January 2019

GHOSTWRITER Westford Academy

Priceless

January 2019

Vol. XXIX No. 1

District considers later start times to address lack of sleep

Superintendent Everett Olsen has proposed a later start time for all students in the district, with the intention of allowing high school and middle school students in particular to maintain a healthier sleep schedule. The proposal entails moving the start time from 7:35 to 8:00, which would change the final bell from 1:55 to 2:20. The proposal was made by Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Kerry Clery at the School Committee meeting on Dec. 3. No decisions were made.

“Research studies have shown that sleep significantly contributes to several important cognitive, emotional, and performance-related functions,” Clery said during the School Committee meeting on Dec. 3.

This proposal was made based on several factors.

Students at Westford Academy took the Challenge Success survey in 2016, which gave administration an idea of how much time students

put into academics and extracurriculars as well as how much time they reserve for sleeping. Adolescents

later time than adults, which includes sleeping at a later time.

Teens require between

survey results, WA students get an average of six and a half hours of sleep a night.

“The studies have shown

Photo by Varshini Ramanathan

Mehul Shrivastava Managing Editor & Keertana Gangireddy Staff Writer

Students often stay up late for several hours finishing schoolwork. experience phase delay, which is the tendency to start everything they do at a

eight and nine hours a night, as much sleep as before adolescence. According to the

that a typical high school student doesn’t fall asleep until after 11 pm, and then

our students in particular at Westford Academy, we have 41% of students who have reported going to bed after 11 pm, and only 16% at the middle school,” Clery said at the Dec. 3 meeting.

In an interview with the Ghostwriter, Clery said the proposal for late start times would have been in place for the next school year, but the budget for the next school year is an obstacle. To change the start times to the proposed two-tier system would mean an additional 148,000 dollars would be spent on three more special education vans, two more regular vans, and one wheelchair van.

"There's a question as to whether or not it would be more appropriate to wait, because the budget planning for FY20, which is next school year, is very difficult.

So we are waiting to see, more conversations are going to be had, but again, going back to the research, it does indicate that high school students starting later in the day is more beneficial," Clery said.

Continued on page 16

Students are stressed at Westford Academy. What's new?

Varshini Ramanathan Editor-in-Chief

All of the articles in these sixteen pages focus on stress at Westford Academy. Why devote so much space to such an obvious problem?

At a national journalism conference our staff attended this fall, we went to a workshop

by New York Times editor Monica Davey called “Covering School News Like a National Correspondent." The central idea of her presentation was that we are missing the compelling stories of our daily lives because while an outsider may see a glaring problem, we do not even register it.

That presentation sparked something simultaneously in all of us editors. We all knew the compelling story of our daily lives: student stress.

We’d always brushed the topic aside because, well, what’s new? The sky is blue; students are stressed. We thought there wasn’t much to say or do that wouldn’t be aimless complaining.

However, looking at the issue from an outside perspective, a story began to emerge. Rather than report on the fact that students are stressed, we found ourselves

discussing why we were stressed, and why our current solutions aren’t working.

The more we looked, the more facets we saw; the more ideas we proposed, the more ideas came forth.

It was as our brainstorming document ballooned with dozens of angles, dozens of stories to tell, that we realized that there was no portraying this concept with one article. The only way to say something about student stress without beating a dead horse was to look closely and deeply at the issue in its entirety.

The key word here is entirety. Through the various articles in this print issue, we hope to communicate that student stress is not limited to the academic high-achievers.

It is universal, and it affects everyone in a different way.

Some students aren’t affected at all. No one person can claim to have the correct experience, and in that sense, everyone can learn something by reading these articles. We certainly learned from writing them.

It reminds me of a concept my biology teacher was talking to us about the other day, about how the cell

Inside the Teenage Brain Page 7

responds to external signals.

Most think it’s like a stoplight or an electrical signal, a simple cause and effect, but the reality is that the signal triggers a complex pathway that intersects in multiple ways with other parts of the cell. If you want to stop a response, you can’t just disable the pathway -- that would be disastrous and ineffective.

The way we as individuals respond to the signals of our environment is so complex that we cannot hope to tackle it in a single article. We cannot hope to tackle it in a board meeting. We cannot hope to tackle it by simply looking down at the cause and the effect and deciding on a simple course of action, without even attempting to understand the winding pathway between action and reaction.

The unfortunate reality is that reaction does not always trace back neatly to a certain action, and that effect does not spring directly from cause.

There is no one root of this elusive student stress. It seems to be plaguing so many here, but still remains undefined because it is unique to every student. What is student stress, nationally and locally? How

Humans of WA Pages 8 & 9

did we end up here? Who are we as individuals, and why are we the way we are?

My personal belief, in everything which I encounter as a student and as a person, is that if you fully understand something, it cannot do you wrong. The hardest part is to completely understand, and once that happens, the solution falls naturally into place. It works in chemistry problems, it works in essay theses, and by all means, it should work for our student body.

An immense problem requires an immense effort to understand, and the months of work we’ve poured into this print issue are our attempt at that immense effort. We're not sure that in doing this, we are achieving a full understanding.

We're not sure that's ever truly possible. But rather than try and pursue a solution, pursuing an understanding will more naturally lead to a solution than to try and look from a birds-eye view at the problem. No one seems to understand the true nature of stress at our school -- not our administration and not the students themselves -- and so what better first step exists than one that leads towards that understanding?

We are not calling to cancel Challenge Success, nor are we criticizing our administration.

We are grateful that they are genuinely invested in our well-being. It is just that now that they are listening, we will speak in the hope that we can bridge the gap in experience between adults and children, between generations. We are trying to help those who are trying to help us.

We’re just a few teenagers at this moment in time. We’re teenagers at just this moment in time -- less than three months from now, this group of editors will have moved on, and the moment will have passed, just as it will have for every other student here.

Despite how transient our presences will be here, though, we want to start a conversation that will continue far past our time at WA. The stress situation will certainly be different in a few years.

We hope that by capturing the situation as it stands right now, we will create a platform on which others can build.

In the future, when I look back at this school, the place where I grew up, I hope to see a different and better place.

This is our way of trying to help make that happen.

WA Staff Manages Mental Health Page 3

News

Page 2

WA cuts down on busywork

Photo by Kavya Desikan

that would otherwise be spent new policy.

Varshini Ramanathan doing meaningless work in “There were teachers Editor-in-Cheif terms of understanding and who were already doing that.

Amidst concerns raised by applying concepts.

There were some teachers who the Challenge Success program Under the new regulations, are have a hard time being implemented in the Westford comfortable Public with that.

Schools And then system in there were recent years, teachers Westford who wanted Public to do that, Schools but felt that made they were sweeping supposed changes to, you to the know, assign homework homework policy in every single grades night. So it’s K-12 at the interesting beginning to watch the of the 2018shift happen 2019 school and how for year. some, it feels Westford more natural Academy Senior Jun Hong studies in the library. for others, not so much,” implemented a new homework must fall into she said. homework policy that restricts one of three categories: Wendy Croteau, who homework for CP and honors preparation, which could be teaches Honors Algebra II classes to 30 minutes per night watching a video or reading and CP Trigonometry and and 4-5 hours per week for AP a textbook section before Pre-Calculus, has been going classes. At the middle school the lesson, practice, which through her assignments and level, homework was capped at reinforces concepts taught in cutting out repetitive or less 90 minutes total per night. class, and application, which meaningful problems. When This policy is the result presents concepts taught in Croteau feels that problems of a two-year effort by the are useful for practice or Homework Committee, a group class in unfamiliar ways to help students work on critical application but still too of 27 administrators, faculty, thinking skills. much of a weight to assign students, and parents formed There is a fine line between as homework, she assigns in 2016 because of reports the ‘practice’ designation and optional worksheets. This from community members busy work, says Clery, which work may or may not fall and the Challenge Success is where the teacher’s own inside the 30-minute margin, survey that homework levels and does were concerning. The not count regulations were drafted as assigned two years ago, and went homework through the approval that is process last year. The restricted policy, which is more by the new general, was put into policy. It place in October this year. is up to the According to student’s Assistant Superintendent judgment to of Curriculum and do the right Instruction Dr. Kerry amount of Clery, one of the key preparation organizers of the without initiative, the new policy overworking. emphasizes a focus on “I think quality over quantity with the judgement comes in. [having the judgement] is ultimate goal of increasing At the high-school level, something that comes with student engagement. homework should not exceed practice […] I don’t think that “So we just gave the times two hours per night in total. all students can do that yet,” as a guideline, just something Croteau said. to shoot for. However, we don’t Clery explains that the expectation is that not all However, this restriction want that to be the focus, we classes assign the maximum of having two hours of want the focus to be the quality amount of homework every homework per night in of the work so that students total does not account for understand the purpose [of their night in order to keep the daily workload manageable. outside preparation and homework],” she said.

The idea that homework was studying.

The main focus of the new not mandatory nightly, and Long-term projects such as regulation is therefore to even discouraged, was the eliminate busy work from Continued on page 12 most surprising part of the students’ lives, freeing up time

"The main focus of the new regulation is therefore to eliminate busy work from students’ lives, freeing up time that would otherwise be spent doing meaningless work."

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Ghostwriter Mission Statement The Ghostwriter strives to inform, entertain, and address the issues in the Westford Academy community with integrity. It is our mission to accurately deliver relevant news, represent the voice of the students, to celebrate the successes of the school, and to engage the community in debate and discussion.

The Ghostwriter, as a student newspaper, keeps in mind these goals: * To increasingly utilize aspects of multimedia in stride with current trends in professional media and journalism.

Email us at * To deliver fair unbiased coverage of school and community TheWAGhostwriter@gmail.com news and events. * To keep integrity, respect, and ethics at the forefront of our reporters' and editors' minds.

Read all of our articles year-

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Submissions are welcome from all WA students and faculty. All submissions must be signed, but we will publish anonymously by request. Ghostwriter reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity.

Contact us at TheWAGhostwriter@gmail.com

January 2019

New requirements bring frustration

Kavya Desikan Editor Beginning with the class of 2020, new graduation requirements were implemented for all students, consisting of a one half-year Fine/Performance Art class, two full years of a foreign language, and four half-year physical education classes without the ability to opt out. Other requirements include a half-year Computer Technology course, Freshman Health, four years of math and English, and three years of history.

While these requirements are not new, since the class of 2020 is now juniors, many have begun to notice the impediment they can be when trying to select coursework.

