Dilan Graf-Suleman ’24 and Carmen Ashworth 26′
Stress. Almost everyone has felt stress at some point in their lives, whether it be sweaty palms before a big event, procrastination until the last moment, or that looming feeling of existential dread. Students especially are disproportionately affected by feeling high amounts of stress.
A study conducted by NYU put the numbers as high as 49% of students who feel a great amount of stress on a daily basis, and 31% who feel somewhat stressed. But is stress inherently bad?
Are there times when it’s necessary to feel stress, or other times where strategies are needed to prevent it? Given that a large part of stress comes from school, what do the SAES teachers think about student stress? How do they differentiate between when those feelings are beneficial or detrimental to student outlooks on school?
Mr. Seidman, who teaches English 10 Honors, said, “If none of us felt stress, we’d have less motivation to do hard things,” and Dr. Gamble, who teaches upper school History, said students should ask themselves whether their stress is “reasonable or unreasonable” and that sometimes, “if you are feeling stressed, that is a good sign because it means you want to do well and you care and that is important to acknowledge.”
Dr. Gamble also encouraged students to ask themselves these questions when they feel overwhelmed: “Is this rational, should I be stressed? Or am I stressed about unnecessary things?” This idea of good stress vs. bad stress is also supported by scientific research.
In an interview published on Stanford University’s website, Firdaus Dhabhar, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, weighed in on the issue.
“In general, chronic or long-term stress can have harmful effects,” said Dhabhar. “In contrast, acute or short term stress can have protective and beneficial effects.” One way that teachers can support “good” student stress is by maximizing short-term stress and finding ways to curtail chronic stress.
According to Understood.com, an educational research-based non-profit, “[good stress] can help kids rise to challenges, solve problems, and build confidence.” Good stress usually comes from challenges that students believe they can rise to, instead of challenges that overwhelm them. Bad stress often comes from situations that students think are too much for them to overcome by themselves.
Dr. Gamble said that in History 10, listening to students is a key way to minimize anxiety, “I’ll ask students what their week looks like, not even necessarily to change what I am doing, but I want to know where I can meet them in the classroom.” Mr. Stanger agrees with Dr. Gamble. “The top thing is to listen to students and take their feedback seriously,” Stanger said.
Mr. Stanger allows open and fair discourse between himself and his students in order to promote a healthy level of stress for the class. Mr. Seidman also said he tries to foster a friendly environment in the classroom by “making jokes, trying to be open and welcoming to students’ questions, and being approachable. If you can cultivate that, it helps reduce stress.”
Both Dr. Gamble and Mr. Seidman mentioned providing a safety net for students as an additional way to prevent stress. In English 10 Honors, Mr. Seidman provides students with tools to help them write longer essays so they don’t feel like they have to pull everything from their brain on the spot. “It’s one less thing you have to remember,”said Seidman.
He also said that putting the week’s assignments up on Canvas allows students to plan their schedule and is a small step teachers can take to help students feel more prepared for the week ahead. Dr. Gamble said that he tries to be consistent with keeping the reading load of students to about 30 minutes a night.
Another teacher who emphasizes predictability in their workload is Mr. Corkran in his AP Economics class. Mr. Corkan’s students can count on a very predictable and standardized weekly workload. “I try to make my workload very predictable, so students can regularly set how much time they should devote to Econ per week,” said Corkran.
Another way teachers can help students is by being thoughtful about assignments. “When you create assignments, it’s important to recognize that most students put in a lot of time and effort into it,” said Dr. Gamble. “Be thoughtful as a teacher about asking yourself: is the work I’m having my students do really productive towards something? Or is it just checking a box?”
Mr. Corkran uses the same thoughtfulness in creating his in-class notes and curriculum. Mr. Corkran said, “I use guided notes so my students can focus on learning in class and not writing.” Using things like guided notes helps students feel less in-class stress than in other note-heavy classes because they spend more time thinking about what they are learning rather than spending time writing and organizing their notes.
Mr. Seidman also said that he tries to give students a choice with assignments, such as on the “I Am” Speech project after students finish reading The Merchant of Venice. “It’s good to give students a choice because if you feel you have a choice, that lowers stress levels,” said Sediman.
Grades are another key source of stress, and students are especially aware of their grades due to their constant access via Canvas.
Mr. Corkran said,” At the outset, I am very clear about what student expectation should be for the class” and if “getting a B or C would overwhelm the student, they should rethink their decisions in taking the course.”
Despite the class’ difficulty, Mr. Corkran informs students that “using [test] corrections, there is a viable path to an A or B, and I try to be very reassuring with my students.” This understanding gives students the belief that they can overcome the challenges that are present in AP Economics, promoting good stress.
But despite these tactics utilized by teachers, some stress remains outside of our control. Ms. Foreman, the upper school counselor, recommends that students “try really hard not to compare yourself to others.You may have different needs, different learning styles, different challenges. Do your best to block out the noise of those around you.”
Ms. Foreman also said that teenagers “have normalized excessive stress: we make memes about it, and joke about how little sleep we get or how much caffeine we need to survive. Social media portrays people living their “best lives’’ and somehow doing it all.”
Stress not only impacts our social and personal life, but our academic performance. Mr. Seidman said, “students and educators have to work together to find ways to reduce extraneous cognitive load and get to the right level of stress where the student still has motivation.”