The vast majority of college-level courses involve two large, overarching assessments at the halfway point and the end: midterms and finals. For any high school student planning to attend college, gaining experience in taking midterms and finals is a crucial part of their preparation for the next level of education. This preparation at the high school level--to help students develop the skills they need to have future success in taking college midterms and exams--is really two-fold. Naturally, high school midterms and exams provide opportunities for academic preparation, but they can also be a sort of emotional preparation for students as well. 

Homework.

Those assignments, questions, problems, projects, papers that teachers give to students to complete outside of regular classroom time.

It seems to be part and parcel of the formal schooling experience. Students have homework. That's just the way school "works." 

Yet, in spite of its seeming simplicity and central place within education, homework is quite a controversial issue. It has strong proponents and fierce opponents among administrators, teachers, parents, and students at all levels of education. 

In the past two years, I came across a disease that I’d never heard of but almost immediately knew I was suffering from. I looked at the list of symptoms for this disease and quickly diagnosed myself. Behavior characterized by continually rushing and feeling anxious, always feeling short of time, being flustered when encountering (even minor) delays—I most certainly came down with what has risen to become an underlying norm that pervades our culture: hurry sickness.