As a student, I have always dreaded doing my homework assignments. I lost sleep and weight worrying over my homework because I wanted to get good grades. I would also gain weight (by stress eating), headaches, and I developed an unhealthy addiction to iced-coffee. Before I do my work, I always would have a cup of coffee and water next to me. I now go to Starbucks so often that the baristas know my name and go-to drink. This unusual habit of mine led me to wonder - if I did not have to over-stress myself to finish my homework, would I still be addicted to coffee, have a lot of headaches, and constantly be losing or gaining weight from the stress of school?

Does homework actually benefit me as a student?

Upon research, I found that there are pros and cons to homework. The negative effects include the following: a reduction of social life, participation, problem-solving, and it disrupts a healthy balance in life. Researchers have proven time and time again that there is little to no correlation to assigning homework to students. If teachers do give work, it is best to limit it to a maximum time length of ten minutes. I went to a competitive high school, and the underlying feeling of having to always get into honors, AP, or AICE classes would give me a sense of superiority. The teachers would look down on students that were in "regular" level classes and treated others in higher-level courses as if they were the best students in the world. Being in honors, AP, and AICE courses, I had so much homework that I would start at 4 p.m. and finish at 10 p.m. - on average. Having this insane amount of homework to do barely gave me time to rest, and when I did, I felt like I had an assignment pending. I constantly worried I wouldn't have enough time to turn it in. I still fear that if I do not submit a ten-point math worksheet, my class grade will drop a whole letter grade.

Although, I will admit that I did not have an extracurricular outside of my academic life, I would not have given it nearly as much effort as I did to my studies.

If homework is assigned at a healthy amount for the student, like an assignment that takes the recommended 10-minute mark to complete, then there will be positive outcomes - reinforcement of the lesson taught in class improves study skills and creates a sense of independence and responsibility. Even though there are pros to homework, there needs to be a limit to how much teachers give. Experts agree that it should not take a student longer than an hour to finish all of their assignments daily and should allow time and research flexibility to the students. Educators also need to keep in mind that students have their own individual needs and circumstances.