As Seabury Hall is a college preparatory school, insights concerning the homework load tend to vary amongst students and faculty.
Mrs. Gerken, an English teacher at Seabury Hall, is a firm believer that the workload she offers her students is manageable.
“[For] English yes, I think we try not to assign much outside work knowing that other courses may require more daily activities to be done, [so] we try to be respectful of all that we have to,” said Mrs. Gerken.
Mrs. Gerken has been an English teacher at Seabury since 2020 and has heard her fair share of complaints concerning the workload from her students.
“It is human condition, unfortunately, to complain, but I feel like once humans can be reminded of the situation they are in, they can be humbled into realizing [what] the situation [is in retrospect].”
Despite the occasional complaints Mrs. Gerken receives about the workload, she reasons that there are things students can do to remedy the stress of their work.
“I would say, come to extra help, so many students don’t,” she said. “Honestly and truly, teachers are here to support you, if it’s too much we need to understand why. Really talk to the teacher, that can solve a lot of problems.”
Extra help is an opportunity all teachers have to offer. Every teacher stays after school each school day from 3:00-3:30 pm which gives students the chance to come in and ask them questions concerning assignments or homework.
Isabelle (Izzy) Brown, a junior at Seabury, shares similar views on the workload as her English teacher, Mrs. Gerken.
“I feel like it is pretty manageable but I feel like we should have less homework over breaks. [For example], I have an English presentation, a physics packet, and a math packet to do all over break,” said Izzy.
Izzy also mentioned that some students may complain about their workload because they don’t stay on top of their work. For these kids who are struggling, Izzy thinks that teachers should give more time in class for work.
“I think [teachers] can offer more time in class to help with homework because a lot of kids don’t have time to go to extra help because [most of them] have sports [after school].”
Despite this suggestion Izzy offers, both the faculty members and students at Seabury can come to the consensus that the workload is manageable in retrospect.