For example, the P.E. requirement was made so that all students would ideally be able to take one semester of P.E. every year.

However, many students have begun to move the class in order to take seven full-year classes, pushing their P.E. semester and ultimately being forced to take two semesters of Physical Education in one year.

Previously, many students in classes before the Class of 2020 had used loopholes in order to get out of one semester of P.E. in favor of a full-year course.

“Four years of P.E.,” said Guidance Coordinator Wendy Pechacek, “is a state requirement that has always been in place. There have been some years where there have been ways that people worked around that, but it is a requirement of the state. [The workarounds] should not have happened.”

Unlike the Physical Education requirement, which is state-mandated, the Fine/ Performing Arts requirement is one mandated in Westford,

not the state of Massachusetts.

“We went through three years worth of transcripts to see what percent of students were already doing these courses. It’s Visual and Performing Arts, which is theatre, art, and music classes and a lot of our kids do all of these things […] when you look at the range for all of those classes […] I think [the percentage of students who took an arts class] was around 92 percent,” said Pechacek, when talking about how the Fine/Performing Arts requirement came about.

The new requirements are relatively controversial, with different students often having conflicting opinions on the necessity of such requirements.

Many have found the requirements too restrictive, believing that these restrictions can take up too much space on an already limited schedule.

“If you know what you want to do in life and what you want to pursue, you should be able to put your best foot forward and take more challenging classes, so that you can get into those exclusive colleges,” said junior Alexa Wilson For some, requirements such as the Physical Education one feel like a waste of time, especially when already playing in a varsity sport at Westford Academy.

“I’m on two varsity sports, so I do find P.E. redundant.

If I’m trying to push for an AP class or another elective instead of having to take P.E., or if I’m trying to take [another class] which pushes my grade up, or my GPA up, why do I have to take P.E. if I’m already doing exercise with the school every day after class?” said Wilson.

However, others like senior Olivia Vallone, find that taking classes and doing things you do not like is just part of life, and not something to be hung up on.

Varshini Ramanathan Editor-in-Chief

Aliviah MacCormack Staff writer

Kavya Desikan Editor

Amelia Neal

"While these requirements are not new, since the class of 2020 is now juniors, many have begun to notice the impediment they can be when trying to select coursework."

Continued on page 12

Ghostwriter staff

Mehul Shrivastava Managing Editor Mahi Kandage Editor

John Vassiliou Editor Joe Cornetta Staff Writer

Lyndsay Duato Staff Writer Jack Durkin Staff Writer

Mohammed Khan Staff writer staff writer

Griffin Parker staff writer

Anushka Patel staff writer

Srinithi Raj staff writer

Divya Sambathkumar staff writer

Hannah Thomas staff writer

Melanie Duronio

Heather Vaughan

Keertana Gangireddy

Janet Fonden & Jack Holbrook Advisers

staff writer

staff writer

Penny Joyce Staff writer

staff writer

News

January 2019

Page 3

New schedule aims to WA staff manages mental health reduce stress Penny Joyce Staff Writer At the beginning of this school year, the administration at Westford Academy decided to try a new schedule to help reduce stress for the WA students. Though meant to help students feel more relaxed and prepared for their next classes, some thought it had no effect.

The Challenge Success schedule will be in effect for the last week of every term. It takes ten minutes off the second block, time which is given to students as free time. Westford Academy students would then return to third block at the normal time and continue on with a regular school day.

“I didn’t notice any difference,” sophomore Brian Ellis said when asked what he thought of the new schedule.

With the schedule only giving an extra ten minutes, most of the time used as a social break or to eat a quick snack.

Some expressed interest in a longer break, claiming that ten minutes was just not enough.

“I would just sit around and talk to my friends, there wasn’t much of any time for work,” sophomore Hailey Sussman said.

The Challenge Success schedule is meant to give an alternate for de-stressing without changing school start times. Some think an alteration in start time could help improve the major issue of students not getting an appropriate amount

of sleep. “[I would like to change] change the start time in school. There’s not really a point to stopping a class once we're already here, you know,” Ellis said when asked what he would change in the WA schedule.

Students also voiced concerns of the ten minutes being completely pointless because then they lose class time in their second block.

For some students, this is stressful because they would rather have useful class time then a couple of free minutes. The schedule could potentially be adding more stress instead of reducing it as the schedule planned.

“I had a test the next day in the block that lost 10 minutes and it really sucked ‘cause we could’ve used that time for reviewing instead of sitting in the cafe,” sophomore Anusha Parikh said.

The idea to give students more time in between classes was widely liked by many different students and staff, and students are hopeful that Westford Academy will keep adjusting to help lower their stress levels.

"I mean it had a lot of flaws but I think overall it was a good idea, and more should keep changing like this soon," Sussman said.

Mehul Shrivastava Managing Editor Depression and anxiety have become more and more common in teenagers in today's fast-paced lifestyle.

Stress concerning academics, extracurriculars, social situations, and life at home often build up and overwhelm students.

In Massachusetts, 25.5 to 29.4 percent of high school students feel depressed.

Additionally, 2.2 to 3.6 percent of those students have attempted suicide or harmed themselves.

Westford Academy is a high-performing school with a variety of classes and extracurriculars that students become a part of. As beneficial as that might be, students often get overwhelmed and can experience symptoms of anxiety or depression.

"I do believe that our students are stressed. I worry about it all the time," Guidance Counselor Wendy Pechacek said.

The last student suicide that WA experienced was before Pechacek became a guidance counselor, which was eighteen years ago. Surrounding communities, such as ActonBoxborough, have seen recent suicides, and Pechacek expressed how grateful she is

that WA has not gone through the same situation recently.

However, a number of WA students are hospitalized due to mental health.

According to Micaela Violette, one of WA's social workers, students have certain coping capacities for stress, and need coping strategies and support networks to rely on.

"I think the number one thing is to talk to an adult, and I think a lot of times teens want to go to their friends, which makes sense, and I think that that can be helpful, but certainly people are reaching the level in which they are thinking about hurting themselves, they should absolutely talk to an adult," Violette said.

Pechacek agreed, saying that the most stressed students are those who hear from other students about their problems.

"The students that get overwhelmed are often the ones that everyone else brings their problems to," Pechacek said.

Violette also recommended that students put aside time to do something that is relaxing or enjoyable to them. However, according to the results from the Challenge Success Survey Results in 2016, this is increasingly difficult for students to do. 50 percent of students reported that they dropped an activity due to academic workload, 64 percent said they did not spend enough time with family friends, and 66 percent do not get enough sleep.

According to Pechacek, the fact that students talk about schools and grades often adds

"We all experience stress in our lives, different levels of stress, and I think you have some students who can manage it and some who can't."

"We all experience stress in our lives, different levels of stress, and I think you have some students who can manage it and some who can't," Violette said.

Coping strategies include physical activity, distractions from what is stressing them out, regulating breathing, and self-care, such as getting adequate sleep and nutrition.

Furthermore, Violette believes that having a trusted adult to talk to is highly beneficial.

Continued on page 11

Page 4

Make your own motives John Vassiliou Editor

I cringe whenever faced with these three letters: GPA. I've pondered for the longest time for what it was about the term that made me uncomfortable, afraid even, and I came to the evident realization that I knew my father came to at my age: this is my first time where my own actions affect my life.

GPA is our first real step into deciding our own futures.

Are you going to be a whiz kid who can get into any college you wish? Or are you going to let yourself collapse under the pressure of school, and be lucky to be accepted into one of your down-the-list schools?

It is, after all, a scary thing. What will we be able to accomplish after high school?

What do we want to be? What is our goal in life? To many of us, we are still asking ourselves that question. Do we want to be a lawyer? A businessman? A politician? If so, what education does that require? What GPA do I need to get into a good college for it? Deciding what you want to do in life when you're eighteen is an incredibly hard decision.

This raises the question: If you're one of the thousands of high-schoolers who doesn't know what they want to do, then why do you care about

your GPA? We strive for motivation, something to push us over the edge and give us that little light at the end of the tunnel, but for many of us, we have no more motivation than the idea of getting good grades.

The train of thought goes something like this. "I need to get good grades." "Why?" "To get into a good college."

"Why?" "To get a good job."

"Like what?"

This is where a lot of us face an impasse; we don't know. It sure is a hell of a lot of pressure asking a teenager what they want to do until they retire. A lack of an endgame is one of the most detrimental things that a human being can have burdening them.

We are creatures of achievement; we wish to achieve a goal and reach a concrete end. This has been understood throughout history. It has seen its way into determining the rise and fall of kingdoms, the elections of politicians, and even the outcomes of war. After all, it was British general Bernard Montgomery who once stated during WWII that "Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a

Opinions

whole."

This is as true on the battlefields of history as it is in the classroom. If we wish to do well in school, we must know what our goal is. We need to know what it is we want to achieve. Without it, we are left wandering through the halls, working for no known reason. Melancholy isn't a great study tool, and until we can properly sort out what it is we want to do in life, we're nothing more than dust in the wind.

Humans like a challenge to overcome, but when there isn't one, we lose our fighting spirit. We lose our ability to function to our best capacity. Though we're definitely nowhere close to the stress of a battlefield, we do still make decisions that will affect us and the people around us, and our GPA is that tiny fragment which affects the entire picture.

How will you get yourself motivated for the future, when it seems so far away?

It's hard, but the best way to compensate is to set small goals, take things step by step, and you'll eventually find yourself where you want to be. The world is a cruel and unforgiving place, and the best way for us to prepare for it is to learn how to take it step by step. Don't let up, and keep your eye on the prize.

January 2019

Racing against time

Varshini Ramanathan Editor in Chief When I write down all the tasks I have to do, looking at each of them individually makes them seem pretty manageable. When I write a to-do list, I always think I can accomplish the items there and more as long as I'm diligent. However, the second I sit down to actually work, I lose sight of that neat little list and instead feel the pressure of infinite things to do on the horizon, even though they're far from infinite.

I am unable to focus only on the task I am doing -- maybe it's the product of this tech culture or whatever we're calling it these days, or maybe it's just the way my brain works. How much time do I allot for my English reading before my math grade begins to suffer? Do I work on my supplements or my schoolwork? For every hour of sleep I give up, how many points do I lose on tomorrow's test? I know students who don't even bother with this optimization and instead give their all on everything while sacrificing sleep in return, or students who don't bother trying at all. No matter the case, the pressure of having an vast amount of work to do that doesn't have a clear start or finish is worse, I believe, than the stress of actually doing the

work.

