The Latest from VEA

By Bruce Ingram

Last November, The New York Times published an article headlined “School Daze,” focusing on the stress that many young people experience at school. The article, written by Jia Lynn Yang, noted, “Almost 32 percent of adolescents have at some point been given a diagnosis of anxiety. More than one in ten have experienced a major depressive disorder.”

Concerned about those numbers, I asked my Creative Writing I-IV students at Lord Botetourt HS to write about what stresses them. These are very successful freshmen through seniors who regularly attain honor roll status; yet they experience numerous pressures…more than I was aware of.

For example, a junior female wrote this:

“A lot of the stress that comes from school comes not from school itself, but from the expectations schools place on children to do more outside of class. Now, simply making good grades isn’t enough. In addition, students also need to participate in a substantial number of extracurricular activities outside of school, and these extracurricular activities must pertain to their intended college major. This means I can’t even focus on dance or the things I would like to do, and instead have to devote my free time to activities I have little interest in.”

From a sophomore female:

“The term ‘stress’ has burdened me for some years. I ascribe the severity of my stress to my middle school. In eighth grade, multiple students took advanced classes, just as they had in past years. That year, we handled advanced English, Spanish, STEM, and sophomore math in half the school day. This ruined me. Nowadays, I’m still learning to handle my anxiety.”

A junior male penned this:

“I have a procrastination problem. I work just fine in the classroom, but that’s because I know that when I get home, I’ll lose the ability to do my schoolwork entirely. I just can’t focus, no matter what I try. I’ve tried turning off the phone, I’ve tried going somewhere quiet, I’ve begged my parents for medication, but nothing works. I’m beaten into the ground with assignments but given no time or proper place to do them.”

From a sophomore female:

“The social anxiety and awkwardness caused by school is horrendous, especially with how immature and rude my peers can be. I’ve never been bullied continually, but some statements classmates have made stick with me years later. ‘Makeup isn’t gonna fix that,’ a boy stated as I applied lip gloss while I stood at my locker in eighth grade. I went back to English class crying. The lack of empathy and social awareness young people have is quite frankly concerning and that’s what makes me stressed at school.”

From a freshman female:

“A lot of us are trying to do extracurricular activities, but the things we want to do ‘don’t matter,’ because those things won’t get you into college. None of us can be who we want to be, because someone decided that there was such a thing as a ‘perfect’ child.’”

A sophomore female shared this:

“Most of my stress derives from myself and my parents. When I first started middle school, I had no idea how to handle my workload. Now that I think about it, it was not an unmanageable workload. I had just never managed one myself. I learned that I was a procrastinator and often had to force myself, and sometimes had others force me, to focus on my work. I found that if I procrastinate less, I’m less stressed.”

A freshman female wrote this:

“Some teachers just aren’t empathetic enough to students who are struggling. They only think about their courses, not whatever else the students have going on outside of that class. Not many teachers take into consideration the work students receive from other classes or the things they have going on at home and outside of school. For students, there’s a fine line between completing work and being overwhelmed.”

Last, from a senior male.

“My sister’s a lawyer; my brother attained a 4.3 GPA. My mother has never failed to notice a point off an assignment. My junior year was especially strenuous; I took all college classes, and every single assignment, homework, or test felt like it was the difference maker of whether I was allowed to be happy for the day, or even the week.”

Perhaps, the solution is for students, parents, and teachers to do a better job of listening to each other?

Bruce Ingram (bruceingramoutdoors@gmail.com), a member of the Botetourt Education Association and a veteran educator, teaches English and Creative Writing at Lord Botetourt High School. He’s also the author of more than 2,800 magazine articles and 11 books.