By Heather Beedle
Stress and anxiety are some of the leading factors to why a lot of students struggle in school today.
Sophomore Jessie Pantani says “With the amount of homework I get each night, plus being an athlete it’s a lot to take in.”
According to The New York Times, stress makes us students prone to tunnel vision, less likely to take in the information we need throughout the day. Anxiety makes us more at risk, causing us to panic even at some things. With the work load, and trying to fit in work and sports everyday this causes students to develop stress and anxiety.
There’s simply not enough time in the day to get everything we need to get done. There are many psychological and physiological reasons that long-term stress is harmful, but the science of elite performance has drawn a different conclusion about short-term stress.
Studies that compare professionals with amateur competitors whether concert pianists, male rugby or female volleyball players show that professionals feel just as much anxiety as amateurs. The difference is in how they interpret their anxiety. The amateurs view it as detrimental, while the professionals tend to view stress as energizing. It gets them to focus.
Students on average spend two or more hours doing homework after school. And often more if they have to study and prepare for any tests and quizzes, which both can trigger stress. This type of stress day after day causes students to crack under pressure, leading to less motivation and more likely to result in bad decisions.
Junior Casey Raczkowski takes very advanced classes and says “I find it hard to not feel overwhelmed with the amount of work I get every night, but sometimes it’s out of my control.”
One thing that most students explained is that teachers need to realize that they have lives outside of school.
On top of homework and studying for seniors in high school, the pressure of applying for colleges is immensely stressful. Deadlines, essays, good grades, and Capstone cause many seniors to feel overwhelmed. Senior Rebecca Withington says “It’s hard to catch a break with all the things us seniors have to get done, I can’t wait to graduate to feel relieved from this.”
Even on the social media site twitter people compose tweets complaining about the struggle that stress takes on to their everyday lives. @FactsInYourFace says “An overload of stress can cause the human mind to temporarily shut down.”
So, how much can you take til you’ve had enough? Will the workload for students continue to increase?
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