Final on a B Day

It’s a B-day on December 15 so we get to go home at 12:30. No, just kidding— we have a final to take first! Every other year, the schedule has stayed the same: finals are on their own days; we get out at 12 and wait until we take another final the next day

This year, the schedule has had a slight change. The first period final is right after a normal B day schedule, meaning we have three classes until we have to take a stressful final. But, why? The extra time in those classes is pointless and it is only going to stress us out even more.

By the time finals come, classes are pretty much over. We stop learning new material and the only thing left to do is review for the final; review is exactly what we should be focusing on. There is no point in having extra classes before the final to review for a different final than the one we are taking on that day. It makes no sense.

Some people may say that school is trying to help us get more review time for finals. This might be true, but reviewing for three finals before we take a final on a completely different subject is not going to help us at all.

Students study or review for finals in different ways. Teachers may think that they are giving us extra time in class to study for the final, but is there is only so much we can do in class. As students, we all study differently and having a teacher forcing us to study one specific way in not helpful. Some people study better in groups, or with art, or by speaking aloud.

Most of the time, studying at home is more beneficial. The students who review better or with the teacher always have the opportunity to do so. We do not need to school to control our study habits.

Thinking about several finals instead of focusing solely on one is just going to make us more stressed. If we review for three finals before taking the one we are going to be tested for, our minds will overload and we probably won’t do as well on the tested final. Finals are stressful enough on separate days, let alone in addition to three regular classes.

Kyra Fukawa, junior, says, “We want to spend all the time getting ready for the final instead of getting ready for the next B day. It makes no sense whatsoever.”

Priorities come into question. What is more important? The final test that we have been working all semester to ace or an extra 85 minutes of distracting study time?

This year, we got both Columbus Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off. This might be why we are tacking on a final after a B-day schedule. Great! More vacation days! But what is more important? Having Columbus Day off or doing well on our final?

Placing a final after three classes is going to do nothing other than stress us out, as if we aren’t stressed out enough. The schedule should be changed back to the way it was before. There was nothing wrong with the schedule before. Why change something that was fine to begin with?

 

 

Cutting: The Burden of Emotional Stress

On Nov. 8, Demi Lovato, the Disney Channel star most known for her role in Sonny with a Chance, checked herself into a medical center for professional help and therapy to help her deal with eating disorders and cutting. Besides proving how the celebrity world can destroy a person at any age, this also demonstrates that the issue of cutting can affect anyone, even those who least expect it.

KidsHealth.org states, “Injuring yourself on purpose by making scratches or cuts on your body with a sharp object — enough to break the skin and make it bleed — is called cutting.” The act of cutting is a form of self-injury that is used to control emotional pain. It is cutting through one’s skin in common areas of the arms, thighs, wrists and/or even hips. It is important to know that cutting is not a suicide attempt. Self-injury may feel like a way of “waking up” from a sense of numbness after a traumatic experience.

The average age of beginner cutters is between ages 11 to 14, and it is reported that girls do it more than boys. Statistics show that about 1% of the population of the United States cuts.

These practices of cutting have been going on for decades if not centuries, but it has become less secretive in the past two decades. One of Presentation’s guidance counselors, Ms. Schrader, noted, “Cutting, in the past few years, has become the new anorexia and is used as a way for students to feel relief over ‘gaining control’ of situations.”

Once the compulsion to cut is acted upon enough times, it can become a compulsive behavior, just like any bad habit. Usually, when someone is that anxious and stressed, the cutting creates a “high” and certain rush that makes the act addictive. The addiction can happen to anyone, even the least expected.

Veronica* student said, “My friend cut because she never talked about her feelings and needed release, but no one could expect it of her because she was a 4.8 student and a top soccer player. Stress just took over.”

At times, people cut to fit in. Teenagers and young adults have often behaved in ways that they believe will make them popular and fit in, such as drinking and smoking, but now cutting has made that list.

Yes, cutting has become a factor in our society today, but has it affected Presentation? Ms. Schrader believes that it has. “There are a lot of factors to the blanket of stress that leads anyone to cutting, and I think college, technology and expectations play big roles, especially in Presentation.”

