Oblivious to the slight snoring sounds behind her, the teacher continued to “teach” the class. The sound that all kids love rings out freedom across the classroom, shredding the trance-like mood that has settled upon the class and replacing it with newfound energy.
“WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the teacher tears her lungs at the class, “I want a ten page essay on the reason why you think Romeo and Juliet kissed; was it to aggravate Juliet’s father in an act of defiance, or were they truly in love, due tomorrow. Oh, and Javon, do not make a mockery of this fine piece of literature.” An angry gasp rumbles from each of the kids’ throats, “More homework?!?!?!?!?!” Why does the treachery of homework have to befall them every night? Why do they have to spend hours laboring at boring assignments? They could be out spending their lives in ways that they want to! They could go out, but they will fail school resulting in a bad life. They could work diligently and non-stop, they will have a good career, but no friends. Which path to walk is the right one?
I know what you are feeling; despair, blankness, loss, insecurity, and so on. Know this; there is a light at the end of the long, black, desolate place called school. I am a current eighth grade student at a tedious school, mind-boggling and stressing, and I am fighting for the TBORHWENFKWAO1-20 (The Bill Of Reducing Home-Work Every Night For Kids With Ages Of 1-20). We spend hours at a time sitting in classrooms wasting our life away, “trying” to learn “valuable” information for the rest of our lives. We learn enough in school and if teachers think that they need to re-enforce their lessons, they should do what they tell us to do, manage your time better. School puts enough strain, irritation, and stress on us, why add more after school? The eleventh leading cause of death in the U.S. is suicide (benbest.com). It is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds (About.com), about 3,900 suicides (HealthyPlace). These students are going through the hardest academic time of their lives with college and the final years of high school. There is clearly enough strain upon these poor wretched souls without homework. Homework just doubles the stress. In the last forty years (1952-1992) education rates, competitivety, and over-all economic statuses have dramatically increased; and so have suicide rates, by three times. Tears streaming, nose sniffling, people cry every day for these dramatic loses. Every eighteen minutes another sad duty for a cop is assigned, mostly for parents of children. Imagine what you would feel like if the doorbell rang, you answered it, and there was a police man. This police man was not here to arrest you, but was here to tell you that a loved one committed suicide. Tears would stream down your face. Why? Your loved one was too stressed with his homework. This is a totally preventable way of dieing. How to prevent it? “The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta,” as V says, a strike to make people see eye to eye with us.
Just recently, a teacher had an argument with my class saying that if we were to compare our test scores to the scores of people from China, Japan, and South Korea, we would lose, miserably. I beg to differ that point, in economic statuses, America is the highest by almost 10 trillion dollars. How did we get here? America’s youth worked hard to beat other countries in ideas, hard-work, and the plain old American spirit. If we are so economically advanced, why would we need to whittle through woeful times? America works hard at everything we do, and that is why other countries want to be like us, beat us, and use us. If our country is the best in the world, our schools have to be the best too. We do not need extra work like homework if we have leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barak Obama to take us out of economic downfalls and swing us back up again. We have enough talent in America to not need homework, but to need school.
I now must be done, because as Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”