Something that has always been a problem is copying homework answers, especially in Bethpage. Many teachers have seen and complained about their students copying homework answers. In order to finish homework for a class later in the day, attention in an earlier class is lost to ensure a high grade. Students remain unable to finish their homework at home, creating the need for a quick alternative through copying.

The standard homework time in the United States is determined by the 10 minute rule. According to this rule, the hours of homework given each night should equal the grade of the students times 10. Many students’ amount of homework does not follow this standard though, with a wide range of teachers giving no homework to hours of it. With hours of homework, the inability to finish it all becomes understandable, but with only small amounts of homework, how are some students still unable to finish?

We started off by asking junior Julia Baumbach if she copies homework and if so why, she answered, “I do because I am too busy afterschool to do it with cheer, dance and drivers ed.” We then proceeded to ask how much homework do you get a night, and she claimed to have “thirty minutes to an hour” of it. 

After asking senior Joy Kim whether she copied homework she replied “no,” while also believing that homework does reinforce what is learned in school having “to do many calc[ulus] problems to understand what was going on and to be prepared for tests.”

A junior, Aashka Shah said, “[she doesn’t] copy homework” having “about 1.5 hours” every night, but she does find the information covered “repetitive” making it more difficult to finish. 

Aashka wasn’t the only one to think this way, with another junior, Rukshana Tobben, believing most of homework to be “busywork” and due to having a significant amount of “3 hours” each night she easily becomes “distracted” when trying to finish.

As you can see, Bethpage students receive a variety of different amounts of homework as well as many factors that contribute to whether or not they copy homework. Do you think there should be less homework?