Ms. Schrader handles students who have cut or are thinking about cutting by referring them to outside counseling. She calls parents if the student does not want to face them herself because a common symptom of cutting is shame. Ms. Schrader says, “I will not bring up the cutting or why the student wants or needs the outside therapy unless the student asks me to.”

There are common signs of cutters to watch out for. These signs are not always the case of the classic cutter because cutting affects all people. If someone starts wearing long sleeve shirts or many bracelets, talk to them.

Anyone can give into the thought of cutting because it is not a thought-out process; it is an impulse brought on by extravagant emotional pain or stress, yearning to be shown. Cutting is brought on by emotions such as anger, hurt, shame, frustration or alienation. When these emotions aren’t expressed in a healthy manner, tension can be built up and eventually make a person snap.

Most importantly, if you are worried that one of your friends is cutting or if you are cutting secretly, please follow TeensHealth’s to-do list: talk to someone, figure out what emotion is triggering the cutting, ask for help and work on it. Once one is a cutter, she will always be a cutter because relapses can happen.

Veronica* says in order to remind Presentation, “Relapses do happen, especially in times of intense stress, so watch for your friends and yourself.”

Ms. Schrader finds out about most of the cutting at Presentation from the cutter’s friend who has come to her stating that they are worried and concerned for their classmate. Cutting usually comes about because of an underlying reason.

Velma*, “There is a huge misconception in cutting in that it is done for attention, but really it isn’t. When I found out my friend was cutting, I thought she was being dramatic, but it turns out that she really did believe she needed to be punished.”

No one can force someone who self-injures to stop by getting angry and lecturing them on how wrong self-inflicted pain is. Instead, letting a friend know you care and telling them that they deserve to be happy is more successful.

Overall, a new coping method is necessary because the act of cutting is very unhealthy, and if one damages their body, they degrade it. One way to help fight against this self-damaging act is writing “Love” on the wrist, like in the picture provided. It has been done throughout the world to spread awareness.

*Names have been changed

Less Stress, No Mess

By now, we know that too much stress is bad for our health and that we need to reduce stress in our daily lives. But how? Students, teachers, and parents all contribute to significant amount of stress in students’ lives. Here are some ways our community as a whole, not just students, can reduce stress in schools.

Teachers

Teachers may want to consider having meetings every month or so to coordinate better on major assignments so they’re not all due the same day. Maybe switching off each unit between the departments would help space out and even the assignments all due in the week so that students aren’t trying to cram it all in.

Another thing teachers can reconsider is the fact that sometimes we don’t need to have a test, paper and a project all in one unit. Maybe reconsidering and switching off between unit exams and large research papers each unit would reduce the amount of stress each student goes through. Remember: most students also have six other classes that they need to worry about too!

An easy adjustment, but a huge difference, could be reducing the number of problems in math and reducing the number of book pages needed to be read in English classes. Reading more than four chapters in a book each night is unrealistic, and this only results in the students feeling like they are forced to use websites like Spark Notes. For math teachers, sometimes there may be only a few problems for homework, but some problems can more than ten minutes, and each problem takes up half a page! Especially if a student is struggling in a certain area, homework will take twice as long because of the constant referral to notes and the time it take to get through homework. If teachers remembered the time spent on each problem on each assignment, or the amount of time it actually takes to get through huge novels, it might be a good idea to ease up. Pres girls have six, sometimes seven classes to keep up with and the stress levels we all have cannot be contained.

Students

Listen to Music—Play your favorite song and sing along. This is a great way to relieve your stress. Just start blasting Lady GaGa and dance along like nobody is watching. Dancing pumps up the amount of endorphins in your brain, causing you to feel good. Who would feel angry after listening to Bad Romance?

Go for a Walk—This allows you to have some relaxing alone-time away from the stress of daily life. It gives you exercise and time to clear your mind and think about what is bothering you; the fresh air will make you feel more relaxed. So the next time you are free during collaboration, take a walk by yourself or with a group of friends. Either way, you’d be away from school and stress for at least an hour.

Time management— Use your planner to keep track of all of your homework assignments. As you finish each assignment, you feel accomplished when you check them off. And you know what work needs to be done.

Do your work earlier rather than later. Many kids stay up until odd hours trying to do their homework. Try to get it done earlier, or maybe use your free period or collaboration time. The later you do you work, the shorter your attention span becomes. Doing homework in the morning is actually more efficient because you are alert and awake rather than sleepy.

