School and Stress - Is stress being used too easily?

[Macman]

A discussion on pupils & stress:-

Been seeing it in the news as of late regarding "pupils" being stressed with exams or school life...

Me personally I believe the word "stress" is being used far too easily.

These pupils need to understand, nothing is handed to you on a plate and you need to work hard if you want something and it doesn't come easy.

Because it seems as soon as the going gets hard... they crumble. Stress and being unable to cope with school work, social, exams, family issues etc seems to be a major issue as of late.

Does anyone else think that stress is being used far too easily?

[jim]

I remember it being incredibly stressful, but so is life - surely that's the point of school, to slowly ramp up to a more work-like or life-like scenario?

I accept that if students are becoming ill then teachers / parents / others might want to hit a release valve and say let them skip something, but I'm not convinced it will help in the long run.

I think it's more about messaging - for instance at my school the only acceptable answer was to go to university. One kid decided he didn't want to go and was more or less shunned by the teaching staff. If there was equivalent messaging around "what options there are if you don't get AAA" it probably would've been less stressful for some. The mantra when I was there was "a B is a fail".

[kalniel]

No. There's a difference between building resilience, and putting children (and adults) under too much stress. The latter doesn't build resilience, but impairs learning and health. I think it's really hard for us to understand the pressures on children these days - largely driven by prevalence of mobile phone technology - but also created by the potentially misguided renewed focus on checkbox school attainment levels, which actually moves things towards more exams and less work/life-like scenarios.

[Jowsey]

I only left school recently(ish) in 2012. I chose not to go to University and instead picked up an apprenticeship much to the consternation of my teachers! It wasn't because I disliked school as I broadly found it quiet enjoyable, but I swiftly got bored of it. I just needed the next bit of my life to be more 'tangible' and for it have an effect.

I had a pretty easy life in school. I don't come from a well off family so I had to work mornings and evenings through the week to go to sixth form but my parents were just chuffed I was the first of my family to keep on in school. I think a lot of the problems we face currently can be attributed to modern inventions, but at the same a lot of my friends who were stressed at school were because they had a mantra of achievement around them. In school they had to get top marks to continue in class, or to get to university. At home they had to get top marks because their parents weren't 'afforded these kind of opportunities' and the child needs get the most out of it and achieve something.

While there certainly is a good section of kids who are lazy and can't be bothered and genuinely do expect to leave school and fall onto benefits, the rest of them do try as hard as they can. And whilst I hate the idea of 'participatory medals', there efforts sometime go complete unnoticed and that can do nothing but harm for them.

I'm just glad I'm no longer in the educational system!

[wazzickle]

I remember school being pretty stressful, not from an exam point of view, but rather, the social aspect of it.

Fun fact: stressed is the opposite of desserts.

[TooNice]

Does anyone else think that stress is being used far too easily?

The short and unelaborated answer is "case by case".

I also think that stress is not something you can "will over". That is to say that someone feeling stressed may be able to will themselves to carry on with their obligations, but that does not mean that the stress, associated damage and impact on performance is gone.

[Smudger]

I think it was Panorama last night that was about children and sleep. They got a bunch of kids to do some tests as a marker, then have a routine going to bed an hour earlier than usual, and not have any tech contact (phones, tablets, TV) for an hour before bed. Also, having a bath about 50 mins before bed. When they gave them some more tests after the trial and they all got quite drastically better scores. Lack of sleep can apparently lead to inability to deal with stress, weight gain and general malaise.

Might explain my mid-school slump from 2nd yr to 4th yr (old skool)

[Ttaskmaster]

We used to whine about being "stressed" at school and that was many decades ago... although back then it was pronounced, "Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessed".

Stop coddling them and make 'em knuckle down.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

No. There's a difference between building resilience, and putting children (and adults) under too much stress. The latter doesn't build resilience, but impairs learning and health. I think it's really hard for us to understand the pressures on children these days - largely driven by prevalence of mobile phone technology - but also created by the potentially misguided renewed focus on checkbox school attainment levels, which actually moves things towards more exams and less work/life-like scenarios.

Its worse in Asia - the parents need the children to do well,as in many cases children need to support them when they are older,and they literally give up everything for the children so they can achieve this.

[TooNice]

Its worse in Asia - the parents need the children to do well,as in many cases children need to support them when they are older,and they literally give up everything for the children so they can achieve this.

Hmm, while I agree that pressure in regards to academic success is heavier in the East, and it is true that it is still more common for children to look after their parents when they are old, I honestly do not believe that is the primary motivation. The pressure for academic performance, especially until uni, is retained even in the growing number of families that no longer expect the kids to look after the elders. A good university is still seen as a key for a good stable career, and most parents wish their kids to lead a decent life regardless of whether they will be looked after or not.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hmm, while I agree that pressure in regards to academic success is heavier in the East, and it is true that it is still more common for children to look after their parents when they are old, I honestly do not believe that is the primary motivation. The pressure for academic performance, especially until uni, is retained even in the growing number of families that no longer expect the kids to look after the elders. A good university is still seen as a key for a good stable career, and most parents wish their kids to lead a decent life regardless of whether they will be looked after or not.

