Teachers and students discuss the curriculum of potential course choices.
To the average Carlmont student, the stress that comes with having too much homework is a normal part of life.
Whether it is because the of the six tests on Friday, a project that hasn’t been started, or too much homework to fit into one day, some students have felt the panic of having a large amount of work and not enough time to complete it.
“It can be really hard to fit in all the studying and homework that is assigned into a single night especially when you have tests every week,” said sophomore David Vondran.
Some parents worry about the amount of homework given to their kids and wonder if students may be receiving assignments that add stress instead of helping them learn.
Parents have been working with their students to find a solution to their large workloads. A survey was sent out by the Governance Council on Oct. 21 that was designed to discover if students are being assigned too much work by teachers.
What parents don’t realize is that students are often overextended as a result of choosing to take too many challenging classes, such as honors or advanced placement (AP) classes.
“A lot of times [students] may be capable of taking any one of those challenging classes, but when they try to take them all at the same time it becomes too much,” said guidance counselor Kristin Vernon.
There are several resources available that enable students to balance their workload when choosing classes.
“We have a time management sheet that was created from teachers surveying their students to get an estimate of how much homework their classes have,” said Vernon.
The course fair is another resource that students have. The fair has a table for each course with information such as the class curriculum and the amount of work that will be assigned throughout the year.
“The course fair allows students to see what they would be doing in the class if they ended up taking it, which is really helpful. Students can know what to expect before they sign up for [the course],” said sophomore Jason Khun.
Despite the usefulness of the course fair it is never attended by all members of the student body.
“Not every student utilizes the course fair, but they should so they can be prepared for what they are going be doing next year,” said Khun.
Students’ lack of preparation causes students to be stressed out about their abundant workload. This causes parents to question the amount of homework being assigned.
While parents have their kids best interests in mind, many challenging classes can’t be taught without an equally challenging amount of work.
“Any AP class is essentially a college level class that Carlmont students have the opportunity to take while in High School. As an AP, there is a defined amount of content (determined by the College Board) that needs to be covered so that the student has the knowledge necessary to succeed on the AP test,” said AP European history teacher Jayson Waller.
While searching for a solution to large homework loads, parents need to look to their kids to make smarter and more educated class choices.
“Most people don’t care what classes they pick; they just want to hang out and talk with their friends,” said freshman Cameron Ho.
In order to avoid stress, students need to reevaluate their reasoning behind picking a class.
