It’s early June. The sun is finally shining through the clouds, the temperature is rising and summer feels near, but many students at Lexington High School still find themselves stuck indoors, buried under piles of homework. With AP exams just over and final exams looming ahead, student burnout is at its peak. After months of juggling extracurriculars, standardized tests, and nearly a whole year of school, students may feel as though the final stretch is a marathon with no finish line. As the pressure mounts, it is imperative that teachers ease up during this time, adapting to students’ needs.

Student burnout is a pervasive issue that is especially prevalent at Lexington High School, and it is also one that teachers are increasingly recognizing. 

“Because of all these other external expectations of what [students] are expected to do with their time and what’s expected to be on their transcript… I sympathize truly with student burnout. Because they are so stressed, it’s causing these conflicts in the classroom and obstacles to learning,” Ian McWilliams, an English teacher, said.

Students echo these sentiments, revealing the effects of burnout on morale and academic motivation.

“I feel that the latter part of the year took a huge toll on me in terms of homework, as well as the poor weather here. Those, along with studying for APs around that time, really took control of my energy and left me unmotivated to do schoolwork,” Simrith Gaddam, a sophomore, said.

However, recognizing burnout is only one part of the solution. For teachers, lightening the academic load isn’t as simple as it sounds when balancing curriculum requirements with student well-being. 

“It’s that we’re not just acting out of obligation, [but] that we have to teach you. We want to teach you. Last year, I feel I taught only 50% of what I wanted to,” McWilliams said.

Still, some teachers are finding a critical middle ground by adjusting expectations based on student needs. They emphasize that, in learning, the quality of work outweighs its quantity. 

“If a student can show that they have mastered a particular thinking skill, I don’t think we need to overload them with sixteen more assignments,” Matthew Linden, a history teacher, said.

Students also have a role to play in ensuring a healthy school-life balance. Sometimes, it’s necessary to prioritize certain assignments over others, which students must communicate so teachers can establish realistic expectations. 

“I feel like the expectations need to be what is best for the students. For example, if you know that you have a really hard class, and you really have to pull through for that, then it’s okay to focus your energy there,” Gaddam said.

After all, teachers must understand the limits of what students can accomplish daily in order for students to learn without sacrificing their health. 

 “We often make decisions about how much we take on by thinking about what we can accomplish on our best day; it might make more sense to plan for what we could handle on an average day—or even on our toughest days,” Linden said.  

Ultimately, teachers and students must agree that prioritization is essential, and teachers should accept that they must ease up as much as they can while not giving up on learning. 

“You can’t do everything. And that’s okay. Just choose what matters most—and own those choices,” McWilliams said.