High school students are facing more pressure than ever before, including being more stressed out than college students. A study done by the National Library of Medicine reported that students spend 9.1 hours doing homework a week and 7.9 hours a week participating in extracurricular activities (Tjaden and Rolando). This does not include students putting in extra work on their own or doing an activity outside of school. With all this, it is apparent that high school students are under more pressure and stress than ever before.
Current high school students are facing demanding schedules putting them under large amounts of pressure. With rigorous school schedules and additional hours of homework, sports, extracurriculars, and work, students are left with little free time and high levels of stress. This stress can come from several factors: parents, teachers, schools, colleges, and even the students themselves.
Varying amounts of workloads are one of the main stressors that high school students face. Some days, students might have tons of homework that they have to spend additional hours on each night. However, some days teachers might not have anything for students to do, so they decide to give random tasks just to pass time. Instead of spreading out the workload, students are either given “busy work” used to fill time or are hit with a mountain of work all at once. This constantly varying workload can be very stressful for students trying to plan out how they will balance their school work and other responsibilities.
This pressure resulting from the diverse workload is amplified at Southeast of Saline because of the new schedule change. With the new rolling schedule, students have all eight of their classes one day a week and six of their classes the other four days of the week. It is then often followed by several hours of sports or extracurricular activities. Students feel pressure to perform well at these events, while also keeping up with their school workload. According to Dr. Kristen Van Tassel, “The schedule is definitely intense… my sense is students feel that their workload and the pressure to perform well in all these capacities is a lot.”
Along with the school workload they have, most students also have additional responsibilities from the extracurricular activities they are involved in. These include sports, work, clubs, plays, etc. With these activities taking place after school lasting for around two hours, students don’t have much free time or other time to do homework. This causes students to put pressure on themselves academically, trying to compensate for the time lost due to their after-school activities.
Extracurricular activities are an important part of the high school experience. They are a chance for students to learn critical skills they won’t learn from school, explore their interests outside of the classroom, and socialize and engage with their peers. Although extracurricular activities are good for students, they do add additional stress. Elaborating on this, Dr. Kristin Van Tassel said, “At smaller rural schools, I think there are higher expectations for student involvement … Add that to an eight-class per semester course load for students at SES, and students’ lives are very full.” She proceeds to say, “The school seems to be working to maximize these opportunities … The tradeoff is that students’ lives are busy and demanding. It would be hard to carve out more space for breathing and rest without forfeiting the options and choices students have in their curriculum and activities.” Being involved in extracurricular activities is beneficial for students, but they must be able to balance the stress from both school and these additional activities.
Although each high school year is stressful, senior year of high school is especially stressful because of all these additional responsibilities. Along with their school work, seniors have to also worry about maintaining their GPAs, getting good scores on their ACTs, applying for colleges and scholarships, and more. All of these things double the stress students already feel from their class load. Some students also want to play sports in college, so they have an extra activity to focus on. Not only do students put pressure on themselves, but parents also put pressure on them. Students then have to make sure they are doing everything they can do to get into a good college, which ultimately stresses them out more than they need to be.
Overall, high school students are facing massive amounts of stress. They have a demanding workload with other extracurricular activities and responsibilities on top of that. It is important for students to find ways to handle this stress and be able to balance all the activities they are involved in.
