School is not one size fits all

By Esha Vaikhary Cub Reporter

The unit quiz lands on your desk. Suddenly, your hands are shaking, your heart is pounding and your mind is no matter how long you stayed up last night memorizing this unit’s content or how hard you tried to stay focused during class. You stare at the first question and think, “I’m going to fail.”

For many students with anxiety and learning disabilities, this is a reality. Sometimes, memorizing content and keeping up with coursework isn’t enough. Students can put the same amount of effort into academics as their peers and everyone may still score differently on the same test. The way that high school is structured makes it difficult for students with learning disabilities and anxiety disorders to feel safe and confident at school, therefore impairing their academic performance. Thus, Redwood should be more aware of how we approach education to make sure students with learning disabilities, as well as undiagnosed disabilities, get the same quality education as their peers.

This group includes more students than you think. The American Test Anxieties Association estimates that around 16 to 20 percent of students suffer from severe test anxiety that affects their test performance. Despite this already alarming statistic, it is also estimated that 31.9 percent of teenagers suffer from some degree of anxiety and 8.3 percent of those teenagers experience impairment because of their disorder. It should also be noted that rates of anxiety are higher for teenage girls specifically — at a shocking 38 percent. Test anxiety manifests as physical and mental symptoms in students. When given a test, students with this disability may feel physical symptoms such as sweating, hyperventilating, stomach pain and shakiness. Students may also feel extremely distressed, have recurring negative thoughts of helplessness and fear, experience the inability to focus and much more.

Along with test anxiety, some disabilities impair students’ abilities to focus during class and keep up with classwork. According to The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, dyslexia affects 20 percent of the population. Dyslexia is subject to many myths that doubt the abilities of the student because of their poor reading and writing skills. In reality, students with dyslexia are capable of high comprehension in conceptual subjects.

Another learning disability that impairs students' performance is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is one of the most common learning disabilities in teenagers. 9.4 percent of children and teenagers in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD. Students with ADHD often find it difficult to focus during class and during tests.

While Redwood does offer academic accommodations to students with such disabilities, these only apply for students who qualify through 504 Plans and Individualized Educational Plans. The process of receiving accommodations is unnecessarily difficult. Even with accommodations available at Redwood, students without learning disabilities are able to more easily succeed in academics because most teaching styles used are best suited to their needs. Reading textbook pages for homework, watching lengthy documentaries during class, listening to hours of lectures a day — these are all methods that students with learning disabilities struggle with yet these are the methods that are utilized the most. aleifer@redwoodbark.org their peers. This is due to low confidence in academic skills because of persistent struggles in high school. By Redwood slightly altering our education system to better match the needs of our students, we will truly be able to educate students of all abilities. evaikhary@redwoodbark.org

Editorial

Schools must prioritize hands-on learning

When American teenagers were asked to describe their feelings towards school, the most common word used was boring, followed by tiring, according to a recent Harvard article. School is an institution that was initially designed to provide students with engagement and education to support their futures. Instead, it has developed into an overly stressful environment that focuses on high performance and grades rather than teaching valuable lessons. Schools must provide a more positive and effective learning environment by prioritizing enjoyable activities in the academic curriculum. Restructuring our education system towards student interest will lead to an increase in students’ motivation, engagement and long-term interest in learning.

Gallup’s student poll, a survey that canvassed over five million students in grades five through 12 from the years 2015 through 2018, showed two key discoveries about the widespread disengagement across American classrooms. According to Tim Hodges, a Gallup senior executive who specializes in student engagement, students lose interest in school the older they get. As students progress through high school, engagement in the classroom plummets compared to their prior grade school education. Approximately half of students in middle school report high levels of engagement in school, while only one-third of high school students report the same.

This disconnect between schools and their students is indicative of a broader issue in the high school curriculum — one which can often be stressful and tedious with little substantial gain. At Redwood, as well as nationally, ineffective lessons are a major contributor to the disconnect between students and their studies. According to a 2023 Bark survey, 40 percent of surveyed students said that “useless assignments” were the greatest factor in their feelings of burnout and lack of motivation. Engaging classes and coursework are essential to stabilizing students’ mental health throughout high school.

Teachers could implement theatric-based presentations that help students dive deeper into topics and display ideas in an entertaining way. Occasional team-based testing could also be a good solution to ease students’ stress. With these changes applied, assignments would be viewed as real learning opportunities rather than pointless additions to students’ workload completed for the sole purpose of a grade.

Some might blame specific teachers for students’ lack of academic motivation as opposed to the issues with the curriculum. However, teachers who provide lessons for the students do not deserve full liability.

An article written by New York Times reporters Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine displays how classroom disengagement is a complex issue that can’t be boiled down to individual blame. Rather, student disconnect is more so the result of institutional issues and an outdated understanding of education that has infiltrated many schools today. However, Redwood’s current style of teaching was proven effective in 1990, 1996 and 2003, years in which the school won Blue Ribbon Awards for their high standardized test scores and graduation rates. Additionally, Redwood provides a very diverse curriculum. Programs such as engineering, architecture and journalism are popular classes that many students take to add variety into their schedule. These classes give students time in school to focus on topics they are interested in and want to pursue outside of the standard courses. But it is not solely the types of classes provided that contribute to student involvement, it’s also the way these classes are taught. Standardized courses such as English, math and history deserve the same level of attention and engagement as those specialized programs.

Redwood High School

395 Doherty Drive

Larkspur, CA 94939 www.redwoodbark.org

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The positive effects of hands-on learning have been shown in a variety of situations. In a poll conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Lego Education, 1,000 teachers were asked to examine how they can foster their students’ interests. Over 90 percent of teachers wanted to bring more hands-on learning into their classrooms. After these teachers brought such forms of learning into their classrooms, 87 percent of teachers said that students became more engaged with these new lessons. These hands-on assignments could take the form of activities such as constructing posters for students who learn more effectively through visual representations.

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In order for Redwood to adapt to a modernized academic environment, it is absolutely crucial that a more hands-on approach is applied to the curriculum. To implement this, the district must decrease the amount of worksheet-related assignments and incorporate more engaging material to keep students motivated. By making classes engaging and curriculums responsive to students’ needs, school can shift from a process of stagnation to a place of transformation.

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