I can concur that I went to a top tier high school and I had 6 - 10 hours of high school. It wasn't because I was dicking around or a slow worker either. The pressure is high for kids these days and you should consider yourself lucky that your kids aren't in these schools.
I tried to transfer out of this school using the insane amount of homework as my reason and the Board of Ed. said the same thing - "There's no way you have that much homework." They refused to let me swap out to a less stressful school because it was such a highly regarded school. They were just so out of touch of how this school and other schools operated in this day and age that they couldn't admit that schools were so much different than 20-40 years ago in their own times.
I guarantee if I had you balance 50 chemical reaction equations, do 20 math problems in a homework set, have to read a few chapters from a book, amongst other assignments all in one night, it would take you the same amount of time to complete and you would burn out just as quickly as I and so many other kids in our nation are. Getting like 4-6 hours of sleep as a high schooler for the sake of prestige was horrible.
I probably had a handful of days per year in high school with that much homework, and it was always because I let it pile up until the night before it was due.
The sad thing is that nobody cares about your education once you finish it. I have never been asked for my high school transcript except for when I applied to university. And I have never been asked for my university transcript ever.
I would think it varies from school to school. At the school I attended, it was definitely more of the norm than it was only a handful of days, unfortunately. Having to deal with the massive amounts of work was sort of a weird sadistic hazing at that school. The teachers knew what they were doing, but did it anyway because it would "over prepare kids for college".
Anyway, I agree it is a sad thing. I wish schools and society would place more of an emphasis on mental health of children.
"I guarantee if I had you balance 50 chemical reaction equations, do 20 math problems in a homework set"
Which is stupid because the last 30 equations and last 10 math problems are probably just repeating the same things you learned from the other problems.
I tried to transfer out of this school using the insane amount of homework as my reason and the Board of Ed. said the same thing - "There's no way you have that much homework." They refused to let me swap out to a less stressful school because it was such a highly regarded school. They were just so out of touch of how this school and other schools operated in this day and age that they couldn't admit that schools were so much different than 20-40 years ago in their own times.
I guarantee if I had you balance 50 chemical reaction equations, do 20 math problems in a homework set, have to read a few chapters from a book, amongst other assignments all in one night, it would take you the same amount of time to complete and you would burn out just as quickly as I and so many other kids in our nation are. Getting like 4-6 hours of sleep as a high schooler for the sake of prestige was horrible.