Full Schedules
Even those students who have not experienced an increased homework load may experience stress due to overscheduling and overstimulation, according to Tom Loveless of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Loveless shares that full schedules can stress a child’s brain and impair her ability to learn. While a teacher or parent may want to help a child succeed by planning, for example, various worksheets, projects and extracurricular activities, a child’s brain benefits from “boredom,” or free time, because it allows her to figure out and develop her talents and identity. In the "CQ Researcher" publication, family therapist Michael Gurian suggests allowing a child to be “bored” for one hour a day.