Arrowhead Students Juggle Jobs with Homework

Arrowhead students began school on September fifth. Many students are now needing to balance their jobs with their schoolwork.

Now, after the second week of school, homework and other projects are piling up, and students find themselves weighed down by their responsibilities.

Arrowhead junior Abby Rupnow says she works every day, excluding the days she has a sports game, at Bubba’s Frozen Custard.

“I work about forty-five hours a week, and I work about five hours a night on school nights and eight hours a night on the weekend,” says Rupnow.

On top of that, she says she participates in both sports and clubs after school. Rupnow says she doesn’t have time to do her homework, of which she has plenty, until late at night.

“I get a lot of homework every night, because I’m in AP classes and a speech class, so I have a lot of notes and I have to write speeches every other day. So I’d say I get two to two and a half hours [of homework each night],” says Rupnow.

Rupnow finds herself needing to stay up as late as two in the morning to complete all her work, so she doesn’t get the sleep she needs to focus well in school.

But Rupnow says she doesn’t want to quit her job, despite her struggles.

Arrowhead math teacher Mark Leoni says, “I give homework four of the five days in a typical five day school week. I would expect that students spend between twenty to thirty minutes on homework in my class. I don’t think the amount of homework I give in unreasonable and most students I talk with tend to finish the math homework during free periods throughout the day.”

If a student were to get thirty minutes of homework in all eight of their classes, they would have four hours of homework to do. A student like Rupnow doesn’t have the time to do that much homework without digging into their sleep or work schedule.

Homework can be finished during study halls, but for students like Rupnow, who only have one study hall every day, it isn’t always possible.

Staying on task is the big secret for some students, but others who are very focused can still find themselves struggling.

“[My] biggest suggestion [for students] is to learn time management,” says Leoni.

Leoni says that understanding your limits and not overworking can help reduce stress, even if that means working less often or joining less clubs after school.

Another option that Leoni suggests is to look into finding a weekend-only job. Or, if desperation hits, it may be best to choose either between a job or extracurriculars.

“Either way, co-curricular teams or a job both teach time management and organization which are valuable assets to have when eventually the student moves into real life, away from parents,” says Leoni.