Shawn Ivanovitch
Eng 102/3952
Professor Rodrigo
July 23, 2007
School-time Stress
Stress is something that most people have to cope with on a daily basis, but school seems to add another level of stress that most students have to handle. There are many types of stress that are unique to school, while at the same time some older students have to be able to deal with outside sources that many people already out of school have to cope with also. Positive ways to manage stress can range from easy techniques that require minimal effort to extreme techniques that may be needed to relieve severe stress. Unfortunately, students have dealt with stress in the past with negative to tragic ways. The results of these tragic events also cause even more stress on students. However, while not unique to students, this post traumatic stress adds an additional burden to their daily lives. Most students have had to deal with stress while they attended school. Students and teachers should learn to recognize the signs of their classmates and colleagues being overstressed because there are many different ways to cope with stress, if a negative path is chosen the results can be devastating.
“The American College Health Association cites stress as the number-one impediment to academic performance in its national college health assessment” (Abrams). The main cause of stress to students is the feeling of being overwhelmed. This is mainly due to daunting deadlines and more homework than the student thinks they can handle. There is also a helpless feeling associated with the workload the student is under like no matter how hard he or she tries there is no end to the homework. Another cause of stress, partly associated with homework, is sometimes plans have to be changed due to the student may need to meet deadlines leading to a feeling of being alone. Students can also be pressured by a high academic demand; either by themselves or their parents, leading to stress due to getting grades on their work that is below standard. As the school year moves on it can at times seem like there is no end in sighs causing more anxiety as it seems the winter or summer break will never arrive. With this though another deadline presents in the form of final exams, with some of these exams being a large part of the final grade a student can achieve in the given class. All of these sources of stress seem to build up and cause increasing frustration, but there are some positive ways to handle this stress.
Being educated in some easy and positive ways to relieve stress should be the goal of most students and teachers. Some of them are as simple as taking a power nap, this is also useful because it also improves productivity especially if the student is sleep deprived due to stress. Another method of stress reduction is exercise, as it is a healthy way to calm most people, and easy to work into a busy schedule since riding a stationary bike while studying or something similar is possible. Listening to a music, watching a television program, or reading a book (for enjoyment not school work) are also good ways to cope with the stress and take to help students break tasks into more manageable time frames. Another good way to handle the stress of school life is set some priorities and work at a set pace to accomplish tasks in the order of importance. “Pack a nutritious lunch -- don't make breakfast three cups of coffee and two chocolate doo-wahs out of the vending machines -- eat your veggies” (Glesner Fines). It may sound silly but eating properly is also another good way for students to improve health and to manage stress. In some more extreme cases of stress when it comes down to a person or place causing the problems it may call for some more drastic solutions. Some of these are changing the students schedule as to avoid the cause of stress altogether. Other even more extreme may require the student to change their living arrangement by moving. Finding someone to talk to, such as a friend, family member, or a therapist about what is causing stress is also helpful in some cases. Unfortunately there are also some negative ways students have discovered to handle the stress they are under.
“Stress isn't inherently bad. It causes you to respond to events, to rise to the challenge, and to better yourself. But too much stress can be catastrophic” (Caruso). By catastrophic the author is referring to stress leading to suicide. “The second-leading cause of death in college students is suicide, leading many to believe that high stress levels and anxiety cause students to attempt suicide” (Engar). Some people do contest this as directly being related to stress caused by school especially since more school-aged young adults who are not in school commit suicide than those who are in school, but the reason the number is lower is that school offers a support system for students who are in trouble and can go to seek help. Another negative way to handle stress in recent years has been school violence. These tragic massacres most are prone to point out were just evil acts by evil people and had nothing to do with the stress they were under (Shapiro). While others point out that if someone would have just taken the time to see the stress these students were under something more could have been done to avoid them (Yang). On the other hand people, such as me, believe it is something more in the middle that causes this, while yes these students were under great stress, is it really enough to cause such a tragic event. After such a tragedy as suicide or violence at a school, the post traumatic stress it causes is just more a student as to worry about.
Since no student is effect by stress the same way another student may be it is hard to tell what each person may do under the pressures of school. If students and their teachers learn to recognize the signs of someone under stress these tragedies could be avoided in the future. Things students should look for in their own live are headaches, feeling over anxious or having problems sleeping. Also things you can look for in others are they being bullied at school and look like they are taking it personally. Do they appear to be alone a lot or looking like they may be lonely (Yang)? In conclusion if students and teachers alike learn to look for these warning signs or others tragedies like this can be avoided in the future.
Works Cited:
Abrams, M. (2007) Managing stress in school. The Princeton Review. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from <http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/life/stress>.
Caruso, K. (2007). Suicide and stress. Suicide.org. Retrieved July 14, 2007, from <http://www.suicide.org/suicide-and-stress.html>.
Engar, A. (March 26, 2004). Non-Student suicide rates higher than those in college. The Daily Utah Cronicle. Retrieved July 14, 2007, from <http://media.www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2004/03/26/News/NonStudent.Suicide.Rates.Higher.Than.Those.In.College-642737.shtml>.
Glasner Fines, B. (1999). Law school and stress. University of Missouri. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from <http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/profiles/glesnerfines/bgf-strs.htm>.
Shapiro, B. (April 25, 2007). Virginia Tech was an act of evil not a “tragedy”. Townhall.com. Retrieved July 23, 2007, from <http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BenShapiro/2007/04/25/virginia_tech_was_an_act_of_evil,_not_a_tragedy>.
Yang, B. (2007). A solution for someone like Cho Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech massacre. Health Articles Directory. Retrieved July 15, 2007, from <http://www.know-your-health.com/general-health/a-solution-for-someone-like-cho-seung-hui-at-virginia-tech-massacre.html>.
I also posted this to turnitin.com, it came back with 11% match, 10% was all in quotes while the 1% was in my citations
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