In my experience, it's where procrastination comes from, as well. Rather than tackle all of those tasks, I opt to escape to Instagram or find a friend to talk to (they're few and far between these days because they're all working). It's all in the head, after all; as long as I can forget about my work, I'm happy.

Well, there's the solution, right? It's all in the head. If I just compartmentalize and stop thinking about other tasks while I'm doing work, my stress should vanish. But this is what they call time management, after all; how am I supposed to get by without it?

It's the way we were raised to consider things. The bigpicture thinking, the strength of making connections, our capacity to consider and comprehend a lot at once -- this is where it comes back to get us.

If we can understand that this inertia is not just laziness, perhaps we can begin to overcome it. By recognizing this pressure that seems impossible to pin down as legitimate and not just in the head, we can truly confront this problem rather than continue to deal with the anxiety and procrastination that comes as a result.

January 2019

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Features

January 2019

Juggling everything

Teachers face their own stressors

Students take extracurricular activities for a variety of reasons, such as having a better college application and meeting parents’ expectations; however, some participate in their extracurricular activities simply because they enjoy them.

"All the clubs I do and all the sports I do, I really do love them, they’re not just something to write on a college application,” said freshman Tanya Vasireddy.

Vasireddy’s activities include Speech and Debate, DECA, Student Council, dive team, and field hockey.

This is her first time in DECA, Student Council, and Speech and Debate. She is doing these because they are seen in more professional environments with which she wants to get involved.

Through these clubs, she met many new friends to socialize with; however she does not get much time to talk to others outside of these clubs and sports. She says that these activities can sometimes affect the amount of sleep and free time she has.

Vasireddy puts in a lot of her time towards her extracurriculars and sports.

Even with her busy schedule, she does not give them up because she loves them so much.

Another freshman, Kenna Tighe, does dance and DECA. She attends dance classes four times a week, for three or more hours each day. Tighe has been dancing since she was four and DECA sounded fun to her so she chose to do it.

Some days she does not get home until 9 o'clock due to dance and she has to do her work which can lead her to not go to bed until 11:30 p.m or later.

This does not allow her to have free time but she does

In the classroom, many students are stressing over the multitude of tests they need to take and the piles of homework they receive from their classes. Yet, many fail to notice the stress teachers undergo to grade tests and prepare the material presented in class daily.

In 2015, all WA students took a Challenge Success survey focused on targeting issues in student stress.

According to Westford Academy’s Challenge Success coach, Pam Webb, one of the statistics where WA stood out the most in comparison to other Challenge Success schools was the teacher support metric: 80% of students felt there was at least one adult in the school they could talk to.

The teachers at Westford Academy put in a lot of effort to not only improve the student experience but also be involved in their high-school environment. On top of that, they put in a lot of energy into helping the students understand the material to the best of their abilities.

Timothy Knittel, an Advanced Placement and College Prep Chemistry teacher, says he puts significant effort into preparing for his classes and making sure his students are learning in the best way possible. He makes it a priority to prepare new test materials every year, and it takes Knittel about four hours to prepare a new test. During the same week, he also has to think about the next unit in order to keep his students busy. To add onto this pile of work, Knittel also manages to grade all the tests on the same day that students take them.

“When I give a test, let’s say in AP chemistry, I take about four hours to make the test [...] at the same time, as I

have time to socialize outside of the school.

“DECA doesn’t really affect anything, it’s only once a week, but dance is like 12 plus hours a week, so I don’t have a lot of time to do homework, and I’m very busy on the weekends,” said Tighe.

Similar to what Vasireddy said about her activities, Tighe said that she would not give up dance, since it has become such a huge part of her life since she began when she was three years old.

Harleen Kaur, a freshman, participates in dance, tennis, swimming, DECA, HOSA, and Latin Club. She has to manage her time to do her homework, study, and do well in her activities. She picked these clubs because she thought they would be interesting. Kaur started to take dance class because of her parent's expectation but she decided to continue doing it out of her interest.

Kaur doesn't have enough time to socialize because she has many tasks and things to do. She says all of her activities and sports all together adds more stress to her because she has to be better at time management.

She only gets an average of four to five hours of sleep each night due to the workload from school, her clubs, and activities even when she manages time well.

She devotes her time to keep her grades up and to perform well in these activities.

"I have a couple of things[...]but it is up to me if I take them or not," Harleen said.

Kaur would continue to do her activities when her grades are not too bad but she would quit most of her extracurriculars if her grades are dropped severely because she thinks her grades and academics are more important than her extracurriculars.

Divya Sambathkumar Hannah Thomas Staff Writers

give the test, I have the next unit ready to roll [which is] several hours of putting that together and then you have to grade the test [...] I like to give it back the next day.

[Those are] the real bad days [...] when you’re giving a test,

our students. Grading all the little assignments also takes time and then grading the essays takes the most amount of time and the most mental investment,” Hart said.

Hart also mentions that most of the teachers in the English department have young children, who they need to also make time for and think about.

The teachers need to balance their personal lives and their Photo by Divya Sambathkumar

Hannah Thomas Heather Vaughan Staff Writers

Kim Hart grading

especially in AP Chemistry, it’s very stressful,” Knittel said.

Kim Hart, an English teacher who teaches many classes across multiple grades, is often stressed by the preparation that goes into teaching a class. The English college prep students have varying interest levels when it comes to learning the subject and have a diverse set

responsibilities at school, which can be overwhelming.

Michael Martell, a history teacher with two kids, believes teachers have the stress that students have in addition to the stress that comes along with being a parent.

“I have two kids at home.

I have to worry about what they’re doing too which adds another level. So it’s the stress that [students] have plus that extra layer of making sure they [his children] are ready for school, they are on the bus and making sure they are doing good at school and they’re not sick.

So there’s a little bit of an extra layer of stress too," Martell said.

Rachel Connerty, a math teacher, has older kids now, so she has more time to focus on grading assignments and tests, but remembers being very stressed when her children were younger.

“I use my time at home because my kids are older. So, I have that time as opposed to running around after a little kid. When I was younger and was teaching and had younger kids, it was very stressful because I couldn’t get anything done, couldn’t do anything right," Connerty said.

"When I was younger and was teaching and had younger kids, it was very stressful because I couldn’t get anything done, couldn’t do anything right." of skills that Hart needs to take into consideration when planning activities for the class. The intensity of Hart’s Advanced Placement and Honors classes makes it even harder for her. It takes her five to six hours to grade essays from one class, which is a source of stress.

“It's about what we have to balance, those of us who are in the humanities, because we have the immediate daily deadlines of planning good classes which takes a lot of thought and we are doing it every day and [...] we want to present ourselves well and run a good class for

Features

January 2019

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A closer look at stress and its effects on the teenage brain

I. The HPA Axis and LongTerm Stress

effect of age on the release of corticosterone, the rat equivalent of cortisol, and ACTH, the hormone released right before it. They came to the the same conclusion:

the subject has not been researched extensively. Boys and girls from the ages of 15 to 17 showed higher cortisol response levels than children from 9 to 13 years old in 2009

Image licensed for resuse and modification by Creative Commons

Varshini Ramanathan Editor-in-Chief Stress is the body’s response to a perception of danger. When we sense a threat -- be it a house fire or a history presentation -our bodies kick into high gear.

When suddenly confronted with serious danger, like an oncoming car, the body releases the chemical epinephrine, which activates our fightor-flight response almost instantaneously. This is the response that allows mothers to lift cars to save children -- it greatly increases heart rate, muscle function, and blood pressure under conditions of extreme duress. However, that isn’t the only the way we respond to stress.

As long as any stressor -- short-term or long-term -- persists, the body’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis triggers a chemical pathway that ends in the release of the stress hormone cortisol in humans. This is the response that is most often triggered in daily life, which The hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and amygdala are all has an abundance of low-level, located in the brain. long-term stressors. Most the adolescent rats (about 30 studies by Gunnar et al. and importantly, the HPA axis and days old) had a much longer Stroud et al. in Development its effects on stress response ACTH and corticosterone and Psychopathology. go through significant changes response than adults (65+ In short, when exposed to during adolescence that make days old), ranging from 45 to the same stress level, the HPA the way teenagers respond to stress response is higher in stress very different from adults. 60 minutes longer, after they were exposed to many quick teenagers than in adults.

The brain can change the stressors.

What exactly does this length of the body’s stress This difference has also longer and higher cortisol responses depending on the been observed to some response mean in terms of age. In both 1973 and 2004, degree in humans, though the body's reaction? A longer several studies explored the

response means that the typical effects of stress, such as increased blood pressure, risk of inflammation, and nausea, persist for a greater amount of time. A higher response means that those effects are exaggerated or more severe.

It is important to note that the above study did not test chronic stress, which is a large part of what WA students face.

However, chronic stress is just the constant activation of the HPA axis, so the same trend may persist.

This data suggests that adults may, in fact, handle stress better in part because they just are not as affected by it as teenagers.

Why does this change in the HPA axis happen in teens? Scientists aren’t exactly sure yet, but there are some likely possibilities. For one, the HPA axis is linked to the gonadal glands, which cause the estrogen and testosterone changes that are characteristic of puberty. Thus, as the function of the gonadal glands changes in adolescence, the HPA axis changes as well.

II. The Prefrontal Cortex and Response Control

The changing teenage brain affects not only the intensity of the stress response but also the way the brain controls the emotions that come with it.

The main parts of the brain which deal with processing emotion are the cingulate gyrus, which processes our conscious emotions, and the

amygdala, which processes our reflexive emotions like fear and anxiety. The prefrontal cortex, which affects mood, critical judgment, and goal-setting, is also implicated in emotional responses.

It is well-known that the prefrontal cortex and amygdala are maturing and changing throughout adolescence. That is why teenagers cannot make decisions the same way as adults, and why they are more likely to take reckless risks.

Everyone has difficulty regulating their judgment under stress. However, research indicates that once again, this characteristic is more prominent in teenagers than adults. A 2014 study by Radhar and Galavan published in Neuroimage found that after a self-reported high-stress day, high-stress teenagers had more difficulty controlling their responses to a test set by the researchers than high-stress adults.

The teenagers accessed an area of the prefrontal cortex associated with reasoning, planning, and response control less in high-stress situations than in low-stress situations, while adults did the opposite. As mentioned, the prefrontal cortex is still immature in teenagers, which likely influenced why they reacted this way. Because of this compromised ability to judge, plan, and reason, teenagers are at a disadvantage when it it comes to controlling judgements under stress than adults.

