Thinking about that time in APUSH when the teacher was trying to teach us a lesson about how bad the past was and instead taught himself about how much pressure is put on US high schoolers.
He gave us an account of a typical weekday of a 16 year old girl working in a textile factory in Lowell Massachusetts. We were then to write down our schedule on a typical weekday and compare.
My comparison concluded that she had more of a social life, more free time, actually had a boyfriend, worked fewer hours, slept less, and could get around more independently than I could.
Most other students reached similar conclusions but many of them also slept less than her. (I slept 8 hours, she slept 7, and many of my classmates slept 6 or less) I simply slept more because there was never any caffeine at my house and I couldn’t physically push myself to power through. I paid for this by working 10+ hours on homework every weekend.
After grading our homework he came back the next day with such a look of pity and said something along the lines of
“I had no idea it was this bad. It wasn’t like this when I was 16. I’m so sorry.”
This was over 10 years ago. If that teacher is still teaching APUSH he probably doesn’t do that assignment anymore.
I don’t regularly talk to any high schoolers, but I do keep up with current events. I don’t have a perfect idea but from what I can tell all the problems that were there when I was 16 are now way worse plus a whole pile of new horrific problems, some of which probably cross the line into being straight up human rights violations.
It wasn’t like this when I was 16. I’m so sorry.
