The way I've always seen it, success in school depends on four things and four things only: a social life, hobbies/free time, good grades, and a sufficient amount of sleep. Here's the catch, though: you can only pick one or two. All throughout middle school, I chose good grades. Now, I'm not saying this means that I got good grades in middle school, because heaven knows that would be a lie. But I chose to stress over good grades. That's what I cared about. I never cared about myself or what the stress was doing to me; I had to get good grades. This led to several all-nighters a month and debilitating anxiety attacks that prevented me from attending school at all. I got so little sleep that, in hindsight, eighth grade is basically a blur to me.
This year, I've chosen to take better care of myself. I've been trying so hard to get enough sleep and to get the crucial relaxation and free time that I couldn't get when I was too busy worrying about grades and school. I've started to care more about myself and my well-being than about my grades. This, while it was my goal in previous years, is proving to be my downfall in high school. Maybe I care more about grades than I think I do.
This is very personal information, and maybe I'm being too forthcoming, but I think these things are important for teachers to understand. The stress of school is much more damaging than it seems to be.
What's really important for students (including myself) to take away from this is that you don't have to choose between friends and grades and mental health. The problem is, it's almost impossible to find a balance. Of course, the easy thing to say is "stop procrastinating" and "do your homework immediately when you get home" and "study harder so you won't be stressed" but all of those things are much easier said than done. Some students have sports practices until 6 pm and then dinner and then, of course, 4 hours of homework, and all the sudden it's 11 or 12 and you can't sleep because you're stressed and you can't stop thinking about that test you have tomorrow. You finally get to sleep at say, 2 am, and all the sudden that test you have tomorrow becomes that test you have today and you wake up worse off than you were the night before. So maybe you do only get one or two options. But which ones do you choose?
This year, I've chosen to take better care of myself. I've been trying so hard to get enough sleep and to get the crucial relaxation and free time that I couldn't get when I was too busy worrying about grades and school. I've started to care more about myself and my well-being than about my grades. This, while it was my goal in previous years, is proving to be my downfall in high school. Maybe I care more about grades than I think I do.
This is very personal information, and maybe I'm being too forthcoming, but I think these things are important for teachers to understand. The stress of school is much more damaging than it seems to be.
What's really important for students (including myself) to take away from this is that you don't have to choose between friends and grades and mental health. The problem is, it's almost impossible to find a balance. Of course, the easy thing to say is "stop procrastinating" and "do your homework immediately when you get home" and "study harder so you won't be stressed" but all of those things are much easier said than done. Some students have sports practices until 6 pm and then dinner and then, of course, 4 hours of homework, and all the sudden it's 11 or 12 and you can't sleep because you're stressed and you can't stop thinking about that test you have tomorrow. You finally get to sleep at say, 2 am, and all the sudden that test you have tomorrow becomes that test you have today and you wake up worse off than you were the night before. So maybe you do only get one or two options. But which ones do you choose?