by Liv Whitlock

As the school year progresses, teachers assign more work with less remorse. Understandably, this is a result of teachers just trying to meet the rigorous standards of a mandated statewide curriculum. But its effects are leaving students in shambles. 

“It’s like I’m drowning in work all the time,” said Morgan Sessler, a senior at Bellbrook High School. 

Sessler is deemed by most teachers and staff at Bellbrook High School as an “exemplary student.” She’s a member of the National Honor Society, the Vice President of student government, on an AP/Honors academic track, not to mention all of her other extracurriculars, including varsity basketball cheer and competition cheer.

There’s this idea that only lousy students slack, which is a false notion. Sometimes, it is our most successful peers that end up the laziest. And it’s not because that’s what they want to do: they have to because of how draining a school day can be. Between the multitude of AP, Honors, and Scholarship classes, there’s an expectation to maintain success in extracurriculars, community service, and then somehow find time for a social life. 

“Everyday I come to school and do all my work in class, then I’m assigned thirty minutes of homework, at a minimum, for each one of my seven classes. Which is like yeah. Whatever. Fine,” Sessler said. “But when I’m getting home at 6:30pm every day, it’s really hard to actually want to start on the mountain of homework sitting in my backpack.”

Many students across the school share the sentiment that they’re overwhelmed by the expectations placed upon them. “Don’t even get me started on all the stuff I have on my to-do list right now,” said Emma Howard, a senior at Bellbrook High School.

A wide range of students are complaining between classes about the “pounds of homework” assigned on a daily basis.

“And, for me, it’s not a matter of not having time to do it,” Howard said. “It’s more that I have so much to do and I want to do it all perfectly. But there’s not enough hours in a day for all of it to be perfect. So I’m forced to kind of pick and choose what’s going to be done well and what’s just going to be done.”

“There’s no time for me to catch my breath,” said Brock Fortman, a junior at Bellbrook High School. “I’m being given homework, after project, after test, after quiz. And all of it needs my full attention, but that’s just really not possible, like at all.”

What is the point of all these assignments in the first place? There’s the obvious answer of “practice makes perfect,” but students are becoming apathetic in regards to the quality of their work, as a direct result of the copious amounts, defeating its purpose entirely. 

So how does such an answer suffice for the inescapable stress students feel?

“And I know I’m a good student,” Fortman said. “It’s just that, well, sometimes you forget your work ethic when getting assigned so much busy work and all that stuff has Quizlet answers that I can just Google.”

Students are burning out.