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School is way too long. It needs to be shorter. The hours that students spend at school is outrageous, especially for teens. The older you get, the longer school hours are. Teens have other responsibilities outside of school, including chores, family, friends, work and sports. And that list does not include the need for relaxation. At the same time, teens are going through a lot of hormones and changes to their bodies which can cause them to have trouble managing mental health. A senior here at Washington, Audrey Inderbitzen, says that, “Some may say that school life is easy, but it can also lead to social issues, which then affects the mental health of our students.” A lot of people do not understand how draining school can be. Most of our parents had completely different experiences in school, so teens do not have anyone to relate to.
Most high schools do around 6-8 classes a day. Each teen is busy doing classwork within school hours, and then they go home and do homework outside of school hours. Assigning homework outside of school is too much to ask of our students. Teens study all day and then go home and they have other things they need to do besides more school work. Teachers should not be allowed to assign homework, especially not every day.. Audrey tells us that, “By the end of the day I have about 4-5 classes that assign homework…Once I get home I’m exhausted and don’t feel motivated to work on anything.” Audrey makes it obvious that students are overworked and as a society we expect too much from them. We have to remember that teens are still children, not adults. Society consistently makes the mistake of treating teenagers as adults.
Since high schoolers have a lot on their plates they tend to miss out on things. A senior here at Washington, Armando Canales, who is also a part of our school’s ROP, says that, “I do miss out on things because of school like birthday parties, baby showers, dinners, etc.”
I am not saying that school is not important. School is indeed important, but there needs to be balance. No student should have to miss out on events with families and friends. It shouldn’t be one or the other. It can do both. We just need to be open to revising and editing our school hours and workload. We don’t want students to be completely drained when they step into the “real world” and start being adults . We need to take care of and prepare teens better for their futures.
Sonya Garcia is a current senior at Washington High School. She was born in Walnut Creek and raised in Fremont. This is Sonya’s first year on the paper. She is interested in writing about sports and events that take place at Washington High School or our Community. Her hobbies include waitressing at her job, doing make-up and shopping. She hopes to go out for Track and Field Throwing again this year. After high school, Sonya wants to continue waitressing while she studies business in community college. She hopes to one day open a small business of her own.