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