The Homework Struggle by Tucker

The Homework Struggle by Tucker - September 2023 Scholarship Essay

Every night, it was the same thing. The struggle. “What do you have for homework?” my mom asks. “I am not sure; I can’t seem to remember everything,” I reply. I then proceed to go through the hour-long process of re-reading all my emails from that day, looking for assignments on Canvas, reviewing my folders, checking my “Remind” app, looking for assignments in Google Classroom, and reviewing Delta Math and other applications for homework assignments.

There are many good qualities about being in school in person, as opposed to virtual learning during the pandemic. I believe in the rules that the school Administration has put into place after the pandemic such as a dress code, tardy/late policies, and no bullying policies. However, there are a few changes I would make to the rules of the school if I were able. One of the changes I would make is requiring teachers to put all homework in a centralized location.

Back in previous generations, students did not need to struggle with finding out what homework they had each night. The homework assignment was simply included in a folder that went home with the student for them to work on. With the onset of technology, there are many more tools and applications available to assign and maintain homework. There are benefits to this technology as the homework can be performed at a quicker pace in some instances. The tools also allow for instantaneous access to teachers and other students if a question arises.

However, the downside is that with all these apps and tools, there are too many places where homework can be maintained. This causes confusion for the student as to what their homework assignment is each night. Teachers are given flexibility by the Administration to use whichever apps and tools fit their type of class. The teachers are not restricted to using only designated apps and tools for assigning homework. In contrast, in other schools in surrounding cities and states, there is one location such as a common shared drive where each teacher is required to list out all assignments for the day. The students and parents can access this one location to see all the students’ daily homework assignments. It is important to have a centralized location so that parents and students can ensure that they have obtained all their assigned homework without having to jump around to various locations and waste a lot of time just searching for homework.

I find it challenging to try to locate my assignments every night while keeping up my grades and still working on my Boy Scout Merit Badge requirements in my free time. It would be preferable to have an easy solution to this problem, where the homework is easy to access and requires minimal effort on the student’s part to find it.

Some teachers would say that they prefer to have the flexibility to use whichever apps and tools they choose. These teachers like to have flexibility since they may have a specialized class which doesn’t fit into the typical app or tool. However, all the questions that arise from the students about their assigned homework actually makes it more difficult for the teacher. My friends and I have many questions each night about where our assigned homework is and how to access it. The current situation is not fair to the teachers either who must field all the students’ questions in their free time in the evenings. The teachers could still use the current apps and tools that they have and just add an additional location to store all homework.

In summary, the benefits of having a centralized location to access homework assignments outweigh the challenges. The issue would be easily solved by simply creating a shared location, such as a SharePoint site, which houses all homework assignments. This would alleviate the nightly struggles over homework with parents and students at my school.

An evening at my house could go like this. “What do you have for homework, son?” asks my mom. “Well, let me check my SharePoint site and I can tell you.” I reply. “Great! Go ahead and do that.” “Hmm,” I think, “the challenge now is actually getting all of my homework done.”