Between seven hours of school, extracurriculars, and a mountain of homework, the modern student’s schedule looks less like a teenager’s and more like a college student’s or full time employee’s. This raises the pressing question. Do we as students have enough free time?

Balancing academics with athletics, clubs and personal responsibilities can be overwhelming. Some students believe there is not enough time in the day to rest and reset.

“I think our school does a good job balancing class time. There are moments in class where we can work on assignments, review what we just learned, or get extra help if we need it. Even when lessons are longer, we still have time to practice and understand the material better,” said senior Bella Redie.

With packed schedules, stress levels can rise quickly. The pressure to perform well in the classroom while staying committed to extracurricular activities can take a toll on students’ mental health and raise stress.

“Too much homework combined with many extracurricular activities can increase students’ stress and hurt their mental health. Activities and social time are important, but when schedules get overloaded students can feel overwhelmed and lose sleep,” said junior Harley Cameron.

If offered more free time would students take advantage of it in a productive way or turn to wasting more time out of their days?

“I think if students had more free time it would be too big of a generalization to say everyone would use it wisely or not. I think it would be split in half,” said junior Josh Raj. “Some students need a mental break and others just need to chill.”

Overall, while free time must be balanced with responsibility, giving students slightly more breathing room could improve both mental health and help them enjoy their youth more. A solution to this growing question might be providing all students, regardless of class, a study hall throughout the day to help students catch up on classwork.

“I believe that having more free time would improve academic performance for a couple reasons. First off, you have more time to study. The more time you have to study, the more you understand what you are learning. Secondly, you have more time for rest and reset,” said senior Cooper Kelsh. “Time with my friends and time by myself always gets me in a better mindset to take on whatever I have going on later that week. Even though being busy can improve initiative, I think the pros of having more free time out weigh it.”