Recent talk among the student body at McQuaid Jesuit indicates some students are overwhelmed with the amount of homework they are receiving each night. However preliminary research has revealed quite the opposite.

High schoolers from different grade levels might actually be fabricating the amount of homework they are receiving to stir up controversy between students and teachers. A school-wide poll that asked students from all grade levels their free time versus their homework time each night has revealed that free time is outweighing homework five to two.

Junior Tyler Johnston said, “I actually have less homework this year than I did previous years at McQuaid.” It seems that during one-on-one interviews with students, the majority agree that homework is not getting in the way of their free time.

The question then becomes, why are students from varying grade levels saying among each other that homework is taking most of their free time. Junior Ian Mills gave some insight, “They would rather blame something they don’t like for taking up their free time, such as homework, rather than blaming something they do, such as sports which is obviously the better reason for no free time.” This seems to be the more rational reason behind all the complaints that have been circulating.

This interpretation of why students seem to have no free time clearly does not go for all students. It seems that limited free time is due to struggling students who need to spend more time on homework each night as well as advanced students who have extra homework due to advanced classes. However, it is safe to say that a majority of students do not necessarily have such limited free time due to homework, it appears to be due to other extracurricular activities.