The place where I feel the most insecure is in a room full of desks with students clicking away on keyboards as I try to type even faster. I feel the competition build as I try to write a longer paragraph than my classmate next to me. The classroom turns us all into rivals, and we each compete hopelessly to try and earn first place.
Each one of us wants to get the highest grade and give the smartest answer to each question. I find this constant competition exhausting. I belittle myself every time I don’t get as good of a score as my classmates. The constant pressure to not only succeed in classes, but be the best student in the room causes students like me to feel ashamed and insecure.
Pushing ourselves academically should be positive, but I’ve found that for many of us, our relationship with school has become toxic. The competition within the classroom feels suffocating. Many of us attribute our self worth to our grades, which becomes damaging and draining quickly.
Constant stress is way too normalized for teens. According to Transforming Education, 30% of American teenagers report feeling sad or depressed due to excessive academic pressure.
As students, we are expected to show up to class, do our work, and then go home and do more work. According to Transforming Education, statistics show that high school students spend at least two hours a day on homework.
To put it into perspective, most students spend seven hours at school and then two hours participating in extracurriculars. That’s 11 out of 24 hours a day including homework. It’s clear why this stress is overwhelming for many of us.
As you wonder why you aren’t as good of a student as the person who sits next to you in math class, I want you to remember they’re probably struggling with the same exact stress as you. While I
don’t think it’s possible to lower the amount of time we spend on school and work for many of us, do think we can help each other.
Let’s stop making the classroom a constant competition. We can help when someone’s stuck on a problem, discuss ideas for projects, and give each other our study tips. If we stop making the classroom cutthroat, I guarantee many of us will feel much more comfortable and much less stressed at school.
