Dallastown Wildcats have a lot to do on their plate, but if they have one more thing to take up their time, they’ll vomit it back up. And they’re already overworked if they do a sport and have a job.
Sleep and school are at least two musts in a student’s life. However, most people have far more to fit into their lives, such as sports, work, and hanging out with friends. How does balancing all this look for different students?
Junior Chris Breault agrees and doesn’t even do a fall sport. Throughout the weekdays, he wakes up at 6 a.m., goes to school, comes home to bike and workout, and has a relatively easy day.
On the weekends, however, he has minimal time. He says he works “9-hour shifts each,” all without a driver’s license. He goes as far as to say he works as much as “17-27 hours a week, I didn’t even think that was legal.”
How did we get to a point where students like Breault are this overwhelmed?
Dallastown High School begins classes at 7:35 a.m. and ends at 2:50 p.m. It takes up a third of the day, with another third going to sleep. The final third can go to hanging out or homework, but either has sufficient time.
For student-athletes, their day would start the same way. However, after school, they would have practice from 3-5 p.m. This would leave them about five hours of free time, give or take. We’ll assume they use one hour for showering, driving home, and eating dinner.
If you work a three-hour shift after a sport, the average shift length for teenagers, you could have two hours of free time before you would have to go to bed to get sufficient sleep.
Homework, however, hasn’t been dragged into the equation. The National Education Association says “Ten minutes of homework per grade level is sufficient.” Using this logic, a freshman would have at least an hour and a half of homework, and a senior would have two hours.
When asked how cramped their schedule was, almost 90% of Dallastown students said that on a scale of 1-5, they were at a four or five.
There’s an issue with student overload.
Senior Conner Fegely, a player on the football team, has a tighter schedule then most.
“After school, I have football for about 3 hours, and then right after football, I work for about 4 1/2 hours. 11 PM is my first time coming back home since the morning,” he said.
This is a clear issue, considering that if Fegely were to have homework, it’s not far-fetched to say he wouldn’t be able to rest until one to two in the morning.
What is the solution to the cramped schedules?
There is not a famine of options. A simple Google search shows a multitude of scheduling tools, from colleges to Google itself. An organized schedule is the key to success.
Utilizing Wildcat periods is also helpful, if you have the time to do homework, you can save a lot of time by doing it at the end of the school day.
Unfortunately, dropping some activities may also be necessary. If you, like Adrian Brandt, “have no time to breathe” then you may have to drop a club or a non-essential activity.
This does not mean one should quit hobbies, but if something is overwhelming their well-being, it might not be the best use of time.
Ultimately, it’s clear that students have too much on their plate. Something must change, whether the student workload or how they handle it.
It depends on the person, but according to Dallastown assistant principal Dr. Chad Bumsted, “You will never be successful if you don’t find a way to remain organized and productive.”
