Maine Students Have The 2nd Highest Amount of Homework in The Country

Nightly Struggle

I'm no teacher so I'm sure there are benefits that I'm unaware of, but homework always rubbed me the wrong way. So much so, that I wrote an entire essay on the topic in 8th grade.

My overall point was that kids have school for at least 6 hours a day. They're also encouraged to spend at least an hour a day outside playing, are told that family dinnertime is important, as well as getting a full 8+ hours of sleep. All that plus extracurriculars, it's no wonder that according to the American Psychological Association that 31% of teens report feeling overwhelmed and 30% report feeling depressed or sad due to stress. Stress is often compounded by basic needs like sleeping, eating, and exercise not being met. Things that are oftentimes eaten up by homework.

How Much is Too Much?

According to PlaygroundEquipment.com Maine ranks #2 in the country for most homework for elementary and middle school students with 55.7 minutes a day. For high schoolers, this number jumps to 107.2 minutes.

While the #2 ranking feels daunting it's close to being on-target for many as the recommendation from The National Education Association is that students get 10 minutes of homework per grade level each night. So that means a 6th grader should get an hour and a senior 120 minutes.

Nearby New Hampshire students don't even rank in the top 20 for most homework for elementary and middle schoolers and rank at #15 for high schoolers with 84 minutes of work.

So, do you think our kids have too much homework? Too little? Sound off via our app!

Get our free mobile app

PlaygroundEquipment.com