Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mrs. Kusinitz
Writing 104
11 January 2018
“I normally breakdown” confessed Jordan Stanford, a senior in high school. “I often get
stressed if work gets piled on top of each other in a short amount of time, it hinders me to get
done other things outside of school that I need to do,” Jordan explained. He revealed that this is
his initial response to stress. Jordan described the night before he was preparing for his Spanish
final. While trying to practice his speaking, he stuttered often and sometimes even paced around
his room. He stayed up all night trying to memorize the words he could not yet master. He
emphasized the need to do well on the test. The possibility of failure along with the extensive
pressure from his parents is very stressful for him. Often he does not know how to cope with this
stress and this results in a “breakdown.” But Jordan is not alone. He is just one of many high
school students that are experiencing a problem that is prominent in many of our nation’s
schools. The numerous high expectations that high school students face is the cause for the
Teenagers have always been given the life-long label of “carefree youth.” Yet the
majority of current students at Cumberland High School, the high school in which Jordan
demands they are under. In the large suburb of Cumberland, Rhode Island, the district’s culture
creates an atmosphere opposite to that of “carefree” and this is shown through the student’s
More noticeably, juniors and seniors seem to experience more stress than underclassmen.
The large school of 1,379 has recently boasted the new path of development to prepare their
demanding undertaking of determining your future after high school while managing the duties
of being in high school do not go unnoticed. CHS junior Sydney Crowe is currently struggling
with this issue. She explains, “I’ve usually been a stressed student as a freshman and sophomore
because I wanted to keep my grades up, but now I feel like I am stressed because I have too
many things to worry about. Sports and schoolwork were manageable for me but college
A current teacher and former student at CHS, Christina Gagliardo, encountered similar
experiences as students today when she attended Cumberland High School. She reported that
“the schoolwork [she] had each week and getting it done with good grades” was the source of a
considerable amount of her stress during her junior and senior years. She added, “It was the
content and the workload that would be stressful. I often waited until the last minute to complete
assignments so that didn't help.” Although stress has been a constant through generations of
Cumberland High School students, the degree and source of stress appears to have changed. In a
survey conducted at Cumberland High School, of which only juniors and seniors were polled,
out of the 100 respondents, about one fifth answered that they felt their stress levels on an
average school day reached a 7 on a 1-10 scale. In accordance with the poll results, the
American Psychological Association (APA) reported that teens believe their stress level during
the school year is higher than what is healthy. The APA conducted this study online during the
summer of 2013 and collected data from 1,950 adults and 1,018 teens. The study revealed that,
“during the school year, teens say their stress level is higher than levels reported by adults in the
past month.” The CEO of the APA, Norman B. Anderson, stated in the study’s conclusions that
“it is alarming that the teen stress experience is so similar to that of adults.” Most teens today are
experiencing stress levels that are equivalent to that of adults - a trend that has only started
According to about 60% of the polled students from Cumberland High School, school is
the primary stressor in their life. Post-secondary planning was the second most popular stressor
with about 20% of the responses. Nationally, researchers found that “83 percent of teens said that
school was ‘a somewhat or significant source of stress’” and “twenty-seven percent reported
‘extreme stress’ during the school year” (Ossola). So why exactly are Cumberland High School
problem, however nowadays students possess a fear of failure. Senior at CHS, Paul Barry reveals
that he “always fear[s] that [he’s] not going to do good.” “If I don’t do good,” he continued, “I
think that I am going to disappoint myself and my mom.” As a result of his parents’
It seems that now more than ever there is added pressure from parents, teachers, and
often times the students themselves to do well in school. Alexandra Ossola from The Atlantic
stated, “It’s more competitive than ever to get into college...” Not only do students have to
compete for admission into college, they also have to compete for scholarships and financial aid.
