If you spend any time with teenagers, you've definitely heard them moan, "I'm so stressed!" at some point. And, while there are lots of things they stress out about, multiple studies show that teens identify school as their number one stressor.
The Atlantic highlights the stress caused by the demands of high school in their piece, High-Stress High School, an article worth checking out.
Just as the article notes, the opportunities available to students at AISC are, indeed, a privilege. However, as our students begin to navigate their growing responsibilities and take advantage of the numerous opportunities available to them, they need support.
At AISC our high school students are actively involved in academics, athletics, arts, activism and much more. Learning to manage multiple activities and balance one's time is a true life skill. This is a skill that needs to be explicitly taught to young people; they need support from adults at school and at home to figure out how to manage their time well and keep things in perspective. So often, this idea is taken for granted, adults assume that kids know how to do this when many adults still have room to grow in balancing their time!
If we look at this through the lens of our AISC core values, it is easy to see that leading a balanced life and managing stress takes a great deal of creativity, courage, confidence and compassion.
Having courageous conversations with teens about how they feel about their responsibilities and about what is truly important to them is challenging but critical. As college is just around the corner for our high school students, pressure for them only increases. They need the adults in their lives who will ask them how they feel and really hear the answer in order to help them process those feelings.
In the counseling office, we often hear teens say that adults offer them advice about everything. While advice has it's place, what we hear teens saying is that they want adults to listen to them, to acknowledge their feelings and ask them questions that will help them better understand and process how they feel. It is challenging to resist swooping in and offering them the answers!!
A blog on the Huffington Post written by a seasoned educator shares some thoughts on teen stress and how parents can interact with their children around the issue in The Three Most Important Questions You Can Ask Your Teenager.
School Counselors are a great resource! If you need help talking with your teen about stress, reach out to us. And, if you're concerned about your teen and need support, reach out to us.
All the best for a low-stress end of Semester Two!
The Atlantic highlights the stress caused by the demands of high school in their piece, High-Stress High School, an article worth checking out.
Just as the article notes, the opportunities available to students at AISC are, indeed, a privilege. However, as our students begin to navigate their growing responsibilities and take advantage of the numerous opportunities available to them, they need support.
At AISC our high school students are actively involved in academics, athletics, arts, activism and much more. Learning to manage multiple activities and balance one's time is a true life skill. This is a skill that needs to be explicitly taught to young people; they need support from adults at school and at home to figure out how to manage their time well and keep things in perspective. So often, this idea is taken for granted, adults assume that kids know how to do this when many adults still have room to grow in balancing their time!
If we look at this through the lens of our AISC core values, it is easy to see that leading a balanced life and managing stress takes a great deal of creativity, courage, confidence and compassion.
Having courageous conversations with teens about how they feel about their responsibilities and about what is truly important to them is challenging but critical. As college is just around the corner for our high school students, pressure for them only increases. They need the adults in their lives who will ask them how they feel and really hear the answer in order to help them process those feelings.
In the counseling office, we often hear teens say that adults offer them advice about everything. While advice has it's place, what we hear teens saying is that they want adults to listen to them, to acknowledge their feelings and ask them questions that will help them better understand and process how they feel. It is challenging to resist swooping in and offering them the answers!!
A blog on the Huffington Post written by a seasoned educator shares some thoughts on teen stress and how parents can interact with their children around the issue in The Three Most Important Questions You Can Ask Your Teenager.
School Counselors are a great resource! If you need help talking with your teen about stress, reach out to us. And, if you're concerned about your teen and need support, reach out to us.
All the best for a low-stress end of Semester Two!