4 ms·
Not being a parent, I don't know what it's like now, but high school was by far the busiest and most stressful time in my life. I saw an average of 2-3 hours o
by thedufer 11y ago
Not being a parent, I don't know what it's like now, but high school was by far the busiest and most stressful time in my life. I saw an average of 2-3 hours of homework per night, after 1.5 hours commuting, 8 hours at school, and 2-3 hours at sports practice. On an average day, that leaves an hour for breakfast/dinner and 8.5 hours for sleep; multiple nights in a row of 4-5 hours of sleep and no other breaks were not unusual.
College is completely different. You spend something like 15 hours in classes instead of 35-40; of course you get homework.
- Kalium 11y agoIf only there was something in there that could be easily cut and is significantly less important than homework...
- kha 11y agoI agree, sleep is overrated.
- Kalium 11y agoExactly! Get that caffeine addiction going early. It's good practice for when you're in YCombinator later trying to develop your hyper-bacon-geo-social-game.
- JadeNB 11y agoAssuming you mean the sports practice: I also personally value homework more than sports practice, but it seems callous and self-centred to assume that our own preferences are automatically right for others.
- Kalium 11y agoBroadly, I think there's a price to be paid for any given life choice. You don't get to have it all for free. In this case, the person chose to pay in sleep. I'm suggesting that they had other options on offer. Yes, I understand it can seem callous. In this case, I honestly believe that my preferences are superior in the vast majority of instances (although demonstrably not all).
- thedufer 11y agoFWIW, sports was not actually my choice. My parents saw it as very important (and they had to pick me up from school after practice every day, so they thought it was worth 1.5 hours of their time in addition to my time). Not that dropping sports typically helped, based on other students. I was really paying for sports with my GPA; people who didn't play sports typically had better grades and about the same amount of sleep (the 2-3 hour average was pure homework; I didn't learn to study until college, largely because there simply wasn't time).
- riot504 11y agoSports teach kids about teamwork, working together, and how hard work pays off. I have found more use from what I learned in sports than any homework assignment.
- gk_brown 11y agoAnd yet, most of the population won't end up making a living from their sporting accomplishments. However, they will get a job based on what they learned (or didn't learn) in school.
- JshWright 11y agoYou think there is no value in participating in sports outside of the direct results of "sporting accomplishments"?
- riot504 11y agoDid you not read what I wrote? The skill-set you need to succeed in the business world directly correlate with those in the sports. Homework assignments do not teach this.
- nosuchthing 11y agoSports and athletic activities provide experiences, self awareness, entertainment, and teamwork lessons that are incredibly useful beyond academic or (pro-sports) career-centric pursuits. Athletic activities are experiences in their own right, that can be appreciated in and of the act and experience of the moment itself, rather than the assumption that all things must be a task so in order to establish some future goal.
- hugh4 11y agoSure, commuting, but it's not always practical to move closer to school.