Sleep—Our speaker said that teenagers need nine hours of sleep. This is really hard, considering how much homework we get at Pres (half-an-hour homework policy? Really?). But this goes along with managing your time better. Do not let your homework pile up. Sort out your priorities—what is more important: checking your Facebook or studying? This way, you won’t waste your time with activities that are less important, and you’ll have more time to sleep.

Take breaks—Schedule short breaks throughout your day to reduce stress. Stretch, read a book, call a friend, or go for a walk. This refreshes your mind and will give you a break from constant studying. This can be the time you check your Facebook; but make sure to get back to doing your homework soon!

Think positively—You need to be optimistic. Focusing on the negative will only bring you down. Do not think about that Econ paper you have to write or how you failed that Pre-Calc test. Instead, try to focus on what you have finished so far. Tackle each assignment one at a time and think about how efficient you are with managing your time.

Parents

Students stress themselves out enough on their own with the constant worry of college. Now, even freshmen in high school are beginning to feel the pressure of having perfect grades all four years. Parents, do not typically help the problem either. The constant talk about college at home makes students feel even more pressure than they already do, which is detrimental to student health because the home should be a stress-free environment. “I know parents who have straight A students that constantly check Parent Connect every day,” said junior Jennifer O’Brien. “The students feel that they need to try harder when they have enough stress already.” Also, parents need to understand that where their daughter attends college is unrelated to their success as a parent. “College should be a decision based on personal interest and success, not parent interest and success,” said O’Brien. Overall, limiting the amount of conversation time spent discussing college is a great way parents can help their children be less stressed and enjoy high school.

Discussing college on a regular basis isn’t the only thing parents discuss too much; the same goes for grades. There are many parents who regularly, even daily, check Parent Connect. “My mother checks Parent Connect almost every day. Having one bad grade or missing assignment can determine if I am allowed to go out that weekend,” said senior Cece Franchi. Living in this world of constant stress and punishment will result in students losing confidence and being unhappy with their academic and social lives. It is important that parents recognize that this academic monitoring of their daughter is not helpful in the end.

Another factor of parent-related stress is competition. Students typically aim to be their best and when a student has the lowest grades among their friends, it can create lots of stress in the form of unspoken competition between friends. Parents add to this type of stress by comparing their child to other students. “I haven’t personally experienced this at home, but attending Presentation has allowed me to see the stress this kind of comparison can put on friendships and none of it is healthy,” said senior Lauren Lane. “It is sad to see because it makes students feel so insecure about themselves.” This competition and insecurity is something extremely harmful to the well-being of students that can easily be avoided. Not comparing their daughter to other students is a step in the right direction that parents can take in order to reduce their child’s stress.

One extremely significant way that parents can limit the stress their daughter feels during high school is to let their child have the freedom to make her own choices with college and careers. Otherwise, parents can cause immense amounts of stress on students. “Stress is definitely caused by the topic of careers. Not necessarily meaning what a student wants to do with their life, but what they are forced into doing because it makes money,” said O’Brien. “Parents focus too much on what pays well and therefore force their child into that field.”

Teachers, parents, and students: please take these suggestions to heart. Stress is a result of many different factors—peer pressure, parent pressure, teachers’ expectations, college. To effectively address the problem of stress in schools, a global solution is necessary. Parents and teachers both need to realize that we are all part of the problem, and we all need to be part of the solution.

Less Stress, No Mess

By now, we know that too much stress is bad for our health and that we need to reduce stress in our daily lives. But how? Students, teachers, and parents all contribute to significant amount of stress in students’ lives. Here are some ways our community as a whole, not just students, can reduce stress in schools.

Teachers

Teachers may want to consider having meetings every month or so to coordinate better on major assignments so they’re not all due the same day. Maybe switching off each unit between the departments would help space out and even the assignments all due in the week so that students aren’t trying to cram it all in.

Another thing teachers can reconsider is the fact that sometimes we don’t need to have a test, paper and a project all in one unit. Maybe reconsidering and switching off between unit exams and large research papers each unit would reduce the amount of stress each student goes through. Remember: most students also have six other classes that they need to worry about too!

