In a day there are only 24 hours, so how do teachers expect us to have time for copious hours of homework, sleep and some form of a life outside of school?

“I think that the amount of homework is reasonable for their class, but they should also keep in mind that we have six other classes, and that it adds up too,” senior Fatima Jalloh said.

At McLean, students in the past have reported more than three hours of homework per night. That said, one could get that all done by 6 p.m. if one started right after school gets out right? Well, in a perfect world, yes. However, in the real world, where extracurriculars are almost a prerequisite for university, obviously the goal of all overachieving McLean students, where marathon studying has time and time again been discouraged by experts in education, and the general stresses of being a teenager make it almost impossible to do that in the real world.

So, if not cramming everything in your head right after school, what else is there to do? Well, firstly, teachers could give less homework, realize the other stresses in lives of teenagers and devote more time to actually teaching the material so that we can use it in the real world. The benefits of having a reasonable amount of work are plentiful. More time to do university application-set extracurriculars, have a life, pick up a hobby and/or focus on the more important things like friends or family. Too often in daily life, one forgets about simple things like what one wants to pursuit for fun, one’s family and one’s friends. Things that all bring happiness, but are suppressed by the amount of time a student is buried inside of a textbook or staring hopelessly at a computer screen looking for answers.