Unfortunately, approximately 70%-87% of students are met with academic pressure that weighs down their mental health, according to “The Impact of Stress on Student Mental Health by the Numbers,” written by the Charlie Health Editorial Team. The standardised way of schooling doesn’t just cause bad grades due to not taking in other learning styles, the unhelpful, busy work that doesn’t improve knowledge, and the stressful tests that don’t accurately reflect comprehension. Standardised schooling was created over 100 years ago, and there have been few to no advancements. Standardised schooling is not the best choice for students’ grades or mental health.
Not all students learn the same way, but we are treated the same. Some people learn at a slower pace and fall behind in class faster than others. It’s hard to wrap your head around how other people’s minds work and how they learn. Most commonly, people need detailed directions that aren’t provided and struggle to get started, while other people get quickly overwhelmed by too many instructions. In order to fix this issue of different learning styles, I think classes shouldn’t be sorted randomly, but instead sorted by preferred learning styles. This would increase many students’ grades and decrease stress and other mental health issues caused by school. This major issue can be easily fixed or, at the very least, improved by taking a quick questionnaire before scheduling, on how you prefer to learn, and by a somewhat customised learning style.
The typical school system pushes students’ minds beyond their limits, causing negative impacts on their mental health or self-image. Switching between topic to topic in such a short amount of time, met by useless busywork, isn’t an effective way to learn for your average student. Busy work isn’t a project that helps them work together or a put-together, thought-out method of learning; instead, it’s work that doesn’t strengthen students’ skills and is purely created to keep students busy. It’s a useless burden on students’ shoulders; it simply drains time and effort that could be put into learning new topics or helping them understand the current topic more effectively. With the vast majority of students stressed by schoolwork, the school system should fix this and slow down or instruct students clearly.
Mental health in teenagers seems to spike with upcoming tests and quizzes. Students shouldn’t be marked as valuable based on a number or letter on a piece of paper. The entire grading system crushes students under relentless pressure, often to their breaking point. It’s like trying to dig yourself out of an endless pile of homework, assignments and papers. Miss just one assignment and in the blink of an eye, you’re pulled under like quicksand, sinking deeper with every missed deadline. According to “The influence of academic pressure on adolescents’ problem behaviour,” chain mediating effects of self-control, parent–child conflict, and subjective well-being, their academic failures also make them vulnerable to peer investigation and rejection. This leads to rebellious psychological issues, showing problem behaviour such as hyperactivity and aggression, and even crimes. This quote shows us that these mental health issues that come from academic pressure aren’t just ‘not a big deal’ or students just ‘being dramatic’ and affect the community as well as the students.
If you look at the difference between life 100 years ago and now, almost every single thing has changed or advanced. For example, the difference between phones now and then has astronomical differences, along with cars, computers, cities, construction and many more. Unfortunately, the schooling system has almost no difference and has no advancements that actually improve students’ comprehension. Schools have stayed the same, the everyday schedule of sitting in the same spot every day, no talking, face forward, listen, only talk when told to by the teacher, ask to go to the bathroom, and you get a small break to eat. By continuing along with this standardized type of schooling, from over a century ago, we are putting millions of students at a disadvantage that can truly impact their life path. Some people may think that changing the way of school isn’t preparing young generations for ‘the real world’ but according to Transforming Education, 60% of students are stressed everyday with only 41% of employees are stressed everyday from work. According to “70 workplace stress statistics you need to know in 2024,” work can be flexible and your workplace is chosen meanwhile students are stuck with the same schedule everyday without much of a choice.