An easy adjustment, but a huge difference, could be reducing the number of problems in math and reducing the number of book pages needed to be read in English classes. Reading more than four chapters in a book each night is unrealistic, and this only results in the students feeling like they are forced to use websites like Spark Notes. For math teachers, sometimes there may be only a few problems for homework, but some problems can more than ten minutes, and each problem takes up half a page! Especially if a student is struggling in a certain area, homework will take twice as long because of the constant referral to notes and the time it take to get through homework. If teachers remembered the time spent on each problem on each assignment, or the amount of time it actually takes to get through huge novels, it might be a good idea to ease up. Pres girls have six, sometimes seven classes to keep up with and the stress levels we all have cannot be contained.

Students

Listen to Music—Play your favorite song and sing along. This is a great way to relieve your stress. Just start blasting Lady GaGa and dance along like nobody is watching. Dancing pumps up the amount of endorphins in your brain, causing you to feel good. Who would feel angry after listening to Bad Romance?

Go for a Walk—This allows you to have some relaxing alone-time away from the stress of daily life. It gives you exercise and time to clear your mind and think about what is bothering you; the fresh air will make you feel more relaxed. So the next time you are free during collaboration, take a walk by yourself or with a group of friends. Either way, you’d be away from school and stress for at least an hour.

Time management— Use your planner to keep track of all of your homework assignments. As you finish each assignment, you feel accomplished when you check them off. And you know what work needs to be done.

Do your work earlier rather than later. Many kids stay up until odd hours trying to do their homework. Try to get it done earlier, or maybe use your free period or collaboration time. The later you do you work, the shorter your attention span becomes. Doing homework in the morning is actually more efficient because you are alert and awake rather than sleepy.

Sleep—Our speaker said that teenagers need nine hours of sleep. This is really hard, considering how much homework we get at Pres (half-an-hour homework policy? Really?). But this goes along with managing your time better. Do not let your homework pile up. Sort out your priorities—what is more important: checking your Facebook or studying? This way, you won’t waste your time with activities that are less important, and you’ll have more time to sleep.

Take breaks—Schedule short breaks throughout your day to reduce stress. Stretch, read a book, call a friend, or go for a walk. This refreshes your mind and will give you a break from constant studying. This can be the time you check your Facebook; but make sure to get back to doing your homework soon!

Think positively—You need to be optimistic. Focusing on the negative will only bring you down. Do not think about that Econ paper you have to write or how you failed that Pre-Calc test. Instead, try to focus on what you have finished so far. Tackle each assignment one at a time and think about how efficient you are with managing your time.

Parents

Students stress themselves out enough on their own with the constant worry of college. Now, even freshmen in high school are beginning to feel the pressure of having perfect grades all four years. Parents, do not typically help the problem either. The constant talk about college at home makes students feel even more pressure than they already do, which is detrimental to student health because the home should be a stress-free environment. “I know parents who have straight A students that constantly check Parent Connect every day,” said junior Jennifer O’Brien. “The students feel that they need to try harder when they have enough stress already.” Also, parents need to understand that where their daughter attends college is unrelated to their success as a parent. “College should be a decision based on personal interest and success, not parent interest and success,” said O’Brien. Overall, limiting the amount of conversation time spent discussing college is a great way parents can help their children be less stressed and enjoy high school.

Discussing college on a regular basis isn’t the only thing parents discuss too much; the same goes for grades. There are many parents who regularly, even daily, check Parent Connect. “My mother checks Parent Connect almost every day. Having one bad grade or missing assignment can determine if I am allowed to go out that weekend,” said senior Cece Franchi. Living in this world of constant stress and punishment will result in students losing confidence and being unhappy with their academic and social lives. It is important that parents recognize that this academic monitoring of their daughter is not helpful in the end.

Another factor of parent-related stress is competition. Students typically aim to be their best and when a student has the lowest grades among their friends, it can create lots of stress in the form of unspoken competition between friends. Parents add to this type of stress by comparing their child to other students. “I haven’t personally experienced this at home, but attending Presentation has allowed me to see the stress this kind of comparison can put on friendships and none of it is healthy,” said senior Lauren Lane. “It is sad to see because it makes students feel so insecure about themselves.” This competition and insecurity is something extremely harmful to the well-being of students that can easily be avoided. Not comparing their daughter to other students is a step in the right direction that parents can take in order to reduce their child’s stress.