In order for a student to pay for their education, it is almost impossible to avoid taking out loans
and having to pay back their student debt later on in life, when they have other expenses such as
a house or family. Aa reported by Forbes, in the United States alone, the total combined student
loan debt is 1.31 trillion dollars. Because most students and their parents don’t want to live the
rest of their life in debt, they are more likely to place extra pressure on themselves or their
In accordance with the CHS-conducted poll, college is a stressor for both seniors and
juniors. However, for juniors specifically it is the process of visiting schools and researching
them as well. Paul also added that he felt his junior year was one of the most stressful “because
of college and everything. That's the most recent grades you're sending to college so you want to
make a good impression.” Jordan concurred stating that the “most stressful” year of his high
surgery in the middle of the school year,” and explained that “with the pressure of how important
junior year is, it gave me a lot of stress.” These personal setbacks are often added stressors that
happen behind the scenes. Paul also conveyed that during his sophomore year he received a
severe concussion and was “basically not able to do school work for the first semester and a
half.” The increased workload and pressure of college planning already causes stress levels to
rise, but students who experience outside stress due to injury often reach maximum levels of
stress.
Mary Gwadz, the senior research scientist at the NYU College of Nursing states that,
“these experiences can cause kids to burn out by the time they get to college, or to feel the
psychological and physical effects of stress for much of their adult lives” (Ossola). However,
these students are feeling these effects now. Stress can have major physical and psychological
effects on students. These include, reduced ability to sleep, increased irritability and aggression,
anxiety, depression, and other life-altering symptoms. According to the Anxiety and Depression
Association of America, 25% of adolescents aged 13-18 have some form of anxiety. Senior Paul
Barry revealed that he is someone affected by anxiety. His anxiety is at its worst on test days:
“My mind gets really negative and my body makes me feel like I’m sick,” he professes. However
Paul has learned how to overcome his test anxiety. He states, “Sometimes I take tests where I’m
more comfortable like in the guidance office or with another teacher. Sometimes there's just
times where that's not possible but you just have to push through and reassure yourself that it's
ways. It motivates them to study, to do better. It helps push them,” says Mary Alvord, a
psychologist specializing in teens told Atlantic. CHS student Jordan Stanford concurred with this
statement stating, “I do feel stressed often times but it is not always a bad thing...On a normal
day during the school year I’m stressed enough to the point where I am most productive. If I am
not stressed I find myself to be tired and not want to do anything, but if I am over stressed I also
don't want to do anything. Somewhere in the middle with a little bit of stress is ideal for me.”
With the increase of stress levels, comes an increase in the need to alleviate stress.
Multiple responses from the CHS-conducted poll listed listening to music, sleeping, exercising,
engaging in a favored activity, and planning ahead as popular ways to relieve stress. The
Cleveland Clinic lists deep breathing exercises, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation,
mental imagery relaxation, counseling, and more as healthy methods of relieving stress. Other
more proactive approaches to easing stress offered by the clinic were exercising regularly, taking
better control of your life, and asserting yourself by saying “no” more often. Engaging in some
form of stress relief is suggested and often essential to surviving high school.
In a world where stress seems to be all around, current high school students and the
future generations of students should be taught proper ways to handle their stress. Norman B.
Anderson CEO of the APA advised, “in order to break this cycle of stress and unhealthy
behaviors as a nation, we need to provide teens with better support and health education at
school and home, at the community level and in their interactions with healthcare professionals.”
Just like most issues in the world, an increase in awareness and education will help future
generations to better understand, recognize, and cope with the sources and effects of stress.
Perhaps schools such as Cumberland High School need to be more considerate of the
immense pressures being put on juniors and seniors. Whether it is the expenses of college,
school workload, their social life, or their job, students have been placed in a position to be
stressed. This issue ultimately begins with the negative culture and climate that American
students like those at CHS are surrounded by. This starts with the ideals and beliefs of each
community. In order to make an impact, any contribution to alleviating this problem can be as
simple as being more considerate towards juniors and seniors going through this transitional
Works Cited
Armacost, Robert L. "High School Student Stress and the Role of Counselors." November 1990:
Friedman, Zack. “Student Loan Debt In 2017: A 1.3 Trillion Crisis”. Forbes. Forbes, 21 Feb.
National Institute of Mental Health. Any Anxiety Disorder Among Children. Web. 7 January
2018.
New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Transforming Student Achievement. Nov.
Ossola, Alexandra. “High-Stress High School.” The Atlantic. 9 October 2015. Web. 7 January
2018.
“Stress: 10 Ways To Ease Stress.”Cleveland Clinic. 5 Sep. 2014. Web. 15 January 2018.
Survey Shows Teen Stress Rivals That of Adults. 11 February 2014. Web. 7 January 2018.