In World War I, soldiers faced the constant threat of poisonous gas strikes or artillery fire from the enemy as they fought their way through the trenches. The paranoia they developed after months and months of uncertainty about whether they would be bombed that night gave many mental breakdowns and PTSD.
While the effects may be nowhere near as devastating, students at Temple City High School face a very similar dilemma: teachers assigning homework at all hours of the night with no warning or air raid sirens whatsoever.
Many nights, after finishing all the homework assigned to me during the day, I log onto Facebook just before bed to find that there are two assignments posted online without warning sometime during the evening. Lately, checking for homework throughout the night has become a norm for me, just in case a teacher decides to post homework a little later than normal. Even though it seems like a small thing, that little bit of stress can add up night after night.
With the way this homework posting trend is shaping up, students might come to fear the nights they sleep early, jolting awake throughout the night at the imagined sound of Edline email notifications.
Just this year, a number of my teachers have turned to posting homework assignments on the internet, which, if done correctly, can be easier for students and teachers to communicate as well as maximize the span of time allowed for homework. Instead, teachers posting reckless, additional homework assignments have taken away valuable time from students’ busy schedules.
Ideally, the couple of hours in between school and soccer practice is where I like to get ahead on the night’s work. However, online homework assignments are rarely posted at this time. I’m sure other students with similarly specific homework schedules would appreciate being able to choose when they can get their homework done instead of at their teacher’s whims.
Closer to the beginning of the year, I thought that this was an isolated incident that I faced alone, however after talking to a number of friends and peers I realized that this is happening throughout different departments and by many different teachers in the school.
Not only does this trend make it harder for students to receive the grades they want, but also shows students that procrastination and ill-preparedness are norms carried over by adults into the working world.
In Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s book, Psycho-Cybernetics, he theorizes that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. One school year at Temple City High School is 180 days, so the repetition of procrastination in the class setting is more than enough time to influence students in a negative manner.
Teachers, save students from the trenches of Edline and wiki refreshing; post early.