Continued on page 12

In the words of Westford Academy stud

I think the most stressful part of being here is how detailed my studying has to be. In middle school, I could just read over the study guide and just be done with it, but here I have to go over and over everything multiple times and I still get below 80s. It seems like I have to put a lot more work in, and even when I do put in a lot of work, I don’t get results that I want. I know they give you the checklists to check off, but I feel like you’re never really done studying. Even after you study, there’s so much more to do, and it’s frustrating, when you have so many tests to study for and the lists go on and on.”

-- Bo Derek Lane-Smith, grade nine

“This is the least stressful job I’ve ever had [...] my doctor told me I could never retire from this job; it’s the perfect routine, the exercise, and it’s not hard. The only thing is, when we have to come in and shovel for the snow. That means, normally we’re on at night so we sleep at ten o’clock in the morning, but we have to get up at five, get in here, get it cleared for school, and go home, and then come back that night. Not really stressful, but it’s a great job, like I said, it’s the perfect workout.”

-- Kevin Dunn, custodian

“For me, I feel like the biggest stress is, because we have four quarters and I want your grades to be fair, I’m constantly trying to have you have enough grades. I don’t want a single test or a single quiz to make or break your grade. So I’m trying to balance your workload with wanting to be fair. That’s my biggest stress. And then I have to grade all the things. I have to submit grades eight times a year because we have four progress reports and four report cards. And midterms and finals. Finals are easier because when you’re grading finals you’re not prepping to teach. So while I’m grading midterms, I’m also preparing to teach the rest of the year.

-- Laine Winokur, history teacher

Younger siblings of high-achieving students face challenges Varshini Ramanathan Editor-in-Chief

When Kristen Colavita was a baby, her brother Michael would build intricate Lego masterpieces — computers, TVs, VCRs — imitating the real thing down to the string he used for the wiring.

Kristen does not remember it, but she has heard the story enough times to recount it from memory, one of many reminders of her brother’s excellence.

Michael Colavita, Class of 2016 valedictorian currently attending Harvard University, is perhaps uniquely intelligent but not unique in his position as an extremely high-achieving older sibling. Kristen Colavita, her twin brother Vincent, and Yiwen Xiong, whose sister Sarah (name changed for privacy reasons) attends the University of Chicago, are a few of many students with this distinct relationship.

While high school stress is being studied from local to international levels in nearly every fathomable form, the effects of sibling pressures are not as documented, and information on siblings of older academic superstars is even more sparse. What research does exist is conflicting; one study finds that gifted and non-gifted sibling pairs had few differences in selfesteem, while another found

that competition among these sibling pairs was positive for the gifted sibling but destructive for the other sibling. (It is important to note that the siblings featured in this piece are not necessarily labelled gifted, but very little research has been done on sibling pressures where one sibling is high-achieving but not gifted.)

What is evident, though, is that each student deals with this situation differently depending on their family, peers, and personal mindset.

Some feel like they live in the shadow of their siblings, some differentiate themselves as much as possible, and some feel no pressure at all, but they all must eventually embrace their differences. The younger sibling’s high-school journey is perhaps more complicated than the average student’s, but they all face the question that every teenager does at some point or another: who am I, and who do I want to be?

I. Understandings and Misunderstandings at School

Most younger siblings are used to being recognized by teachers and upperclassmen by their last names. However, siblings of academic superstars find themselves faced with not just recognition but a legacy to fulfill or leave behind as they see fit.

When Vincent Colavita entered high school, he found

himself compared to his brother, who was then a senior, by his classmates for the first time. Michael Colavita’s impact on the school — it is not an overstatement to say that he was famous among students and faculty — made people recognize the relationship immediately when Colavita introduced himself.

Colavita recalls classmates approaching him with programming questions when he was in Intro to Programming, expecting him to have the same immense knowledge of computer science that his brother did. It was not his lack of experience that frustrated him as much as his peers’ assumption that he would be a carbon copy of his brother.

“If it was Michael that the kid had talked to, then yeah, he’d have been flooded with answers. But I just didn’t have any answers,” he said.

He eventually grew accustomed to the comparison, and growing up meant that it bothered him less every year.

Still, as a new high-schooler, Michael Colavita’s reputation was a difficult weight to handle.

“Most of the time in ninth grade, I didn’t show it, but I was upset by [the comparisons] a lot of the time. Eventually, it became an expectation for me that a lot of people would say it,” he said.

Xiong, too, was most bothered by comparisons to his sister as a younger child.

His motivations and sense of self were not as defined in middle school as they would come to be in high school, and Xiong reflects that seventh and eighth grade were the years he felt most aware of his sister’s academic achievement.

In middle school, he often had his sister’s old teachers, and while they would not stress the sibling relationship, Yiwen would see evidence of her prowess in school all around him.

“I’d see her old projects that she’d shown to me, and they’re in [my] classroom.

And so I’d always try to achieve that,” he said. “It [wasn’t], ‘here’s Yiwen,’ it’s ‘here’s Sarah’s brother’ — I kind of hated that [at first], but in the end, it didn’t really affect me.”

One of Westford Academy’s social workers, Micaela Violette, explains that siblings may feel an underlying pressure simply being in the same classroom as a high-achieving sibling, even when the teacher has no intention of drawing harmful comparisons.

“I think teachers often say, ‘oh, I had your sibling.’

And already students might make their own assumptions.

A teacher might just be saying it as a connection […] but to that student, if they’re already feeling like their sibling is a higher achieving than they are, where the bar has been set, then they might feel this

pressure that the teacher now intended just by making a simple comment,” she said.

Kristen Colavita disagrees, noting that although many teachers have drawn the comparison between her and her brother, she is able to see it as a simple connection.

Vincent Colavita remarked that “in many ways, she [Kristen] does live up to expectations.” Kristen Colavita is at the top of the Class of 2019, takes five AP courses, and has won the Yale Book Award as well as several department awards in programming and math.

Kristen Colavita, however, sees it differently; she is living up to no expectations except her own. Her work ethic and immense drive stem from her mindset that only her best work is acceptable.

“If you don’t do the best you can, then why even do it in the first place?” she said.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Though Colavita has had many of her brother’s teachers, she does not feel as though she was ever compared to him. Rather, she has found that most misunderstandings about her relationship with her brother come from her peers. She explains that her classmates expect her brother to be the source of her motivation, which she thinks is understandable considering their similarities.

However, it is far from the

dents and staff: What stresses you out?

“I’m a junior and especially this year it’s hard because we have to prepare for the SATs and other standardized tests while also doing our homework,. We have a lot more homework than some of our teachers think we do, and it’s not just one class. We don’t really have time for our hobbies and free time.”

-- Anshu Punreddy, grade eleven

“It kind of seems like they [adults in my life] neglect that we have other duties that we have to do. I wish they were more aware of what we actually have to do. I chose to take a lot of honors classes and it’s kind of a lot at times. Sometimes it’s not as much, but other times I’m staying up until one in the morning. I’d say it’s [stress] is a little bit more but it’s not the worst.”

-- Ryan Smith, grade nine “So I think that a lot of the stress in the school isn’t necessarily put on by the school itself, but it’s put on by a standard that’s been set throughout the country and it’s been increasing throughout the world. [...] I mean personally, my parents are immigrants, and I think there’s quite a large Asian population in Westford and a lot of our parents are immigrants and a lot of the households we’ve grown up in have had the pressure to succeed and do well in school, since that’s really valued. It’s sort of proven as a way to be successful in life. [...] One thing I don’t like is that we aren’t allowed to take AP classes until junior and senior year. So I feel like with the pressure to take so many AP classes, and a lot of kids taking three, four, five classes, that we aren’t necessarily ready for the amount of schoolwork in them by the time we are allowed to take them in junior year.”

--Tiffany Tseng, grade twelve

and inspirations through their high-school journeys truth. People are simply looking to make connections between the two siblings, when in reality Colavita is following internal motivations.

“I think people expect me to be always comparing myself to Michael and therefore, you know, they want to see if it’s true […] there are so many times I get the question, ‘what was Michael’s GPA? What’s your GPA?’” she said.

That is not to say that Colavita does not admire her brother’s success in school.

She simply acknowledges his genius and strives to achieve excellence regardless of what her brother has accomplished ahead of her.

“I don’t like using the word acceptance, because that makes it sound like this huge burden that I’ve come to accept. But Michael is smarter than me, and that’s just the way it is. That’s just how the genetics worked out, and I’m perfectly fine with that,” she said.

II. The Parental Push

“All the time,” Xiong answered without hesitation when asked if he felt compared to his sister. “I still am.”

Xiong first became cognizant of his sister’s academic achievements around seventh grade. While it was awe-inspiring to see her projects and schoolwork, he also began to feel a disparity between the two of them.

“I realized that wow,

she’s actually really good at what she does. It was kind of this moment where I almost wished I could be her, in the sense of being able to achieve that much,” he said.

His parents would show him the work his sister had done, and he felt an underlying pressure to be like his sister in his household through his middle-school years.

Although he strove to match her level of achievement for a time, he soon realized that his relationship with his sister was spiraling and that it was in everyone’s best interest to stop comparing himself to her.

This change in mindset was set in stone for Xiong when his sister left to attend the University of Chicago as Xiong entered high school.

The physical separation allowed Xiong to find a mental separation between himself and his sister, giving him the freedom to pursue his interests.

However, though pressure from his parents dissipated over time, he still felt a sense of comparison from them as they tried to push him in his sister’s direction.

“So my dad would always kind of push […] that I should do a lot of things my sister does. […] while there was pressure I feel like nowadays, I’ve managed to branch off into our own sort of niche and stay there,” he said. “In the end, like all parents compare their kids, like, they say they

don’t play favorites. But in the end, there is always some bias, no matter what you do.”

A 2015 study in the Journal of Family Psychology found that parents’ beliefs in their children’s academic abilities affected the child’s performance in school the next year.

Violette explains that in a parent-child relationship, praise is easily equated to success. Thus, when praise is given proportionally to academic achievement, a sibling without as many accomplishments to his or her name may feel a sense of failure or favoritism with parents.

“I think it goes back to treating people as individuals, like I said before, you know, really looking at an individual person’s capacities and strengths and weaknesses, and really trying to play off of their strengths and build them up and provide praise,” she said.

Kristen Colavita describes her home environment as much more supportive. She asserts that her parents just want the best for her, and that her strongest effort will always be enough for them.

