The American education system is ruining students’ mental health [column]

Have you ever felt overworked? Yes, you have. We all have.

For students, being overworked is more of a constant feeling that lasts throughout the whole school year.

Students have to balance multiple classes, each having different subjects. Each class has its own tests, quizzes, homework and projects. While this is necessary for classes to progress, it creates too much stress for students.

The ton of work given to students wouldn’t be a huge problem if it didn’t last throughout the whole school year. For students, there are no breaks — it’s just constant work.

In a column for the Missouri University of Science and Technology earlier this year, Pamela Williams wrote: “Students are juggling a lot. They have schoolwork, possibly a job, a social life, perceived pressure to do well, expectations to live up to, increased responsibilities and independence, overscheduling, and a lack of sleep.”

As an honors student, I find that the first few weeks of the school year are fine, but I’m always busy afterward. I have tests and quizzes each week. I have essays to write, projects to do and homework every night.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve come home, done schoolwork until dinner time and then kept working because there was just too much I had to do.

Downhill into depression

Hard classes can help your confidence when you pass them with a good grade.

Sometimes, though, classes are only hard because of the teaching. Some teachers throw multiple 12-page packets at students and tell them they’re due by the end of the week. Some teachers just don’t have a teaching style that clicks with their students. In my view, this poor teaching approach damages students’ grades.

Once you start doing badly in one class, it all starts to go downhill. When your grades aren’t what you want them to be — even though you’re trying your best — it destroys your confidence. You’re constantly second-guessing and doubting yourself. Confidence is key to success, so when you don’t trust yourself with anything, all of your grades plummet. It creates a terrible cycle that just drags you down.

The hardest thing to understand about depression is that you literally can’t enjoy anything. No matter what you do, it won’t make you happy. Especially when you have this nagging voice in your head shaming you for not working hard enough and saying that you’re not doing enough when you get a bad grade.

You have no life outside of school, because you can’t have one that feels worth living in your mind.

I’m not the only student who feels this way. A 2023 article in U.S. News & World Report by Emma Kerr and Cole Claybourn mentions a survey by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation answered by more than 2,400 college students. About 66% of students reported experiencing stress and 51% of students reported feelings of worry during most of the day. Furthermore, the article indicated that emotional stress was among the top reasons that students considered dropping out of college.

Time to address problem

If more than half of the students are feeling stressed out and half of them are saying that they’re constantly worrying about things, that’s a problem.

It’s a problem that’s gone under the radar for far too long. There are some countries, such as Finland, where stress is far less of a problem for students.

According to a 2015 survey by Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare, just 9% of male and 18% of female students in upper secondary high school and 6% of male and 11% of female students in vocational school report feelings of burnout.

Clearly, Finland is doing something right. But what exactly is it doing?

It’s a lot simpler than you might think. A 2021 article in The Guardian by Jon Henley, Philip Oltermann, Sam Jones and Angela Giuffrida states that Finland puts its students’ mental health first. Children get more time to play and students get a 15-minute break every hour up until secondary school. There is little homework and there is no national standardized testing.

Unfortunately, while the differences are pretty simple, changing our entire education system isn’t. We can’t uproot our whole education system; it’s not that simple.

American education is focused on academic achievement more than the student’s well-being. This might be fine if there was more of a support network for students, but there isn’t. That’s because the whole concept of mental health is downplayed in America.

Mental health focus

Too often, we’re told to put on a smile and be happy even if we’re not. We’re told that there’s something wrong with us if we’re not constantly happy or even if we’re just having a bad day.

So, if we’re going to fix anything, we’ve got to change the biggest things we can change: ourselves.

This also starts with realizing that teachers aren’t always at fault for these educational approaches. Many students go straight to blaming teachers when they don’t like something or something seems unfair.

Not every teacher agrees with what they have to teach or the way they have to teach it. Teachers don’t want to see their students depressed and struggling. On top of that, teachers can get depressed, too. More people need to realize that teachers are not against their students; many of them are probably struggling and need help, too.

We can change the American education system to be more focused on students’ mental health, but it’s going to take some time and it’s going to be a long, hard battle. It’s not a simple task to change the structure of an entire education system, but it is possible because anything is possible.

In the meantime, what we can do is support each other.

If you’re a parent, support your kid(s) and check in on them. Show them you care and that they’re not alone.

If you’re a student, support your fellow classmates and teachers.

Speaking from experience, no one can beat depression alone. Don’t leave anyone behind. Check in on each other and don’t give up. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for everyone else in your life. They care about you, I promise.

Aidan Lamson is in the 11th grade at Warwick High School.