spends on homework nightly, Horizon High School senior Adilan Post says, “15 to 30 minutes a night.” However, when she compares her senior year to her junior year, Post states, “I remember junior year the amount of homework I used to have used to burn me out.”

Additionally, Post explains that the homework she has had this year doesn’t nearly affect her as much mentally as it did during her junior year. “Since it’s senior year, I cut myself off at 10 o’clock. Whatever I didn’t get done can wait. Junior year, I used to stay up to 12:30 in the morning doing homework,” Post remarks.

When asked how many assignments she believes she has learned from, Horizon High School sophomore Chloe Stratton, says, “I personally feel like I have learned from all my assignments. However, I feel like some of the stuff I learned hasn’t been very useful to learn.”

Post has a different viewpoint on this question. When asked, Post responds that she feels like the only homework she learns from is math homework. She says this because she feels that “math needs to be reinforced.”

When asked about balancing extracurriculars and homework, Stratton states, “During tennis and flag football, I usually get my homework done in a timely manner. I usually get done in, like, one to three hours based on how much homework I have.” On normal school days, Stratton notes that she usually gets her homework done before 10:30 p.m.

When asked if having too much homework has an effect on her, Horizon High School sophomore Kayla Marx replies, “Yes, because then I can’t do stuff that I want to actually do.” Additionally, Marx mentions that when she has a lot of homework she will stay up until nine or 10 p.m.; whereas on days with little homework, she only stays up until 8:00 p.m.

Tina Walters, an AP Psychology, World History, and Personal Financial Literacy teacher at Horizon High School, says that the amount of homework she assigns per week is dependent on what class it is. “I try to avoid homework in World History with my freshmen and PFL with my juniors, but some nights they have homework because they don’t use our time in class wisely. So, I try to account for how much time the assignment might take in class and then try to give them… like, if I think the assignment will take 30 minutes, I try to give them at least 30 minutes in class to work. And if they don’t use our time wisely, then that’s on them. But AP Psychology has homework every night because it’s an AP class and that’s just the nature of AP classes.”

Additionally, Walters states that by giving students multiple opportunities to show what they have learned and assignments that build off each other, she hopes that students learn from most of their assignments.

When asked how she decides what length of assignments to assign weekly, Walters responds, “I vary it up. Like, there might be an assignment that they’ll spend two or three days working on and then submit, or, like today for example, in both of my classes [World History and PFL] it was a very quick assignment that they did within the class period.”

While homework can be seen as unnecessary or grueling, it is actually very essential to learning. Homework helps you review and practice the concepts you are learning in class, whether it is history or math.