Schools all around the world talk about the effects of pressure on students to perform perfectly, but do we really know what it’s like from the perspective of the impacted students and staff?
According to beloved history teacher, Scott Ames, he says he believes the pressure doesn’t stem all from the teachers, but more from fellow students. He elaborates on the peer pressure to succeed. “I see the college process; the competition becomes brutal.” The constant pressure to take challenging courses to raise one’s class rank or taking leadership in clubs and succeeding in multiple sports to fill a resume, while not going unnoticed, creates long lasting mental health issues. Statistically speaking, studies show that anxiety levels in students have risen from 11.6% in 2011 to 20.5 percent of teens worldwide, according to the ASCD.
From a more personal perspective, Ames says he’s seen kids slowly become more anxious than previous years, and far more upset over bad grades. Aside from a teacher perspective, though important, the main focus of this topic is the students; when speaking to Ipswich senior, Lindsey Dolaher, she says success to her means to accomplish a goal and feel proud, but is there space for achievement if the pressure is too high? Dolaher says the feeling of accomplishment doesn’t just come from within; it comes from people around you, especially teachers, unlike the argument from Ames. She explains “she wishes she could feel more proud, just sometimes teachers don’t appreciate you enough”. In many cases, students feel as though actions speak louder than words, teachers might say they’re proud and preach mental health awareness, but then pile on more homework and expect perfectionism, turning learning into a competition, turning learning into something that’s not fun but draining.
In the United States, toxic achievement culture seems to be a recent topic of conversation. According to the Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 teens (68%) feel the overwhelming pressure to receive good grades, while 31% say they feel pressured to succeed in sports, and 32% of boys and 35% of girls say they feel pressure to be involved in extracurriculars. The stigma around what grades you receive has been considered the “Barrier to learning” according to Harvard Education, and these problems are only the beginning to long-lasting mental health problems and burnout that can become detrimental. If we as a society continue to enable toxic achievement culture, learning will become an environment where students won’t feel comfortable to learn and be pressured to over schedule their time. Although school, homework, extracurriculars, music, art, and sports are all important factors that make people who they are, it is important to accept individualism and not expect too much from teens. Moving forward, we can also solve this problem by adapting students to failure and making mistakes, and making sure they know that one thing does not determine the rest of their life.
