Harder classes, virtual learning, and a raging procrastination habit: arguably the worst ever combination for a high school student. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the fact that teachers are giving even more work online than they did in person… 

   I completely understand that switching to online learning has made it harder for teachers to verify if students are keeping up with their studies, since we’re not doing face to face learning. In a regular classroom setting, it’s much easier for teachers and students to interact and communicate.

   However, there’s no reason for this big of an increase in schoolwork. What’s the reasoning behind it, exactly? 

  Students already have hundreds of other things that are occupying their minds, taking up their time, and causing stress; that’s true for pretty much every human being on earth right now, including me. But on top of that, some may even have stressful or toxic home environments and/or family responsibilities and obligations, among other things. 

   Many times, I also feel as if teachers simply assign extra work just to make sure we keep ourselves busy or to keep us from laying around the house all day doing nothing. But what they don’t understand is that if all six of my teachers think this way, then the amount of extra work we get is even larger. 

   And yes, the increase in schoolwork has definitely been taking a toll on me. I haven’t been getting enough sleep during the week, and I feel exhausted throughout the entire day. My work schedule has also been influenced by my sleeping habits; now, my brain and body cannot get any work done until it’s dark outside. This, combined with my perpetual procrastination habit, has led to me rushing on all of my assignments and not being able to fully show my teachers my capabilities. It gets even worse when you add on the fact that all of the assignments are due at 11:59pm.

   I know this is basically what I signed up for when I decided to take on more challenging classes with heavier workloads. But I still think teachers should be sensitive to the fact that we have a lot of things on our plate despite being at home, as there’s a line between being genuinely concerned for our learning and being unnecessarily hard on us, which many of them are crossing.