Not to worry.
Some kolleges are easing up on Frosh academic stress, too.
Posted on 08/01/2005 6:15:35 AM PDT by cloud8
...The tension builds through the school year, whether students or their teachers cause it.
This year, Wellesley High said: Enough.
When students head back to class next month, they will no longer get homework during April vacations -- and possibly during winter break...
Some may call it coddling. But Wellesley parents and teachers say the changes could give students a better-balanced, healthier lifestyle during high school. From "stress reduction committees" to yoga in gym class, Wellesley, Needham, Wayland, and other high- achieving schools in affluent suburbs are trying to cut their groggy students some slack. They say they recognize that the fierce intensity of college admissions, the spread of college-level Advanced Placement courses, and cutthroat competition among students have created an unhealthy culture.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Not to worry.
Some kolleges are easing up on Frosh academic stress, too.
It's possible for kids to make it through the first semester of college when not knowing how to manage their time.
I got out of the public school system, with no abilities in time management or proper studying skills, I just didn't need them during high school. Yet, I still managed to get a bachelor's degree. Yes it took me seven years, but I did it.
That said, I still think this is just more liberal weenism.
At least they're not giving out condoms.
I dunno. So much depends upon what rigorous demands are being placed on the student during the school year. I know when my kids were little and in pub ed? They were getting liberal crapola during the day, and for homework, the teachers were sending home the genuine academic learning stuff -- for parents to do with their kids. So much depends upon what is going on in classroom during the day, IMHO.
This idea of "stress reduction" for high school students is pure unadulterated BS. No surprise that the idea comes from Massachusetts.
There is no reduction of stress in the world of adults.
What is this "stress" people write about, and where can I get some?
I agree with you. There is a lot of "junk" education thrown in at the early years.....much of it "ridiculous" art projects rather than the three R's.
Studies show kids do better if they start school later in the day. Simple - move the start time of the academic day and see what happens.
Good thing you did, or else it would have been "Seven years of college down the drain" -- Sen. Blutarsky, Animal House.
Same parents most likely let their kids run the streets with no curfew and so on....
> I dunno. So much depends upon what rigorous demands are being placed on the student during the school year.
When I was in high school I didn't know what stress was...maybe because my folks always said if you do your best, you won't have to worry...or because I didn't have the time to worry...or because I'd get home from sports around 6:30 famished, eat, finish my homework and collapse into bed.
Wellesley has one of the best school systems in the state, and people pay through the nose to live there so their kids will get into the best colleges. Accordingly teachers, guidance and administration are under tremendous pressure to deliver stellar admissions results. Harvard has maybe 3 slots for Wellesley High, so the competition is intense. It shouldn't be that way. Maybe if parents had realistic expectations for their children, we wouldn't be reading about stessed-out high schoolers.
Here's one way for kids to avoid years of wasted time: Skip High School.
Here's a trick to get a 4 year head start versus your peers: skip high school. We've been discussing ways to fast track.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Unfortunately my thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.
Where the heck is the Barf! alert?
> Here's a trick to get a 4 year head start versus your peers: skip high school.
I used to skip school, but not the way your article recommends :)
I'm now learning about what you've written in my new home state of NC -- how intense the competition can be, and why. It is for me, a whole new way of looking at "higher-end" education. It couldn't be more different from CA.
As stressed out as kids might get here, I still think its a lot better than the shell-game going on in CA.
Maybe if parents had realistic expectations for their children, we wouldn't be reading about stessed-out high schoolers.
This is where I'm SO on the same page with you. I raised my kids similar to how your folks raised you: Do your best, do the work. Do as best as you can and DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP! (Don't let anyone else beat you up either).
But I do understand why parents might put this kind of pressure on their kinds. When you get older, you see how much easier, or clearer the path, in your life had you known to do certain things. This "experience" gets pushed onto the kids -- most often in the name of love. The kids, OTOH, can interpret this differently -- as not being loved unconditionally. It's frankly, an age-old battle.
For the most part, I took my own parents' counsel; but my folks left lots of room open for my own interests and pursuits.
Thing is, the principle of doing your best, at all times -- always reaps rewards, often not in ways we can predict.
Take Rush Limbaugh for example! :)
And then I've known folks who followed every bit of sound counsel, and did all the right things and they are still struggling, or are unknown, or not achieving their dreams. Some take it hard; but others keep on truckin'.
P.S. I forced my kids to take regular breaks from academic studies. Yesss... I did. I want them to remember what it is like to create your own day, your own directions. Instead of constantly reacting to the "schedule and demands" set by others.
School breaks at Wellesley might be exactly what the students need given what you've told me. I think it would do a person a world of good.
I had tons of free time in college even working 20-30 hours a week. The "study 3 hours for every hour in class to get an A" rule is a huge lie.
> The stressed-out syndrome of highschoolers in CA? I can tell you -- it is NOT from rigorous steller academic demands: It's peer pressure, so intense, and then there's who can outdo each other on trendiness, PC activism; and clique-ism. I've met many stressed-out highschoolers in CA; but it wasn't from studying, or rigorous academic demands.
I taught in the schools for 20 years. Mostly at a high school in eastern Connecticut that served the largest city in the region and the six surrounding towns. There were some tough customers in class, and there were drugs out of class, but mostly we had things on an even keel. We had five tracks, from special ed (1) to honors (5). One of the kids in my 2-level English class was a California transplant, and being uninhibited and outspoken she told me and the whole class basically what you just said about California schools. And then she gave me (and her new alma mater) one of the finest compliments I have ever received from a student, Here, she said, you actually learn something.
Well my lesson plan was basically to teach them how to write a grammatically correct sentence or two (so they could apply for jobs), and to get them to enjoy reading (so they could read aloud to their children). And to keep them from fighting :)
But that's just school. A parent's battle is supporting your kids and equipping them with the tools to resist peer pressure, trendiness, cliques, etc.
Just great, while their competition in the rest of the world is increasing the demands of schooling, we're slacking off. Real smart move given competition from the rest of the world...NOT!
Why don't they just get it over with and let the students apply for welfare?
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