Secrets Behind Success The utmost top scoring students at schools often exhibit an unbelievable amount of intelligence and participate in an abundance of interesting extracurricular activities. Interestingly, there is an unexplained part of the story behind these amazing students’ success, which is described in the book “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students, by Denise Clark Pope, in which Pope interviews and shadows a random assortment of students at Faircrest High School. This book flawlessly supports my topic about the amount of stress that is truly beneficial to students as Pope reveals the consequences stress has on them, such as the hardships they face regularly and …show more content…
Although she would rather not, Teresa feels obligated to make these dishonorable decisions, and reasons, “I wish I could not do it, but… I want a future”(71). The highly competitive atmosphere students are expected to thrive in is pushing them towards committing undignified actions because they feel that so much is expected from them, and sadly, I believe this is one of the most significant sources of stress. Accordingly, for students such as Roberto Morales, acting morally is not always rewarding, and he is “disappointed when he tries to play by the rules but does not obtain the results he desires”(136). For this reason, Roberto explains how tempting cheating can be due to the pressure of grades, which regrettably justifies that the environment at schools does not induce the best out of students. The pressure even drove Eve Lin to enroll in an “unprecedented total of seven advanced placement courses”(43) after fighting with the Academic Vice Principal to allow her, and explains her reasoning as feeling “forced to conform”(32) by many factors including the “environment”(32) at school. Reluctant about students pushing themselves to the point where it will lead to an unhealthy amount of stress, the school set rules about the amount of AP classes available, however, for some students the competitive and relentless environment is too …show more content…
Every student Pope interviews explains that their high marks in their classes are a result of working themselves extremely hard in order to fulfill someone’s expectations. Kevin Romoni, a tenth grader at Faircrest, for instance, reveals his real intentions for high school are not to fully connect with his classes, but simply to just “get into college and make his parents happy”(9). The high amount of pressure put on Kevin distracts him from the primary goal of attending and excelling in school, which is to become engrossed in learning and motivated to succeed by a genuine interest in the subjects. Also seeking her parents’ approval, Michelle Spence feels so stressed about receiving excellent grades to be accepted into a college her parents will commend, she “[cries] all the time from stress….and contemplated dropping out of school”(83), despite already being a straight-A student. Although her parents might be attempting to encourage her, the competitive atmosphere at school is too frantic. It is devastating that students are completely overwhelmed by parents’ attempts at motivation, and I believe that their stress will not reduce until the expectations set for them are not pressed as forcefully. The stressful environment students live in leads to their disengagement in learning, which creates even more stressful
In The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, Robbins explores the correlation between perfectionism and academic prowess. Over the course of one year she follows the lives of AP Frank, Julie, C.J., Sam, Stealth, Audrey and others as they transition through high school and into college. These students, as Robbins showcases, epitomize what is wrong with America’s Educational System. Robbins explores the impact of the intricacies produced by America’s scholastic whirlwind on students as expressed by her research participants. Robbins masterfully crafts an informative and emotional roadmap that intertwines topics such as No Child Left Behind, College Board’s SAT, College Rankings, Ultra Competitive Parents, Cheating and Emotional and Medical Distress from a student’s perspective. The author presents each issue by presenting occurrences f...
In the essay “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, Zinsser speaks about the pressures and anxiety that plague college students, all the while wishing that they had “a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step.” Referring to the 1979 generation of college students as “panicky to succeed”, he lists four of the following stressors for college students.
Ultimately, what is at stake here is the fact that parents are making excuses for students who do not want to work hard in school or are not able to handle it, therefore, parents need to stop making excuses for adults and let them decide their paths in life. If parents stop excusing their kids, then teachers can continue the challenging work for student resilience to increase. College is a privilege, not every child in the world can experience and no one said it would be easy, but no one said it was acceptable to hold each student’s hand for the ride
Parents are forcing students to take classes they don’t want, leaving the student dull and unheard. Parents focus their kids to take challenging classes in order to satisfy their fear of the child getting into a good college. Students are told by parents and the school system that they must take this challenging class and extracurricular just meet ‘the standard quota” but reality it’s not true. For instance, Zinsser’s did a survey on Yale students and asked the students a question about their parental guidance and why they follow it. The results were scary, most students stated: “well my parents want me to be a doctor… They’re paying all this money….” (Zinsser
The pressure of students hearing “Your parents must be proud” brings students to an expectation that they can not fail or those people will not see them the same. People do not tend to remember all the success that a student has achieved even if they only make one mistake. Students do not want people to see their flaws and imperfections but only the success because then this will be all people have to judge them by. A “scholarship boy” may have worked harder than other students still feeling that even though they were “always successful, [they can be] always unconfident” because they happen to be the prized student with so many expectations (339). Today many college students receive scholarships and grants offered to students making it so competitive for anyone to receive any type of financial aid for school; when a student does receive financial aid they feel as if the only way that they can keep the financial help would be to suppress their social life only fixating on school work. The competition for scholarships and grants will continue to become harder and harder to receive because not only will there be more and more people trying to get into schools each year but the expectation continues to rise for these financial aid options. This will continue the pressure and social suppression for “scholarship
However, such accusations such as laziness and entitlement, although common, have been prevalent amongst those of college age as proven in “A’s for Everyone.” Shepard had investigated the cause behind this and had put the blame on grade inflation in the years prior to entering college, the pressure to get superb grades due to high tuition costs, and most importantly the belief that “effort” constitutes a grade bonus. However, if one has entered the school system in America, one could see the relative ease in which one could improve their grades through inordinate amounts of extra credit. Multiple students have heard and even seen fellow students ask their parents to even come in for meetings of which equate to blaming their child’s poor grades on the teacher and harassing said teacher to allow their child, soon to be a hardworking, productive citizen of society, to get the “grade they
Many students who feel the pressure to succeed at the high school level have an unhealthy amount of stress. Students who feel this have been cheating, pulling all nighters, becoming depressed, and seeking relief in drug use, and self mutilation. On average in a recent study at Illinois high school students spend 3.07 hours of homework each night on just homework not including extra curricular activities(Jerushapope,2). Also in this high school students reported getting 6.8 hours of sleep each night, but 34.6% reported getting 6 or fewer hours of sleep(Jerushapope,2). Most high school students spend 2 hours of extra curricular activity each night thats not including homework so after those activities you have to come home and do homework and then you will not have a lot of time to sleep. Also most kids do not get a lot of time to spend with their parents during the weeknights. Some kids cannot even make it to the dinner table because they have so much homework and that is not healthy for the parents and their childs relationship. In ...
