Our children are stressed out by an educational system that actually uses stress as an educational technique. It’s a constant pressure of homework deadlines, essays and exams. And our children are told at a young age that failing a test means that they are failures in life. They’ll never amount to much if they don’t pass this or that exam. Our educational system is based on a very Western idea that life is a struggle and you better measure up. It’s survival of the fittest. While there is some truth to this, not as much as people think, this approach means that young people are constantly under stress. It is even implied that you are stupid if you don’t fit into the modern educational mold. Which is completely false. Even Albert Einstein, one of the smartest people who ever lived, said that, although he did learn some things, it took him years to recover from his education.
Our ancestors didn’t evolve in a constant stress environment. Back then, stress came quickly and was over quickly, it didn’t grind on and on like the stress of modern education. Stress was originally just a short term biological response to danger, however the constant stress of modern education rarely lets up. It’s long term, at least ten years and usually more. Prolonged stress can overload the brain with cortisol; this is a chemical that promotes impulsive and reactive thinking designed to get the individual out of danger.
Recent research has shown that the neurological/chemical response to stress is the same response that is found in depression. It appears that depression may very well be a stress response that has simply gone on too long.
So, what’s the solution? A number have been proposed, including but not limited to the following.
1. Make sure that kids get exercise.
Exercise expends energy that would otherwise build up in the stress response and could cause physical and mental problems.
2. Teach relaxation exercises.
Allowing the mind and body to relax cuts off the stress response and reduces the neurological fatigue that constant stress induces, enabling the individual to recover at least somewhat.
3. Paying attention to thinking.
The Buddhists would call this mindfulness and the fancy Western term is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It’s simply training the stressed out student to pay attention to his or her own mind to a point where he or she is sufficiently aware to shut off the stress response when necessary.
Of course, there’s a logical answer to the problem. Just rearrange our teaching methods to encourage, rather than suppress, the natural curiosity and joy in learning that we are all born with. This would eliminate the stress and probably cut learning time in half. Now there’s an idea!
Parenting viewpoints from parents in the trenches, because parenting doesn’t come with a manual. In addition to
Excellent advice. I definitely think there is too much pressure in the school. My son is only in grade 2 and last year he was stockpiled with homework. This year, his teacher (who has a son in grade 4 herself), doesn’t push a lot of homework. She says that she knows what it’s like with working parents and what a burden homework can be, so aside from readers, she doesn’t assign a lot of homework. I think her attitude in both healthy and helpful. Last year, my son would be cranky, not want to do homework etc. I was concerned that he was being turned off school work and only in grade 1! This year, however, it’s a completely different story. He is eager to be off to school in the morning and has no issues about doing his reader. Report card also shows a big improvement in social skills development (joining the group, being a leader etc), than it did last year, which I personally think is because there is less stress in the classroom.
I have found that a bit of early morning exercise does wonders. Since I started walking with my kids to school, they have shown a remarkable improvement. Not only are they easier to get out the door in the morning, but both of their teachers have said they are more “settled” in the classroom. Whenever possible, we try to walk both to and from school, which is about 15 minutes each way. Homework is less of a struggle and they tend to be less crabby when we get home. I think they need to burn off the energy and a good walk seems to put them in their happy place. My kids are still young (4 & 7), but I think this habit will stick with us as part of our family routine for as long as we possibly can.
Sarah,
You are absolutely right. Outdoor exercise causes brain to release opioid compounds such as endorphin, which is commonly known as mood-boosting neurotransmitter. Research shows that increased levels of endorphin are correlated with better information acquisition and processing speeds, so your kids will not only feel better at school, they will also learn new material with less effort.
Good to know! Will have to pass this along to my friends as proof I had a smart-mom moment.
I agree completely with your last solution, change the way teaching is done. I am fortunate that my child had a fabulous kindergarten teacher who really gets excited when she sees children learning something. Unfortunately, from in the years following, the experience wasn’t so good. When it comes to the school system it’s not just the students who are stressed out, but there is just as much demand and pressure on the teachers to push students to excel. The entire system needs to be overhauled, since more and more students are now being tested by fretful parents for everything from learning disabilities to autism if the child does not meet the extremely high standards required for the classroom.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that standards will soften any time soon, so the best we can do as parents is teach our children to cope with the pressures of school, peers, competition, while still working to give them time to be kids.
I agree with you that our entire educational system needs a conceptual change. The main reason for it is that the model of information acquisition has changed dramatically in the past 10 years: information access has become so easy with Internet that children are no longer ready or capable of putting efforts in traditional ways of learning as taught at school. The problem is that when our brain gets “rewired” to a particular mode (as done by fact-paced video games or easy access to information) it is very hard to switch back. I recently read very interesting book by Louis Cozolino that is called “The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment and Learning in the Classroom”. This book argues that our entire educational system is founded on principles that totally contradict latest neuropsychology findings.
Yes, schools now use stress as one of the tools to teach. Sadly, this often follows into the workplace as well, which is why we are seeing so many stress disorders and depression in the workplace. If the school system wants to use stress based learning, they should include mental health education along with the phys ed curriculum. Instead, we are sending young people out into the world with an idea that they must be the best, and no proper skills to handle stress, anxiety and so on. Mental health is finally gaining recognition as a legitimate cause for concern. Hopefully, the next generation will see more discussions in the classroom, right up there with eating healthy foods and getting exercise, as part of a person’s overall well being. Until then, parents must be diligent to watch for changes in behaviour. Sliding grades, inability to concentrate on homework, withdrawal from peers, oversleeping or other unusual behaviour that might indicate the child is having mental/emotional struggles. Seek help right away. Better to feel silly because it turns out to be nothing, than to risk your child getting worse and possibly harming themselves or turning to drugs and alcohol for comfort.
Hi Robert, thanks for visiting and reviewing my article. I totally agree with your points and I hope that we will see changes that you are talking about within our lifetime 🙂
BTW, I greatly enjoy reading your blog, please keep it going. Loved your last article on brain plasticity 🙂
Yes, I also see that education has become a source of stress for children. Mountains of homework and daily requirements often leaves them tired at the end of the day. No more time for play and other lessons. A child intellectually grows more if they are exposed to things like play and exercise.