The end of the school year, June 13th, is quickly approaching. Teachers across the board are trying to wrap up the curriculum, and many students have mixed feelings about the amount of homework given towards the end of the school year.
One Shen junior, Omar Siddiqui, said that he has found the level of homework to have increased for some of his classes as the school year winds down. “Personally I feel like it’s a bit too much, especially for classes like history, where there are a lot of contents to cover,” said Siddiqui. He explains that the combination of class work, homework, as well as work that he has outside of school makes the increase in homework overwhelming for him.
This sentiment is also shared by another student, Cal Miller, who is a senior at Shen. “For me, homework is often used as just busywork that doesn’t actually teach me the material or better understand it. It feels like it’s simply a waste of my time.” said Miller. Cal Miller said that he usually self studies for classes anyway and doesn’t see the value in homework, so he has found the increase in homework to be more frustrating.
However, even though many students say homework has increased as the end of the year approaches, some students say that their teacher has given them class time to work on the homeworks. Landon Macaluso, a junior at Shen said “A lot of teachers have started giving out review packets on top of homework to review for regents. But I think it’s reasonable. My teacher doesn’t expect too much of it and most of the time, they give me class time to work on it.”
On top of that, not all students view homework negatively. James Ochsner, a senior at Shen, said that although homework has increased, it has helped him to increase his overall grades. “I wouldn’t say it’s too bad. Since most of my teachers just grade it as a completion grade, and homework is taken as 40 percent of my grade, it’s something that I can make sure I have down,” said Ochsner.
As the school year comes to a close and pencils are put down, students reflect on the significance of these final homeworks, marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.