One extremely significant way that parents can limit the stress their daughter feels during high school is to let their child have the freedom to make her own choices with college and careers. Otherwise, parents can cause immense amounts of stress on students. “Stress is definitely caused by the topic of careers. Not necessarily meaning what a student wants to do with their life, but what they are forced into doing because it makes money,” said O’Brien. “Parents focus too much on what pays well and therefore force their child into that field.”

Teachers, parents, and students: please take these suggestions to heart. Stress is a result of many different factors—peer pressure, parent pressure, teachers’ expectations, college. To effectively address the problem of stress in schools, a global solution is necessary. Parents and teachers both need to realize that we are all part of the problem, and we all need to be part of the solution.

Denise Pope Offers Hope

On Wednesday, March 25, Presentation’s administration organized a special mandatory collaboration in order to accommodate a guest speaker: Dr. Denise Pope. Pope is a senior lecturer at Stanford University and the author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students. Pope spoke to an all-school assembly of stressed-out students about the solutions and attitudes that students can adopt for the purpose of combating stress and its dangerous side-effects.

More than 30 percent of high school students do more than 3.5 hours of homework each night and, on average, high school students participate in 10.31 hours of extracurricular activities each week (not including time for transportation) according to Pope’s studies and research. Meanwhile, 9.5 hours of sleep is mandatory for the physical and mental development that is essential for teenagers. High school students get an average of 6.81 hours of sleep each night and Pope claims that they are more likely to get sick and will require more time to recover from an illness.

However, in a college preparatory school such as Presentation, students complained that this recommended sleep schedule is rather difficult to follow. “Dr. Pope set unrealistic expectations for students at Pres,” said senior Grace Armstrong. With tough classes, over-booked schedules, and even more over-bearing parents, getting the recommended amount of sleep while still succeeding in everything can be difficult to manage.

In recent years, growing trends have shown that many students go to school not to learn, but to get good grades for “survival,” according to a study in which Pope shadowed five successful high school students for a year. The weighty levels of stress many high school students experience is caused by an effort to have a successful future: to get accepted into top colleges, get a good-paying job, and then start having a social life. Still, with the severe levels of stress that high school students face, it has become more difficult for students to bounce back emotionally after bad things happen: for example, college rejections.

Pope’s studies have produced some startling results concerning stress levels and symptoms, especially for high school female students. 62 percent of high school females suffer from headaches, 64 percent have difficulty sleeping, and 28 percent have stomach problems. In order to counter these detrimental effects from students, Pope has already begun an effort to promote healthy attitudes and reduce stress.

Pope is a co-founder of Challenge Success, a Stanford University project geared towards “fostering health, engagement, and integrity” among students by conducting studies from 13 high-achieving schools and providing solutions to alleviate the causes of stress.

In this program, Stanford has requested that the represented schools take steps to examine the proportions of students’ time usage in respect to the hours spent on homework, studying and other school activities. Next, the schools are recommended to alter types of assessments to foster more stimulating forms of learning and bring out the student voice, instead of relying on student evaluation based on written tests. New counseling and advising services are encouraged in these high-stress schools because it is clear to Stanford that the students need someone to talk to. Finally, Stanford hopes to make progress in educating parents and students about easing the academic tension in their home lives to reduce stress.

Through careful observation of teenagers and their stress on a day-to-day basis, Pope provides some solutions for students to tackle high levels of stress in their busy schedules. She calls students to stop and reflect on the important things in life by defining success on an individual level.

Pope also expresses the importance of avoiding over-scheduling, and to always factor in playtime, family time, and downtime (PDF) into students’ daily schedules. She encourages students to focus on engagement and integrity; students should try to find their own interests in education – not just go through the motions of filling in the bubbles on tests or copying homework answers from friends. Unplugging from the media, though very difficult for many teenagers, is a valuable resource in efficient work habits. Pope encourages students to make good choices for their physical health and mental well-being, in addition to resisting peer pressure.

