Students are Suffering 

It’s not a secret that 2020 has been all-around a terrible year, but students have been affected the most. Finishing school last year in March, then starting again in September is a huge gap in their learning, and teachers and parents expect them to be able to handle it all. Not only was there a 6-month gap in between school, but also they started the year entirely online. Being expected to stay motivated to do all of your schoolwork at home when there are tons of distractions is difficult. Students would often just put everything off till the last minute or just not do it at all which tremendously affects their mental health as well.

“My mental health got worse when school started, and I think it’s because teachers would give out a lot of work. It’s really hard to learn over zoom so overall I was stressed all the time,” anonymous said.

At this point, no one is learning anything. It all becomes a blur as the days just mix into one. The way “school” has gone even before this year is oblivious. 

Teachers, parents, and doctors preach to us about getting enough rest. Teenagers need about 8-10 hours each night. School usually starts at 8, but right now it starts at 7:45. That means to get the 8 hours of rest you would need to go to bed by 12 am at the latest, but with teachers piling up homework and expecting everything to be done by the next class period as if their class is the only one they have, that keeps kids up all night. 

[Studying for tests, stressed about a homework assignment they didn’t get done, trying to think if they will be able to pass a class, and then they eventually give up.] But teachers, parents, and doctors will blame the students for staying up too late on their phones, or that they were with their friends when in reality, they were just trying to get work done and not get labeled as a failure for the rest of the year. 

Kids shouldn’t have to choose between sleep and passing a class. They should be given enough time to get those 8-10 hours of sleep comfortably and get their work done. When students don’t get enough rest they become less motivated and productive during the school day. They begin to fall asleep in class, fail tests, not participate in class, and just feel hopeless all around. 

The way school is structured is completely unrealistic. Either way, the kids lose. You would think 8 hours at school a day for 5 days a week would be enough time for teachers to give us time after school to relax. Some people work 8 hours for 5 days a week and then they’re done for the weekend, but students have to spend all night and weekend studying and completing assignments. There is no reason why students should have to spend every waking hour focusing on school. Something needs to change within the school system before it’s too late for students and they become stuck in this world not knowing how to do basic tasks or they are forced to learn on their own.

“I’ve never been a very big school person. School has never come easy to me, but in four years I’m going to be an adult and I don’t know how to do taxes, or change a tire, or things I should know in life. Instead, I know how to graph a line and I know what happened 200 years ago,” Erin Callewaert said.

Students deserve to go into school feeling rested, calm, and safe. Instead, they walk in with a couple of hours of sleep, full of fear, and anxiety taking over their bodies. Being a teenager in 2021 means worrying about school shootings, depression, being a disappointment to everyone, and making others happy. These students are falling apart but they act fine. They act like everything in their lives is perfect just to avoid attention from others. They convince everyone around them that they’re okay when in reality this generation is slipping away and if something doesn’t change for them then students will never be motivated to do anything in life.

“I also lost motivation for all the things I love doing, and mostly spend my days in my bed watching Netflix. I can understand and acknowledge that laying around also isn’t good for mental health, but when I think about that I feel ashamed and the cycle starts over again,” anonymous said.

The slide shows teachers show them in class thinking that will actually help someone is insulting. It’s making it seem like such a small problem. They tell them to go talk to their counselors about it, but then they will make you feel like your feelings aren’t valid and there’s nothing wrong with you. Adults are the worst people to talk to about your own mental health because they didn’t grow up like this. Being a kid now is a lot different than it used to be. When our parents and teachers were in high school, they didn’t have to worry about suicide as much or school shootings or simply just walking home from school alone. They were happy and we are disappearing. When we were little, we were happy, full of life, and had so much faith in the world. As we grew up, we saw the world for what it really is.

“I feel like talking to teachers makes it worse because I already have things going on in my life like every other teenager and talking to teachers stresses me out about all the homework, tests, and projects that I am not prepared for,” Merelyn Acosta-Dubon said. 

School is supposed to be a place for kids to learn while still having fun, instead, these kids are depressed, afraid, anxious, and feel so incredibly lonely. These kids are filled with stress. Assignments are due at 11:59 pm with no late credit available. They don’t turn in one assignment and they fail the class. Stress like that is what causes students to burn out. They quit caring about grades, they quit caring about their future, and they quit caring about their life. Maybe as children school was fun, but as we get older we lose passion for doing good, we lose our will to try, and by the time we are in high school, we are walking corpses who are just trying to get through the day.

“The school year has drained my mental stability and I keep finding myself having some dark days. I am a person that relies heavily on a set schedule and the back and forth and the uncertainties that came with this year have knocked me off my roster. I started seeing a therapist in December and she diagnosed me with anxiety and depression.,” anonymous said.