“Everyone needs to relax a little. Life ain’t a board meeting.”
—Charles Aubrey Rogers
I talk to students a lot. And when I hear how packed their schedules are, I wonder why we are doing this to our kids? Administrators are enchanted with scores from standardized testing that is all about memorization and no innovation. That alone has taken education backwards. What is the point of pure memorization in a world that values innovation?
When I heard my niece’s schedule her senior year and the kind of work her AP classes required, I couldn’t believe we are putting our kids through this. No wonder they are stressed out.
Suicide rates are not high in the summer. But come fall, they go up which has been linked with going back to school. Studies are showing that school is a contributing factor to stress and suicide rates and among youth 10-17 in the United States had increased by 70% between 2006 and 2016.
That’s insane.
Yet we just keep adding to their stress at at time when they don’t even have fully formed executive functions to manage the workload.
Tell your kids to enjoy themselves. Take a hike. Do something together as a family.
Spot on advice. Thanks
Thank you, Leigh