Academic Culture: The Effect On Students
By: Isabella Bagnaro
Jenks High School has always had a “Tradition of Excellence,” proudly displaying the achievements of its students, complete with an ACT and AP score wall, and National Merit plaques. But how does pursuing that “excellence” affect Jenks students?
What do the students have to say about their experiences? Did getting their name on a plaque come with destructive drawbacks?
What Is Student Stress, And What Are People Saying About It?
Jenks High School and University of Chicago graduate, Arianna Quintero-Baumanis spoke out about her academic experience at Jenks:
“In one word: stress. I was very stressed throughout my entire high school experience, and I definitely developed unhealthy habits that I carry even now.”
By the end of her high school career, Quintero achieved the titles of Distinguished Graduate, Oklahoma Academic Scholar, National Hispanic Scholar, Semi-finals for Oklahoma Mock Trial, 2019 Capstone Diploma, and 2018 & 2019 Scholar with Distinction. She took the SAT three times, and the ACT 4 times, along with 13 AP tests which she passed 11.
She went on to say that while she didn’t regret pursuing high academic achievement, her mindset toward her academics caused her struggles in the long run. Quintero opened up about the physical and mental aftereffects she has dealt with.
In her sophomore year of high school, she said that she developed a severe caffeine addiction that “cursed her for the rest of her life” to cope with staying up till the early hours of the morning to study, then sleeping for what was “basically a nap.” Quintero also said that she lost a lot of weight during her senior year of high school and her freshman year of college from the stress she was dealing with.
“It was more of the mindset of prioritizing those things over my mental health that tainted some of those achievements,” Quintero explained.
After discussing the destructive patterns she had developed that ultimately led to her developing insomnia, she stated that “[This] is not a sustainable way to live, and if it weren’t for a very nice professor that semester who worked with me and gave me extensions, I think I would have had a mental breakdown.”
Quintero explained that through pursuing high academic achievements she “developed a pattern of stressing out about an assignment or project, procrastinating it, and then doing it in a rush, stressed the whole time.”
Quintero said that this took a heavy toll on her physically and mentally: “I was exhausted, and it was getting in the way of my own happiness and my relationships, and making me less motivated.”
Makena Grayson, a current sophomore at Jenks High School, talked about how her academics along with being a Trojanaire and Jenks Pom athlete have affected her sleep schedule and emotional health.
“Some days I won’t get home until 7 pm, then be doing homework until 1 am, and having to wake up four or five hours later,” said Grayson.
She elaborated on how her academic workload causes her to lose sleep trying to get everything done, and the “deadly” combination of lack of sleep and stress manifests itself in irritability and lowers her overall daily productivity.
This decrease in productivity is a very common manifestation of stress in adolescents often caused by heavy workloads that can seem so overwhelming that they don’t know where to start, which leads to them spending more time trying to figure out how to start or avoiding the cause of the stress than doing the work itself. This then leads to a lack of productivity, which feeds into even higher stress levels creating a vicious cycle.
How do educators and advisors perceive the stress levels of their students?
Jenks High School parent and guidance counselor Joy Fraley explained her perspective that “Stress is the environment and the demands on you. Sometimes you can control that, sometimes you can’t. A lot of times you can’t.”
Fraley went on to say that she sees so many students overloaded and overwhelmed,
“And they don’t sleep, they’re up till three in the morning studying. I worry about that.”
She explained that her students are involved in so many incredible things, yet that itself is the issue. They are involved in so many activities that no matter how positive they may be, those activities can contribute to a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Ways To Help Relieve Stress In Students
Fraley explained that a lot of times students misunderstand and think that the requirements are higher than they actually are. Helping students rationalize, and walking them through the actual requirements can bring a calming sense of reality and help ease their anxieties.
“Our students are so involved, and they have jobs, and they’re in clubs, and they have so many demands on them. There is so much available to you guys now," said Fraley.
Helping students prioritize what they want to do and figure out what they like can reduce the risks of them overcommitting to several different things that they may not have a genuine interest in.
Leon Liu, a former Jenks High School teacher, now employed as a guidance counselor, stated that while stress itself is a normal part of life, the destructive behaviors or health effects students are experiencing are not.
Liu also shared how he saw many of his past students enroll in advanced courses simply because others around them were doing so and they didn’t want to feel behind. This commonly resulted in those students feeling extremely overwhelmed and their grades suffering.
“Well my friend is taking five APs so I should also take five APs,” said Liu, “you need to choose what is best for you and your own self-interests.”
Pursuing “excellence” isn’t an inherently bad thing, in fact, chasing after achievements and goals is important for success in life. Issues emerge when students allow that “chase” to overtake their priorities and choose achievements over their own health.
For More Information On How To Cope With Student Stress:
Top 10 Stress Management Techniques For Students
More About Stress and How To Cope With It:
Managing Stress in High School
