<p>Sounds like a good idea to me. How about requiring parents to participate too.</p>
<p>Comments?</p>
<p>I think it's great that he's trying to address this problem. There are acquaintances of my D who regularly break down in tears at school because they're overwhelmed, so we could definitely use a similar program at our HS. However, the remedies he's come up with so far, eg. the no-homework nights and weekends which are being used by the students to catch up on HW, are not working as well as he'd like. This is a broader societal issue that probably can't really be dealt with effectively on a school level.</p>
<p>Our hs addressed the situation head on a number of years ago when it found many high achieving students having mental health "issues". It adopted a policy allowing only jrs and srs to take AP classes and then, no more than three per year. Highly exceptional students can request a waiver of the policy but none did so when our son was attending as far as we knew.</p>
<p>This has done several things. It allows students to take a reasonable course load and non-AP electives of interest to them that they prehaps wouldn't have. And as importantly, it allows AP courses to be taught in a similar manner as equivilent college courses, with a significanty higher success rate on the AP exams. And admission stats indicate that it has not impacted college admissions at all as the hs profile outlines its AP policy.</p>
<p>As long as admission to elite schools remains so competitive this problem will continue. Both my kids would have regarded meditation as just one other thing to do.</p>
<p>I think sensitivity training for the teachers would do more. Many were inhumane and sticklers for things that don't matter as all. (I say this as a college prof.) If teacher were more flexible, kids would be more relaxed. If it were easier to be accepted to the schools of their choice, kids would be more relaxed.</p>
<p>orignaloog: Glad that AP policy is working. And glad it didn't impact admissions decisions. Sounds reasonable, although both my kids took AP Global History as sophs and it was their favorite course.</p>
<p>Wouldn't it be great if they had AP Yoga. Kids could get AP credit and get de-stressed at the same time. The best form of multi-tasking.</p>