Empty Shells

Position Paper
Written for Advanced Composition November 2007

It’s a bit after ten o’clock, and I’m just starting my Government assignment. I’ve already been doing homework for four hours, not counting the hour I spent eating dinner. This is not an abnormal occurrence; I often spend four to five hours a night on schoolwork. Between assignments, my mind races with thoughts of I’ll never get all this done. I really need to get to bed; I’m so exhausted. When I finally finish – or give up – I lay in my bed: wide awake. The homework adrenaline is still pulsing through my body, keeping me from finding sweet sleep. The next morning I wake to the screeching of my alarm, feeling like I had only slept for a few seconds. I drag myself to my feet and push myself through the day, nodding off once or twice in Chemistry or Economics. When I get home, the process starts once again. By the end of the week, I’m completely burned out. I know I am not the only teenager who has a similarly stressful existence; most of the kids in my high school have just as much on their plates as I do. So, why are teens so stressed? Who is setting such high expectations? What is driving kids to accomplish so much? What are the consequences?
Teens today are not only pressured with homework and projects, but they must consider many other concerns. Colleges, jobs, and sports all weigh heavily on the minds of students. Balancing all of these stressors can be quite a monumental task, and comes at a price.
When searching for the root of teen stress, homework is an obvious suspect. Some students may spend more than six hours on school assignments, five to six days a week. Are teachers assigning too much homework? Most kids would answer with an exasperated “Yes.” Students spend up to eight hours, five days a week in classes, not to mention extra time for sports and extracurriculars. How much benefit will five or six hours of homework actually provide when a teen is barely conscious? Why do teachers assign so much work? Is it genuinely necessary? In most cases, it is not. Students are supposed to learn the class curriculum in school, not at home. If a teacher is assigning an inordinate amount of homework, it is not saying much for what they are accomplishing in class. As one concerned parent noted, “teachers… seem to be relying on homework to do the teaching.” The opposite can also be true: the only purpose for some homework is that the teacher feels they are obligated to assign it, even if it has no educational value whatsoever. This extraneous work places unnecessary strain on students who have many other things that they must accomplish.
The pressure to get good grades to get into a good school so they can get a good job is plowing teens into the ground. There is no escape for kids with dreams and aspirations or for kids whose parents have dreams and aspirations for them. In many cases, parents are another major source of stress for their teenagers. They have become super-competitive monsters; they have the uncontrollable urge to push their child until they are better than all the rest. In fact, a great number of parents actually ask their child’s teachers to assign more homework. They somehow feel that this will make their child smarter or more educated, when, in reality, it merely adds to their stress. In a study by Herbert Hendin, a link between parental pressure to succeed and teen suicide rates was discovered. Children who are “criticized…for not meeting unrealistically high standards…grow up feeling insecure and worthless.” Kids with parents who constantly drive them to be “perfect” can fear failure so much that it becomes unbearable and they choose to end their lives. Parents should not put academic achievement ahead of their child’s health and well-being; such action is utterly irresponsible.
Another fear that stresses teens out is the fear of not fitting in. It is a universal trepidation among American youth that if they are not exactly like everyone else, they are inferior. Not only must they strive to please teachers, parents, and college admissions officers, but teens have to make sure that their peers like them too. The American media pounds images of beautiful, thin models with perfect hair, skin, and bodies into the minds of adolescents every hour of every day. Television, movies, and magazines show beautiful people like Reese Witherspoon and Christian Bale, as if everyone who’s anyone must be that beautiful. This pushes adolescents to strive for the perfection that they see, an impossible and stress-inducing task.
There are those who would argue that teens’ stress levels are not excessive at all. They would claim that concerns such as homework, college applications, and self-improvement are all very beneficial. After all, these activities help kids stay off the streets and out of trouble. Right? Certainly not. Troublemakers don’t care a bit about homework, college, or what the popular kids think of them, so increasing the pressure to do any of these things would accomplish nothing. More homework won’t stop a gang member from going out and shooting someone, but it will cause the good kids – who actually do their homework – to suffer more. In fact, students who have the potential to excel in school can be drained of their passion. As Orson Scott Card noted, “[homework] kills the love of reading and writing in thousands and thousands of children every year.” There is a limit to how much a young adult can be expected to accomplish. After this limit has been breached, happiness and productivity decline rapidly.
The problem of teen stress cannot be ignored. The American youth are the future of this country; they are the doctors, lawyers, politicians, inventors, and scientists of tomorrow. In ten years, it will be these young people who will have the responsibilities of maintaining American justice, perfecting alternative fuels, curing deadly diseases, and developing new technologies. I do not think anyone wants our country to be run by a horde of apathetic and immature people who grew up hating school and learning. Such people would not be willing or able to maintain the integrity of our nation, or the world. Teachers, administrators, parents, and students must all work together to solve the serious problem of excessive stress. If something is not done about this situation, the teens of today will become the burned out, empty shells of tomorrow.