Students stress as teachers hand them summer work all due on the first day, frightening the students and pressuring them to complete all the work in time for the first day of school.
“We shouldn’t be tested on anything on the first day of school,” senior Neesha Deshmukh said. “What if you don’t understand the summer homework?”
For many students, especially AP/Honors class students, there are work and quizzes on the first day of school. There are packets to fill out, and books to read on top of the studying they do for those tests. From math to social studies, teachers often require some work to keep up students knowledge from the past school year.
“I think that students need to know the tone of the class and know how hard it is, and also keep their time management and academic integrity,” AP World teacher, Joni Patton said.
As the work assigned to the students in the summer helps them keep a nice rhythm for class work, it also brings anxiety and procrastination for them as the school year comes close.
“It’s a downer because you’re already trying to get the hang of things but all that really piles on the first day,” senior Katherine Laue said. “That doesn’t really motivate you to do your work for the rest of year.”
Also, students who can’t deal with immense workloads and summer work of classes sometimes simply drop out of the class, deciding on classes that do not require any work or tests.
“Last year I struggled already, so I don’t want to take the chance to mess up my GPA,” sophomore Emmanuel Hagoss said. “Just reading the book was boring.”
Freshman students are also getting bombarded with tests and work all on their first day of high school, stressing the new students even more. But it helps them get accustomed to the workload and pace of their classes. The work also gives the students an idea of expectations that teachers have in their class.
“I think it’s dumb because it’s the first day and we’re just getting used to the school and we shouldn’t have to take a test,” freshman Anthony Klein said.
Not all districts seem to think that heavy summer homework is necessary, with parkway laboriously giving out the homework to students, for the students it may seem like busy-work and not a serious task to be done.
“Marquette doesn’t do it so why does Parkway do it?” senior Neesha Deshmukh said.
