Schoolwork on paper is outright annoying. In 2026, we live in a world where devices occupy the majority of our time. Whether it’s your daily doomscroll session or even in school, devices fulfill an integral role in our lives as high school students. That’s why when I’m told that my long assignments must be completed on a piece of paper, I’m not enthusiastic. Teachers should at least try to cut back on the paperwork and give us more digital options to complete work.
I can recall multiple times in English where I was told to write entire essays on paper. If these assignments were shorter, I wouldn’t have a big problem with them, but writing that much on paper makes the process unnecessarily long.
Computers in classroom settings have become extremely commonplace in recent years. In an interview conducted by The Paw Print, Freshman teacher Alexander Munoz said, “I think [you can be] a little more productive online, because it’s easier to get work done and you can be more focused”. Coming from a teacher with experience with both physical and digital work, it’s clear to see that computers are just more capable of completing large amounts of work.
Some might bring up that, with how prevalent computers are, students would be inclined to start doing less than on-task things. This claim falls pretty flat. There shouldn’t be an excuse for this when teachers have such effective tools at their disposal like Securly, GoGuardian, and numerous other software that fulfill the role of
monitoring students’ online activity.
Extreme measures aren’t necessary to fix these problems. One solution would have teachers consider the workload at hand. With high-volume writing assignments that don’t require visual representations, students should be allowed to complete them using a keyboard. This might not apply to certain subjects like math, where visible scratch work is required. Educators could more frequently use software that allows for monitoring to negate concerns about off-task students and more strictly enforce policies concerning devices like phones. It’s really about time teachers realise that sometimes it’s okay to put the pencils down.
