By Madison Waldschmidt
Stress is beginning to take over students’ daily life in and outside of school. An NYU study on stress from high school students found that “nearly half (49%) of all students reported feeling a great deal of stress…Grades, homework, and preparing for college were the greatest sources of stress for both genders.” Because of this, every student at Batavia High School should have a study hall every other day to improve their stress, grades, and overall well being.
Giving students a study hall every other day or daily can improve sleep schedules, reduce stress, improve grades, and their future. Students today are dealing with large amounts of pressure and stress about getting good grades in school, which is difficult trying to balance outside activities, homework, and sleep all within in a healthy manner. In High- Stress High School by Alexandra Ossola, she states, “The results aren’t surprising—between the homework required for Advanced Placement classes, sports practices, extracurricular activities like music and student government, and SAT prep…. Teens don’t have much downtime these days.”
Kids in school are given the weight of deciding how they shape their future, which puts pressure on them to be the best they can be at school. Giving them a chance to reduce pressure and stress would benefit and give time throughout the day to get homework done or anything that is due. In “How Does Homework Actually Affect Students?” Oxford learning claims, “Students who spend too much time on homework are not always able to meet other needs, like being physically and socially active. Ultimately, the amount of homework a student has can impact a lot more than his or her grades.” Students spend long hours at home studying and doing their homework which affects not only their school life and grades but their well being, mental, and physical health. If students were given a study hall it could help prevent and relieve stress or mental and physical health issues leading to a happier and healthier student. Giving students a study hall with help improve students’ daily life at home and at school giving students more time to work on extracurricular and any other activities after school without the worry of doing homework.
There is an argument as well as if giving kids this opportunity could cause some to abuse this privilege. Although if given this chance, there are many ways to help prevent that from happening for instance creating guidelines and certain rules, such as no phones out or must be working or reading. There are few kids who might try to abuse the study hall but it is beneficial to more kids than a few who don’t need it. If kids are not taking the time seriously there can be a time for kids to be taught something new or given worksheets to help keep everyone working and learning
Study hall should become a part of students’ daily life to help relieve stress and improve their mental and physical well being. Students should be given a part of each day to work on homework and be able to study to improve grades and overall their future. Students are studying to go to a good college and to have a better future, but having a better future means working hard and studying harder. Giving students this opportunity will improve the preparation of the next generation for a better life of everyone overall.