This, she says, may be part of the reason why she has never felt a strong sense of comparison or inferiority to her brother.

“I guess if I had grown up in a family where my parents expected all A’s, I would go insane from the fact that I

could never be Michael,” she said. “There isn’t a specific example I can think where I’ve felt, ‘okay, let me step back and make myself happy.’

Because I’ve always been happy with my relationship with Michael.”

However, her family has always put a strong emphasis on academics and success in school.

“I grew up in a house where education and academics are very important.

My mom and dad want us to prioritize our education. […]

I’ve just always been an environment where it’s normal to sort of put a heavy emphasis on, you know, doing school and enjoying learning,” she said.

Vincent Colavita feels boxed into this emphasis on academic success that does not suit him. Just like his siblings, he is also interested in programming, but is passionate about video game design and programming applications rather than pure computer science.

As a result, he describes himself as able to put 110% of his effort into his interests while cutting himself some slack on the rest. This has led to friction with his family, who wants to push him towards academic success. “[My mom] doesn’t have any first-hand experience of what my experiences are […] she tends to think in ways that don’t apply to me,” he said.

Colavita explains that his siblings have set a standard in his family, already academically inclined, that he is not by nature meant to reach.

His personal successes are often overlooked in the context of his siblings’ academic success.

“It is quite frustrating when you have all of these personal accomplishments that you’re really proud of, but nobody’s going to be looking at you for that.

They’re not going to say hey, it’s the person that made that game. It’s going to be hey, it’s the person who took the low classes. They’re not looking at who you actually are, they’re looking at the numbers, the grades,” he said.

III. Answering the Question

Though it happened at different times and places for each student, Xiong and the Colavita twins have all learned to find their footing in Westford Academy and understand the value of their differences.

For Xiong, it was joining band in freshman year that gave him access to a community his sister was never a part of and gave him the self-confidence to branch out.

Read the rest of the article at waghostwriter.com/category/ features.

Features

Page 10

January 2019

Advanced placement advances students' strain at WA On the other hand, some students argue that they take AP classes precisely because they can handle the work in terms of complexity, just not in volume.

Senior Tommy DeLuca

understandable -- but it gets the point where it's like, why are you inputting your knowledge into our lives?” he said.

In 2017, 530 students at Westford Academy were in Advanced Placement classes, according to the WA school profile. The number indicates a significant increase in the number of AP students, with 352 students taking APs in 2014, 400 in 2015, and 401 in 2016.

Whether it is to gain the approval of prestigious colleges or to simply advance one’s knowledge in a subject, the stress that comes with these courses is inevitable.

According to PrepScholar, selective colleges expect students to tackle three to five APs per year in core subjects, while seven to twelve AP courses are what is considered necessary to stand out among others.

In schools all over Massachusetts, students face similar situations regarding their AP classes. During the 2017-2018 school year, 530 students took AP classes out of 1,715 total students, onefourth of the school. Of these students, 29 percent took three or more APs. Compared to other high-achieving schools in the Boston area, Westford falls in the middle of the pack, Different AP textbooks, a weight on both the backpacks and mindset of students, pile up on a desk. with Lexington topping AP enjoys being challenged, Why Students Take student numbers at 78 percent. that students who take on but does not believe that Several APs: Throughout districts, more more than they can handle intellectual stimulation should Of course Advanced students taking APs in total are setting themselves up come at the cost of physical Placement courses are indicates there are less students for failure and cannot blame and mental health. In this stressful. It’s in the name, after taking three or more of them.

Conversely, less students in AP courses in general means more are taking three or more APs. However, AP classes are not necessarily taught at the same level in all districts. The issue, or boon, with WA’s AP classes are that many are taught at higher standard than other schools. For example, the 3, 4, 5 rate in classes such as AP French, AP Mandarin, and AP-AB Calculus is 100%. The average of students who score above a three for these classes on a national scale is 74 percent, 68percent, and 56% respectively.

Overall, a substantial amount of students take the challenging AP courses that they know are harder than than the conventional class. What are the various pressures and inspirations causing students to take several APs per year, and is the associated stress unreasonable or expected?

The AP Debate: Do You Bring Stress Upon Yourself? sense, there is a marked all -- if they’re advanced, then In October, a student teachers for any of their difference between a student’s why take so many? representative for Challenge issues. intellectual and physical It is hard to separate the Success posted on the Class “I don’t mean to sound capabilities, and classes reasoning behind taking of 2019 Facebook page asking rude, but you signed up to should try to strike a balance several APs into a single what stresses students out. Over take the class, you know between the two. pressure or cause. The belief the next few days, hundreds of what the expectations are, DeLuca emphasizes that in the importance of working comments flooded the group. so you either can handle it, taking AP courses is much to one’s full potential, the Some criticized students or you can’t. [...] for people more complex from an AP desire to meet a personal and taking difficult classes for to complain that ‘oh, this is student’s perspective. peer standard, and the pressure bringing stress upon themselves, so much work,’ ‘oh, this is “There's just like different to secure a successful future while others justified their class ridiculous, the teacher’s being things, moving pieces, that all impact different students in choices and argued that just unfair,’ it’s stupid, in my different ways. because a course is challenging opinion,” said senior Amanda aren't recognized by non-AP students -- which is totally Junior Isabella Xu, taking does not mean it should be Mager.

three APs in her junior year, strives to take the maximum number of APs she can and chooses those she enjoys within that constraint. She does not consider the associated stress when making course selections, as she believes that her aspiration to work in the medical field requires her to get used to a backbreaking workload early on.

She enjoys working on a challenge and chooses difficult courses because she knows she would be disappointed in herself if she deliberately performed less than her best.

DeLuca follows a similar process, trying to stick to courses he enjoys but ultimately straying to some extent. However, for him, college acceptance plays a larger role.

“In a perfect world, I would say that it [taking 5 APs] was because I'm deeply interested in all the classes and I am for the most part, but I think a lot of it was because I have this pressure of college, that colleges won't like me if I don't take all these APs. And that's not something that we can change, obviously,” he said.

DeLuca explains that the pressure to take multiple AP courses stems from, predictably, college. Selective colleges use numbers and difficulty of AP courses to determine an applicant’s competitiveness, and so the pressure is on to take a barrage of APs in order to meet the standards students are setting nationally.

According to the Princeton University website, “We consider it a promising sign when students challenge themselves with advanced courses in high school. We understand that not all secondary schools offer the same range of advanced courses, but our strongest candidates have taken full advantage of the academic opportunities available to them in their high schools [...] Whenever you can, challenge yourself with the most rigorous courses possible, such as honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and dualenrollment courses.”

Brown University echoes Princeton’s views on what a wellbalanced student looks like, saying, “To assess preparedness, we review the depth and breadth of the academic learning you have undertaken thus far. We want to know whether you have taken advantage of the courses available to you in your school, and whether you have challenged yourself in advanced classes, and whether you have stretched yourself with outside-of-school educational opportunities [...]

Our strongest candidates have taken full advantage of what is available to them in their own schools.”

Stats Box by Srinithi Raj

unnecessarily stressful.

There a few key differences in mindset between the two ends of the argument. Those who feel that complaining about AP classes is unwarranted believe

Photo by Varshini Ramanathan

Varshini Ramanathan Editor-in-Chief & Srinithi Raj Staff Writer

Continued on page 11

Features

January 2019

Page 11

Westford Academy staff manages mental health Continued from page 3

to their stress. One of her goals with Challenge Success is to reduce that conversation to focus on accomplishments.

"I think we have a culture where people feed into each other and build [the stress] up," Pechacek said.

Additionally, students place a lot of pressure on themselves or face pressure from family and peers, which can also lead to clinical depression or anxiety. For these reasons and more, a number of WA students have been hospitalized due to mental health. According to Violette, multiple factors from and outside of school play into depression and anxiety.

"In my experience, it's not usually one thing that contributes to someone being suicidal or someone needing a hospitalization. It's usually a bunch of different factors depending on the person I think. For some students, school can play a role you know, stress around [...] so many students have a lot of different things on their plates, whether it's extracurricular activities, you know, wanting to excel at school, do really well academically, pressures they might experience from their families or the pressures they put on themselves or their friends to keep up with everyone and be successful, so I think that that can lead students to experience a lot of anxiety, or people who put high expectations on themselves, they don't meet those, can feel really sad and disappointed about it," Violette said.

There have been steps taken to recognize any signs of clinical depression in students.

In seventh grade, students are given information on depression and then take an emotional wellbeing survey. Those with higher

scores on the survey have one-on-one meetings with their guidance counselors. In ninth grade, the mandatory health curriculum includes a program called "Breaking

the academic coordinator.

When Pechacek started working at WA 18 years ago, there were 46 students hospitalized for various reasons, and the school did

Graphic created by Kavya Desikan and Keertana Gangireddy

Free From Depression" followed by another survey, where about 12 percent of freshmen have meetings with their guidance counselors because of high scores.

On December 19, Pechacek sent out an email with a crisis text line for students and posted it around the school as well. It is an anonymous hotline for suicide prevention that students can call if they need to talk to someone.

"Those are in place specifically to help us identify students. It's also to help us help students identify other students, so a big part of those curriculums is to teach you all how to be part of a safety net, because most of the time when we hear about a student that's in crisis, it's from another student," Pechacek said.

To help students ease back into school after long-term absences, the Bridge Program was put into place as an option for students. Pechacek is in charge of the program, while Violette is the social worker involved and English teacher Michael Estabrook is

not have a way for alleviating stress after they returned from their long-term absences. The Bridge Program was then put in place. The hospitalizations in recent years have been cut in half and are consistent, with 22 in 2015, 24 in 2016, and 23 in 2017. The hospitalizations are usually due to concussions, surgeries, and mental health.

When students return to school after longterm absences, they have a meeting with their guidance counselor, dean, a social worker or school psychologist, and their parents. If the student chooses to use Bridge, Estabrook is present as well. During the meeting, a plan is created to allow the student enough time to adjust so that they are not under overwhelming stress when they return to class. There is no limit to how long they can stay in the Bridge program.

"It's not like 'you have to go back now.' We've had students who are there for a couple weeks, we've had students who have continued

colleges lead to a higher chance of success affects this mindset, surely. However, it falls second to the belief that an acceptance to a selective school proves the student’s intelligence and gives meaning to the way they have poured themselves into their academics from day one.

“A lot of kids in AP classes, including myself, think that they are destined for a certain college, maybe that’s more selective, and I think that we can give that to ourselves, because we are smart. We’ve been told our whole lives ‘you have to get into a good college’ […] it’s ingrained into us,” DeLuca said.

