School has so many pressures — some would say too many. With sports coming around, midterms coming up within the next week, trying to have a social life and getting adequate sleep, it’s hard to manage all of it at once. We have no time to fulfill our basic needs: people need sleep to function and teens need to socialize.

The main purpose of high school is to get a proper education, but for the most part that is a teen’s least concern. We already devote more than seven hours each weekday to school and we shouldn’t have school control our whole lives. I understand that sometimes teachers need to assign homework to make sure students completely understand what they are doing in class, but homework in each class every day can take hours and hours. Beyond that, every teacher seems to think they’re the only class that matters. It seems as if each teacher likes to assign homework, thinking they are the only ones giving homework, which is not true.

We can’t prepare ourselves for the real world if we are in school or in our room working the whole time. Students need time in which they can do things for themselves and discover new things. We get summer break, spring break and winter break, but for the most part during those breaks, we still have homework and are expected to get those assignments done by the time we get back. School is always on the mind for students, no matter what you do to try to get everything done.

These are also the last years students get of their childhood, and there is no way to enjoy that time when every moment is lost in school. This is rushing students into adulthood. Why rush the time they can never get back? After all, childhood only lasts 18 years and then it is off into the real world.

There is so much stress the school puts on students, considering high school sets up your whole life. If you do well in high school, you are more likely to get into a good college. This means that you have to do well or that you are expected to do well.

Many students also have a job.These jobs are good for students. They allow teens to be independent, which helps when they grow up and are living on their own. But, this also leaves no time to do homework or study. There are simply not enough hours in the day for students to have a life, go to school, go to work, do homework, study and get the nine hours of sleep required for the teenage brain.

Teens are under too much stress all the time, and never have time for themselves. With these being the last years of childhood, there needs to be less assigned homework and more free time for students.