Ninth grader starts petition to decrease homework load, increase class time

STUDENT+STRESS.+Riya+Chadha+studies+in+the+library+before+remote+learning.

Macy Beal

STUDENT STRESS. Riya Chadha studies in the library before remote learning.

Tea Tamburo, Reporter

It’s 8:45 a.m., and ninth grader Asha Patel is logging into Zoom for her first class of the day, after a mere six hours of sleep the night before. While she could have slept another hour, the need to get her work done is more pressing, since she knows the day will be filled with video calls and caring for those around her. 

Lack of sleep, increased stress and family obligations have made it difficult for students to get their assignments done on time, so Asha has decided to make this struggle known to teachers and administration by starting a petition to increase synchronous videoconferences and reduce the homework load. 

Asha Patel

On April 24, Asha texted the petition to ninth graders who forwarded the link to students across the U-High community. In a paragraph on the petition document, there’s a call to action for teachers and administration to take into consideration the health of students that may be struggling with mental health challenges. As someone with ADHD, Asha knows how hard it can be to learn a lesson by herself, do the homework and still find time to help her family. 

“Trying to help my family and squeeze in homework has definitely been hard,” Asha said. 

Her aunt is an anesthesiologist, so Asha has been caring for her younger cousins while her aunt is working overtime with COVID-19 patients at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in south suburban Harvey. 

“I’ve been babysitting my cousins while she’s at work,” Asha said. “Personally I think that’s really more important than doing math homework, which I still do. But it’s hard to cram everything in.” 

Not only would reduced homework allow for more family time, it may provide students with more time to pursue their interests. Ninth grader Jeffery Huang signed the petition in hopes of gaining more free time to do what he enjoys, and he also thinks that homework is not the best way of gauging students’ performance in classes. 

“I just think that because of remote learning and due to many technical difficulties, I don’t think homework is a very effective way of measuring how someone does in class,” Jeffery said. “And with classes virtually face-to-face, I think it’s a better experience for remote learning because if you have more class it’s more like a school day.”  

In a decision made by the administration and faculty association April 20, each class is required to have at least two live contact opportunities for students per week. 

“What we have really tried to do is find something that is a balance between synchronous meetings and asynchronous meetings,” Noah Rachlin, dean of teaching and learning, said. “And so to the extent that the petition asks the school to move entirely to one or entirely to the other, I think we are more committed to achieving and working towards a balanced approach.”

Asha knows that families pay high tuition and thinks it’s not right for teachers to only teach a live class once or twice a week, when they could have more live classes and less independent work. 

“We pay a lot of money for teachers to only teach one class per week, but be expected to turn in assignments almost every day,” Asha said. “We’re paying for us to learn the lesson ourselves and just do the homework.” 

According to Asha, more live classes and reduced homework would be beneficial, saying her peers are struggling to break down the concepts by themselves, and it would benefit students’ mental health and wellbeing, without them having to wake at early hours to get their work completed on time. 

While some students are raising their voices to to tell teachers and administration their thoughts regarding remote learning, according to Mr. Rachlin U-High will probably not be able to find a perfect solution that suits everyone. He said even if what students are asking for isn’t what ends up happening, that doesn’t mean the U-High administration doesn’t value student perspective. 

“What we’re going to do hopefully is find the best solution that balances a bunch of different needs at this time,” Mr. Rachlin said. “It’s really important student voice and student perspective is heard.”