The Associated Student Body Club (ASBC) plans to submit a proposal to the Head of School Ron Kim, requesting a homework reduction for honors classes. On Wednesday, January 25, The Bishop’s School’s faculty received an unexpected email announcing that the ASBC had received approval from advisors, Associate Head of School Michael Beamer, and Dean of Students Michelle Shea, to submit the proposed bill. 

ASBC proposes to modify “the homework average of the Curriculum Guide so that Honors and Advanced Honors classes have seventy minutes per night (four hours and forty minutes of homework per cycle).” Currently, the Curriculum Guide states, “upper school guidelines specify an average of up to 45 minutes per class meeting (three hours per cycle); honors and advanced honors classes specify an average of up to 90 minutes (six hours per cycle).”

11th grade ASBC representatives Jessica “Jess” Luo (‘24) and Serena Zhang (‘24) initially drafted the bill. Jess said that her and Serena “were thinking about wellness and how the school is trying to be focused on wellness and well-being, even having an enrichment block dedicated to it.” Jess continued on, stating, “That’s what the school says they are focused on, but are they really focused on that when people are struggling with the amount of homework they have, especially how long it takes?” 

With each regular class period being 70 minutes long, Jess believes that it is “a little outrageous” that students who opt to take advanced and honors courses could spend more time doing homework than they are in that class. 

Honors Spanish 4 teacher Sra. Julieta Torres-Worstell explained, “I’m constantly asking my students if [the assignment] is too long. It’s hard for me to gauge how long something is going to take [students].” Despite this, Sra. Torres-Worstell understands that the Spanish courses might not assign as much homework as other classes. However, she believes that it is hard to quantify a certain number for each class.

With the bill on its way, Jess, Serena, and ASBC are eager for Mr. Kim’s response, which is “coming soon,” according to Jess.