Have you ever wondered why your classmates or students show up to class without their homework done? Many students use excuses such as “I lost it”, “I didn’t know we had homework” or “I didn’t have time to complete it”. To see if their excuses are true or not, we interviewed two Ipswich High school students who tend to not do their homework, Ethan Gillis and Emily Hauenstein. To figure out what students really do after school. we didn’t ask them “why don’t you do your homework,” instead we asked them what kind of activities they do.  

After looking at the interviews they both have a lot in common. Both students interviewed tend to hang out with friends and get food a lot. Ethan tends to be out with friends a little more. They both have jobs but mostly only on the weekends.   

Emily plays two sports: Field Hockey in the fall and Lacrosse in the spring. This makes it very difficult for her to keep up with the school work and also balance a social life outside of school and sports. Starting as early as August, Emily is always playing field hockey with rigorous practices being 2-3 hours after school; there is very little room for free time and homework. This lack of free time doesn’t go away after the fall. Emily also plays lacrosse in the spring. Practices will occasionally go until there is no more sunlight left in the sky. This makes it extremely hard for athletes to have time for homework. When athletes come home from a long day of school and sports, the last thing they want to do is more school work. We asked Ethan and Emily if after sports and school were done, do you choose to do your homework or spend your small bit of free time doing other things? Our predictions were correct, both Emily and Ethan agreed homework is not the first thing they do when they get home from sports and school. Emily replied, “If the assignment is very important I will get it done later in the night, but when I get home from field hockey or lacrosse, I usually go on my phone or eat dinner.” This explains why many athletes lack homework as a priority. 

Ethan plays baseball for Ipswich and basketball with his friends. Ethan has many friends who live in different towns such as Gloucester, Middleton and Topsfield. It takes more time for Ethan to get to his friends because they live far away from Ipswich. Ethan also enjoys going to the gym with his friends after school. For Ethan, the gym and sports are his number one priority and sometimes these activities can take longer than just 2 hours; this leaves very little room for homework. When not at the gym or practicing his sports, Ethan hangs out with friends. He feels his social life and physical activity have many benefits to him.

He stated, “Why would I want to do homework when all my friends are spending time together?” With Ethan’s busy social life and desire to be fit, homework just isn’t a priority. Ethan told us he “would rather do anything but homework; it’s very rare for me to do homework.” He always comes to class with unfinished projects and blank homework with the excuse of “ I left my paper at home. I’ll bring it tomorrow.”

The overload of work outside of school is a challenge for some. Most kids don’t do their homework because their social lives out of school are more important to them. A lot of kids at Ipswich hangout with friends right after school and go out to eat; others have activities such as sports or jobs that go for multiple hours in the afternoon and night. Trying to balance school, work, sports, and a social life after 7 hours of school, makes it extremely difficult for students to fit in time for homework.