What are you passionate about?
What are your ambitions?
These commonly used job interview questions and icebreakers had me stumped. I haven't had much time to seek out my passions or ultimate ambitions because of the hectic day-to-day adventure of juggling my academic life, social life, extracurriculars, standardized test preparation, family interaction, part time job, and basic human needs. While I personally may be out of high school now, this is what it's like to be a high school student hoping to make the cut into a competitive university one day.
Though many parents may not hesitate to call their children "lazy" or "unmotivated" upon glancing at a disheveled room or an unmade bed, it is important to consider the unprecedented amount of stress modern-day kids are expected to handle. The sheer number of responsibilities teens are forced to undertake from a young age is increasing at an alarming rate, as students as young as 14 will have to quickly learn to balance the difficult schedule of 6:00 a.m. wake up times, hours of homework, volunteering, standardized test preparation, and extra-curricular while also dedicating time to sleep, eat, and spend time with family.
High school is certainly not what it used to be when our parents were younger, and college is both much more expensive and much more competitive (students must work well over 900 hours just to pay for one year's tuition, as opposed to 1979's 182 hours). This makes the high school experience that much more challenging, as students are expected to achieve increasingly high expectations with regards to GPAs, volunteering hours, and standardized testing scores in order to be accepted into their ideal universities. It may come as no surprise then that, according to an APA (American Psychological Association) study, students experience more stress in day to day life than insane asylum patients did during the 1950s.
This is a problem. The amount of stress some of these students are under results in unhealthy coping mechanisms including a neglect of basic human needs such as eating or sleeping in favor of making time to complete assignments or study for tests. While students often get accused of "poor time management skills" or "laziness," it is important to consider, for instance, that if a student takes approximately 8 classes, and each class gives even just 30 minutes of homework each night (a relatively average amount), the student must complete four hours of homework per evening. That leaves very little "time to manage" when, let's say, three hours are factored into account for eating and attending a club meeting or sport practice.
Besides the academic workload, students are required to volunteer and participate in extra curricular activities, should they hope to be accepted into a university of their choice. In a world where a college diploma is considered a necessity in many workplaces, students must be considerate of the future from the second they set foot into the high school environment, as the pressure to attain high GPAs and build an impressive resume is immediately felt.
The grade inflation of universities, in general, also is cause for concern, as students must now take AP and honors courses in order to boost their weighted GPAs over the 4.0 mark, as requirements for universities only continue to increase as the years continue. Similarly, standardized test scores (a controversey of their own, as many students and teachers alike agree they are not a valid measurement of student's intelligence, but rather a measurement of how well they can take a test) continue to increase, placing more pressure on the student to prepare months in advance.
This extreme "pressure to be good enough" causes unwarranted stress at an age during which young people need to be seeking out interests and passions. An increase in the level of anxiety in students also poses a risk to their future health, as anxiety can predispose individuals to depression, as well as a host of other potential physical ailments.
As a high school student, it becomes easy to neglect one's own basic needs for survival in an effort to build a future. Students should not be losing sleep or skipping meals over homework, and it is essential that we do something about it soon, whether it be restrictions on the homework load or more understanding requirements by colleges.
It is clear that high school has become less and less about learning and more about a simple "check in the box," and it is from this mentality we must escape before it is too late.
