When the members of my family go out to dinner, I can’t join them. When my sister asks me if I want to watch a movie, I have to say “no.”

When Tino personally invites me (or doesn’t) to the StreetFam Jumpoff at Club Diamond, I have to respectfully decline.

Last Friday, I left school at 1:30 P.M. to play in a college showcase soccer game in Tukwila, after which I raced to Issaquah to perform in a violin master class. Only when I took exit 17 did I realize that I had forgotten my violin at school. After calling my violin teacher to apologize, I drove home and fell asleep crying into my pillow; I also missed that party.

Regrettably, there are only so many hours in a day, and I am spending too many of them completing homework assignments.

As a junior at Garfield, I am experiencing [some of] the negative effects of homework: frustration and exhaustion, a lack of time for other activities, and conflict at home.

Daily exhaustion and inadequate free time are the most pressing issues that I am facing. To beat the morning bell, I wake up at 6:30 A.M.; so, to get the nine or so hours of sleep recommended for teenagers, I would have to go to sleep at 9:30 P.M. the night before. My heavy homework load, however, combined with the jumble of extracurricular activities that I am passionately committed to, makes a 9:30 bedtime a virtual impossibility. On a typical weeknight, I finish my homework at about 12:00 A.M.

The more recent symptom that I have been facing is conflict at home. My parents are frustrated with my general lack of participation in family life, and insist I am overcommitted and overextended. I’m making a serious effort to change the status quo, but it is difficult to find time when it is all sapped by homework.

So now you know: My life is out of balance. But the reality is that it doesn’t have to be; I would thrive on less, more meaningful, homework.

Too often, homework is assigned thoughtlessly or out of habit; a mistake not solely of individual teachers, but also of the high school default in America. Seattle School District policy, like that of most school districts across the country, says “It is the responsibility of the teacher to assign homework on a regular basis.”

Yet, I believe it is crucial that we, the teachers, the students, and the parents, approach homework critically: rethinking what is assigned, under what conditions, and why. We must not allow the importance of expected homework assignments to surpass that of thoughtful instruction.

To think about homework critically, we must first understand what the research is telling us: that the positive effects of homework are largely mythical.

While certain assignments can be beneficial, such as daily reading and math, no correlation has ever been convincingly demonstrated between homework and academic achievement. In fact, students that attend schools that don’t assign homework flourish. Relieved of the pressures of conventional homework, these students also avoid a common negative symptom of homework: academic disinterest.

We must acknowledge and understand the potential negative effects of homework.

What is most curious about homework is that it is, in reality, counterproductive. Every time a student receives a photocopied, prefabricated “busy work” worksheet, that student becomes less likely to develop an interest in becoming a life-long learner.

Negative effects are apparent and well-established: exhaustion, a lack of time for other activities, and familial conflict.

We must accept that the negative effects of homework outweigh the positive effects. Then we can change the default.

Students shouldn’t be taking home an assignment unless there is reasonable likelihood that the assignment will benefit a majority of the students in the class. No more photocopied worksheets, assignments that are checked for completion, or assignments that fail to add value to work done in the classroom.

Furthermore, the amount of homework that is assigned to students should be drastically decreased, allowing us students to invest time in activities that are truly valuable to our greater education, such as learning and playing instruments, playing team sports, or committing to clubs.

Teachers that are reluctant to rethink their long-standing reliance on traditional homework will have to take a first step: Might I suggest experimentally teaching a one or two-week unit without homework.

Parents will also have to remain open minded, recognizing that if teachers don’t assign homework, it isn’t [necessarily] because they aren’t dedicated to teaching.

I’m not foolish; I realize that the abolition of homework is as unlikely as me actually getting personally invited to a StreetFam party. But with less homework, all of our lives could be more balanced.