Maybe but in large parts of South East Asia people are poor,and income from their children will help their parents - plenty of situations I have heard of where families have sold off all their valuables,or gone into debt to just send their children to school or uni. Unlike here there really isn't the same social care system we have,so its up to children and relatives to look after them,and if the relatives are in the same boat,the children do need to step in. Its somewhat different if the parents are wealthier,OFC but that is probably more likely to be folk in cities,etc.

But either way the pressure to perform is high - waiting lists for unis,sometimes lasting years,etc.

[watercooled]

Most definitely case-by-case; some students will be uninterested, others will be genuinely stressed to the point of making them seriously ill. The latter is harmful and it's sheer ignorant to assume it's just a case of them putting up with it 'because I did it fine'. To do so is to completely ignore the concept of mental health. Different people cope completely differently when faced with different challenges, and not everyone happens to be good at the core subjects forced onto students in this country, and shouting at them won't make any difference.

There's a difference between pressure and stress. The word 'stress' probably is overused, and incorrectly used as a synonym/exaggeration of pressure in some cases, but we cannot simply generalise and assume that applies to all students.

It's also important to remember that stress, like many psychological disorders, tends not to be a direct and predictable result of a single external factor. Much like how an individual may or may not catch a cold (and may or may not become notably ill with the same virus strain), they may or may not be prone to suffering from stress. Claiming an individual 'has no right to be stressed' in a given situation is about as logical as saying someone has no right to end up with serious complications from that common cold because you had little more than a running nose.

I can comfortably work on a ladder the height of a house, and I wouldn't expect someone with a fear of heights to cope as well in that same situation. I can pick up spiders with my hands without a second thought when a great deal of people I know won't even approach them without seizing up and breaking into a cold sweat. But when facing my phobia... nope.

Remember, not everyone sails carefree through puberty either, just another thing that has to be taken into consideration. Adolescence is a difficult period of life for many people.

[Lanky123]

The workloads being piled onto (often inexperienced) teachers might well affect their pupils mental health as well as their own. In the past a teacher might have noticed a pupil who needed a bit of leeway on their homework or a quick chat to calm them down. But with extra (and larger) classes because of recruitment/budget realities, planning/marking for those classes and performance related pay dictating that everything is geared towards exams I can imagine a lot more slipping through the net.

[Dashers]

Schools only teach curriculum, they don't teach life skills. Parents really need to be able to find time from their own stressful lives to teach children how to prioritise and deal with being overloaded.

[neonplanet40]

*Quick post during lunch!*

To be honest, what doesn't a pupil have these days?

As we get our new class lists each year (for those pupils moving from Primary to Secondary), the list of additional support needs which pupils have gets greater and greater.

Next year, out of 20 pupils, 12 have ASN. Ranging from dyslexia to autism. Not forgetting my personal favorite - ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder).

Furthermore, the range of tasks we are asked to complete each year grows and grows. Pupils are given excuse after excuse to explain why they aren't doing well. However, two things which are never blamed: the parents or the pupil.

It's our job to give them personal, social and life skills. The parents might as well drop their kids to school when they are 5 and come back when they are 16. There is no accountability attributed to parents or social issues anymore.

The reality for many teachers is: 70% of my time is spent doing administration work, 20% of actual teaching, 5% for marking and 5% for development. It is not sustainable. Likewise, the government has ran down all public services for years likes teachers, doctors, police etc to the point where the public lacks any real respect for them. Your average Joe thinks we are useless and incompetant and that we get paid too much and get too many holidays.

How wrong they are.

[FRISH]

Everyone is different. Some will likely share how "stressed" they are, especially with social media allowing people to kind of conform exagerations (whether it's how amazing life is or how bad minor inconveniences are). On the other hand there are likely some who are genuinely stressed. Personally I sailed through secondary school for the most part. Suddenly when I went to college, I found it hard to adapt and receiving more average grades kind of made me feel like a failure, especially when I felt like needing any help was a sign of weakness. For me it wasn't stress that I think other people would feel, but it did still impact me and I imagine it can impact others too.

I think there's a problem in society of putting down others (especially in school, and more so on the internet), but not actually having ways to actually deal with it. I mean whether your a gamer or talk about politics such as politics, there are so many people who will spew bile not matter what you're stance is, and I find that to be unhealthy.

One thing that is interesting, is that there seems to be some people who like to be stressed since they perform better. Obviously that doesn't work for everyone.