In that sense, from the moment students begin to succeed in difficult courses, it creates a feed-forward cycle based on a personal measure of intelligence.

“It’s like college influences my classes, and then my classes influence the way that I think about myself. So it’s a

kind of like a circle,” DeLuca said.

For Xu, her personal and peer expectations contribute to making intelligence a central part of her sense of self.

“People hear about me as someone who’s smart, and then I feel like without that, I don’t know exactly who I’d be in this community,” she said.

A Mindset That Compromises Health DeLuca describes school as “overarching in [his] entire life” despite efforts to separate school and life with a parttime job and time with friends.

In this sense, it is not just schoolwork but the mindset of [school being paramount] that creates tension for students.

In an environment where everybody cares immensely about grades, it is difficult to not get caught up in the frenzy.

Xu, who describes her friend group as composed almost entirely of top students in her grade, explains that nobody mentions classes or grades because it quickly hurts

to use it for a couple months, where they will be back in all their classes but their DLT block will just be in Bridge, or they won't go to PE, continue to have a block in Bridge. So it varies depending on the student," Estabrook said.

This is Estabrook's fourth year handling the Bridge program, having started during his second year at Westford Academy. He has noticed changes in how many students need to use the program every year.

In the previous years, Estabrook had a lot of students in Bridge due to mental health. As of December 2018, he saw a more mix in the program with students hospitalized for surgeries, concussions, and mental health.

"When I first started, I feel like we had a lot more. Last year was pretty quiet with periods of high numbers. This year's been extremely quiet, we didn't get our first student till the end of October, when usually we get kids already in September," Estabrook said.

Even if students are not

"If students have a concussion, and [there is] a sport that they have given their all to, you know, over the years, been playing since they were little and thought that was the thing they were going to do and then all of a sudden they can't do it and they don't know if they're going to be able to do it again, that can definitely have an impact," Pechacek said.

According to Violette, multiple social and academic pressures can factor into anxiety or depression, both in and out of school. For example, Estabrook mentioned that the Bridge program has had students with depression as a result of gender identity or sexual orientation, as well as school-avoidant students.

The school-avoidant students use Bridge for a more relaxed environment where they do not have to be in a larger class.

"There's overlap. All these things kind of mix together, so they could be stressed about school but it's also mixed in with general anxiety [...] the school stress could make it worse, exacerbate it, so it's hard to say [as if] it's only because of school," Estabrook said.

Suicides and hospitalizations due to mental health are never caused by one singular factor, rather a combination of multiple stressors.

"It would be easier if we could point to an exact trend, right, but I think the thing with mental health is that it doesn't discriminate.

Graphic created by Jack Durkin So it's not just hospitalized because of our high-achieving students clinical depression or anxiety, or our low-achieving students they often can develop them or all girls or all boys, even after being hospitalized for grade wise, it really fluctuates. concussions due to increased Mental health does not stress or having to leave discriminate," Violette said. activities.

Advanced Placement advances student strain at WA Continued from page 10 Colleges expect students of caliber, which often equates to ones who have taken the rigorous courses. While they stress the fact that students should take the courses suiting their capabilities, some students feel the need that they must alter their abilities to emulate students who take the ten AP classes. Others, however, feel that even if one is intellectually capable, the work can end up being too much.

The natural solution seems to be to lower expectations and accept whatever college acceptances come with a reasonable amount of work and stress. However, DeLuca describes an obligation he has to himself to live up to an expectation of academic success he has set up throughout the past three years. The desire to validate that expectation compels him to take challenging courses and get into a certain caliber of college.

The belief that higher-ranked

their relationships with one another.

DeLuca notes that classmates affect each others’ mindsets, and that the focus on grades overtakes all else in part because everybody else is doing it.

“When you get twenty kids together, who all think the same way and they’re starting to rub off on each other, that atmosphere is so toxic for someone’s mental health, where people are constantly worried about grades instead of their physical health,” said DeLuca.

DeLuca has tried to avoid this by maintaining his friendships with friends outside of his classes. Most of his classmates do not have enough time for a social life outside of their friendships with one another, he says.

When even friendships are based in school and social interactions happen mainly in class, the importance of school over all else is once again reinforced.

Mental health is derived from physical health and social health, says DeLuca. He and Xu both make a conscious effort to spend a few hours a week with friends outside of school, though rather than sacrifice grades they sacrifice sleep.

“My normal sleep time is between midnight and 2 a.m., but I wouldn’t give up my social life after school. I just lose sleep, but it’s fine,” she said.

However, in his effort to keep his grades up while also maintaining a semblance of a social life, DeLuca explains that eating well and exercising fall to the wayside; he normally does not have time to make breakfast.

“I think nobody’s aware that it’s taking such a toll on their mental health until they start to vent about it and think about it. That’s when it dawns on them,” he said.

Continued on page 14

Opinions

Page 12

Freshman fears failure in school Anushka Patil Staff Writer When I think of the word "school," I immediately think of anxiety and sleep. Those two ideas have circled around in my brain for the past semester of my ninth-grade year.

It isn’t the school part that gives me the most anxiety but it is the part in which I return home and have to cram all my homework into the limited time-frame I have. Honestly, most of my stress and 'anxiety' comes from the fact that, compared to eighth grade, ninth grade is tougher. When I compare what I used to do after school last year to what I do this year, I get upset. It should not be a surprise when I say that I miss eighth grade.

Along with homework, I have extracurriculars, including model UN, the WA Ghostwriter, Speech and Debate, and tennis.

Adults have made it evident to me that I will need clubs and sports, with the big four, my GPA, to succeed.

Now, in the adults' defense, it isn’t the pressure that they impose on me that makes me anxious, but actually the fear

order to make my transcript stand out. With the idea of my college transcript in mind, it is supposedly necessary to engage in sports and activities that show that I am ‘wellrounded.’

The feeling of having an imperfect transcript is not my major fear. This major fear, that I do not know what

is ahead of me, takes up a substantial amount of room in my brain.

I may be exaggerating my perception of failure. I don't want it to seem as though I hate my life now, because that really isn't the case. I am still young compared to the rest of the school. My anxiety probably has a role in the way I view failure. To me, when I calm myself down and really think about the tasks I have to complete, I realize that I can finish it fast. So, in the real scheme of things, my fear of failure is more directed toward the ‘perfect high school experience.’

I want to stay in touch with all of my friends. I want to be able to take all the classes that allow me to appear as a student who challenges herself.

I want to have fun. I want to appear as someone who has no stress whatsoever.

I haven’t had to sacrifice any of these desires yet. The constant fear of having to eventually compromise one of these things to uphold another is what makes me fear the idea of failure, due to the fact that compromise is inevitable.

Continued from page 2 Long-term projects such as papers and assigned studying, usually the night before a test, are included, but other non-homework preparation is not because it is difficult to quantify for every student.

"Especially at the Honors level, students are always looking for 'what else can I do?', 'what else can I use to study?"

Croteau said referring to her use of optional worksheets, though she makes an effort to limit the time sink on even nonassigned problems.

For many students, though the time limits themselves are manageable, the fact that homework may take much more time than teachers expect on schoolwork reduces the impact of the policy. A large component of workloadrelated stress is from studying, which often takes up several hours and is not counted as official homework.

Junior Jamie Laushine puts much more than the required time into homework every night. She cites more difficult tests in her junior year as opposed to previous years as a major reason why she spends so much time outside of class working, as well as the need to put in her best effort

on homework that is often graded.

"I just feel like teachers expect a lot more work done -- they don't think it's going to take a long time, but it really does, because you want to put in your best effort, obviously," Laushine said.

Clery says studying and out-of-class preparation may be addressed by the Homework Committee in the future, but for now, they plan to assess the success of the policy as it stands.

Other nearby school districts continue to put an emphasis on quantity when it comes to homework regulations, and Westford Academy is fairly unique in making a shift towards quality.

“We felt like we were pioneers, in a way, to focus more heavily on quality. So I do think that as our word gets out there, that other districts will be asking us for ours [the policy] to use as a jumping-off point,” she said.

With the worrying results about homework levels reported in the 2015 Challenge Success Survey and a national awareness of student stress in the context of the modern day, Clery emphasizes the importance of making changes to accommodate changing student lives.

“This is only one tiny step, but it’s a step that matters,” she said.

of failure that resides within.

Five honors and two CPs. Constantly calculating GPA based on the certain grade I got on one test, in one class.

The constant fear of failure lying within me must know whether or not my GPA is good enough for getting into the honors classes that I feel I need to take next year in

"The feeling of having an imperfect transcript may not be my major fear, but the fear that I do not know what is ahead of me has taken up a substantial amout of room in my brain."

Teenage Brain

Continued from page 7 The study has implications for understanding why teenagers are more likely to make impulsive decisions, conclude Radhar and Galvan. In addition, the fact that teenagers had the opposite reaction of adults in the study suggests that the differences in stress responses has layers that have yet to be fully understood.

III. In Summary Here are the facts: studies show that teenage rats and humans have a longer and higher stress response than adults. Another study shows that stressed-out teenagers had worse response control than stressed-out adults.

This research, along with the reasoning that the HPA axis and prefrontal cortex are still immature in teenagers, indicates that teenagers respond more intensely to stress and have greater difficulty controlling judgement under stress when compared to adults.

There has not been anywhere near enough research done on this relationship and contrast between teenage and adult stress, as it is only now becoming a recognized phenomenon. However, the combination of existing knowledge about the brain’s changes in adolescence as well as new research all point in the same direction: teenagers and adults cannot be compared when it comes to dealing with stress.

Adults must be careful when comparing the stress response of children to their own; it is perhaps not that teenagers are unreasonable or over-reactive, but that their brains are composed differently. A fuller understanding of the unique way teenagers experience stress is essential in order to better address the problems the students of today face.

Busywork Policy

“This is only one tiny step, but it’s a step that matters.”

January 2019

Facing an uncertain future beyond WA Mehul Shrivastava Managing Editor As we get older, our definition of success changes, and so does our definition of failure. People hold themselves to different standards, and those standards change as we get older and face more challenges.

When I started high school, I had one goal: to have a solid foundation for my GPA. I had some extracurriculars on the side, but my grades were my number one priority.

Failure and success, for me, in freshman, sophomore, and even junior year, was determined by my academic and extracurricular performance.

