Students must learn to balance a rigorous homework load while participating in multiple extracurricular activities, leaving them stressed and overwhelmed. However with a new schedule and open forums discussing homework; teachers, administrators and parents have opened a new dialogue in efforts to subdue student stress.
“On average I have about three hours of homework a night, and I spend about five hours a week doing extracurriculars,” senior Clare Keating said. “But when basketball starts it will be about 15 hours a week.”
U.S. History and Psychology teacher Ali Cota attributes students’ busy schedules and a lack of time management to the problem of stress.
“Students have the idea that teachers are trying to wear them down with homework, however they want to teach them content and skills,” Cota said, “Come [to us] and have a truly authentic conversation about how to make a class successful and teachers will welcome it.”
Cota suggests students have a quiet place to do work, remove themselves from technology, preview questions before reading and plan time wisely to manage stress and improve work productivity.
“Overscheduling, high personal and parental expectations, social media affecting sleep and poor time management are all large contributing factors to students stress,” Cota said.
However, Lindsey Meyersieck, whose daughter junior Audrey Meyersieck balances school with extracurricular activities including dance, volleyball and Girl Scouts, believes that these activities contribute to her physical and emotional strength as well as social awareness, and are very important.
“The lessons learned through her extracurricular activities will enable her to more effectively navigate life as a well-rounded, healthy adult,” Meyersieck said.
Meyersieck acknowledges that her daughter’s busy schedule and large homework load has led to stress, especially on the weekends, and tries to help her by mapping out a schedule for managing the workload and breaking it into smaller segments.
“She is especially stressed over the weekends this year when she typically has homework or projects due in all classes on Mondays.” Meyersieck said, “After taking the PSAT, she spent Saturday afternoon and evening on homework and spent several hours Sunday.”
Meyersieck believes that parents need to be assertive in helping their kids choose a realistic and manageable academic and extracurricular schedule, however, thinks the administration could be more effective.
“Better coordination among staff to reduce the overwhelming barrage of weekend homework would be beneficial,” Meyersieck said,  “Continuing to celebrate student achievement beyond just academics will make a difference as well.”
Principal Brent Daniels, whose first effort to diminish stress was by changing the new schedule, is still working hard to support the students. Last year Daniels administered the Challenge Success Survey, in order to retrieve data on student stress.
The survey, which tested teacher care, extracurriculars, perceptions of parents, and perceptions of homework, found that 43 percent of students participate in more that 10 hours of extracurricular activities, and 27 percent of students find none to a quarter of homework meaningful.
“Our plan is to collect data and engage students, while having discussions with faculty to increase the conversation with all different groups.” Daniels said.
He has additionally set up a focus group consisting of four students to discuss stress and also increased the number of tutorials to support students in getting help.
“Parents should talk to students on an ongoing basis as organically and naturally as possible, and encourage students to speak to teachers directly.” Daniels said, “Additionally students should talk to their teachers, administrators, parents, counselor, or visit the Wellness Center if they are feeling stressed. The student’s voice is important.”