Have you ever pondered why school feels like such a burden for many people, maybe even yourself? Well, the truth is, school takes most of the blame for teens when they have to deal with a lot of stress, but whether or not this is perception or reality is an important question.
In her article, “Managing Stress in High School,” Pamela Reynolds brings up a variety of factors students could be stressed about, including the academic demands of high school and their futures. She writes, “In high school, not only are you worried about next week’s English, History or Calculus exam, but you’re also worried about applying to college and taking the SAT tests, too.”
Often, students blame their stress on school work and teachers who are always assigning a large amount of homework. In fact, according to Pamela Reynolds, 45% of students said they had a hard time concentrating on schoolwork. However, it may be time to look at all the work with a new ideology. Roaming through the halls of Paint Branch are students who deal with this issue each and every day. Those who shared their thoughts expressed that homework does indeed have a negative impact on them. However, the general consensus among them was that this is actually more of a perception because they see procrastination as the main culprit of their stress.
Ruth T., a junior at PB, shares that her stress levels have increased since the beginning of the school year. “The amount of assignments I have been given since the start of the school year definitely increased my stress levels,” she states. “I went home crying a lot of times due to the amount of pressure my assignments put on me. I stay up doing homework till midnight – sometimes past – to get perfect grades.” Ruth blames both her teachers and herself for this stress but does admit that procrastination plays a role. “I take a two-hour nap and end up procrastinating through my assignments.”
Another PB junior, Bethania M., feels the work that’s mainly causing her an increased amount of stress is from her AP classes. She says, “I don’t think teachers take into consideration how many assignments we are given from our other AP classes. If one teacher is giving their students a large amount of work, then it’s going to leave the student with no choice but to procrastinate on their other assignments, since one assignment is so time-consuming.” Bethania feels the main reason assignments cause students a large amount of stress is their unhealthy working habits, which often include purposely pushing off their work for later and ending up with nothing done.
A third PB student, senior McKenzie W., shares that the stress that comes from school assignments is both perception and reality. McKenzie says, “Based on how you handle your workload outside of school will have you at peace or stressed out. I know for me, my stress level has definitely increased ever since work from all my classes started piling up last quarter. I’m literally struggling every single day.”
McKenzie blames the increase in her stress on the countless amounts of assignments she is given throughout her classes. She says the expectations her teachers have for her to finish her work on time also cause her an increased amount of stress. She does accuse herself of procrastinating, though most of the time this is due to the difficulty of the assignment. “If my perception of the assignment is stressful then I’m most likely pushing it for later,”.
These three upperclassmen have advice to help students handle the stress caused by school assignments. Some of these solutions include asking teachers for help and not pushing your assignments until the last minute. In regard to these, Bethania notes that while she can’t control what teachers assign, she can control her behavior. “There isn’t much I can do about the teachers and how much work they chose to assign, but I know students can help reduce their stress by trying to get their work done on time and not procrastinate.”