Pope hopes to disabuse some of the more prominent “college myths” that contribute to high levels of anxiety. She emphasized that there are many paths to success in life, and it is more important that students focus on finding the perfect college “match” instead of aiming to get into “brand-name” schools. One of her examples elaborated on the path of a Stanford student that did not initially get accepted to their dream college, but ended up at Stanford anyway even though it wasn’t right out of high school. She also advises students to alleviate some stress among friends and family by establishing “college-free zones” in the cases where college unnecessarily dominates students’ thoughts and conversations. Also, Pope encourages students to consider other options, such as the gap year, which she says does positively affect the richness of a student’s college application.

Some of these ideas took root in a different way in the minds of some of the freshmen and sophomores. Freshman Isabelle Polito said that it was nice knowing that she didn’t have to begin stressing out about college now.

Pope suggested that an option for students to make more time in their schedules is to drop either honors courses and academic achievement, or extracurricular activities. Many high schools students are not willing to take either path. According to junior Natasha Sosa, being in regular classes isn’t challenging enough and the curriculum is often more boring compared to the honors or AP counterpart of the class.

Non-AP students also struggled with Pope’s suggestion. Senior Michelle Sisto said, “The solutions declared throughout the lecture didn’t apply to me. I don’t take honors and AP classes, so there’s nothing for me to drop.”

Pope asserts that students can’t just hope that life is going to get better in the future, because life starts right now. Students need to alter their outlook and attitude, because if they don’t, they’ll miss out on the best years of their lives.

All Stars On and Off the Field

We often find it difficult to listen to the wisdom of elders, teachers and parents. We would rather drown them out with iPods and remixes of the latest and most popular music than listen to the trite spiels discussing educational values. But sports give off a different effect. Sports often teach students lessons and skills without the 60-minute lecture attached. Student athletes learn to budget their time, collaborate with others and take responsibility for their actions.
“My academic life revolves around my planner,” said junior Emily Wolf who plays field hockey for Presentation. Involvement in sports forces students to take their work seriously, allotting time in their evening routine for papers, projects, reading assignments and last minute cramming. The lack of excess time after school often minimizes the amount of time students waste lurking on Facebook or vegging out on the sofa. In fact, according to a study at Marietta College, student athletes performed better during season than out of season. Optimal GPAs were achieved following regularly scheduled practices, games and work out sessions.
Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, said, “It’s not just that the people who are going to do well in life play sports, but that sports help people do better in life,” she said, adding, “While I only show this for girls, it’s reasonable to believe it’s true for boys as well,” following an extensive study on sports participation and educational achievement.
Sports teach athletes long-term skills and assets needed for success in the real world. It promotes and indirectly emphasizes team building, leadership, endurance, positivity, problem solving, creativity and the ability to read others. Athletes are expected to envision the field or area of play through strategic analysis and accurate body positioning. Athletes must learn to work well with others in order to achieve a greater goal, mediating disputes and reconciling differences. This is the key to team cohesion and ultimately success.
The emergence of team solidarity develops through the ties of friendship and sisterhood. Friendship, more so than any score or trophy, is a lasting testimony to the success of any team. Friends are tangible memories, serving as the legacy of the team and its accomplishments. “Friends become family,” said sophomore Kayla Bose who plays varsity basketball. While knees, joints, and other body parts may give out over time, bearing the scars of a dedicated athlete, friends will last forever.

Spending time out on the field is also said to relieve stress and the burden of excessive amounts of homework. According to an article by Joseph Plazo of StressLive.Com, “It’s imperative to partake in physical exercise because inspiring the body refreshes the mind. Our brain requires activity by the rest of our body in order to regenerate the senses and enhance performance.” Exercise is an essential component of mental and physical help, much like sleeping and eating. Junior and golfer Jessie Walsh said, “Sports is an outlet for stress. It gets your mind off school.”
For many Presentation students, dedication to both sports and academics is a testament to their willingness to balance their lives in order to learn lifelong skills, forge bonds of friendship, and relieve stress on the court, field, diamond, green, track, or wherever their sport takes them. Despite the struggles of the daily balancing act, many students find involvement in sports rewarding. For some, it boosts self-esteem and confidence along with lasting implications for their future.

Sports are teachers without white boards, tests without grades, and homework assignments without point values. Athletes are evaluated by their ability to work with others, make progress, and think logically. It’s not about whether you make the grade; it’s about learning from mistakes and taking away the greater message.