The SAT season is looming over the horizon, bringing in a new wave of test anxiety and panic attacks. On the other side of the world, students in China are also scrambling to cram for the Gaokao in June, while Korea is preparing for its college admissions exams in mid-November. High school students worldwide are troubled with the same dilemma––the anxiety that builds up over a test that will determine their future.
And it’s not just older students who suffer from the weight of education. In 2016, an 11-year old Singaporean boy jumped 17 stories down after failing an important exam––an incident that has become familiar as suicide rates among elementary school-aged children soar. Rigid education systems and unreasonable expectations drive students to end their lives––but it’s not always because they can’t thrive in the increasingly competitive school environment.
Sometimes, it’s all because of anxiety, which pushes students to do worse and fail to meet their goals.
A Snapshot of Students’ Anxiety
China’s Gaokao is the world’s most rigorous college entrance testing system and is the ideal subject for understanding the societal pressure education puts upon children from inception. In a country where there are more people than schools, they can only maintain standards and open opportunities to both the rich and poor through a complex college acceptance procedure––one that can change the course of a student’s entire life.
Prior to the test, some students rent out tiny apartments for the entirety of their high school lives, spending day and night buried in books and mock exams. During the test, the site dispatches ambulances for parents and students who may have collapsed from the anxiety and pressure of the life-changing exams because these cases aren’t rare. When a child’s entire life depends on a single exam, it’s only natural for parents to push them to their limits.
And it’s not just tough schooling that’s normalizing anxiety attacks. Social media and bullying also play a big role in putting even more pressure on children, teens, and young adults alike. By being exposed to the seemingly perfect world of social media, their ideals are skewed, and personal expectations rise. Cold sweat, shaky hands, and the inability to muster the courage to keep going illustrate the face of today’s youth, plagued by anxiety from pressure all around.
Where Unhappiness, Pressure, And Education Collide
Youth’s minds are significantly less developed than that of adults, so their responses to difficult situations tend to be different. While adults may be able to swallow the pressure of the world crumbling apart, it’s much harder for most young children to cope with the difficulties of day-to-day life.
In particular, unpredictable behavior is a strong sign that a child is experiencing some form of anxiety. The only challenge is catching the cause before the child explodes in the worst way possible. In December of 2020, a sixth-grader shot himself during a zoom class, unable to cope with the mental health toll caused by distance learning. The same narrative spins across the country, forcing Las Vegas schools to open in an attempt to help children cope with the stress caused by the pandemic.
On another front, students are also struggling to fit into a single-minded mold of what a perfect progression to adulthood should be. There’s constant pressure to be exceedingly good at sports or academics––because the ideal future supposedly entails either a sports scholarship or admittance to a large private university.
For children who only fall under the category of average or below, institutions do little to help them carve a successful future. Often, it starts with feeling unmotivated and not wanting to participate in academics. Then they might stop going to school for days, weeks, and months on end. And before long, children with bright dreams turn into high-school dropouts––not because of their own volition, but because the system has failed them.
Part of the problem is that career counselors, parents, teachers, and other support systems aren’t looking at the larger world and are stuck in what worked in their time. But the new generation holds different goals and dreams, and the contemporary world has a lot more to offer them. Not giving students exposure to opportunities drives them to give up on academics or fall behind the curve, further aggravating anxiety and causing other mental health issues.
Solving Anxiety in Young Minds
There need to be greater efforts on the guardians’ ends to emulate a comfortable learning and living environment for children to prevent them from suffering from the grip of anxiety. It starts with a positive household that doesn’t pressure children to walk a one-sided road. Then comes schools, which need to put greater measures against bullying and innovate the classroom to focus on collaboration rather than competition.
Introducing programs that promote relaxation in the high-pressure school environment, such as meditative sessions, focus group discussions, and free counseling, can also benefit students from a young age.
Afterwhich, career advisors need to understand the changing job market by introducing opportunities to youth who aren’t particularly fond of sports or academics. There are music and art foundations like Youngarts that take in talented children and platforms like ESPA, which provide opportunities to Esport athletes and others who want to be involved in the gaming industry. And as the world continues to move forward at the speed of light, schools, and universities, and other institutions involved in nurturing the next generation must also come to that understanding.
Anxiety has a massive impact on students’ education. But most of the time, it’s caused by situations out of their control––usually by a high-pressure environment. It’s important to pay close attention to children and catch warning signs before they release the fumes out of the blue and cause great harm to their future.
