It’s a recurring conversational topic here at West: homework. Whether it be hallway snippets of the student body discussing how much homework they got, or even rants about how someone didn’t get the lesson and is worried about failing that big exam coming up. Are students getting just the right amount of homework? Or, are they getting so much they are buckling under the weight of stress?

In the opinion of many students, the classes are moderately difficult. It is commonly stated that students get little to no homework. John Destefano is a Sophomore, currently taking honors classes.

“There’s a higher workload,” says Destefano. “We learn more advanced topics.”

Destefano gets home and says the work doesn’t stop. “I go home and do homework and chores, then I go outside and work.” The work is challenging. Destefano claims he is assigned one to two worksheets per night.

In observation, Freshman and Senior classes are not as challenging as Junior and Sophomore classes. Seniors may occasionally leave school early, and they also often take less challenging classes. Lesley Dominguez is a Senior finishing up her last year here at West. She takes honors classes and stays for the last period of the day.

“I don’t get much homework.” said Dominguez. She said that in Sophomore and Junior year she got a significantly greater amount of work.

Dominguez expressed that she gets a very good amount of sleep. She says she goes home, takes a nap and does personal activities until she decides to go to bed.

With hardly any homework, her workload is extremely lax.

It is a common trend for students to either get a very heavy amount of homework, or not enough. Some teachers assign no homework. Others assign homework every night. It is a shared belief that West should get less homework. The proposition raised is perhaps homework should be assigned as needed: for example, when a class is struggling to understand a topic.

“Homework is basically review,” said Dominguez. “If the students need more homework, the teacher will know. That is when homework should get assigned.”