By Ethan Walshe
Managing Editor

As high school students, school is potentially the largest part of our day to day lives. And what goes hand in hand with schoolwork? Homework. How much homework are students getting per night, and what are their habits for getting it done?

As most everyone has discovered by now the amount of homework you receive nightly is directly related to your grade, the types of classes you take and whether those classes are CP, honors, or AP. How long this homework will take you, regardless of the actual amount of work, is also affected by how you occupy your time elsewhere, whether it be in sports, a job or if you just procrastinate a lot. All of these factors to how much time students are spending each night to complete their assignments.

Freshman in particular can find that the homework load in high school can become overwhelming, particularly at the beginning of the year. However, it is almost midterms so more than likely they have settled into a routine. Whether they tackle their assignments right when they get home, in DLT, on the bus in the morning or some other method, some kind of measures are taken.

“I do my homework when I have time, usually right after school or later that night after sports,” said freshman Emma Katz.

Other grade levels have different experiences with their daily homework loads. Seniors in particular can find that they are either almost without homework, or are laden with it depending on if they take AP classes. According to senior Matt R. Miller, he has almost no homework this year.

“I just go home and do about ten minutes of trig homework, and that’s about it,” said Miller.

On the opposite side of this coin are those seniors who find themselves in AP classes are given far more work than those in CP or honors classes, and this is to be expected. Senior Nick Woodbury said “AP gets a lot more of a workload than the college prep classes,” and any senior or student involved in these classes can echo this sentiment.

Sophomores and juniors can find themselves muddled in between these two extremes. The jump between freshman and sophomore year is usually an easier transition than that between eighth grade and freshman, but some students still find that homework loads increase and more is asked of them as they grow older. This is also to be expected.

A general consensus amongst members of the sophomore class interviewed is that they can have two to three hours or so of homework per night, but more challenging classes can pose a larger task for students.

“I think [the amount of homework] has to do with the fact that I take so many honors classes,” said sophomore Demi Zhang.

Junior year can often be the year where everything comes together. Work becomes more challenging at students prepare to apply to college in the coming year. Workloads intensify and home is definitely a part of that. Junior Sam Sheppard believes that junior year has been “crunchtime” for her and she has had more homework this year than the previous two.

The purpose of homework is often questioned by students and in recent times, by adults. This has lead to the idea of a “road to nowhere,” the idea that student’s are spending their time finding elaborate ways to make it look like they’ve done their homework instead of actually doing it.  Some students at WA certainly share this sentiment.

“In my opinion, most homework tends to be busy work and it’s annoying. I see the [point behind] homework but I think sometimes teachers give too much,” said sophomore Mikayla Viscione.

The Ghostwriter will continue to explore this topic in upcoming articles.