Education Editorial

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A recent U.K. study found that the current generation of university students are at a greater risk of anxiety and depression than their predecessors. The study by the Royal College of Psychiatrists found that many students are unprepared for university life and face higher debt and fewer job prospects than previous generations of students. Many students will simply drop out of school. In addition to dropping out,

depressed students are at a greater risk of developing problems such as substance abuse. In fact, more than two-thirds of young people with substance abuse issues also suffer from a diagnosable mental illness such as depression. Depressed college students are more likely to binge drink, smoke marijuana, and participate in risky sexual behaviours to cope with emotional pain than are their non-depressed peers.


You can be very intelligent without school. The problem is kids love learning until they are put into the systematic factory of creating workers we call school. Kids should be able to choose what they want to learn so they continue to be enthusiastic about learning. If kids hate learning they will never truly absorb the info. On top of that what kids are learning is completely pointless and will not ever help them. The real use of school is to teach kids to sit down and deal with things they hate (what you will have to do in most jobs).

Tests having very high expectations and make kids feel like they’re not good enough for the real world. And they don’t teach anything related to your future career. Coming from a high school student myself... How can schools bring tests upon kids and require them to score the highest score because if not they’re not good enough? That isn’t fair in my opinion. We don’t even have activities in school, we don’t even have fun anymore. Teachers barely have time to explain other things other than what they’re told to. It sucks.



General education requirements take away from students who wish to devote more time to and take more classes in their respective majors. Our schools and universities are geared towards the requirements of the 20th century, with students assessed on regurgitating



Sometimes, though, the stresses in your life can actually come from your peers. They may pressure you into doing something you’re uncomfortable with, such as shoplifting, doing drugs or drinking, taking dangerous risks when driving a car or having sex before you feel ready. This pressure may be expressed openly (“Oh, come on — it’s just one beer, and everyone else

is having one!”) or more indirectly — simply making beer available at a party, for instance. Most peer pressure is less easy to define. Sometimes a group can make subtle signals without saying anything at all — letting you know that you must dress or talk a certain way or adopt particular attitudes toward school, other students, parents and teachers in order to win acceptance and approval.






More than a million children could be eating unhealthy lunches because their schools are exempt from tough food standards, council leaders have warned. Academies and free schools which opt out of national regulations are failing in their moral duty to ensure pupils receive healthy dinners, according to the Local Government Association (LGA). It said it is concerned that more than a million youngsters attending these schools could be eating poor quality dinners that do not meet nation-

al school food standards.The LGA has issued a fresh call to the Government to introduce a single standard that applies to all schools to make sure that every youngster has access to a healthy lunch. The move comes just months before councils are due to take on more responsibility for public health, including tackling childhood obesity and overseeing the national child measurement service which takes the height and weight of children in reception and the final year of primary school.


Every school day brings something new, but there is one status quo most parents expect: homework. The old adage that practice makes perfect seems to make sense when it comes to schoolwork. But, while hunkering down after dinner among books and worksheets might seem like a natural part of childhood, there’s more research now than ever suggesting that it shouldn’t be so. Many in the education field today are looking for evidence to support the case for homework, but are coming up empty-handed. “Homework is all pain and no gain,” says author Alfie Kohn. In his book The Homework Myth, Kohn points out that no study has ever found a correlation between

homework and academic achievement in elementary school, and there is little reason to believe that homework is necessary in high school. In fact, it may even diminish interest in learning, says Kohn. Many proponents of homework argue that life is filled with things we don’t like to do, and that homework teaches self-discipline, time management and other nonacademic life skills.






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