Summer "Break"

These carefree summer days are long gone....

As I talk to all of my friends about what they have done so far during their summer vacation and what they will do in the month or so left, I can't help but realize that no one is really taking the "break" part of "summer break" literally. Out of just my close friends, there are people going on community service trips all over the world, interning at various universities and hospitals, attending dozens of college recruiting tournaments for their sports, and working summer jobs (which is what I am doing this summer, along with finishing up all of my junior year class work). After wondering why my peers fill their summers up so much, I can't help but relate it to my Junior Theme topic. I believe that students from areas like the New Trier Township create their incredibly busy summer schedules because of the stress surrounding the college admission process. When talking to one of my friends, she even admitted that she went on a service trip because it sounded fun, but mainly because it would be an interesting story to tell in a college interview or in a college admissions essay. I don't know if this is necessarily a problem in our community because students don't suffer from going on exotic trips, but I just think it is an interesting byproduct of all the stress in the lives of students. What are you doing this summer? What have you already done? What was your motivation to do these things? 

Bad Teachers?

While browsing the AOL homepage this afternoon, I came across a headline "Atlanta Public Schools Shaken by Cheating Report". Relating this headline to some of the research I did for my junior theme, I clicked on the link immediately and began reading the article expecting to read about some students who were under a lot of stress which caused them to cheat. Much to my surprise, after reading the first few lines of the article, I discovered that the students were not the ones cheating, but it was actually the teachers. The article states that "the pressures placed on teachers by policies that stress standardized test scores -- such as No Child Left Behind -- foster an environment ripe for cheating." This proves that there is stress on every person involved in the education system. Not only are students feeling pressured to do well on exams in order to get into a top college, but teachers also feel pressured to show improvement in their students test scores.

The Stress Myth?

Today, as I was quickly clicking through the top stories on AOL's homepage, I noticed that two out of the forty "top news stories" had to do with stress. I found this really interesting because, as I write my junior theme about stress, I am beginning to notice articles, news stories, and personal stories about stress everywhere. The first article,  Change to Make You More Positive, talks about the idea that stress characterizes our lives. It certainly isn't an uplifting article, but instead makes you think about why people whine about being stressed so often. Then, a few links later, you come across an article titled,  Reduce Stress in Just Six Seconds. I don't know if the editors of the AOL homepage did this on purpose, but it seems like they linked to the original article about stress and then felt guilty for being negative, so they added a link to this article to help people calm down. Overall, I just thought it was interesting that people in America are so focused on stress. Do you think stress could be considered a "Super-replicator"?

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Yesterday, I began reading the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua, as a source for my junior theme. This novel chronicles Ms. Chua's life as a "Chinese Mother" and her experiences of pushing her two daughters to achieve seemingly impossible goals. One very interesting line in the book says, "In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that 'stressing academic success is not good for their children'... By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way"(Chua, 5) It seems that, in America (especially in wealthier areas such as the North Shore), there is a huge emphasis on the amount of stress students have to deal with on a daily basis. Even though the schools and parents aren't doing much to eliminate stress, they still acknowledge the fact that the it exists and isn't necessarily a good thing. On the other hand, according to the study above, Chinese mothers embrace the stress and view it as a positive and necessary part of their child's success. Ms. Chua definitely agrees with the later point of view (as proven by every single page in her book). Which way of viewing stress do you think is most healthy/effective?

Stress About Stress

After a week of reading articles and watching videos about academic stress in teens, a few main things stick out in my mind. The top thing that keeps being emphasized in nearly every article I read is that the high level of stress in students is only common in middle and upper-middle class areas with top tier schools. There is a common fallacy that stress is an epidemic plaguing the entire country, but in reality it only effects the 10% of students who have aspirations of being admitted to an elite college. Another recurring idea I have noticed is that the amount of stress and pressure has gotten progressively larger over the past few decades. Though there are not any commonly accepted reasons for this, one popular hypothesis says that pressure on students has increased over time because acceptance to college has become more difficult. Instead of just applying to 2 or 3 colleges like our parents did, it is common for students to now apply to as many as 15 or 16 schools. This new born game of getting into college has encouraged students to take as many Advanced-Placement and honors courses as possible, fill their resume with sports and volunteer activities, and give up their much-needed sleep to instead stay up all night studying. All of these practices are rightfully thought to be at fault for the recent spike in stress among young students in wealthy areas.

All of my research has lead me to finally create my "why?" question that I will try to answer through my research for my Junior theme: Why has stress among students in affluent communities increased in recent years?