It’s been a little less than eight hours since Emely Funes’s school day “ended”. Hopping on the 44 to get home, she stares at her book bag longingly as she walks inside, knowing she has tons of work to do inside her house, not just inside her book bag. Heaving a heavy sigh, she lugs the bag upstairs amidst her siblings’ screams. A couple hours later, she drags herself downstairs for dinner, most of her work complete, too tired to do anything more than eat, shower, and go to bed.
She, like most students, is too tired to read and write just for fun. And that’s not a good thing.
Now I know what you may be thinking. But she already read and wrote, at least if she did her homework. That’s true enough, but I’m not talking about reading and writing for school work. I’m talking about doing it for non-academic purposes – personal and fun purposes.
According to www.mychild.co.uk 85 percent of a child’s learning comes from outside school and school work, and that includes reading and writing not just books, but magazines, short novels, poems, comic books, manga, and fanfiction.
“I can’t read the books I want to read because I’ve already got an assigned book to read, and it’s hard to read even that,” said sophomore Jaclyn Appelgate.
“Decrease the amount of homework,” said sophomore Emely Funes. “Teachers say ‘we have a lot of work to do too, you know’, and I understand, but it really starts with the work they give us first.”
Though less homework would be a nice solution, we all know it isn’t possible.
The only solution that is realistic, in my opinion, is pure will-power. Instead of complaining about it and doing nothing, we should make time for it.
“Anything is possible. It’s just a matter of will power and intent,” said graduate John Harden.
If we want to have time to do something other than school work, then we have to have the intent to make time.
“We all do a lot of work: students, teachers, and administrators,” said English teacher Heather Prevosti. “Sometimes we allow our work to overwhelm us. We have to create a space for work and a space for play. There should be balance in our lives, and the only person who can ensure that healthy balance is each of us.”
Making a schedule and having it include some leisure time when you can do whatever you want can help reduce some stress too. Have the schedule include the dreaded “bed time”. Eight hours of sleep can help more than you think, and may even help your grades.
