Wake up, eat, go to school, do extracurriculars, go home, eat, do homework, sleep. For most students, this is a typical school day. This type of schedule forces students to spend the majority of their day doing work, whether it be in school or sitting at home.

As a result of late nights doing work, many students complain about a lack of sleep.

“If I had less of a workload, I could definitely get more sleep,” said senior Omer Sander.

According to Science Curriculum Coordinator Ed Wiser, the amount of work that a student receives depends on the student himself.

“We know they have other classes and we only see them four times a week. If you multiply it out, the amount of homework a teacher gives you depends on the student,” said Wiser. “There is always going to be a lot of work to do.”

Wiser also thinks that the current system of how high schools are run is flawed.

“High school needs to be more like the ideal college experience, allowing you to pursue your passions,” said Wiser. “I don’t know what the ideal high school experience is, but it should be the same as colleges.”

Wiser added that unfortunately, that is not what colleges are looking for in their applicants.

Whether a student takes standard, honors or Advance Placement courses affects the workload that they receive. Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator Gary Shiffman feels that another major factor to the workload is the culture of the town of Brookline.

“All families in Brookline are concerned with how their kids are going to do. The community has a high baseline for high academic achievement, making the course expectations high,” said Shiffman. “It’s very hard to modulate and filter expectations. This is a place where we expect people to go out and change society.”

Students and teachers have different perceptions of how much work teachers actually give out.

English teacher Peter Sedlak expects that most students have 2.5 hours of homework every night.

Most students reported a higher amount than Sedlak estimated.

Senior Sukhmani Singh and junior Yarden Garonzik both estimated that they have at least three hours of homework a night.

“It takes more time when I am studying for tests,” said Garonzik.

English teacher Eric Colburn feels that students should not be receiving as much of a workload as they currently have.

“I think students should be doing about two hours of homework a night because it would be a reasonable amount for me,” said Colburn. “Many students have so much homework that it is almost impossible to do all of it and still have a normal life outside of school. I think it’s a real problem. We’ve set them an impossible task.”

While an ideal scenario would entail students receiving the same amount of homework in every course, Shiffman says that it would be implausible, since streamlining workload would actually be detrimental to students.

“In order to guarantee a reasonable workload,” said Shiffman, “we would need to take away freedoms from students.”

According to Shiffman, by reducing the workload, the administration would have to tighten policies for students, thus creating a less independent environment for students.

In addition, Wiser added that students need to find a subject that they are passionate about rather than taking the most work intensive schedule possible.

“The college industry’s bubble is going to burst soon,” said Wiser. “It’s just not possible for the schools to be this selective for students and force them to take all the hardest classes possible.”

When discussing how students can limit the amount of work that they have on a nightly basis, Shiffman and Wiser offered similar solutions: students should take a hard look at their courses and ask themselves whether they are passionate about them and if they are in the right level.

Teachers wonder whether the problem is the amount of work or whether the elongated time is a result of distractions.

“My reaction to those students who do that much work a night is ‘How many distractions you have when you’re doing your work?’ ” said Sedlak. “ ‘Do you have Facebook on in the background while you’re texting your friends?’ ”

Wiser believes that these distractions are inevitable and that they are just a part of life.

Sedlak said that there is a major disparity between natural distractions, such as sounds and your atmosphere, and the distractions you create for yourself, such as Facebook and texting.

To the students who feel that they need to take all of the most rigorous courses possible, Shiffman offered some advice.

“The most stressed out students are ones who think narrowly about what success is,” said Shiffman. “You can have a successful career and not go to Yale or Princeton.”