Too Much Homework?

Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. ~Margaret Fuller

How many hours do you spend on homework each night? Three? Four? The average American student spends spends 3-5 hours on homework every weekend and 2-3 hours on the weekdays. So how much homework is TO MUCH? Has homework just become a time consuming, stressful, and life monopolizing task? Everyone has those lovely memories of staying up late,watching the hours tick by, cramming as much information into your exhausted cranium as you can, and generally not truly containing or recalling any of it the next day.
In today's educational world students are spending an alarming amount of time on homework; and, according to some, it's way too much. With the current emphasis on state test scores, teachers everywhere are trying to do more in less time. This technique can result in an overabundance of homework outside of school. Critics say there is no evidence to suggest that homework is helpful to student achievement; on the contrary, too much can overwhelm students and cause them to disengage from their surroundings. Others, however, claim that homework is necessary and helpful, designed so students can practice the concepts taught in class, build good study habits, and reflect on their own learning. While I do understand the necessity of homework, I think that there should be some kind of limit to how much is given out.
Another damaging effect of this over assignment of homework issue is stress. While stress is now nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness, homework is now contributing to over half of teenage intrapersonal communinication levels. High stress teens are twice as likely as low stress teens to smoke, drink, get drunk and use illegal drugs. So now, not only is an overabundance of homework a stress risk, but it is also becoming a possibly fatal risk to students lives. With school stressing students out, they are twice as likely to turn to damaging avenues to relax and find release. Not only is drugs and alcohol a rising problem, but teen pregnancy is increased to shockingly high statistics...all related to stress.
Another negative side effect of excessive homework is the monopolizing of students interpersonal communication time out of school. Firstly, in this era most students have jobs after schools. This means that students are getting home at midnight, but instead of getting some much needed sleep, students are having to turn to piles of homework. Secondly, homework takes away a students much needed social peer interaction. Without time to relax and use the communication process, students are turning to less healthy means of distractions. Lastly, homework's is a huge aspect of today's students inability to give proper feedback to the people in their daily lives.
In short, homework's stressful, time consuming, and monopolizing patterns are dominating students time, raising health risks, and generally causing ONLY negative side effects. Truly, homework is just un-needed noise in students already stressful and busy lives. The few meager reasons that have been argued for the use of homework so not suffice to combat all of the negative outcomes of TOO MUCH HOMEWORK. To maintain a healthy balance in students lives, the issues of the overabundance of homework must be addressed.

Work Cited:
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/teens/a/blcasa030819.htm
http://www.xmediapartners.com/How_much_time_do_high_school_students_spend_on_doin_there_homework-qna32247.html
http://www.teenink.com/opinion/school_college/article/78584/Too-Much-Homework-Too-Little-Time/