How schools could be destructive

before i begin my ted talk i’d like to

note that this ted talk will be

discussing sensitive topics such as

anxiety depression suicide and self-harm

please if any of these topics offend you

or if you’re sensitive to these topics

feel free to leave the auditorium now or

feel free to click off the video

from a young age ages 4 to 18.

we’re sent to a building and we are told

what to learn

when to learn when to eat and even when

to use the bathroom

among this journey we come across other

individuals our age

we may click right away and become

friends or

we create drama and conflict

additionally

as learning and studying progresses it

progressively

gets harder it gets to a point where

some students decide that their grades

are their absolute

everything or maybe somebody else such

as

a parent or perhaps even a teacher

decides that that student’s grades

are their absolute everything and that

particular situation

can be really stressful

you see grades at this young age can

potentially make or break our life

but you see that’s the scary part

because we’re given a standardized test

the sat at ages 15 to 18

and we’re told if you do well you go to

a good college an ivy league college you

obtain a well-paying job and you’re

successful however

if you fail you don’t go to a good

college

you don’t get a well-paying job you just

might not go to college at all

you failed this causes us to fall into

deep

stress and despair at just a young age

ages 15

to 18 years old especially in this

present time

school is harder than ever and now keep

in mind

at ages 15 to 17 we are still kids

we are minors we are still growing and

we are still learning

personally i think this is a factor that

school ignores

and it should never be ignored

currently we are still going through the

kova 19 pandemic

a pandemic that took the whole world to

a shock in april of 2020

in april of 2020 kovid 19 cases started

skyrocketing and

we were all really excited because our

spring break got cancelled

it got extended from one week to two

weeks at first

and you know all the students all of us

we were like yay a deadly virus is

canceling school

but you know two weeks then turned into

three weeks which

then turned into the rest of the year

and so we began online learning in march

online learning no way this is going to

be so

easy we can all just cheat off each

other

said all of the student body across

america

well as easy as that sounds it wasn’t

that simple

you see we had seven to eight classes

ranging from the early morning to the

late afternoon with one to three

assignments from each class

due every night it’s almost as if

teachers and faculty didn’t seem to take

into consideration about how the

pandemic may have been affecting us

students

which just goes to show about how many

of them actually care about us

during the point of my life that i was

on online learning

i was really stressed as were a majority

of students i mean

we were ambushed by a deadly virus a

pandemic and we were on lockdowns and

instead of letting us spend time with

our families

getting to talk to our friends over the

phone we were told to be seated at a

desk in our house

and learn well

not many of us are learning over online

school this year is really hard because

of the pandemic

and you know this may come to a shock to

some of you guys i don’t know but

not a lot of students are happy at

school

school has been really stressful i mean

we’re young

we’re supposed to be spending our lives

right now

we’re not supposed to be prioritizing

our grades over our mental health and

our well-being but unfortunately

that is what a lot of students end up

doing

as i said not many students are happy at

school and to prove this i conducted a

survey

i pulled 50 students from three high

schools

ages 14 to 18 from the following high

schools

osceola county school for the arts

touhou pecaliga high

and harmony high school

39 out of 50 students said that they are

not

happy at school i asked the students

what about school stresses you out 10

of the students said grades six point

four percent of the students said

homework

two point one percent of the students

said people and seventy-eight percent

said all of the above and only two

percent

said nothing now it’s no doubt that

school is a stressful factor but what a

lo

but what i think is that a lot of adults

don’t seem to understand

how stressful school is

62 percent of students said that they

have thoughts of self-harming

because of school and 38 of students

said that they have actually self-harmed

because of school

46 percent of students said that they

have suicidal

thoughts because of school young teens

are reporting that they want to end

their lives because of school

students have ended their lives over

school

yet some adults still have the nerve to

belittle us and act condescending

towards us

students

i asked them how do you feel about

school right now

48 of the students said awful and 30

percent of the students said that school

could be better

i asked do you think schools are

managing student mental health well

91 percent that’s 43 out of 50 students

said no

i asked are you comfortable in

consulting a faculty member regarding

your mental health

80 percent said no and

i asked have you lost motivation to do

your schoolwork

ninety percent of students said yes

now it is really hard to find motivation

when there is so much to do in such a

short amount of times

because of all these downsides students

are finding that they have lost

motivation to do their schoolwork

but i have a few student quotes

i asked them why does school stress you

out

there’s just so much and i feel like no

matter how hard i work i just find

myself

barely passing these classes it’s not

fun

and there’s just so much i feel like i’m

falling down an endless hole of

expectations on how i should be

i don’t really have a reason the

teachers just aren’t as motivated as

before

and now most of the time they just read

off a powerpoint or make us watch videos

it’s the same thing every day and week

of the cycle

it is just endless and i’m never happy

anymore honestly i’ve lost motivation

and school is just the first thing

