By Montana Bunner, Staff writer
As high schoolers push themselves to complete homework, prepare presentations, and study for tests, their focus has increasingly been on getting the grade rather than actually learning the material.
Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of parents say their high schooler is experiencing a lot of stress from school, according to a December 2013 Na- tional Public Radio report. Students at Indian Trail agree that they feel stressed every day about home- work.
“Yes, pretty much every day,” said Medical Sci- ences Academy senior April Koski.
Grading that emphasizes test scores and gives lit- tle value to homework also plays into student emo- tions. Students believe that homework assignments aren’t worth getting stressed out about because they are not worth as many points compared to tests and
projects.
“No, it’s not worth that much,” said Communications Academy Senior Priscilla Martinez.
Some students say homework is not worth com- pleting, with motivation diminishing especially among high school seniors who say that it is just not worth doing, since it is their last year.
“No, it’s senior year, you stop caring, I don’t do it anyways,” said one General Studies senior.
“If I know it isn’t worth it, I don’t do it,” said Koski.
A New York University study shows that there are many young teens experiencing high levels of chronic stress. Many are concerned that students in these selective, high pressure high schools can get burned out even before they reach college, accord- ing to Noelle Leonard, PhD, a senior research scien-
tist at the New York University College of Nursing. According to the New York University study, chronic stress is very high in 11th grade. Nearly 49 percent of all students deal with stress on a daily basis, while 31 percent reported feeling somewhat
stressed.
The study also states that females reported higher
levels of stress than males. Stress can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. The study warns students may turn to substance abuse to lessen their feelings of stress for a short period of time. In the NYU survey, more than 38 percent of students reported getting drunk and 34 percent of students reported getting high.
High schoolers are expected to do so much, but have fun at the same time, thus causing overloads of stress in their life and mental health problems.