Students constantly need to be managing unbalanced workloads for school, a fact that makes them fall behind in their classes. This article explains how students at Tuscarora High School manage workloads and how they feel about it.
All the students from 9th grade to 12th grade that were interviewed said they believe that having too much work in one class will make them fall behind in their other classes. An article by the New York Times interviewed students from across the country on this topic. A student in Germantown, Maryland said that their jam-packed days have affected how they manage their activities and life, saying “I find myself having to prioritize my grades over everything else…”
A little closer to home, a freshman student here at Tuscarora says, “I think it is fine because classes give a good amount of work to do in school and for homework,” in response to a question asking how they felt about their school work, and whether or not they think it is too much. However, other students don’t think it is always fine, as another freshman said in response to the same question “It is in between because sometimes there are chill days and sometimes there are days that we have a lot of work.” In our own observation of our typical day’s workload, we average 2-3 assignments per day, which is realistic to get done depending on how long the assignments are and varying on what extracurricular activities you have after school.
We also asked teachers and a guidance counselor (Ms. Danielle Moore) about how they believe their students do in classes they have to take in comparison to classes they want to take. We asked Moore if she thinks an unbalanced workload (between core vs. elective classes) will affect how students perform, and she said, “Yes […] When students have all core academic classes in one semester they burn out sooner, trying to manage all the different parts to it.” The teachers we interviewed also shared this opinion, with both [Mary-Rose Reed and Kelly Spelman] saying that students typically tend to do well in their classes, and they believe it is due to the low amount of work they give out.
Students explained that they put a lot of effort in the classes that assign the most workloads instead of having a balanced amount of work for all their classes: “I feel like I am focusing more in one class and then I put aside [work for] the others and that ends up like making me fall behind,” a senior from Tuscarora High School explained.
The overall conclusion is that students at Tuscarora High School believe there is a workload imbalance of assignments that leads them to fall behind in their other class periods.
To combat this, one solution could be giving students a better balance of both core classes and elective classes in one semester; it would result in less stress for students and, by extension, the better grades everyone strives for.
