Reply to Emotional needs of our students

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Emotional needs of our students"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A problem in this area is there is such a large concentration of parents who went to Ivies or other very good schools that the kids in this area feel a very palpable pressure to go to those schools.  That puts a heavy burden to excel academically on kids, especially since there are so many other kids in the same class/school feeling the same way.  The pressure could be self imposed or could be from real expectations imposed by parents, but, either way, it is magnified in this area because of the large number of kids competing to be among the chosen few.  I'm not criticizing the drive to get into Ivies, I'm just pointing out that while most of the time the demographics in this area provides our kids with benefits, it can at times create unintended burdens.  Each ivy will only take so many kids from one school, the kids know this, and the pressure begins.  The kids also want to be as successful professionally as their parents, which is another high bar in this area.  Again, this is not a criticism of having a drive to be successful, I'm just pointing out that sometimes we forget or don't notice some of the pressures our kids face.  [/quote]

Indeed. And if the publics pushed back at the parents, they then have a choice: pay for private or cave. Instead, some high schools cave to these parents and up the ante for all the students, creating stressfests.

I remember attending a 'handling stress in high school' seminar at the high school recently. The staff told the parents how they were bringing in counselors to help the kids cope. I raised my hand and said "Wouldn't it be just as easy to concretely change the reasons these kids are under stress in the first place?"  Blank stare.

I posted this before on this forum - this is from a recent local article:

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2013/nov/.../scc-takes-aim-student-stress/

“In the McLean and Langley Pyramid if you don't go to college, don't get into a ‘good’ college, you are seen as a let down to your school, your family and your community,” said [b]Melissa Sporn, a mental health professional and SCC board member.[/b] “As a result I am routinely seeing patients in my practice who are overstressed, overworked and overwhelmed. Many of these students deal with these pressures by self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, cutting and/or engaging in other negative behaviors.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics