When looking at the responsibilities that a high school student has, there are many things that are piled on top of them. Between homework, jobs and sports, high school students hardly get any free time. Personally, with all the responsibilities that teenagers have, I believe that they are being worked way too hard. Between all the homework that students are assigned, how many hours of work they do, and the sports they participate in, teens are constantly being worked past their limits.

When students are assigned homework, many teachers may think that one or two pages of homework isn’t a lot. What they don’t realize is that if a student is taking five classes, that can add up to ten pages of homework to do that night on top of other responsibilities that a student might have. Let alone ten pages of homework is way too much homework for one student to get done in one night. Personally, ten pages of homework, depending on the classes I would be taking, could take me approximately 3-4 hours. 

On top of homework, most students in high school also have jobs that they have to attend. Many high school students I have encountered have part-time jobs that they attend almost nightly. They may not be working for six hours at a time, but some do. In the state of Vermont, students are only allowed to work 18 hours a week during a school week and 40 hours on a non-school week. Although 18 hours a week during a school week may not seem like a lot, it may be a lot on the students who have a lot of homework to complete and sports practice to attend. Many students that have work and practice to go to often do not complete their homework. 

Some may argue that jobs aren’t required for teenagers. But there are many things that teens need to earn money for. Many teenagers have cars that they have to pay for the insurance and car payments. Although some parents might pay for their child’s car and insurance, not all parents have the financial abilities to do so. Some teenagers  get jobs to be able to pay for their post-secondary education. Therefore, this often puts teens in a position where they feel the need to get a job to pay for these costs. 

Teens that also play sports have practice every night and occasionally games to play. On average, high school students have six to seven-and-a-half hours of sports practice a week. But six to seven-and-a-half hours is just an average, and there are many sports that require more practice than that such as gymnastics that require anywhere between one to forty plus hours a week. 

High school students are definitely being worked way harder than they should be. Between having many pages of homework to complete, jobs to work and sports to practice, teenagers are constantly being pushed beyond their limits.