Fix the cause – or only treat the emotions – of student anxiety?

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April 25, 2017 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

A recent article in the New York Times highlights a school in the Boston area that has high levels of academic achievement. The school has lots of awards, high test scores, high rates of acceptance to Ivy League universities, and unfortunately the all too common occurrence of high rates of student anxiety. And a high student suicide rate. Another parent from our high school sent me this article and resonated with me for several reasons.

Truth test – matching up with my own experiences

It passes the truth test of fitting with some of my own observations.

It shares many similarities with our own academically competitive high school, although not quite to the same extreme. (Or maybe that is hopeful denial.)

But I also have the added insight of having relatives whose children recently finished high school in the Greater Boston area (but a different school.) …

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September 20, 2016 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

Are your sweet kids starting to act like teenagers?

Does this sound familiar to you?

One winter I suddenly realized that the kids in our house were moody and broody. Every little request was a huge imposition on their time and space.

“Could you clear the table after supper?”

“But I have so much HOMEWORK to do.” <whine>

Everything was “impossible.”

Everything else was a crisis. (Yes, I realized you can’t have more than “everything,” but we’re talking about teenagers here.)…

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August 30, 2016 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

Finland’s education system ranks at the top of the world by almost every measure, in all sorts of rankings. How do they do it? How is the US education system compared to Finland? To get more information, I watched The Finland Phenomenon:Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System, from the Robert Compton Documentary series on Global Education, directed by Sean T. Faust. In my first post, I looked at the differences between Finland’s school system and our school system and then at how the Finnish educational system structured.

How else do Finnish schools differ?

US education system compared to Finland

Less testing

In Finland, they actively try not to punish students for mistakes and there’s very little testing….

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August 23, 2016 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

Finland is the highest ranked country in education by many measures. To further understand and compare U.S. education vs. Finland, I watched The Finland Phenomenon:Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System, from the Robert Compton Documentary series on Global Education, directed by Sean T. Faust. At first, I was thinking that I wasn’t really learning anything new or surprising. I’m not sure where I’d already heard most of the information. It may have been The Smartest Kids in the World or World Class Learners.

In any case, if you don’t have time to read two complete books, the documentary is a quick way to get a good overview of the Finland school system if you can get your hands on a copy. It isn’t readily available.

U.S. schools vs. Finland schools

So why is the Finland school system so important? Several quick facts at the start of the film summarize it well….

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June 20, 2016 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

The response at our school district’s showing of Most Likely to Succeed was overwhelmingly positive. The film did a good job of pointing out all the weaknesses of our current system, but left you with an uplifting feeling. This was a welcome change from all of the other research I’ve done that has confirmed my fears that something is drastically wrong with our current educational system, but with little to offer in the way of change other than patching over some real problems.

I think the positive response was also in part to a growing concern I have seen in our district about the amount of homework and anxiety in our kids. Parents did bring up some valid concerns, some of which were answered by other parents present who work for testing agencies, state education agencies, and universities. The concerns were mainly centered on project based learning.

As I said, the documentary gave the impression that project based learning was the only option. Even though it was acknowledged early on in the discussion in our district that it was just one option, the discussion stayed pretty much on project based learning. The long and the short of it is…

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December 16, 2015 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough found that good grades and lots of homework aren’t future predictors of success. Students need to learn how to set and approach goals with mental contrasting, grit, the ability to take on challenges and face failures, and the ability to persuade other people to give them what they need.

Providing challenges is often given as a reason for AP classes (Advanced Placement courses, or IB courses, college courses designed to be taught in high school and success measured by a standardized exam.) But in our personal experience, that isn’t happening for several reasons. In How Children Succeed, there was evidence that agreed with this view….

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December 11, 2015 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

In my last post about How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough, I covered how a student’s GPA is more a measure of self-discipline than IQ. The education system is set up to reward students with self-discipline and high GPAs with admission into college. In How Children Succeed, success of disadvantaged students was measured by whether or not they went on to graduate from college. In spite of this, Tough, surprisingly, concludes that the ability to perform well in the ways that school measures aren’t a good predictor of success, even though here success is measured by going on to college.

Specifically, good grades and lots of homework aren’t good predictors of success, and in fact can lead to stress that actually inhibits success….

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November 9, 2015 by ES Ivy Leave a Comment

A couple months ago I slipped on some water. I could tell you that I managed to catch all my weight with my right hand, so that I didn’t even get a bruise on any other part of my body.

Or I could tell you — that the over-achievement of my right arm and hand led to breaking my wrist.

Which has turned out to be more of a pain, in every possible definition of the word, than I thought it would be. Of course, I’m right handed. So this post, typed with one hand, will be short.

Related to the subject of this blog, I’ve been gathering information about education, job prospects, and entrepreneurship. This episode of the podcast Start Up, by Gimlet Media, shows an interesting connection between them. In this episode, the ADULT employees talk about the effects of their late hours and stress are having on their health and personal lives.

Their schedule sounds remarkably like high-achieving high school TEENS I know….

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August 31, 2015 by ES Ivy 2 Comments

Back to school is now in full swing! If you haven’t already started, your kids have probably at least picked up their schedules. Or they might be frantically trying to finish their summer projects. In the last week, I’ve heard so many parents mention that they’re dreading the start of the school year. I think the parents might even be dreading it more than the kids!

Are you dreading the school year busyness? (Yes, I looked it up. That’s really a word. “Business” doesn’t mean the same thing that it used to, and so now there is also “busyness.”) Are you dreading the calendar running your life? The hours of homework? The school activities with early morning and late night practice? The lack of sleep?

It might be time to take a good look at why your kids, or you, have signed up for all the activities and advanced classes that are taking up all your time and then some….

Fix the cause – or only treat the emotions – of student anxiety?

This post may contain affiliate links and receive a small commission for purchases.

Truth test – matching up with my own experiences

When Your Teens act like Teenagers

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