Now that I am a senior, my priorities have definitely changed. Yes, my grades and activities are still very important to me, but at this point, all my applications are submitted, my GPA is not going to experience any drastic changes, and there is no more pressure to do more outside of school. My fear of failure now concerns my life after high school, and college is just one aspect of it.

I am now asking myself questions such as "Did I choose the right major?",

"Will I fit in at college?", or "Will I even get into college?"

Throughout my life, from elementary school to middle school to high school, I have always been certain about where I would be the next school year, and not having that security this year is disconcerting.

What is even more terrifying is that after college, I will have to be completely independent. I will have to find my own house, work a fulltime job, and manage my own finances.

When I was a freshman, the idea of applying to college and having a life outside Westford seemed surreal. Now, even though my applications are turned in and done, all I am afraid of is that I will do something wrong and ruin my future.

In general, up until now my worries consisted of what my GPA was, or how I did on that essay, or if there was a way to boost my grade in a class. As a senior, now I fear that my life as a whole is taking the incorrect direction. What I have learned is that no matter what, after overcoming a challenge, there will be another one, and that fear of failing is not going away anytime soon, because the future is never certain.

Requirements continued from page 2

“I think this goes for any class, as well in life too.

You’re going to have a job and you’re going to have to do an assignment that seems petty and that you don’t want to do, but you have to do things you don’t want to do sometimes, and it’s how you go into it. If you go into it negative, you’re not going to gain anything from it. And sure, you can request to opt out, but then you’re going to be missing out on an experience. You got to embrace the things you don’t want to do, and you’re going to gain more from it,” said Vallone.

While requirements like the Physical Education and Fine/Performing Arts have been highly controversial, other requirements like foreign language have ultimately gone undetected due to the fact that 96 percent of students at WA had already

been taking two years of a foreign language.

In fact, it was this requirement that was more geared towards making sure students have options when applying for college.

"It does better position our students for the college admissions process because the [University of Massachusetts] system requires two years [of a foreign language].

We want our kids to at least be eligible to apply to state colleges and universities," said Pechacek.

Despite the new requirements, it does appear that one requirement may soon be phased out for Westford Academy students: the Computer Technology course.

According to Pechacek, this requirement is currently under reevaluation now that every student uses a Chromebook or personal laptop and now that almost all teachers have integrated technology into the classroom.

"If you go into it negative, you’re not going to gain anything from it."

Have Anything to say?

Comment online at WAGhostwriter.com

features

January 2019

Teenagers struggle to cope with body image issues Recent years have brought about a heightened awareness surrounding eating disorders, which are psychological conditions characterized by abnormal eating habits. Though everyone has insecurities, imperfections, and aspects of their bodies they dislike, for some, these insecurities reach a new level, resulting in a body dysmorphic disorder. A mental illness in which a person obsesses over their appearance and flaws, body dysmorphia can have devastating impacts on its victim, leading them to constant anxiety. It can even prevent people from socializing, as their fear of a poor appearance clouds their judgment, often making them too self-conscious to be around other people.

Often, teenagers in particular struggle with body dysmorphia, which leads them down a dangerous path of eating disorders. Many of these can begin with the notion that losing just a couple of pounds through fasting or cutting calories will increase happiness, confidence, and overall quality of life. However, though losing the first small amount of weight can bring about a feeling of satisfaction, the strategy can quickly disintegrate into a dark, slippery path. Five pounds lost yields temporary satisfaction, which dissolves and leads to five more, and then another five. The disorder can cause a craving for the feeling of losing weight and blinds the person to the torture through which they are putting their body.

The daily stresses of eating disorders severely

impact the lives of students.

A student who is lacking adequate calories and nutrition on a day to day basis can experience severe fatigue, dizziness, headaches, feeling cold all the time, dry skin, hair loss, and an overall a decrease in happiness and a severe increase in constant stress and frustration.

"Many students at our school face the ongoing battle of having an eating disorder. It’s undetectable at first, people don’t expect that certain person to have one, but they can, because eating disorders can affect anyone," said Jozokos.

Jozokos feels that eating disorders play a big part

that stress, lack of sleep, and not having sufficient time to exercise are factors that contribute to weight gain.

"I feel that stress gets added to a person, not only a student, when an eating disorder is involved in their life. The stress on always focusing on what you are eating is difficult and often preoccupies most

comfortable to approach, such as a teacher or fellow classmate, who has their best interests at heart.

"Here, at Westford Academy, we are equipped with a staff who has knowledge of how to treat an eating disorder. With care and interest from our guidance department and teachers, students at Westford Academy can achieve a healthy lifest yle,” said Jozokos.

Body image is a serious idea that needs to be brought into light in a positive, inclusive way; however, it can be a difficult issue to deal with for the victim as well as the people who care about them.

The long-term impacts of an eating disorder can be catastrophic. When the body runs out of food for energy, it begins to search for other sources to metabolize to acquire energy, which includes muscles at first, but then progresses on more dangerously to organs and the digestive system, leading to organ failure and a myriad of severe complications, hospitalizations, and procedures.

The Westford Academy Guidance Department wants every single student to know that the guidance department’s doors are always open to anyone who needs someone to talk to comfortably.

"The social construct of "beauty" in society is everywhere - online, in the media, etc. The pressure to match up to a particular standard or ideal is often unrealistic or even impossible, and can certainly impact an individual's feelings of selfworth or self-confidence,” said the Westford Academy Guidance Department in an email to the Ghostwriter.

Photo by Varshini Ramanathan

Anushka Patil Staff Witer

of the person’s Does a smaller number on the tape equate to a happier mindset? brain, so when Students school comes into the picture, are continuously surrounded in a student’s life. Eating by the idea of body image. disorders add to the stress that it is difficult to share the amount of attention put into Whether it is at school the person has, on top of the through their peers or the homework and extracurricular an eating disorder and the amount of attention put into many social media platforms stress. She adds that students school. When a student can that place emphasis upon obtain eating disorders for not balance both, an extreme external beauty, students different reasons, but most become enamored with the stem down to the idea of body amount of pressure is put on them,”Jozokos said. belief that they need to fix image.

Although many students at themselves in order to fit a According to Westford Academy face eating certain ideal they hold. eatingdisorderhope.com, disorders, they are getting Melanie Jozokos, a health school stress can have a the attention they need to fix teacher at Westford Academy, negative impact on the their lifestyle, even at school. explains the problems that a condition of a student’s Jozokos feels that students low perspective of one’s body eating disorder. It is proven should always find someone image may cause.

Page 13

Features

Page 14

January 2019

Sports, time commitments, and playing the stress away more productive and it's a good stress release to play [these] sports," Cadogan said.

Cadogan said that it was best for her to realize when she needed to sacrifice sports time for student time. This included

motivating the team, [and] meeting with the coach about things to improve," Cadogan stated.

Olivia Vallone, a senior doing multiple sports including track, girls' hockey, and field hockey, talked

Another unanimous consensus from each interviewee was the assertion that the peer pressures that they faced while playing sports was one of the healthy stresses that helped the teams have cohesion and work more

on the boys' freshman soccer team talked about how school can creep up on you unless you stay on top of it.

"I mostly try to make a plan beforehand as to when assignments are done and what I should do, whether it’s on the bus ride to games or at home after practice," Stafford said.

Stafford went on to emphasize the importance of maintaining control of a schedule, and prioritizing schoolwork.

"If you have a really big assignment coming up just try to prepare, and make a plan, and remember that it’ll be over

by June," Stafford finished.

Junior Max Bombardieri, a lineman on the Varsity Football team, felt that sports provided a sort of schedule to his day, and helped him stay on task.

"I feel like sports allows me to get into a routine, a schedule, and I just go through that schedule every day," Bombardieri said.

Bombardieri said that there were times where it could be a little challenging balancing schoolwork and sports but that his coaches were understanding to the fact that school comes first, and that if he needed any extra time or help planning he could come to them.

All of these athletes face the struggle of balancing their time, whether for good or bad, but they all seem to manage to fit in their activities and get the best possible outcome from it.

"You just kind of have to know how to stay balanced," Cadogan said.

Photo by Kavya Desikan

John Vassiliou Editor & Griffin Parker Staff Writer The burdens which students face at school can come in all shapes and sizes. From classes to clubs, students feel all types of pressure around them. One of the other potential sources of stress for students could come in through the world of athletics.

Sports themselves can be seen as stressful to many people. There is constant physical exertion, a pressure to succeed from your teammates, and the massive time dedication. However, this is not to say that these pressures are a bad thing. The ability to work cohesively as a team and manage stress through exercise and discipline are all traits which could be applicable both on and off the field.

Mary Cadogan, a senior and captain of WA Girls' Varsity Lacrosse as well as a varsity soccer player, has a way of managing herself in a way where she can make the best use of her time.

"I pretty much like doing sports during school because it helps me get [my] stuff done better because I procrastinate less by having more of a set schedule. Last year for lacrosse, and this year for soccer, practices started at 2:30, right after school, so it didn’t give me time to meet with teachers. A lot of times I have to wake up earlier to come in in the morning as opposed to staying after. I feel

WA Girls Basketball huddles at TD Garden about how her sports tie closely together. occasionally missing team into her schoolwork and Freshman ice hockey dinners and re-evaluating how it affected her and her player Sarah Thompson said her schedule. Being a team teammates. that "it depends" whether peer captain on the girls' lacrosse “I really like my sports. pressure can be good or bad, team, Cadogan also has to At some points, when other explaining that sometimes balance her other added people in the team are stressed teammates needed the duties. about the academic life and occasional stressor to keep the "You have to organize that affects the whole team’s team motivated. a lot of the fundraisers, get vibe, then it kind of gets to However, this is not all the apparel, organize the me. But overall, I’m someone to say that school mixed indoor leagues that we do in who really is passionate about with sports can't get stressful the off-season, along with my sports and I look forward at times. Freshman Aidan the off-season training. And to the time in it,” Vallone said.

Stafford, one of the players then, during the season, just

Advanced Placement advances student strain at WA Continued from page 11 It is thus not the AP classes by themselves that affect students’ stress levels. It is that the workload and the desire to excel at any cost impact every aspect of student life and push out other components of a healthy lifestyle.

With classes, extracurriculars, and work, DeLuca is often not asleep until the early hours of the morning, though he considers himself diligent with his time. He explains that the vast majority of students with a mindset constantly focused on getting work done leads to burn-out.

“And because that constant working mentality in thought, it’s like a really good idea, and you think that it would work [amazingly]. But you don’t give yourself enough time for breaks, and you start to cripple basically with your mental health,” he said.

