Kennedy Kight ‘27, Social Media Manager
Academic competition and pressure on teenagers has grown exponentially as the years have passed. The K-12 schooling system has become increasingly more demanding, and it is taking a toll on students’ well-being and development. The National Library of Medicine shared findings from a school-based study in Belagavi district of Karnataka India on academic stress in adolescents: “…Schools have a considerable influence on adolescents’ development, but increasing academic pressures and social expectations have caused students to experience higher levels of stress, impacting their mental health and overall development.” Statistics shared support the prior claim as well: “Roughly 74 percent of adolescents report high stress levels linked to school demands.”
Senior Violet Melville shared her point of view when asked if she felt there was extensive pressure placed on high school students related to being successful in school. She said, “I do think that the pressure put on teenagers to be the best in their class is essentially too much, because you can tell especially in AP classroom settings that there’s competition within those classes. There is always kind of a feeling of not being enough if you are not at the top of that class, but it is really hard to be top of the class, especially AP classes.”
Melville discussed if she personally felt in competition with her peers, and she replied, “I think I try to compete because I know there is pressure put on me and there is nothing I can do about it. It is going to be there no matter what, so I try to compete against my peers academically.”
The high demand from schools is directly related to the stress that most students experience on a daily basis, supported by research. Lack of sleep, hours of homework, AP classes, and tests weekly — sometimes even multiple in a day — add up. Teenage students are in their prime developmental and maturation stages of life, but this stage, combined with astonishing stress levels, can be detrimental to their bodies and academic performance — regardless of their extensively demanding schedules. Many teachers lack the understanding of the stress teens fight every day, by assigning hours of homework nightly — along with most high school students’ five to six hour shifts after school. It becomes extremely difficult for students to keep up with their demanding schedules, or balance the stress that comes with it. More manageable strategies are available for teenagers. To avoid becoming overwhelmed by schoolwork, employed students should limit their work schedule to one or two days during the school week. Completing homework as soon as possible has also been an effective strategy for many, as well as breaking up tasks into small and manageable parts. Some methods may work for some students better than others, but it is important to discover stress reducing methods that target the root of the stressors, in order to live as stress free as possible.
It is safe to say that academic competition and the associated stress is much higher than it should be, sucking the lives out of teenagers, but at the cost of what?
