Once More on Pressure in High School
This is a guest editorial from Palo Alto On-line,from a junior at a high-pressure high school who has much to say about the nature of public education. And yes, I know if you read this, you might roll your eyes and think, "white people problems." But despite Palo Alto being a wealthy area, talking about teen stress and pressure is important no matter where a student lives. It is about what we are doing to kids, their joy of learning and the nature of learning. My stress began in elementary school, where students were segregated into separate class meetings as "early" and "late" readers. Although we were just elementary schoolers, we perceived this as a differentiation between the less and more advanced students and either felt superior due to our intellect or shamed for a "lack" thereof. Middle school didn't get any better. At the end of sixth grade, we were placed into either Pre-Algebra or Pre-Algebra Advanced, though nobody ...