Graphic by Dina Kats
By Leah Blum and Sunny Tian
Features Reporters
Throughout the course of remote learning for the Newton South community, there have been many adjustments made in efforts to better the learning environment for both students and teachers. One of these adjustments is the new “no homework” policy.
This policy ensures that students are getting no more than 30 minutes of work outside of class. Since most students already do their work at home, it is hard for teachers to hand out more work for their students to complete, as this only results in students being cooped up in their rooms all day, which neither teachers nor students desire. Before implementing its online learning model this year, South was notoriously known for giving students a large amount of homework, but this new policy has allowed students to have more free time and to be less stressed throughout the school year.
“I think it is a good idea because we are supposed to have a little bit of outside work but to have the same amount of homework as beforehand, I think is unreasonable because it is a lot of time to be on the computer,” recounted sophomore Lia Merkowitz.
Junior Maddy DeJohn similarly explained, “I think it’s okay if it’s a little work or if it’s spread over a couple of days or you have more than one day to do it. If each teacher is assigning work, then it adds up.”
Less work for students allows them to have more time to spend with their friends, families, and extracurricular activities. It is something that takes some getting used to, and learning at South remotely is still not easy. However, without the stress of homework, students feel as though they can learn and take part in activities they find more enjoyable with the extra time.
“I have more time to do things I enjoy like art, reading, and swimming. I [also] have more time with my family. I don’t have to worry about school in the afternoon which is nice,” sophomore Noah Gonzalez stated.
“I have a lot more time to go to dance and just spend time with my friends and my brother,” added DeJohn.
However, many are asking whether teachers are actually following the rule of 30 minutes maximum for homework. And for the most part, yes they are. From a teacher’s standpoint, remote learning has also affected the way that many teachers teach, and the majority of students realize that they need to adjust with the teachers, not to the teachers.
“I think most teachers want to give homework but they’re not allowed to,” Gonzalez explained. She also confirmed that her teachers are still following the homework policy.
“Now we get some homework but it is pretty minimal like it is definitely under 30 minutes,” claimed Merkowitz. “For example, in English, it is one chapter per week.”
Although some students are happy about the extra time they have, many still feel that a small amount of work outside of school is essential for their learning.
“I think English is reasonable, just like reading and stuff. But I think for math and chemistry, we should get more practice problems at home, especially in honors,” said Gonzalez.
Many students believe that some work is still necessary to learn the material at its full capacity; they recognize that homework is essential to further their understanding of the material learned in class. Now, without being assigned any work outside of class, students are finding themselves just as frustrated as their teachers.
“I understand sometimes it saves time and it might not be the most challenging thing, but you kind of need to [assign work] in order to move onto the next class,” expressed Merkowitz. “I wouldn’t want them to assign work just for the sake of assigning work, but also I think it does help to have something to do because although the school days are pretty long, it is good to have a little bit more work outside of school.”
There is no doubt that having less work to do outside of school is beneficial in that students can spend more time on activities unrelated to school. Most teachers are following up with this newly established rule, however, students do agree that giving a little more work per class is manageable and can make the school life feel more “normal”.
Although there are mixed feelings about the outside-of-class work policies, students and staff at South continue to adapt to them, in hopes to improve their remote learning experience and to take advantage of the extra time on their hands.
In the end, Merkowitz concluded that “it is definitely nice to have the weekends completely free.”
