Spending a bright, beautiful summer day indoors annotating a mandatory novel is not the ideal way most students want to spend their days off. But are the advantages and disadvantages of summer homework worth the amount of time spent?

“I don’t think summer homework helps me do better in school because it doesn’t really prepare you for what you’re going to learn. The only exception to that is summer reading, but that’s only because there’s an entire unit formed around the summer reading books,” Maya Wiley, junior, said.

When put in action, the task of completing summer homework over the course of the three months off is not an effective moving into the school year, according to Wiley.

“I think teachers assign summer homework because they think you need to do work during the summer,” Wiley said. “Realistically everybody just procrastinates the homework until at least the last week before school starts, so it neither helps or inhibits any summer learning.”

Evan Handeland, junior, who finds himself procrastinating, believes that check-ins throughout the summer can help solve this issue of time management.

“There should be some checkpoints on completion to meet during the summer because I have found myself procrastinating to the last minute to complete my summer homework and then rushing. That leads to me not actually understanding the content and in the long run, does not help me at all,” Handeland said.

Despite these shortcomings, Handeland feels that summer homework is actually an effective way for him to start of his new school year on the right foot.

“I think summer homework does help me do better in school because it gets my mind back into school mode after a break. I wouldn’t say any class in particular over does summer assignments and honestly teachers assign summer homework to get the students already thinking about the material so the learning process moves more efficiently,” Handeland said.

In terms of changing the curriculum for the future, Wiley feels that due to the ineffectiveness of summer homework, at the end of the day, it is not needed at all.

“During the school year we get so much homework that I think it’s okay to have a three-month break,” Wiley said. “The amount of homework students do each night during the school year added up probably equals the amount of time off for summer we have anyways.”