Kids hate school. That is no mystery. What’s truly shocking is the reason and extent for that hatred.

This school positively radiates misery. Waking up at the crack of dawn, sometimes earlier, and going through the same monotonous routine for five days a week, almost every week does not inspire students, it wears them down.

Now, add physically draining sports, mentally draining homework, now add a part time job, PSAT/SAT test prep and the actual testing, out of school activities and students can be easily overwhelmed. But instead of showing compassion and understanding, many adults tell teens that they are lazy for taking a break and have to work harder if they want to amount anything.

How can they try harder when they are just barely keeping their heads above water as it is?

When people Google “school is”, the top results are “a prison”, “too stressful”, and “pointless.”
Popular search results for “school makes me want to” are “throw up” “cut” and “cry”. This is a clear signal that the school administrators and teachers are holding students up to an unreasonable standard. It is incredibly difficult to balance schoolwork, extra circulars, jobs, and their social lives. The pressure to achieve good grades and remain socially active is nothing short of suffocating and has leads many students to develop depression and/or stress disorders.

Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education conducted a study of how many students were stressed by their workloads. She found that 56 percent cited homework as a source of their stress.

It is time for schools to cut back on the pressure and workload and try to make learning fun. Some teachers use Jeopardy style games to help students review in class for tests. Perhaps this should be implemented more often, potentially replacing review packets. Games are stimulating whereas packets tend to bore students and are easy to slack off on and usually don’t hold students interest.
Another solution is relating the subject being taught to current events. If there is a real life connection, students may feel more engaged.