Stress and Anxiety amongst Students Essay Example

Students tend to procrastinate for extensive amounts of time throughout the week. Homework has become seen as a chore instead of a chance to learn more about a subject and the school system is failing students. This has become a large problem especially as students progress through their education. The rising anxiety levels of students in school along with addiction to social media and the harsh grading system have led students to take comfort in procrastination. Because of the many reasons for procrastination, school systems should incorporate ways to fix them.

Anxiety is a common disorder found in students and is one of the leading causes of student procrastination. Organizations such as Harvard Medical School and American Psychiatric Association have claimed that “63% of college students in the US felt overwhelming anxiety in the past year.” (LeBlanc, par 2) and that anxiety “affect nearly 30% of adults at some point in their lives.” (Muskin, par 1) This shows that there is a varying range of 30 to 63 percent of students who experience anxiety of some sort while they are a student at school. In his article: Student Procrastination: Why Students Procrastinate and How to Stop It, Shatz mentions that “many of these issues are associated with the issues that students experience in terms of their time management and academic performance.” This shows how students tend to procrastinate and feel anxious due to their inability to manage their time and a sense of underachievement due to low grades. This leads us to the next reason why the school systems are failing this generation of students.

The grading system that has been set into American education stresses students out while pushing them to do better academically. In her study, Morgan talks about two views on the grading system and how it may be affecting students. She delves into the real reason for grades “Does “grading” mean assessing? Measuring? Reporting? Are narrative comments a kind of grade?” (Morgan, par 6) The current grading system puts too much pressure on students to get good grades and to perfectly memorize what they are being taught rather than enjoying learning and focusing on what they are good at and what they enjoy. Peckham, a teacher Morgan talks about brings up the idea that grades should be based on the effort the students put in rather than the quality of work. He “goes so far as to argue that traditional grading practices limit student achievement” (Morgan, par 8) The current grading system focuses a student’s learning on memorizing facts instead of regularly learning and relearning what they need to learn and why it is important. Students do not know how to study on their own, “most students have never been taught how to study.” (Stauss, par 6) The school system needs to shift its focus from brainwashing students into memorizing facts off a piece of paper to learning how to study and learn the information they are given. But maybe the blame doesn’t lay solely in the school systems.

In her article, Morford states that “social media and other internet time-wasters, to be the leading culprits behind millennial procrastination trends” (Morford, par 1) For most college students, Morford claims that a large portion of their time is spent on social media rather than on homework. This provides the fact that many students procrastinate due to the distraction that social media provides. “Social media is the easiest, most convenient form of procrastination.” (Morford, par 12) The accessibility of social media allows students an easy form of procrastination to find an escape from school work and homework. 

It all depends on opinion though. In his source, Baeder uses opinionated information to attempt to convince the reader that the united states education system is the best in the world. Baeder focuses his argument around “the free access all children have to an education”, how schools in the united states are unique compared to any other country, and the curriculum provided is broader than any other part of the world. (Baeder, par 5) Justin Baeder is Director of The Principal Center, where he helps school and district administrators build capacity for instructional leadership. This means that he knows a lot about school districts and the teachings of students, however, he isn’t a current high school student. He hasn’t seen how much an average student stresses over homework today. He hasn’t heard the students crying over math problems, because they have too much work to do in one night. He works with the school board so he is blind to his faults. Yes, education is free. Yes, the United States has a very unique education system. And yes, the United States does have a broader curriculum than any other part of the world. Those things are great, that is amazing. 

But, that doesn’t change the fact that the American education system is failing to teach students how to study and properly absorb all this information that is given to them. The education system does teach students information, but a majority of it goes in one ear and out the other. Students tend to create the quickest, easiest way to their end goal. It’s not a terrible way to think because we as a species always strive to make things easier; but at the same time, this way of thinking can stunt a student's growth and make it harder for them to learn the material. 

There needs to be more education on anxiety and stress. Students all over the United States and the world experience stress all the same. Students just need to be taught how to study and absorb information while also being taught how to deal with stress and given tools to help them do so.

Works Cited

Baeder, Justin. “Why U.S. Schools Are Simply the Best (Opinion).” Education Week, 23 Oct. 2012, www.edweek.org/education/opinion-why-u-s-schools-are-simply-the-best/2012/10.

Desk, India Today Web. “Battling Procrastination: Why Students Do It and How to Stop It.” India Today, 23 Sept. 2021, www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/battling-procrastination-why-students-do-it-and-how-to-stop-it-1856282-2021-09-23.

LeBlanc, Nicole J., MA. “Anxiety in College: What We Know and How to Cope.” Harvard Health, 27 Aug. 2019, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/anxiety-in-college-what-we-know-and-how-to-cope-2019052816729.

Morford, Rachel news. “Social Media Cited as Largest Source of Procrastination.” The Huntington News, 8 Sept. 2016, huntnewsnu.com/36142/campus/nu-students-admit-social-media-as-largest-source-of-procrastination.

Morgan, Amanda Parrish. “Is It Time to Reexamine Grading?” JSTOR Daily, 28 Sept. 2020, daily.jstor.org/is-it-time-to-reexamine-grading.

Muskin, Philip R. “What Are Anxiety Disorders?” Web Starter Kit, American Psychiatric Association, 2021, www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/anxiety-disorders/what-are-anxiety-disorders#:%7E:text=Anxiety%20disorders%20are%20the%20most,people%20lead%20normal%20productive%20lives.

Shatz, Itamar. “Student Procrastination: Why Students Procrastinate and How to Stop It.” Solving Procrastination, 2022, solvingprocrastination.com/student-procrastination.

Strauss, Valerie. “A Telling Experiment Reveals a Big Problem among College Students: They Don’t Know How to Study.” Washington Post, 14 Sept. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/09/14/a-telling-experiment-reveals-a-big-problem-among-college-students-they-dont-know-how-to-study.

Swathi. “Pros and Cons of US Education System- Know All Pros and Cons.” WeMakeScholars, 15 Jan. 2022, www.wemakescholars.com/blog/us-education-system.

The Trustees of Princeton University. “Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination | McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.” McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University, 2022, mcgraw.princeton.edu/understanding-and-overcoming-procrastination.