The bell rings at 2:55 and a decision looms: homework, friends, job, sports . . . or maybe TikTok? What you choose matters for your physical, social, and mental health.
According to a Paw Print poll of Harrison students, one of the least favorite activities to do after school is homework. Teachers assign homework to see how well students understand the lesson being taught and to teach us problem solving skills, but what teachers don’t understand is how much time homework really takes up. An article in EdWeek.org states that “High school teachers interviewed said they assign an average of 3.5 hours’ worth of homework a week. For students who study five days a week, that’s 42 minutes a day per class, or 3.5 hours a day for a typical student taking five classes.” Thats a lot of time spent on homework a day. Assigning too much homework can affect students mental, physical, and emotional health. Harrison teachers, take note. Put your homework load on a diet, because there isn’t enough time in the day for everything you are assigning. Sophomore Malek Lyttle Explained how homework takes up most of his day and barely has any family time. “My time with family and friends is limited because: I spend the day at school which is great but then I spend an extra 2-3 hours working on homework then I have 2-3 hours before bed so on an average 5-day week: I spend 52.5 hours at/with school related stuff, and I get 17.5 hours with my family!? Which one is more important? YOU tell me.”, Lyttle said.
The poll also revealed that many students participate in sports and extracurriculars. According to the article written by the Oklahoma State University, “After school curriculars can serve as real-time laboratories where students can develop critical life skills such as leadership, teamwork, and dealing with adversity.” Sports and extracurriculars are a great way to spend your time after school, even though sometimes they may get stressful. Southwest Local School District has a goal that every student will be involved in an extracurricular activity because we see the correlation between involvement and things like better attendance and grades and fewer discipline issues. This year, the high school reached 92% of students involved in something. Freshman Daniel Miller advocates balance in this quest for activity. After school activities are like building blocks, you need the right ones for who you want to be, and you need to balance them. Not too many, not too few,” Miller said.
Many students at William Henry Harrison High School have a job. It can be stressful having to work right after going to school. Although making money is nice, you’re prone to lose time to hang out with friends and participate in sports or extracurricular activities. Junior Elijah Snyder experienced a big shift in his life when he got his first job. “You only ever realize how much time you had until you lose it. Getting a job was a huge culture shock, because suddenly it became that much harder to do after-school clubs or hang out with people when work takes up so much of your time,” Snyder said.
Hanging out with your friends is not only most favored, but a great way to spend your free time after school. Hanging out with friends can improve your mental health. Being surrounded by friends can help you socialize while getting away from school, allows you to enjoy life and have a moment of tranquility.
There are some after school activities that are not a useful way to spend your time, including binge watching tv for hours, scrolling through social media, or playing video games all night. It can make it tempting to skip your homework and chores. Spending your free time staring at a screen can mess with your sleep schedule, make you more stressed, and eventually affect your grades if you don’t keep up with your schoolwork. Spending most of your time scrolling on social media can also cause social pressure, anxiety and bullying to increase.
So, when the bell rings at 2:55, think about how you are going to spend the next 7-8 hours until you have to go to sleep. You could join a sport or club, start working, hang out with your friends , or even scroll on social media. Even though it isn’t the most exciting way to spend your time, you could also do your homework.
