The Thanksgiving break is intended to be a time for students to count their blessings among family and friends, but this year, many students spent their break counting their numerous assignments instead.

As students dealing with the pandemic and having to swallow up endless assignments, we find it really difficult to come to terms with the ways things are and how they are going to stay for who knows how long. Multiple students and parents have been calling school staff to complain about the never ending amount of work teachers have been handing out, while some teachers have expressed concern to our publication about the amount of work their colleagues are assigning. 

Where do we draw the line between work overload, or just laziness? In a rough way, there’s a big difference that people choose to ignore. In this case, people often mistake laziness with work overload due to the build-up of work that students disregard and end up having to pay off on a later date, but how does it differentiate from work overload? The difference is choosing to do the work but it gets to the point where the amount of work is just exhausting, it feels like it never ends. With teenage mental health plummeting, this system can’t possibly continue the way it is. So how do we fix it before even more damage is done?

We propose this solution: a uniform system across all non-AP/college classes that puts a hard limit on the average amount of time an assignment should take. Since many teachers cannot fathom a world without homework, allot their classes 30 minutes of homework a week. That’s still about three and half total hours of homework to be completed by the average student, a striking figure when you consider our daily obligations to class, sports, activities, clubs, work, and family commitments. 

Additionally, teachers should be able to do the assignment they themselves have assigned. NoRedInk, the grammar tool almost universally detested by middle and high school students across the country, is so widely hated because it allows teachers to thoughtlessly assign grammar drills, some of which take hours to complete, in a matter of seconds. If a teacher had to sit through two hours of mind-numbing grammar drills before assigning said drills to their students, instead of clicking a few prompts and calling it a day, perhaps they would be less likely to assign such draining busywork, especially before a break.

With winter break approaching, and the end of the semester still weeks after our return, it is safe to assume that some teachers will continue their favorite holiday tradition: assigning big projects, essays, and busywork that must be completed during a time that is supposed to be restful and celebratory. Perhaps they can give us a break just this once at the end of this traumatic, unprecedented year?