Solutions Moving Forward Whether it be from teachers, counselors, or the student body, the school as a whole is taking measures to reduce academic stress.

The new homework policy, put into place this October, restricts homework for AP classes to four to five hours a

week. However, at the AP level, controlling homework tends not to control workload much at all, since most students commit to hours of outside preparation per night or go far above expectations in order to maximize on success.

“If I put in four to five hours [a week per AP class], I could probably manage a B+ or an A- in a class. But that’s not what I’m looking for,” Xu said.

In the science department, AP Chemistry teacher Timothy Knittel is taking efforts to reduce lab stress and give extra time to complete projects.

“You can move things [assignments] around. I can assign a video for homework to watch instead of a lab report. I’ve also given time during class to write the lab report. Also, you know, we can lecture for thirty minutes, and then given the last twenty minutes to work on something, which I think is helpful. Yesterday, the classes had twenty minutes to work on their projects, and I think they appreciated that. I think as much time as I give them during class, you know, give

them a little bit of downtime or an extra day, and it helps alleviate some of the stress,” Knittel said.

He continues to explain how he believes that at the end of the day, mental health should be weighed against the stress AP classes induce.

“I think mental health is more important than anything else, more important than grades. If I feel that I need to give the class a day off, if they [the class] came and said they needed the day off, I’d say, ‘okay, you can have the day off.’”

Knittel cannot control the number of difficult classes students take, but he can control the way he teaches his class. He does not have a hands-off attitude towards student stress; he does his utmost to communicate with his students and accommodate them.

“I really try to listen to what they’re saying and try to empathize with them. I try to be accommodating when I can,” he said.

Knittel tries to be someone students can approach when they need the assistance rather than making students feel like there is no point in asking for

any extensions, or that the teacher will change his or her opinion of the said student if such accommodations are asked for.

However, reducing AP stress is something that may come at the cost of success on the AP exam and in college.

In the math department, for classes like AB and BC Calculus, reducing workload is possible only to a certain extent.

“Overall, the math department is trying to cater to as many students as possible in trying to create the best syllabus possible that will allow each student to prepare themselves appropriately.

Although efforts are being taken to make the course suitable to each student, there are some times when the stress that comes with the exams is crucial for an individual’s understanding of the concept, as well as thinking quickly in a test environment,” said Lisa Gartner, who teaches both AP calculus courses at WA. “I’m trying to prepare students for the AP exam where I don’t know what the questions are going to be. […] My primary focus is getting them [students] to have a strong

foundation.”

However, Gartner has been cutting homework problems from many of her assignments in keeping with the new homework policy to reduce busywork. She stresses the importance of student-teacher communication, explaining that she does not always know if an assignment causes undue stress or if students are spending several hours on work a night.

Despite these efforts to reduce stress, some students, like Xu, are willing to take on any workload in order to succeed.

“Without all these stresses and difficulties, I wouldn’t be as strong of a student as I am right now,” she said.

DeLuca has lost much of the passion for learning that he had going into high school. At the tail end of his high-school education, he is exhausted.

“I’ve never been more burned out than I have been at this point in my senior year. I feel like, I don’t know, I just don’t want to do schoolwork anymore […] at the end of the day, I’m just like, ‘is this worth it?’”

Interested in joining the Westford Academy Ghostwriter? Join us on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month in room 250 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM!

January 2019

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Page 15

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Odds & Ends

Page 16

January 2019

Is Challenge Success succeeding in reducing student stress?

Kavya Desikan Editor Last year, Westford Academy joined a year-long program called Challenge Success, a program out of Stanford University focused on alleviating student stress and redefining what success is. Utilizing data from their Challenge Success survey conducted the year before, WA began to implement changes in line with Challenge Success's mission.

As a student who has been in the school throughout WA's implementation of Challenge Success, I can say that while I appreciate and agree with Challenge Success's goal, I do think that there are ways we can improve.

One example is the new homework policy at Westford Academy that is wellintentioned and meant to help us, as students have a more manageable workload by capping CP and Honors courses at 30 minutes per night, and AP courses at 4-5 hours per week.

These limits targeted results found in the Challenge Success survey, which that found 58% of students believed that they had 'too much' homework, as well as a large portion of students believing that they had at least some form 'busywork' or 'unmeaningful work'.

While this policy does significantly change the amount of nightly assigned work

students receive, it does not account for time spent studying or doing projects, which is something that often accounts for a substantial amount of after-school work students do.

Though the policy makes sense, and in my opinion, is pretty reasonable, it often is difficult for teachers and students to come to an agreement regarding how much work falls within the policy's parameters. This can be remedied with a survey or forum at the end of each quarter for anonymous feedback.

I propose that teachers in each class be required to send out roughly one or two surveys a quarter to assess how much time students are spending on homework and how it contributes to their workload and stress, as well as how it progresses throughout the year. A simple Google Form would allow teachers to view their students' workload in a comprehensive set of data. By utilizing the data collected in the aforementioned surveys, teachers will be able to adjust their assignments to make sure they are not overloading students with work.

Another change which could be implemented is one to move the start time at Westford Academy 30 minutes to an hour later than its current start time. As

of now, Westford Academy begins classes at 7:30 am, with buses beginning to arrive at school around 7:00 am. For many students, this means waking up around 5:00 am 5:30 am to start their day and head to school.

Numerous studies have shown that most teenagers are late to sleep and late risers as well, and by starting late students will at least have some time to make up for the late nights they have.

Students at WA are notorious for not sleeping, getting roughly six to seven hours a night on average, far below the recommended nine to ten hours of rest a night.

By starting later, students will have the chance to sleep in a little and wake up while the sun is out, rather than it being pitch black outside.

Numerous studies, including one conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have proven that students of middle and high school age need nine hours of sleep in order to be well rested, and due to changing biological rhythms and early start times at schools, students are not receiving the sleep they need to work to the best of their ability.

"During puberty, adolescents become sleepy later at night and need to sleep later in the morning as a result in shifts in biological

Continued from page 1 For math teacher David Delong, students’ lack of attentiveness is a sign that they are sleep deprived.

“I believe it [lack of sleep] affects them significantly. They miss certain things because they aren’t fully awake,” Delong said.

Furthermore, the consequences of poor sleep are detrimental to adolescents’ safety and lifestyle. Lack of sleep increases the risk of accidental injuries or death.

While administration looked at a study with Challenge Success, it showed that earlier start times lead to more car accidents.

Students also experience lower grades and negative moods. Students have less control over their emotional responses and can mimic symptoms of ADHD, distractibility, and impulsivity.

“Some of these [effects] are bold and a little bit scary, but it’s just something that the research shows,” Clery said at the meeting.

Senior Ayachi Sharma feels the pressure to do multiple activities in and out of school, which contributes to her lack of sleep. The Challenge Success survey indicated that 35% of students reported that extracurriculars take up 10 or more hours of an average school week.

“Here, people are in multiple clubs, volunteering, and compared to other students,

you might be thinking, oh my god, I’m not doing enough.

I’m part of three clubs here, and one of them, you have to meet three hours a week. I volunteer, I also have a job, but when I look at other kids, I’m like, I’m doing nothing,” Sharma said.

Senior Niharika Kaushik also feels that students, including herself, are

helping kids with their sleep schedules just yet. While he is making efforts to re-evaluate how much work he gives his students, he also encourages students to watch their sleep schedule themselves. He believes an effort for more sleep has to come from home as well.

“Sometimes students tend to over-schedule themselves, stretch themselves very thin. They want to do so much, but you can’t do everything,” Delong said.

Clery expressed concern for the amount of work students had to do in and out of school, and hopes to get students more engaged in class to maximize the use of time in school, rather than do more work outside of class.

"The life of a student right now is very different than the life of a student that once was, and [they're] being pulled in so many different directions.

Students are overbooked when you're talking about schools, school work, and then the extracurriculars. I think with social media, it adds a layer of difficulty to the stress issue. But one thing that we're focusing on now is making sure that students are fully engaged in class. We really want to spice up our lessons and the student experience so that there is more student agency when they're taking each course," Clery said.

rhythms. These biological changes are often combined with poor sleep habits (including irregular bedtimes and the presence of electronics in the bedroom). During the school week, school start times are the main reason students wake up when they do. The combination of late bedtimes and early school start times results in most adolescents not getting enough sleep," according the The study recommends a later start time for middle and high schools, stating that with good sleep hygiene, students will be able to excel in their classes and become physically healthier.

While I understand that there is more to changing the start time to simply moving the time, that there must be a change in how the bus schedule is laid out and even the traffic flow in town, I still believe that changing the start time will be ultimately beneficial for WA students.

Yes, changing the starting time is expensive and the school budget is already tight, but if anything this proves that Westford needs to seriously reassess the budget for the schools considering the mounting hurdles which the school's budget will face in the coming years.

Westford is a town which prides itself on education and where the real estate value of the town is also tied to the

high-performing educational system. Starting at a later time is vital to ensuring our schools stay this way. Schools around Westford have already to begun to adopt later start times for high school students, and its only a matter of time before WA does as well in order to keep up with surrounding districts and changing educational norms.

Starting later will enable our students to be healthier, and in tandem with a more comprehensive and meaningful workload, students will be able to excel in ways they never had before while being both healthy and happy.

If these changes are implemented, Challenge Success and its goal will be so much closer to being reached.

If we want to create strong, healthy, empowered students, we need to have teachers and students work together, using a system of check-ins and regular surveys to assess the needs of the classroom and the headspace of the students.

Frankly, we do not have time for a 'slow rollout' or to 'take small steps' towards a goal like this, with every year passed, there is a graduating class that will not be able to reap the benefits of the ones after them.

We as a town and as a school system owe it to our students to create an open and welcoming space where students don't feel as though their mental health must take a dive in order to academically excel.

Sleep affects student learning; new start time proposed

"The life of a student right now is very different than the life of a student that once was, and [they're] being pulled in so many different directions." pressured to take part in multiple extracurriculars, and as a result does not get enough sleep at night. She also feels that oftentimes not all of her extracurricular activities and the time she sacrifices for them are not recognized.

"Think about how many hours we spend on extracurriculars, and we have [...] if you think about it, in the Common App, we don't have enough space to describe everything we've ever done.

You can't boil down three years, or eight years of stuff into 150 characters. And even if you do explain it in supplements, it's never going to be enough," Kaushik said.

According to Delong, Challenge Success is not