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Crossing the Line: How the Academic Rat Race Is Making Our Kids Sick [View all]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-abeles/education-stress_b_5341256.htmlLast winter, I watched my daughter, a high school senior, survive an anxiety-ridden few weeks leading up to final exams, beset with the flu, little sleep and constant studying. With that done, she switched to incessantly monitoring her grades online, fearing that her hopes of becoming a veterinarian ride on these numbers. And I had to ask: Is this what childhood has come to?
As a mother of three, I've seen the physical and emotional toll that the soul-bruising college admissions contest takes on our children -- and not only on the straight-A types bound for the Ivy Leagues (my daughter is a B student). By the time many students reach high school, their daily routine will include seven or more hours of school, plus two hours of school-sponsored sports or activities, plus the inevitable third shift -- three or four or even five hours of homework a night.
We convince ourselves that it's all for a worthy goal: achieving the magic algorithm of scores and activities that reportedly add up to admission at a top college. But as we've encouraged our students to pursue this, we've pushed them into unhealthy and unhappy patterns that are harming a whole generation.
A survey released this year by the American Psychological Association found that, during the school year, teens report feeling stress levels even higher than what adults report. Since the 1950s, adolescent suicides have quadrupled, and eating disorders are epidemic. And a 2012 University of Michigan study found that one in 10 high school sophomores and nearly one in eight seniors admitted to using a "study drug" that was not prescribed by a doctor. Another study, in the Journal of Adolescent Health, reported that a vast majority of teens get at least two hours less sleep each night than what's recommended for their age.
In short, we are raising a generation of chronically sleep-deprived, anxious, caffeine-addled kids who believe that grades, rankings, AP and SAT scores, and -- of course -- college admissions are the ultimate measure of their worth.
As a mother of three, I've seen the physical and emotional toll that the soul-bruising college admissions contest takes on our children -- and not only on the straight-A types bound for the Ivy Leagues (my daughter is a B student). By the time many students reach high school, their daily routine will include seven or more hours of school, plus two hours of school-sponsored sports or activities, plus the inevitable third shift -- three or four or even five hours of homework a night.
We convince ourselves that it's all for a worthy goal: achieving the magic algorithm of scores and activities that reportedly add up to admission at a top college. But as we've encouraged our students to pursue this, we've pushed them into unhealthy and unhappy patterns that are harming a whole generation.
A survey released this year by the American Psychological Association found that, during the school year, teens report feeling stress levels even higher than what adults report. Since the 1950s, adolescent suicides have quadrupled, and eating disorders are epidemic. And a 2012 University of Michigan study found that one in 10 high school sophomores and nearly one in eight seniors admitted to using a "study drug" that was not prescribed by a doctor. Another study, in the Journal of Adolescent Health, reported that a vast majority of teens get at least two hours less sleep each night than what's recommended for their age.
In short, we are raising a generation of chronically sleep-deprived, anxious, caffeine-addled kids who believe that grades, rankings, AP and SAT scores, and -- of course -- college admissions are the ultimate measure of their worth.
"Race to Nowhere" trailer:
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