Is today's education system cracking teenagers?

Helloo everyone!

I have been a little late with this blog post so I apologise...I was actually meant to post something a little more lighthearted this week but today I found out something today that made me put my work aside and write this blog post.

One of my closest friends revealed to me that she is going to visit the doctor about the possibility of her being depressed. This really, really upset me as no one should ever feel anything other than themselves and happy, but unfortunately this is not the case nowadays.

Now I am most certainly NOT blaming the mental health of teenagers nowadays on the education system but I strongly feel that it has a very large role to play. Don't get me wrong, of course I am extremely grateful that here in the UK we are able to receive a fantastic education free of charge. But I do think that the way of educating youngsters nowadays is not right, being a teenager myself I have experienced what every other teenager has experienced during their school life which has been mountains of homework and uncontrollable stress.

So lets put the average school day of a student into perspective; we wake up at 7 am, go to school for roughly 7 hours, come home, do 4 hours of homework and go to bed. How in any way is this healthy?! As well as working at school for 7 hours a day (which in itself is impossible), we are also expected to fit in time when we get home for exercise, homework, hobbies, socialising, spending time with family and relaxing. Realistically, if we were to factor this into our school day, we should be going to bed at around 12 or 1 which is also a problem because studies have shown that teenagers should be getting between 8 and a half to 9 hours a sleep a night. These expectations that parents and teachers have put in place are unrealistic and are seriously contributing to the downfall in a teenager's mental health.

For me, it is the ridiculous pile of homework that I receive every day that is a serious concern of mine. How and why should it be natural that someone who is not even 20 years old yet has to go to school for 7 hours a day, is expected to come home and spend 1 hour on homework for every hour spent in the classroom (roughly an extra 4 hours a day of homework for an a level student) and is expected to spend their weekends working aswell? It's just the most ridiculous idea. So back to my friend, work has really been getting her down because as you can imagine, if you don't have enough time to do all your homework/studying in one day, you have to leave it for another day and before you know it you have a huge pile of work in for tomorrow. As well as this stress, teenagers also have the unavoidable stress of problems with friends and family, not to mention serious fluctuations in hormones which do not help. It's all just a recipe for disaster.

School also make us believe that exams such as A levels and GCSES will dictate our lives, therefore piling on the stress even more. But in a way, if you want to get into university you need to get good A levels and to get a 'good job' most employers look for those with a good degree from a good university. But why should exams that we take at ages 17 and 18 have to dictate our futures?! At the end of the day, it's not even worth it to put your mental health and physical health at risk but the main thing is to try your best. It doesn't even matter that you get C in an exam but avoiding a mental breakdown, which sadly can often lead to disastrous consequences, is the most important. It's just not worth it!

Another problem with the education system of today is that it is extremely problematic to judge a person's intelligence through their ability to memorise facts and pass an exam. Yes I see that there is no other logical way to test intelligence, but surely this is not the most sensible way. There are extremely intelligent people who fail exams simply because they do not have a good memory or are not good under pressure in an exam, but those who can memorise the square root of pie will prevail in exams and therefore in life.

Finally (the rant is nearly over i promise), why is it fair that intelligence and success in school is mainly based around academia? It seems to me that if someone is extremely talented at art or music or an incredible sportsman and not so great at maths, they are seen as 'stupid' and are also made to feel this way. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”-Albert Einstein 

It's important that we remember that education and learning should be fun, insightful and interesting. NOT suffocating and making you dread going to school every day- this is not how we should spend the first 18 years of our lives. You can imagine the consequences it would have.

Thank you so much for reading. If any of you feel the same way as me I would love to hear from you, but it is so important to remember that you are not alone and to always put your health before school work. However, if you are seriously struggling at school you should always tell a parent or a friend, it is never right to suffer in silence. Also remember that trying your best is all you can do- it is important to challenge yourself but do not push yourself to be someone that you are not.

Thank you again!

Katie

xox