“Enjoy your day sweetheart”, his mother says gently as the school bus arrives. Jack throws a haphazard wave to his mother, too eager to board the bus. He joins his friends on the bus and they exchange news about their weekends, keen for the school day to begin. Jack is an average learner, he passes all his classes as a result of his best efforts. His parents are always supportive and accepting because to them, his best is always good enough.
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No pressure. No stress. Just Jack doing his best.
This might have been the standard portrayal of a student a few years ago, however with new schooling environments and added pressures, our learners are on edge.
Mental health issues are on the rise, particularly among learners. According to the World Health Organisation (2018), half of all mental illnesses begin by the age of 14 and three-quarters by their mid-20s. Furthermore, the statistics show that for every 10 children in a classroom, three of them have a diagnosable mental health problem. With statistics such as these, one must question why young people have so much of stress at this point in their lives.
As a means of pinpointing these stressors, 20 learners (both current and ex learners) were asked the question, “Where did most of your academic pressure come from?”
15 of them said from their parents, 3 of them said from their teachers and 2 of them said from themselves. Following this, the task then becomes determining why there is such a large amount of parental pressure on learners today.
“Everything we’re learning is completely different from what our parents learnt in school!” exclaims one of the learners, who is grade 12 this year. One of the underlying issues is that there is a divide between the education received by parents and that of their children. Some learners feel that their parents are still trapped in the bubble of education that they were exposed to. This results in parents expecting top grades from their children, as was the case in their days. The learner goes on to say, “They can’t really offer us the support we need in terms of work because the curriculum is different now, it’s hard for them to understand the methods we learn now”.
While most parents’ only wish for their children to do well and have the best possible options after school, their high expectations add more pressure to an already stressed out child.
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Other factors of parental pressure stem from the successes of older siblings and a sense of family prestige that must be maintained. “My brother was a science boffin in school, so suddenly my 60% in physics is now frowned at by my parents” says a disappointed grade 10 learner. Today the question is, where do these underlying traditions and expectations stem from in terms of how well a child performs in school? Is it no longer good enough for a child to pass a little over average and still be congratulated for their best efforts?
While it is acknowledged that parental pressure is a result of parents only meaning well, perhaps it is time to loosen the reins just a little bit. The academic environment is a competitive one which often takes mental health as its casualty. There is a steady rising outcry from learners for the acknowledgement that their 60% means just as much as their peer’s 90%.
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