APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

Scholarly Dementia

APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

"Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone.

College
stress levels
graduate
at anfrom
allhigh school on time." So many students in high school dropout every year. What could
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That's a student every 26 seconds or 7,000 a day. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to

be the cause of such a sad reality, there are many factors but one is clear. The pressure put on students
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to not just succeed and do their best, but to over exceed succeeding in today's world.

GREEN
DIGEST

"The pressure put

on students to not
just succeed and do
their best, but to
over exceed
succeeding in
today's world." 2

APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

Students face class, homework, peers, and teachers every

day. They are given, from the school system, the very max that can
be handled. If the school system itself decided to give students the
absolute max then why must the teachers and/or parents press
further to make it harder? Every parent wants their child to
succeed, overcome the tough difficulties of life, and to be able to
have a career when they are olderbut when does it become too
much? These are all questions that may not get an answer but to
them I have a response. This needs to end. Parents will frequently
push for a child to not stop at their B+ that the child received on a
paper instead of rejoicing, the child will be scolded. As if to say
this isn't up to my standards I don't want to see it. This can have
thee affect that is wanted, where the child sees that a B is not good
enough and starts to get A's. When the child does an average job,
this is known as a C in most schools in America, this child will
start to get upset with them self. They will come into anxiety or
depression from not being able to reach their goal. Depression is a
condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness
greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective
reason (dictionary.com). Girls coming from low education
backgrounds or homes have the highest level of depressive
symptoms (1). Because there is stress from maybe a teacher or a
professor to push and go beyond when there might not be any type
of push at home or help this can be depressing. Having one side
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APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

tell you one thing, to go above and beyond, and another side tell you something else, that it's ok to fail

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and not caring what you do, it starts to get conflicting in ones head about the reason behind it all.

Children in single-parent families have higher symptom levels, effects explained by economic
conditions and stress exposure-they are no more vulnerable than others to the depressing effects of
these stresses (1). This can lead to different mental illnesses where children develop into an adult that
is "crazy" when in fact past experiences have led them to having anxiety disorders like a phobia a
specific phobia at that. Specific Phobia is a smaller branch of Phobia as a whole. A phobia is an
intense fear of something that you cannot control. Phobias split off into these three branches: specific,
social, and agoraphobia (https://www.med.upenn.edu/ctsa/phobias_symptoms.html). Specific phobia
is a phobia the keys in on anything; these phobias starts in childhood and go throughout adulthood. So
from that moment when the parents of teacher pushes the child to do better than the child's best, their
mind can work against them in an anxious way. There are ways to be treated and can be caught early.
Mostly woman contract a specific phobia and most men go to get it treated. A treatment for specific
phobia is to face the fear head on in an environment that is felt to be safe and conditions that feel safe,
behavioral therapy. Catching what the parent is doing or teacher and stopping int nipping it in the bud
and changing to make the child feel better about themselves. Also catching it early at childhood.
There are many types of specific phobia from being afraid of test, Testophobia, to the fear of learning,
Sophophobia (http://phobialist.com) . These things vary from person
to person and most people will not go looking for help so they will

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not get help. You can tell that a person has a phobia when they get

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near an object or a specific thing and the person starts to have

shorter breath, feel nauseous, or he/she heartbeat gets faster. Students
in high school can develop these phobias and the bring them along
with then to college making it all the more difficult to get to that
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APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

point where someone has pushed them to go putting

them deeper into a depressive state.
"Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high
school in the United States alone. Thats a student every 26 seconds or
7,000 a day" (https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropoutrates). Dropout rates are getting higher not because students can't
do the work but

because of the work they are being

told they should do better. Not

every student is made to go to an

Ivy

League

school

and

when

pressured to do so they crack at

the boarder line. If you need a 3.0
GPA to be successful and
the students best is a
better.

2.8, that student may not try to be

A

students

mentality

who

has

developed anxiety is "If I can't be

where I
just stop." Although there
has given up and has made it
acceptable path. So instead of pushing

need to be I won't try, I might as well

are other options this student
hard

to

continue

on

an

the student to greatness they move

to a more subpar future.

In my experience with being pressured to exceed my best efforts in school, particularly
college, my anxiety since high school has heightened. I've always been the one to push myself to the
limits but parents and professors have done so as well. I believe that I would not have this sense of
anxiety as often as I do if it's weren't for the push that I have to be better than everyone around me.
6

APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN

College by itself is stressful enough as it is, but to have my Professor tell me that when I gets an 86 on
an exam that I can do better is unacceptable. I study hard for every exam, quiz, project, test, etc. that I
get. If my best is not good enough then the anxiety within me kicks in and makes me shut down. I've
had my friend tell me that he needs to keep a steady 3.0, and at the moment he has a 2.6. He assures
me that and one of his classes his grade is very low even though he has been trying. He wants to drop
outs of college because of this one grade. He believes that if he can't have a 3.0 then there is no reason
to try. This mindset has held many of students back and will continue to hold a hand full of students
back if the pressure from those students look to does not end.
Because of the push today on our society from parents or teachers or whoever said around you
to be better than the next person and to be better than your best our children are becoming depressed.
Our children have become depressed and developed anxiety. We should do better to help them to
build them up on the good they've done in high school and college rather than telling them that their
best just isn't good enough to meet the bar. Don't lower your standards for the youth but open your
mind to the reality.

APRIL 24, Y

CHRISTINA GREEN