Due to the tension and the anxiety of the pandemic, students need to have their stress levels decreased, but the amount of homework being assigned plus virtual learning is increasing the stress levels of students. “Online learning can cause the student to feel all of those awful feelings – depression from social isolation and loneliness, anxiety from feeling a lack of control, stress from the expectation to learn something new independently and apart from others. None of these are good when it comes to learning.” said Perkiomen Valley High School Counselors.
According to the American Psychological Association, “Students are experiencing more depression, suicidal ideation, and anxiety than any generation before them.” The pre-existing stressors of social media and the internet-bound world were already causing teens to feel anxious and cause long-lasting mental conditions. With the recent pandemic, potential modern challenges are rising, including family stressors with deaths or the losing of a job, and social struggles as normal life dramatically changed, suddenly without warning.
As high school students try to take on these challenges, the pressures of school are sometimes unbearable and cause a deeper problem on the horizon. It has already been evident of crumpling of mental health in teens. According to a survey of 1000 teens performed by the mental health initiative (WellBeings.com) “Almost 50 percent of teens said their mental health is much worse or somewhat worse than it was pre-pandemic. More than 50 percent said their social life is worse or somewhat worse, and over 72 percent said that the coronavirus has created a disadvantage for their generation, with climate change and racial strife cited as the biggest societal stressors for them outside of the virus.” This survey took place in early October, when school was beginning. The outside of school stresses plus the pressures of good grades for colleges from parents, teachers, and their own expectations, as well as homework assigned can be too much pressure for teens to handle.
In fact, homework is not even proven to be helpful to students. According to ChallengeSuccess, “The amount of time spent on homework is not necessarily related to increased academic achievement in middle and high school. Too much homework may also increase stress and interfere with sleep, downtime, family time, and other important activities that are critical to student well-being.”
Even though teachers want to assign more work for educational purposes, it’s not worth the stress and mental strain that it puts on the students. A teacher’s top priority must be a delicate balance of education and student’s mental health. A student’s mental well-being depends on it.