The Mycenaean

The school year is coming to an end. While this upcoming freedom is very exciting for students, the workload is not slowing down until the school year is over.

Students struggle with schoolwork, extracurriculars, and friendships. While dealing with multiple commitments are high school students overworked? 

Teachers, parents, and society have high expectations for students. Success in high school is seen by having good grades and a high GPA.

Many students find themselves burning out, sacrificing sleep and free time to keep up with extremely demanding schoolwork. 

Taking any advanced placement (AP), honors courses, or any other college program adds to the academic toll on free time or relaxation but that is expected when taking any AP course.

“I feel overworked by school because of the amount of work they give us. Sometimes I spent up to 3-4 hours studying and completing homework. This causes me so much stress because I also have extracurriculars that take a lot of time,” said Lily Bendell, sophomore.

Some classes are less time-consuming than others which are usually academic classes or electives. Taking these classes is easier but they don’t boost your GPA, or necessarily look good on a college application.

While trying to maintain good grades, students are expected to do some type of extracurricular activities like a sport or a club.

“Teens are so busy outside of school from extracurriculars like jobs and sports, that all the work we get from class leads us to being overworked and having too much on our plates,” said Halle Gibson, sophomore.

These activities are important to some students for their development, they can also add to an already packed schedule.

Some of our school clubs and honor societies require service hours. When doing service hours you spend hours at a time helping around in the community.  

The time spent on extracurricular activities ranging from sports and clubs to volunteer work and part-time jobs, further stretches students thin. 

While maintaining all of the academic or athletic aspects most students still try to find time for a social life as well. 

So when do these students get to relax and not worry about school? The answer for that is over long breaks like winter, summer, or spring break when students have an extended period.

You would think the weekend would be a nice quick break for students but, depending on the classes they also have schoolwork.

Sick days are a student’s worst nightmare. When being sick for a couple of days or even one you become extremely behind and are still expected to be caught up with each class when you return. 

“Sick days are the worst, you miss so much and teachers expect you to catch up when you are dealing with double the workload when you come back,” said Lucy Killian, sophomore. 

The fear of missing a day of school is a reality for many students and shouldn’t be as stressful.