As ninth grade students at Harvard-Westlake, our lives are hectic. We juggle school, sports, extracurricular activities, sleep, family and a social life. At times, it feels like we’re buried under a mountain of schoolwork and that our teachers don’t fully understand what we’re going through.
To explore this disconnect, I conducted a survey asking students how much time they spend on various activities during a typical weekday. I also asked teachers to estimate how much time they believe students spend on the same activities. The results were eye-opening.
Over the course of a month, the survey gathered responses from two-thirds of the ninth grade class. A similar version was sent to teachers at the middle school campus, with about one-fifth responding. Both surveys covered categories such as sleep, extracurricular activities, homework, sports, social media and transit.
The key finding is that teachers often assume students have more free time than they actually do.
When it comes to homework and transit, teachers’ estimates closely matched student-reported averages: 2.8 hours for homework and 2.3 hours for transit. But beyond those categories, the gaps became more noticeable.
Teachers estimated that students sleep an average of six hours a night, while students reported sleeping closer to seven. Teachers also overestimated how much time students spend on sports and extracurricular activities by about an hour in each category.
The most surprising difference was in social media use. Teachers believed students spend four hours per day on social media, but students reported only two hours—a full 50 percent less.
This highlights a core misconception: Teachers seem to think we have more time and energy than we actually do. They may underestimate how draining a full school day can be and how essential rest and recovery are afterward.
In the end, while many teachers have a decent understanding of what students go through during the school day, they might not fully grasp the mental and emotional load we carry outside the classroom. In my opinion, the best way to bridge this disconnect is through self-advocacy. Teachers can’t know what they don’t know unless someone tells them. Fortunately, many of our teachers have deep empathy and compassion. If you’re facing time constraints or challenges at home, they will likely be understanding—but only if they’re aware of what’s going on. It’s when you try to push through everything in silence, becoming a martyr to your own life, that the burden becomes even heavier.
Of course, every student’s schedule and circumstances are different, and this survey offers just one snapshot. But one thing is clear: we’re all balancing a lot. It’s important to acknowledge that—and to take care of ourselves and each other along the way.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into the data, you can view the full results here: Results
* The comparisons made in this article use only the mean numbers of the data collected, which represent the average. It will not perfectly reflect every student’s experience, nor every teacher’s opinion.
