Less than two months ago the high school welcomed a new freshmen class. These freshmen come from different school districts and also come with their own unique struggles. They deal with everyday pressures, complex schedules, and an increased workload and rigor.
High school students deal with new, difficult subjects, and pressures every day. Some of these pressures are drugs and alcohol, academic pressure, expectation to be involved in extracurriculars, social media and appearance pressure. According to freshman Eden Munro, she believes that the middle school experience created better connections.
“…when everyone was closer together and able to see each other more versus high school, how you can’t see everybody as much, and it’s more at your own pace.”
These adjustments can lower self confidence and esteem while they increase stress, anxiety, and depression.
One area teachers and counselors notice is a common thread freshmen struggle with is time management. The high school’s complex schedule doesn’t make it easier. According to Key Health Care (keyhealthcare.com), 55% of high school students are experiencing stress due to time management. They often find themselves overwhelmed with educational, social and even emotional commitments that need their attention. It can abruptly influence their productivity and overall well being.
Counselor Kelly Casinelli stated, “ I think one of the hardest things to do is getting used to that schedule, but also the time management of it. Not having class everyday is sometimes harder for students because they don’t know what to prioritize.”
Procrastination results in teens rushing and ending with poor quality work, this causes wasted opportunities for creativity and anxiety or tension levels to increase.
In addition to learning a new school you also have to learn your teacher’s rules, plans, and personalities. Each teacher will be different, and some may even be completely different from the other.
“But just being someplace new you have to learn the new systems, you have to learn the new staff, learn the new students etc… .There’s always a little bit of anxiousness about trying to figure out this new building that you’re in,” Casinelli stated.
This anxiousness adds to the social pressure especially for students with mental health conditions such as, social anxiety, often stopping them from going up to a person. Giving the students without those conditions the chance to be social and connect with teachers and peers in the school. The American Psychological Association states that students who have close and positive relationships with their teachers will maintain higher levels of achievement than students who have the opposite.
A teen’s struggle could also come from lack of discipline or lack of focus, whether this be in or out of school if there are no consequences to their actions, they’ll continue to do it. If they lack focus then they cannot plan accordingly to excel in their work.
Munro faces this problem all the time. “ I always push my studying and my school work first and then hang out with my friends. I still make time for my friends but I work around them with my work…I hang out with my friends on the weekends or I make separate times when I don’t have to work. I always put my school work first…”
It can be exceedingly hard for high school students to try and juggle the inner workings of family, school and their social life.
Yet everyday teenagers push themselves and parents push them to come to school despite the pressure and stress that they are feeling with no help. This pressure can become too much for one student to bear on their own without simple strategies for time management and anxiety.
