By Marisa Papagelis

The end of August is every student’s annual worst nightmare. The best two months of the year have quickly passed and the weeks of dreadful school supply shopping and anxiety for the next school year have begun. After a minuscule break, students are expected to return to school one grade smarter. Within the first week, high school students are bombarded with loads of homework in every class. The obligation to do homework replaces spending quality time with family at home. And as for hanging out with friends? That part is basically diminished. Goodbye to spending lazy days watching movies, goodbye to playing basketball or soccer down at the park for fun, goodbye for nine months until next June. The school year is way too long, and should be shortened in order to let students actually enjoy their young lives.

The length of the school year should be shorter because the length causes a great deal of stress on students. USA Today reports that “ 59% [of students] report that managing their time to balance all activities is a somewhat or very significant stressor.” On top of that “26% report changes in sleeping habits.” School takes up a third of any given weekday and one third must be saved for a healthy amount of sleep. This leaves one third, just a mere eight hours, to fit in spending time with family and friends, getting exercise, playing sports, eating, and relaxing. Eight hours is just not enough time to fit in all of the essentials of a teenage life.

I was lying when I said eight hours of a students day are “free” because they really all aren’t. Remember that thing that teachers assign hours of every single night? Yes, homework is expected to be completed within a students time at home. Because students just need eight hours to take a break from the stressful world of school, most, including me, normally don’t start their homework until nine or ten o’clock at night. Doing this unreasonable amount of homework cuts into valuable hours of sleep that students need in order to function the following day. Even losing just an hour of sleep each night eventually piles on and most students at school end up sleep deprived. Because of this, they don’t learn as much as they could have if they had slept all night instead of worrying about finishing that project thats due today.

Counter arguments would be that students need a certain amount of learning in order to meet the standards and move up to the next grade. However, you are really only young once, and students should be able to enjoy themselves for more than two months a year. Combining grades kindergarten through senior year, every student has two years of summer and the other eleven years are spent at school. This ratio is just straight out unfair. We need to go to school for a minimum number of days, but we have half days that count as a day. Also, we have to go to school for a minimum number of hours, but two hour delays are just wiped out and not made up. The amount of required time in school should just be laid out on the table and done.

Longer breaks would be another option, if a longer summer was not put in favor. How hard would it be to add an extra week on to at least two of the breaks. This gives families time to take longer vacations and not have to miss school. Plus, it’s not like a whole lot is done the week before a break like winter break. Another option would be three day weekends. Or even half days on Friday’s would be sufficient. Especially since a half-day counts the same as a full day, there is not a valid reason of why it shouldn’t happen. This would give students more time to take a break from the long school week. The half day on Friday could suffice for all the homework students get during the week so they actually have a full weekend to enjoy without worrying about schoolwork. Shortening the school year is all around a better idea for the future of education.

Students should not learn less each year, however a compromise should be made on the length of the school year. Whether it’s longer weekends, longer breaks, or simply just ending earlier, the amount of stress on students over school is way too immense. Students should be able to enjoy their lives before they have to grow up and go into the real world where there really is year-round jobs and an abundance of stress.