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
Life is stressful. But as students, parents and others we must learn how to manage that stress in a positive and beneficial way. The reason why I bring this up is because lately there have been a series of articles and news reports suggesting that college admissions is becoming to competive and our students are crumbling under the stress. One article I read from a college admissions advisor even went so far as to say she is suggesting that her students get B 's instead
The pressures students face are much greater than previous years in high school. The need to meet new people, find a high paying job, and extracurriculars all play a role in elevating stress levels on college campuses. Now, JHU freshman can add worrying about fall semester grades to that list of never ending reasons of why students are so stressed. According to Ross et al., stress levels in college have been increasing dramatically and over 75% college students feel stressed about grades (4). Hopkins is notorious for its competitive academic environment, and students often feel even more stressed than those in the survey.
The thought of not being exceptional enough, smart enough, having all these expectations and standards, the feeling of failing, being stressed, not being able to fix a problem, ruining self-esteem, staying up all night studying just to fail, and no longer being motivated is taking a toll on students. According to debate.org, “When students see their grade in a class and it is not good, all they can think about is that it is over and they cannot fix it. They think that seeing a grade that they are unhappy [with] determines their future.” For those students who are thinking about the future, certain grades may make or break them. They try their best and then they find out they didn’t do as well as they thought, they think the worst and how it’ll affect them in the future. There comes a time when students stop caring when they know they can’t do something or they can’t get better. That tragic realization when a student gives up hope on their grades and school in general when they feel there is no hope left. Students are kept to these certain expectations and are having progressively more trouble keeping up and they just stop completely; they simply give up. Once there’s a ‘slip-up’, they become categorized into something less than they actually are and it becomes harder to get out of the lesser category. Students slowly think less of themselves and believe they aren’t exceptional
Pressures on children in today’s society are a problem that is becoming more evident in academics as parents and teachers put more and more emphasis on these children to outperform their classmates, stress in the child’s life becomes an interfering problem (Anxiety.org, 2011 Weissbourd, 2011,). From preschool children to college adults, pressure to execute academic perfection extends across all areas of curriculum. In our highly competitive, American society, emphasis placed on academic achievement has never been so intense (Anxiety.org, 2011, Beilock, 2011). This need to be the best, fueled by our culture in America, has created a social force affecting education, a force to be reckoned with at that. Too often, parents and teachers sacrifice their chil...
Intense requirements to graduate high school result in stress. Patti Neighmond, award-winning journalist claims, real world students ache from academics. Some of them, and their parents, make the decision to reduce the level of intensity of their classes (Neighmond 1). By reducing the extremity of classes, students have more manageable amounts of stress. Although AP classes can be more demanding and time consuming, students take these courses to boost their GPA in expectancy to attend college. They constantly ponder the possibilities of failing high school classes. With thoughts like that, these students feel an additional amount
Are the new standards and expectations the world has for teenagers really creating monsters? The amount of stress that is put on students these days between trying to balance school, homework, extra curricular activities, social lives, sleep and a healthy lifestyle is being considered a health epidemic (Palmer, 2005). Students are obsessing over getting the grades that are expected of them to please those that push them, and in return, lose sleep and give up other aspects of their lives that are important to them, such as time with friends and family, as well as activities that they enjoy. The stress that they endure from the pressures of parents, teachers, colleges, and peers has many physical as well as mental effects on every student, some more harmful than others. The extreme pressure on students to get perfect grades so that they will be accepted into a college has diminished the concept of actually learning and has left the art of “financing the system” in order to succeed in its place (Palmer, 2005).
The failure of our education system is demonstrated by the fact that students are sacrificing their integrity for a handful of points on an assessment. Despite the efforts of honor codes, scholars have become numb to their purpose; they break such a promise of honesty to themselves, their teachers, and their peers without second thought. America’s children have lost the value of trust, compromising invaluable relationships with excuses regarding societal pressure and their excessive workloads. We cannot let such actions continue; if educators continue to tolerate cheating, our world may transition into one socially, economically, and politically operated by dishonest individuals. Society’s obsession with creating good academic performers has led to the subsequent creation of deceitful children and the possibility of a fraudulent