Young
people
feel
stressed
Every day I
hear my
classmates
express
how
stressed
they are,
how much
they have to
do, that
time not
enough.
Stress has
different meanings to each individual and for people of different ages, but
according to a survey by the Swedish national agency for education, two of three
students in secondary schools often feel stressed. Several times a week or every
day is not uncommon.
The students who are keen to do well and
to please their parents, teachers, and last
but not least themselves may count on a
'working day' going on for 10 to 12 hours,
every day of the week. Unfortunately that
is no exaggeration. Our homework doesn’t
end.
Being an "ordinary person" with a "regular
full-time job" means working for about 8
out of 24 hours. When you, tired and worn
out, comes home after yet another
working day most people choose to put
work aside. They separate work from their
personal life, because usually they have
neither time nor inclination to bring work
home.
The 8 hours a working adult spends at his
or her job in a day is not enough in our
world. We can’t put away our "work" when
we come home from a long, hard and
exhausting day. The system expects more
of us.
It would be useful for adults today to live a
week as a high school student. No matter
how much parents and teachers nag about
the fact that they also went to school, and
know just what it is like I am absolutely
convinced that their conception of our
everyday life is so far from the truth as it
can get.
The requirements are not just about
studying. Today's high school youth
should of course have an extra job as well.
"How are you otherwise going to learn to
take responsibility and grow up? It's time
for you to realize how it works in real life."
You must keep up with the outside world,
read newspapers, watch the news etc.
To top it off, we always have to look good
and eat right. Most preferably, should we
work out three to four times a week, to
keep our body in shape and be able to
concentrate during the school days.
As soon as I try to bring out my opinions
of the excessive study requirements, the
answer is 4 out of 5 times "prioritize."
What many adults don’t seem to
understand is the incredible pressure that
is put on us youngsters. If they really want
to prepare us for the adult life is it really
that smart to burn us out completely
before we even had time to turn 20?
Pauline Johansson