Should homework be legal? Now, before you give the standard, drummed-into-your-head response, actually think about it. How much free time would you have if you didn't have homework? Saying homework is illegal is not just teens trying to be lazy, it actually affects teens in ways adults do not spend time thinking about.

While in high school, it is one of the most challenging times for a teen. You are constantly judged by your peers who are only judging you because they are insecure about themselves too. Mental disorders such as anxiety or depression start to appear more in high school. In a Harvard Study about the rate of mass shootings, scientists have shown that the amount of teens with mental disorders has tripled since 2011. The Brown Center Report shows that from the 1990's the amount of time homework took up of a teen's night increased from 1/3 to 2/3. Adults assume teens are just lazy in this generation, by saying "I always had homework when I was your age.", while that may be true, it was never as much as teens now do. Teens lose time to hang out with friends or even go outside which can lead to obesity, which most likely explains why the obesity rates of our country are also increasing. So, to go back to my original question, does homework seem so legal now?

To expand further on why homework is a crime, teens sit in school for seven to eight hours a day. It is quite a stretch to ask teens to pay attention and learn for that long. The tragic part of it all is school does not end when that final bell rings. Sure, you may not be in the building, but the weight on your back says that you have a long night of homework ahead of you. Wasn't the seven hours you spent in classes today enough? You're studying the same material that you just spent an hour learning in a class. Why pile on the workload?

Another point that needs to be made is the exhaustion teens feel constantly. Parents are upset when homework does not get completed and teachers are upset when students fall asleep in class. It is absurd when teachers ask students to do a massive amount of homework, causing them to stay up later  and then are angry at the students when they fall asleep in classes. The very homework that the students are given is the reason they are losing hours of sleep and the students end up getting caught in an extremely vicious cycle. 

While this may not be your opinion of homework, take some time to asses facts that have been laid out. Think about how homework affects you, or your children as they are going through school.