i feel like it doesn’t matter even when

i do get good grades

there’s always this demand to do better

it’s an unachievable standard

you’ve heard it from your own students

across the county from your own schools

yet they will always say things like

we care about you you are not alone

we’re here for you but how many teachers

will come up to us how many of them will

say

it’s okay if you can’t turn in your work

i understand it’s been rough for you i

know you’re going through a lot i know

there’s a lot to handle for your age and

it’s a lot

so it’s okay i asked

do you think students are managing do

you think schools are managing student

mental health well

i asked why and the students responded

the teachers continue to stress out

their students by piling up assignments

for them to finish at a certain time

leaving them no time for socialization

or time for themselves

i feel because there is so much pressure

on students they don’t ever really

explain the fact that it’s okay to make

a mistake

and a lot of situations they don’t

really seem like they care enough about

student mental health

it seems to me that schools only care

when something happens

example if the student kills themselves

guidance counselors are out talking to

everybody

but where was this concern before

there don’t seem to be many attempts at

prevention and when they are

it’s simple things like go outside and

breathe

they’re not very helpful

you can’t claim that you care about our

mental health

and then continue to pour all of this

weight and pressure on top of

us it is a degrading system

we are not lazy we are exhausted we are

children being told that our worth is

deter

is determined by letters and numbers

there has been so much stress on us so

much pressure on us

and we are being told to do well despite

all of these facts

and parents and teachers will always say

things like

why aren’t my children doing well in

school why are my teenagers not happy

why aren’t my students doing well but

then they continue to call us pathetic

they will tell us that we’re lazy they

will call us spoiled and they will call

us ungrateful for not doing well

that is the reality of how we feel

chances are if you’re a student you’ve

probably

experienced one of the following

maybe when you were younger you had some

math homework to do but

you didn’t really understand it so what

did you do you went to your parents

maybe your dad or your mom but instead

of getting it done you ended up slammed

at the dinner table at 3am getting

yelled at by your dad claiming that he

doesn’t know how to do today’s math

and math was different back then or

maybe you’ve had a lot of homework due

one night so

instead of going to sleep you pull an

all-nighter to finish

all the homework that’s due in the

morning or

maybe one day you’ve had a very long and

exhausting tiring day

but you can’t go home and sleep no you

have to finish that biology project

that’s due in the morning

or maybe at the end of the night you end

up feeling so

stressed so defeated that you slam your

head on the desk and you wonder to

yourself

where did i go wrong why can’t i do this

why is there so much i’m so

dumb i’m so stupid if i can’t handle

this how am i supposed to handle life

that is how school is making us feel but

i’ve come to realize that

it’s not our fault and let me tell you

why

for eight to nine hours a day we are

told that we have to be seated at a

wooden desk for eight to nine hours

ranging from the early morning to the

late afternoon with only a 30 minute

break in between

there’s a lot on top of us there’s a lot

for us to manage especially at this

young age

as i said previously it is a very

degrading system

it’s pretty simple honestly you do well

you’re successful you’re labeled hard

working everybody loves you however

if you do get bad grades regardless of

your situation

automatically people are like you need

to get your priorities straight you’re

doing

not good you’re not doing well you’re

labeled pathetic and lazy

however that is just simply not the case

while it may be applicable to some of us

it is not applicable to all of us

so how can we be better

well for starters teachers and faculty

should take into into consideration that

their students

are still kids we have lives outside of

school not all of them

are easy lives

giving us less homework and more in

class work that is engaging and

applicable to real life

there should be more classes that are

useful and current like basic house

skills and mental health

make it more about learning and about

having fun as compared to how it is now

which is more about assignments in the

tests and the amount of stress that’s

put forth on students and testing

giving students more breaks outlets

events and to not judge them based off

their academic scores

some teachers make an active attempt to

show that they care about students

they notice when we’re not feeling well

they check in on us they talk to us like

we’re people

i wish every teacher was like that

giving us mental health days longer

breaks

less restrictive homework and less

homework in general will make so many of

us feel better about school

just treat us like human beings because

i guarantee

at the end of the day a kind teacher can

and will go a long long way

while schools may be trying to

demonstrate that they care about our

mental health

given the way that they’ve been treating

students given the way that they’ve been

treating students especially during this

coven 19 pandemic

it doesn’t feel like they do

students should be happy at school we

should feel safe

and comfortable at school school is

supposed to be a safe and comfortable

learning environment

but instead it’s a place that students

hate and are very overwhelmed and

overworked because of it

we’re prioritizing our well-being we’re

prioritizing our grades over our

well-being

instead of taking care of ourselves

well if you’ve ever had thoughts

of doubting your mind your worth

your capability anything like that

just remember you’re not lazy you’re not

stupid you’re not dumb

you’re not alone you’re simply a person

being overworked and overwhelmed and

that’s okay

because we’re humans we have emotions

and we’re entitled to feel them thank

you

you