ok, so, completely randomly i was reading up about how school causes depression and anxiety in kids and teenagers, and I found this article (i’ll link it below), and at first I was like,
“oh, wow! Cool! It seems like they’re actually gonna explain why the school system works so horribly!”
And then, not even done with the summary, it says;
“In order to counteract adolescent depression in schools and the resulting stigma, teens and parents need to be educated about mental health. Thus, they will be better equipped to help others, offer support, and even save lives.”
And, while this is true, it totally ignores the fact that the schools are causing these problems in the first place.
It’s not the kid’s or parent’s fault that school is making them depressed.
And it gets worse throughout the article, blaming kid’s cellphones and being “too protected” as reasons why they’re experiencing problems in school. While the article does list some reasons that could contribute to a teenager’s depression, it completely ignores the pressure put on the kids by the schools and parents.
The article even mentions that 50% of teens feel like they’re addicted to their smartphones, without acknowledging the fact that most teens use their cellphones as ways of socialization, or even using them as coping mechanisms. Then, not even a paragraph later, the article says;
“Ultimately, the focus on screens and social media causes damage to relationships, education, and extracurricular activities. Thus, it can contribute to teen depression, as well as ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and anxiety.”
Again, let me remind you what this article was supposed to be about;
“adolescent depression in schools”
The article basically then goes on to blame it all on cellphones, peer pressure, and bullying.
(this is turning into a rant, sorry)
They mention a project where a group of adults, posing as teens, went undercover in a highschool to learn what it’s like to be a teenager. And while I think this is a start to understanding teens, they only collected information about the social pressures of the highschool community. They also mentioned how the adults took classes with the teens, which doesn’t make sense. Of course, while it is important to observe the classroom atmosphere, they adults have already learned a lot of the stuff the classes are teaching. They also didn’t take into account the fact that kids had lives outside of school or things they didn’t feel comfortable sharing that could attribute to mental illness. I’ve actually noticed this a lot, when adults try to figure out why teens are doing so badly with their mental health, they immediately look at their social lives. I might be slightly biased, but I’m under the assumption that most of the problems are caused by the school and education system itself, not the kids social life (or lack thereof).
Schools in America nowadays are more focused on profit and reputation then kids’ mental and even physical health. If you don’t think this is true, look up the statistics for what schools tend to spend their money on, how many fundraisers schools have, and what kids are eating in their school lunches.
Along with that, students face intense amounts of pressure from parents to get good grades and do well academically. While it is important that they’re learning, parent’s tactics tend to be abusive and uncaring, such as taking away devices and threatening teens with things like taking away their food and shelter, which, if you can imagine, isn’t going to help the kid do better in school. Tactics like these just cause even more stress, making school harder. Not to mention, most times that help is offered to the kids, it’s not necessarily benefited from. Like, for example, when parents try to help their kids with schoolwork, they tend to get frustrated if the kid doesn’t understand. A lot of children and teens are empathetic enough to realize that the adult is getting frustrated, which can make them feel guilty. Even worse, some parents will get so angry that they yell at their kids, accusing them of not paying attention in class, or not caring about their education, when in reality the information is delivered in a way that is too hard to process or just straight up not understandable. Teens might also be offered to study with a tutor, which, though it can genuinely help with improving grades, doesn’t solve the problems that were most likely there in the first place, like the extreme stress and anxiety. Furthermore, teenagers are basically taught that they only need to memorize information long enough to take a test, and not to retain it. Adding onto this, is the stress of knowing that they will soon have to basically decide their future, by choosing what to study and what college to go to. Not to mention all of the political bullshit happening, that they know greatly impacts their future (sorry for cursing, but I feel like it was justified here). Moving on,....
Another thing this article says is,
“Today’s teens are more protected than in the past. Parents try to shield them from experiencing failure and disappointment. Therefore, teens often have fewer chances to build resilience. Thus, they don’t learn how to cope with challenges.”
I think basically any teenager in the american public school system would agree with me when I say ;
The schools are challenging teens too much.
Because, and any young people know this is true, the amount of information expected to be learned is much more now then it ever has been. And, yes, it’s because there’s always new things being discovered, but the schools are trying to teach all of it, and at the same pace as they taught 40 years ago. Along with this, some teens don’t feel comfortable talking about their issues with their parents, the few people they’re supposed to trust, due to past experiences. And even then, sometimes when they do work up the courage and tell their parents about how stressful their life is, the parents will dismiss their problems as complaints to get out of things they don’t want to do, or, even worse, use the whole “well, when I was your age....” shtick, which solves absolutely nothing.
Another thing the article forgets to mention is the fact that schools decrease a child’s creative development, by forcing them to push it aside for things more academic. Development of creative intelligence is just as important as academic intelligence- I’m not quiet sure how to explain this concept, but if you look up Eddy Zong’s TED talk, it is explained very well.
I’m not sure what else to say, besides that basically everything this article says comes from the viewpoint of adults who haven’t looked at the full picture, and end up blaming the issues onto the incorrect things.
(sorry this was so long, if you have any questions feel free to ask [also sorry this was kinda a bummer]. Bye now, and remember to do something that makes you happy today ^u^ )
